Shake it off

If I didn't know better, I'd have thunk that was a pre-season game.  That's how sloppy it was.  The 45 shots on goal does NOT tell the story.  Having Lil Mess be the Americans only star of the game is more telling.  Full credit to Marcus, he had a great game--the only one in blue that did.  Ok, a few props to Ty Rimmer for some absolutely brilliant work on a Royals flurry in the 3rd.  

Part of the sloppiness comes from coach shuffling the lines.  I get it, he's got guys who are supposed to be putting up points that aren't and he needs to mix things up a bit, see if something can spark.  On the flip side, how are lines supposed to develop chemistry if they keep getting moved around?  It's a catch-22.

The Ams got behind by 2 early in the 1st and were playing catch up all night, and yeah, they got lots of shots on goal, not sure how many of those were actually quality shots, but they made a mediocre team look good.  Passes were intercepted all over the place, they're lucky there weren't a whole bunch more breakaways or odd-man rushes from the Royals.  I said the other day they needed to get greasy goals, and they were doing a lot of dirty work down low last night, but it wasn't enough.  The PP went 0-for-2, a lot of passing, not enough shooting.  Or something, it's like they were willing to try for greasy goals when 5-on-5 but tried to get fancy on the PP.  I don't know, just ugly.

It should be noted that the Americans and the Prince Albert Raiders are the only two teams in the WHL that have already played 15 games.  Plus the Ams are coming off that atrocious trip to Prince George.  Playing more games this early means less practice time which is kind of necessary at the beginning of a season to get chemistry and plays worked out.  

I told a wise man, whose name rhymes with Fob Mory, the other day that the fans' expectations of perfection and winning are a testament to the organization he's built (turned around).  We spend our hard-earned money to watch these kids and in doing so want to see success.  But at the end of the day, it's entertainment, it's just a game.  And they aren't going to win every game.  And to the people already calling for Hiller's head, funny how y'all didn't mention how well he coached on the weekend games.  They win--it's the boys.  They lose--it's the coach.  Please.  It's coaches and players--every game, win or lose.

Yes, it was a crappy game, but today is a new day and you can be sure the boys are going to work hard in practice to get ready for Saturday against the Chiefs.

If you missed it, our Eric Comrie was named WHL Goalie of the Week:

The Canadian Hockey League today announced that Eric Comrie of the Tri-City Americans is the Vaughn CHL Goaltender of the Week for the week ending October 23 after recording two shutout victories in two starts giving him a goals-against-average of 0.00 and a perfect save percentage of 1.000.


Comrie recorded his first two career shutouts in back-to-back wins against the Prince George Cougars.  The Americans won both contests by 1-0 scores with Comrie making 17 saves on Friday night as third star of the game, and then made 30 saves as first star of the game on Saturday.

Comrie, a 16-year-old rookie from Newport Beach, California, has made six career starts this season for the Americans with a record of 4-2-0-0 with a goals-against-average of 2.75 and save percentage of .903.  (WHL)

Every time, or at least half the time, I read something on Buzzing the Net about the WHL I'm convinced they don't particularly know what they're talking about.  Obviously, neither do I sometimes, but still.  Take a look at their "Dynamic Dozen":

With that being said, the top team is one which was no stranger to being ranked very highly last season. But they believe they've been winning ugly. So a team that think it's underperforming has a six-game win streak and is in the No. 1 spot? Apparently, it is early in the season.

1. Spokane Chiefs, WHL (.610 RPI) — Pretty impressive for Spokane to be this high considering cornerstone defenceman Jared Cowen moved on to the pros. They've had breakouts from older forwards such as leading scorer Anthony Bardaro and captain Darren Kramer, an Ottawa Senators draft pick. Really, though, they've been impressive in their own end, considering starting goalie Mac Engel is averaging less than 25 shots per night.

5. Tri-City Americans, WHL (.584) — Adam Hughesman and Brendan Shinnimin are two of the Dub's most productive overages, while they lead the league in penalty killing. Much like their state rival in Spokane, it's impressive the Americans have stayed up in the rankings again.

An explanation on rankings — Buzzing The Net uses Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) with a recency factor. RPI combines a team's record with the strength of its opponents to produce an overall rating. Our method also gives more weight to recently played games. Shootout wins and losses are classified as ties, for philosophical and practical reasons. (BTN)

Their RPI does not, apparently, take into account the 5 more games the Americans have played, it focuses on win %.  Nor does anyone evidently know how to read a stats sheet to know that--as of yet in the season--Shinnimin is NOT one of the Dub's most productive overages.  Needless to say, I put zero stock into this ranking, though admittedly I'm biased/defensive since the Chiefs are ranked ahead of the Ams.   Bitter blogger is bitter.