What's the next course of action for this hockey club?
After four straight losses on home ice surrendering 25 goals in those four games I wonder what this team has to do to turn it around. It isn't just one detail of the game, it's several.
It must have been dis-heartening to be down 3-0 after the first after outshooting Red Deer 13-6. Another goaltending change in the 2nd period after and an Evan Pighin cream puff beat Moir for the 5th goal of the game on 17 shots. The strange thing is all the talk about Martin Hanzal leading up to this game and his 10 points in three games, yet he's held pointless through all of this.
The Broncos were sloppy most of the game and had trouble receiving passes all night. A couple careless plays while on the powerplay also resulted in two shorthanded goals against - now 16 shorties given up this season.
To make matters worse, in a span of 48 hours this club has dropped from 2nd to 4th in the east division . . . just how many more floors will this elevator drop to? Saskatoon is now only 7 points out of 4th with 4 games in hand. Moose Jaw is right there.
Ok, so January is over and good riddance! The Broncos were 4-10 in the month and can start fresh tomorrow night in Brandon. February is the tell-tale month for this team now. 9 of the 11 games are divisional match-ups. This month will tell us if we're headed to the post-season or not. Just a couple weeks ago the Broncos still thought a division title was within reach. Now I sense the mood has shifted to survival mode.
Pierre-Paul Lamoureux should feel the long arm of the WHL law tomorrow for his actions in last night's game. I have him pegged for three major offenses.
1) Jumping Levi Nelson which led to the mini brawl
2) Kicking RJ from the ice . . . enough to knock his helmet off and cut him. It looked bad live and looks worse on the video replay.
3) Throwing equipment in the penalty box including a helmet that nailed linesman Paul Brunen in the head.
He received a match-penalty and double game misconduct - he'll miss the next Rebels game for sure and will probably sit somewhere between 3 to 5 . . . or maybe not. We all remember the Jeff Glass incident that the league did nothing about.
Levi Nelson had to watch himself. His clip of Jordan Henry caught the attention of the Rebels bench (as if he wasn't enemy #1 already). The dangerous hits and chirping hurt the team last night. I like Levi, but my opinion is he'll have to clean it up. He's now on the most-wanted list in Med Hat, Brandon, Calgary, and Red Deer. His teammates are forced into a tough situation as a line brawl breaks out. "You live by the sword, you die by the sword" was the quote Dean Chynoweth used in our post-game show. Levi needs to step up and answer the bell then. His refusal to get engaged with Lamoureux in that shift led to that melee.
I want your thoughts on this, is this asking too much? What should Levi do or should have done in that game? This is cause for good debate. I'm not sure on the answer myself.
Broncos leave for Brandon this afternoon. We're on the air tomorrow night at 7pm with the pre-game show, play-by-play for the Keystone at 7:30pm.
Let's hear from you?
Here's hoping for a turnaround this weekend,
Jon
3 comments:
Jon, that was an entertaining game, to say the least....especially the brawl. I'm still very confident, but out of solutions. I think a major part of this slump, is goaltending. I'm glad I'm not Dean or Dave, having to figure this out.
As for Levi, he should fight once or twice. It's exactly like Chynoweth said. "You live by sword, you die by the sword." Levi is a pest to the other team out there every shift, and it seems just by giving a player that special look or that special smile, he can get them cooking. I abseloutely adore this about him. It's awesome. But I do agree that he has to answer the bell more, if he wants to play that irritator's role out there. I'm sure he'll be fine.
Our club will be fine, also. We have to find a way out of this, and Jon, you know what? I STILL HAVE NOT LOST CONFIDENCE!!! These guys CAN do this. Maybe that exciting brawl at the end, was just what we needed. How about our only goal, coming with 30 seconds to go, down 6-0? That goal said something about this team. I'm sure Jonny, you know what I mean. Have a good one Keener, and of course on the weekend, LET'S GO SWIFTY!!!
HEY! It was awesome to meet MOONER. I'll be impersonating him next home game. LOL CYA there!
Throughout the game Levi was playing hard and chippy, which he has to do, it is his style. Having said that, if that is your style at times you have to backup you talk and actions. That may mean you have to drop the mits from time to time. That whole incident was ugly. You probably did not see this Jon, but Brent Sutter was giving the players directions on WHO and WHEN to fight. He even did the throat slash. He was a disgrace back there. If Rumsey was not in the penalty box it would have been worse. I dont know what Lamoureux said to RJ but he just lost it and got half way to the visitor side and Rumsey grabbed him. I know Lamoureux and RJ were chirping and Lamoureux was laughing about the kick and then he said something and RJ lost his freaking mind.
Throughout the game Levi was playing hard and chippy, which he has to do, it is his style. Having said that, if that is your style at times you have to backup you talk and actions. That may mean you have to drop the mits from time to time. That whole incident was ugly. You probably did not see this Jon, but Brent Sutter was giving the players directions on WHO and WHEN to fight. He even did the throat slash. He was a disgrace back there. If Rumsey was not in the penalty box it would have been worse. I dont know what Lamoureux said to RJ but he just lost it and got half way to the visitor side and Rumsey grabbed him. I know Lamoureux and RJ were chirping and Lamoureux was laughing about the kick and then he said something and RJ lost his freaking mind.
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