Game Day @ Kelowna

The boys are in Kelowna to face the Rockets tonight.

"It's early, and we are still feeling our way a bit," said Hiller, whose team will host the Rockets on Friday. "We've played four tough games. We have a lot of new faces and young guys who are gaining valuable experience. It's been a long time since there was this much turnover with the team.

The Americans have an arsenal of weapons up front with Adam Hughesman (2 goals, 6 assists), Connor Rankin (4 goals, 2 assists), Justin Feser (2 goals, 4 assists) and last year's leading scorer, Brendan Shinnimin, who returned last week from the AHL, where he spent time with the Portland Pirates.

"It doesn't matter your age; everyone has to contribute," Hiller said. "It doesn't have to be a goal, just contributions. At least we don't have any passengers."

The scoring is plentiful, the goaltending is coming along, and 5-on-5, the defense is solid. Where the Americans fall short is on the penalty kill, which sits at 68 percent before tonight's game.

"It has been an emphasis from Day One," Hiller said. "I guess we haven't gotten the result we wanted yet. We will keeping working on it. It will get better. It will be a strength of ours before the season is over."

Hiller said no one area of the game is to blame for the poor penalty kill.

"We never look at one player or set of players," Hiller said. "A lot of things happen when a puck goes in the net. It usually happens from 200 feet away. We had too many penalties (Saturday against Spokane). The pieces are in place to learn and get better."  (Herald)

Some more from DubNation:

“We return a lot of offence from last season,” said Americans general manager Bob Tory, whose team should challenge for the U.S. Division pennant this season. “But we do have some holes on the back-end and we hope our younger guys step up and develop, and some guys are going to be put in new roles. But we feel we’re going to have a very competitive team. We have some areas in where we want to improve, but our strength is up front.

“We’re pretty deep on offence and we play a pretty disciplined game, an up-tempo offensive game, so we think we’re going to be very competitive this season. But every season, there’s always five or six teams in the conference who are very competitive.”

The Rockets agreed with Tory’s assessment.

“Tri-City has a lot of good, skilled forwards and they’re a team that plays a very fast game,” said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, whose team was 2-2 against the Americans last season. “We need to make sure we’re ready to play and ready to skate with them.” (DubNation)

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It appears Drinnan has bought into the "underhanded" method of the Walter pickup:

F Brendan Leipsic of the Portland Winterhawks got five games under supplemental discipline for an incident against the visiting Tri-City Americans on Sept. 30. (Already this season, the Americans have plucked a player off the Winterhawks’ roster via waivers and the Winterhawks asked for, and received, supplemental discipline against Tri-City’s Jordan Messier – he was suspended for two games – after an earlier game. Some rivalry!)  (Taking Note)

It may be small and petty, but it's the word choice.  "Plucked".  Yes, the words "via waivers" is on there too to soften the blow or whatever.  Maybe I'm reading too much into it, maybe Bob really isn't playing well with others in the sandbox, I don't know.  What I DO know is that his move to get Walter was perfectly legal and approved by the league.  What I also know is that Lukas Walter better learn how to skate better real quick or I'm not going to be overly impressed.  Sure he can fight, which is fine, but I am personally not a big fan of the traditional "enforcer" role--only on the ice for a shift (fight) or so, then rides the bench (or the penalty box) the rest of the game.  I'd rather have a full lineup, 4-lines deep, with all lines being able to contribute and carry significant ice time.  But that's just me.

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Tonight will be the 2011-2012 inaugural liveblog.  Bring the funny, leave the negativity.  As I mentioned in the post I wrote where everyone thought I was quitting the blog (I'm not), the liveblogs are on a trial run. 

Liveblog after the jump (click on the "Read More")