"Scrambly"

I love vacation, I love sleeping in.  But you don't care, moving on.

"It's the first game back and everyone was kind of scrambly," said Shinnimin, who also had an assist for a four-point night. "We got better as the game went along. Every game we have played them they have give us a tough game. Without the short-handed goals, it could have been a different game. Those took the wind out of their sails." (Herald)

"Scrambly"--I wonder if that is an allowable word in Words With Friends (I'm addicted, if you want to play search for "imeanwegotguys")?

It was a kick-ass game. Silly me for being worried about some rust after the days off. There was no rust, none at all. Obviously the big story of the night was the work of Shinnimin, and it should be. He was simply out-freaking-standing. Possibly as important as Shinny's work was the game of Ty Rimmer. I'll bet there's several Rockets who had nightmares of Rimmer's saves last night.

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know how I feel about Rocket's P-B-P guy Regan Bartel. However, he did have some great things to say about the Ams (to which I will, of course, add my 2 cents):

The Tri City Americans have the three best overage forwards in the Western Hockey League. Want proof? Examine Thursday night's 5-1 win over the visiting Kelowna Rockets. Twenty year-old Brendan Shinnimin scored three times and added an assist as the Americans won for the 9th straight time on home ice. Two of Shinnimin's three goals came on shorthanded breakaways to break open a 1-1 game. Both goals were set up by fellow overager Mason Wilgosh. While not his productive self, 20 year-old leading scorer Adam Hughesman chipped in with an assist as the Americans earned their 28th win of the season.

See that Buzzing the Net?  THREE BEST OVERAGE FORWARDS IN THE WHL.

When you are a good team, like the Americans are, you capitalize on every mistake the opposition makes and you make your opponent earn everything they get. For starters, for Shinnimin to score twice, once by shooting the puck and the other by deking goaltender Adam Brown, is awfully impressive. A lesser player would have certainly been shut down by one of those attempts on a quality goaltender like Brown. Much like Patrick Holland's first period goal and Brian William's power play marker in the third period, both odd man rushes resulted in the puck being deposited in the back of the net. The elite teams do that. They close on ever opportunity they get. The Americans finish in spectacular fashion.

Watch out WHL, Patrick Holland is getting hotter, I hope the recent scoring trend continues.

He picked on a European player to register his first career WHL scrap, but 15 year-old rookie Ryan Donaldson took off his cage late in the third period for a tussle with Malte Stromwell. I think I even saw Americans head coach Jim Hiller chuckle after the fight was through.

Oh my God.  I wanted to cover my eyes.  I wanted to stare.  I could do neither as I had to try to get good pictures of it (get much photos).  But Malte held his own and didn't do too bad, got in a couple swings.  But yeah, all the laughs afterwards were pretty entertaining too.  In between yelling "NOOOOO" while the fight was happening, I was also yelling "NOT THE FACE" because that little Swedish face is just too adorable.

You have to love Bob Tory. The Americans GM greeted me as I was exiting the broadcast booth following the game. Small gesture I suppose, but how can you not cheer for a guy who has again put another tremendous team on the ice? I told him flat out that he needs to acquire another key piece to make his team even better. Not like he needs my advice, but a team like his only comes around once in a blue moon, so when you have a chance to win, and win big, trading an asset for short term gain in my opinion is the logical move. You don't see Tory making too many ill advised moves when acquiring players, so my belief is he will make a trade only if he thinks it is appropriate.

No, Bartel, he doesn't need your advice.  Several of us were talking during the game about this team and the upcoming trade deadline.  If you really look at it, there isn't really a glaring need.  I'm not sure what "key piece" Bartool thinks they need.  Scoring is going great, the defense is spectacular, and there is a very solid goaltending tandem.  For the first time that I can remember, there doesn't seem to be an obvious move to be made.  Heck, there doesn't seem to be a not-so-obvious move to be made.  But, as Bartel knows too, you never know with Bob what he's got up his sleeve.  That's why he's the GM and I'm not.

If I have noticed one thing about the Americans organization, despite all of their successes, it has been their humble approach. I don't perceive Jim Hiller as being cocky or arrogant and clearly Bob Tory is as approachable as they come. From Media Relations guru Dan Mulhausen to radio voice Craig West, the Americans organization carry themselves in such a way that others should emulate. They win, but they don't carry that 'we are better than you' persona with them. And if they do, maybe they just hide it better than another team that isn't afraid to hide their confident swagger.

This is truth from top to bottom.  At one time or another I've had dealings with everyone in the front office it seems and they are nothing but helpful and kind.  I've worked with Dan Mulhausen for pictures and arranging interviews, he's top-notch.  Craig West has forgotten more sports information than any of us will ever learn and has always been helpful with stats and data and any other things I've wanted to know.  And I can't say enough about Bob.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's no dummy, he knows this blog is free advertising for his team.  To that end he has been more than helpful in answering questions I have, providing information when I need it, to make sure that I'm not publishing garbage about his boys.  He is protective of those guys, as he should be, and it's only prudent of him to make sure some rogue blogger isn't starting rumors and nonsense.   It really is a top-notch organization and it's nice when an outsider (Bartel in this case) recognizes it as well.
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Holly was (still is?) the WHL Player of the Week from the week before break and he is one of the players featured on the WHL Radio Show this week, you can listen to it here (show #14), his bit is towards the end.