Ugly
"It's certainly frustrating," said Ams associate coach Scott Beattie. "Spokane took their game to another level tonight. They came out hungry and determined, and we didn't match that by any means."
"We needed to be ready for it," Beattie said. "It's human nature to lighten up when we got the first one, but we don't consider these guys to be normal. They're elite athletes, and they were not ready from the drop of the puck tonight.
"This is going to be a long series, a hard series, and we've got to be ready for 60 minutes every game." (Examiner emphasis mine)
The good news is they split the road games and now head back home for 3. Also good news--Eric Comrie is the real deal. The rest? Ick.
Lost MacKenzie in the first, no word on him. And there likely won't be word on him, it's the playoffs. Schmidt's clipping major...dumb dumb dumb. Bear in mind, I haven't seen the hit and even if I did I don't know if I could identify "clipping", that's one that's rarely called. Regardless, the call was made and the league will review. If he's suspended and Big Mac is out...that's trouble. I'm sorry but I don't have enough confidence in Grist and Sohor to pick up the slack of two of the top defensemen.
Shots were 40-15 Chiefs. I don't care if the tallying is off in Spokane, 15 shots is not going to win hockey games. It's easy to say they should shoot more. Duh. But you can be damn sure that Spokane's blocking shooting lanes pretty effectively. When there's nothing to shoot at, there's nothing to shoot at. Full marks to Spokane for coming out hard (heh) and stopping any momentum the Ams may have tried to get.
Barring suspension and/or Big Mac injury, it's clear the team that wants it more is going to win. Will over skill.
Now it's a day off before game 3 tomorrow. It was mentioned in the interview Craig West had with Bob Tory during intermission last night that there would be another announcement of a signing today. I'll pass along word when I hear (and when I have time).----------
NHL Central Scouting Final Rankings are out. Of interest, Zachary Yuen ranked at 69 overall in North American skaters, Sam Grist at #91.
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Bob Tory Quote of the Day:
"Don't let yesterday use up today"
8 comments:
Losses are one thing. A lazy performance is another. With as much playoff experience as the Ams have, they should know better than to show up (or rather, NOT show up) like that. I'm not taking anything away from Spokane, clearly they came out with a mission. The Ams should have been able to match that intensity. Hopefully the lesson has been learned!
I think Beattie hit it on the head, Spoke elevated their game and the Ams didnt match the intensity. That said, its only gmae 2, Spoke HAD to play that way to not be down 0-2.
See ya'll tomorrow night at the rink. Bring it.
If Uncle Mitch is still in town, put Big Mac's jersey on him and send him out!
Also, after watching Schmidt's hit, I actually agree with Scott in that the only contact was hip on hip. It's hard to tell without slowing it down, but that's all I could see. It's Kirk,what are you gonna do... I would be really surprised to see a suspension.
Aaaand he gets 1 game. Like I said, hard to see in the video and I'm glad I'm not the one who had to make a decision based on that crappy feed. Hopefully they had something more concrete to look at.
it is hard to tell from that view, but it looks to me like he lead with his ass. But what do I know. If they lose game 3 I fully blame Tyler. just cuz.
Shithead (Kramer) missed what, one, two shifts? I guess the Dub is sticking with the discipline policy of suspending a player 12 times as long as the other player is out. Looked like a good hit to me. I asked last night, I'll ask it again ... why does the Dub see it fit to penalize "low" hits (that aren't even low to begin with) and ignore blindside hits to the head? #lern2discipline #lern2takeahit
Granted it wasn't a very good angle, but the highlight video also shows Yuen's "high sticking" on Koper ... I saw no stick anywhere near Koper's head, but I did see him writhing all over the ice. Again, bad angle, but still.
Not saying the officiating had an impact on the game, because it didn't. One team showed up, and the other didn't. Reid is soft ... if we get quality shots and shut down Spokane's speed and offense, we've got it made.
Andy - I hear you on Yuen's high-sticking. Definitely a bad angle to see actual contact.
And no, the officiating wouldn't have changed the outcome, but 2 of Spoke's goals came on 5-on-3s. One call to make it 5-on-3 was the high-stick in question, the other was the bullshit penalty on Conrad for "roughing."
I don't see Koper as a diver, so I tend to think that one was legit. JMO though.
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