Brandon Crushes Young Giants
Wheaties Thresh Giants
Vancouver 3 Brandon 8
Again I didn’t see or listen to this one, other than the final few minutes and the post-game recap. As much as I thought Matt Erhart was a poor post-game interviewee last season, with his overly pat answers, having a very surly Tyler Kuntz do the interview on the road might be worse. Maybe he was having a bad night, but talk about bitter, clipped, one word answers… sheesh. As expected the Giants got spanked in this one. Wheaties opened up a two-goal lead in the first, but the Giants bounced back tying the game, before Brandon added a late one at the tail-end of the first, using PP chances to really get the momentum. They then cruised the rest of the way to a big win.
Down by two goals Carter Popoff found twine, assisted by James Malm. Popoff got the tying marker and his third goal in two games at 16:10 of the opening frame. Brandon got one back with seconds left in the period with a 5 on 3 PP marker. The home squad added two more in the second before Clayton Kirichenko found the back of the net on the PP. Taylor Crunk and Josh Thrower had the helpers. The third was all Wheat Kings, scoring three goals in the final frame. Ryan Kubic was left between the pipes for all 8 goals, with Lee sitting as back-up on the bench. I think it might have been less than helpful letting the young goalie get shelled with no respite. Not exactly the way you develop a goalie’s confidence and a mistake this franchise has made in the past with young netminders. Playing their rookie goalie against teams, which they expected to lose, was how they destroyed Jackson Whistle’s value and career with the G-Men. More goalie head-games is not what this team needs.
The Wheaties out-shot the G’s 43-30. They went 2 for 5 on the PP, while the Giants were 1 for 2. The Giants will have to put this game behind them and if the brain-trust anticipated anything but a loss in this tilt then they haven’t been paying attention. I suspect when they looked at this road trip they expected that this one would be a loss. Wednesday the Gs are in Moose Jaw, for a game they should be able to win. There does seem to be some depth in scoring so far this season and they haven’t needed to expect production from only one line. The young players seem to be making an impact early, which is a good sign.
Three Stars
- Jayce Hawryluk
- Reid Duke
- John Quenneville
Giants Beat Blades on the Road
Giants Blunt Blades
Vancouver 5 Saskatoon 4 OT
This is strictly a box score type of recap. I did not see or hear this one. I am wondering though if the Giants are really as undisciplined as their PP stats against suggest or are they continuing to get the raw end of the officiating stick. Anyway, the Giants get the two points with an OT win. Porter got the start, making 39 saves on 43 shots against. Ryan Kubic was the back-up on the bench. I believe the Gs plan on rotating their goalies for the first while, maybe to try and get a buyer for one of them.
Carter Popoff gets his first goal of the season (he has a few assists already) on the PP, assisted by Clayton Kirichenko and Matt Barberis. The Gs went into the first break up by one. Barberis scored his first as a Giant early in the second, assisted by Dawson Holt. Saskatoon got one back before the Giants restored their two-goal lead, when Dakota Odgers found the back of the net. Holt and Josh Thrower got the helpers. The Blades drew back to within one by the end of the second. Ty Ronning scored an early, unassisted, goal in the final frame. The Blades scored two PP markers in the third to force OT. Jakob Stukel scored the game winner in OT, and was given the second star by a very unimaginative scoring crew. Popoff and Kirichenko got the extra points on the winning tally.
Giants were out-shot 43 to 37. They went 1 for on the PP, while the Blades went 2 for 8 with the man advantage. Scoring by committee in this one. Five different goal scorers and some of the young guys like Holt and Barberis getting multiple points in the contest. 2 games, 3 points so far. To be honest that’s better than I expected. The WheatKings on Tuesday is going to be a tough challenge though. I’d love to see the boys elevate their game in this one. I would also like them to be able to hold onto a lead. Two games, two 2-0 leads and both games go to extra time. Getting rid of that slip, which has been an issue for several years, should be top priority for the team. Keep doing what got you the lead, don’t sit back and remember that defense is hard work. No cheating, take care of your end and make their players pay the price when they come into your zone.
Three Stars
- Cameron Hebig
- Jakob Stukel
- Lukus MacKenzie
An Entertaining Road Game Results In a Single Point
Raiders Nick Giants
Vancouver 4 Prince Albert 5 OT/SO
Didn’t listen to most of this one, but it sounded pretty intense down the stretch. The Giants started out with a two-goal lead after the first. The Raiders used a 21 shot second period to tie up the game before Vancouver scored a late one to re-take the lead. PA added two more in the third, but Vancouver managed to get at least a point when they tied the game with seconds ticking down. 3-on-3 OT was exciting. The Giants could not cash in a PP chance in OT. Payton Lee made a 2 on 0 save in the extra frame to force the shootout. Raiders find twine in the shootout. The Giants do not. One point on the road. The boys need to learn how to hold onto a lead.
Dakota Odgers opened the scoring 8:09 in the first, assisted by Dmitry Osipov. Jackson Houck potted an unassisted tally to send his team into the first break up by two. The Raiders came back hard in the second, peppering Lee and managing to get two goals of their own, one on the PP. Jesse Roach scored his first of the season at 19:42 of the middle frame to give the Gs the lead going into the second intermission. Odgers and Clayton Kirichenko got the helpers on the play. PA bounced back tying the game and then taking their first lead of the game, with another PP marker. Alec Baer tied the game up at the 19:25 mark of the third, assisted by Radovan Bondra and Carter Popoff. OT solved nothing and the Raiders won it in the shootout.
The Raiders out-shot the Giants 37-33. They went 2 for 6 with the man advantage, while the Giants were 0 for 3. Payton Lee was solid between the pipes and had to make more than a few game-saving stops.
The Giants take on Lorne Molleken’s former squad, The Saskatoon Blades, on Sunday for game two of their 6 game roadsie. The Gs play 6 games in 9 days.
Three Stars
- Sean Montgomery
- Dakota Odgers
- Luke Coleman
Giants Eclipse Rockets – Getting Four Points for Pat
Giants Douse Rockets
Vancouver 5 Kelowna 2
It was an odd one tonight. A giant red autumn supermoon was gamely eclipsing in the sky while the Giants dominated the Kelowna Rockets on the ice – equally rare events. The Giants failed to get a single victory last season against last years WHL champions, but they took advantage of a tired Rockets team, a back-up goalie and some opportunities to get, at one point, a 5-0 lead. The Rockets didn’t lie down, but neither were they able to capitalize on many, many soft penalty calls against the home squad. The refs were kind of a joke tonight, but I have to give them kudos for calling the 5 minute major on a gutless cheapshot by Dillon Dube on a vulnerable Brennen Menell. I would be surprised if he doesn’t get a few games for an ‘intent to injure’ infraction. The Gs held on, weathering the Rockets pulling their goalie with 3:30 left in the game, and failing to find the open net, but keeping the puck out of their own.
The Giants opened the scoring late in the first. Taylor Crunk casually swept the puck at the goalie from the side of the net and the puck caromed off the pad and in. A bit of luck and a savvy veteran play. Clayton Kirichenko and Carter Popoff with the helpers. Dakota Odgers muscled one past the Kelowna netminder at 18:12 of the opening frame, to put the Giants up by two going into the break. Dawson Holt and Josh Thrower had the other assists. Very early in the second Brennen Menell was blindsided in a knee-to-knee collision behind the play. A goal was scored on the same play as Menell writhed on the ice in his own zone. Radovan Bondra found the back of the net, assisted by, curiously enough, Menell and Jakob Stukel. Dube was given a five-minute major and a game for the infraction. The Giants looked to be wasting their chance, having a tough time getting set-up, but finally managed to score two goals in the last minutes of the major. Ryley McKinstry, assisted by Popoff put one in from the point. A shot, which deflected off of a Rockets defenders wrist. The injured player did not look in good shape skating off the ice. 53 seconds later Jackson Houck found the loose puck off of a scramble and lifted the biscuit up and over the Kelowna goalie. Kelowna got one back later in the period on their only PP marker, despite having multiple chances with the man advantage. They added one more in the third, but that was as close as they would get.
Four Points for Pat: The team had a secret agenda for these two games and were committed to getting four points for Pat Quinn. Even though he has passed, his spectre continues to hold sway over the team and everyone is feeling the hole in the organization. I’m happy the boys were able to meet their aims. RIP Pat Quinn, ya big Irish bastid you.
Team Notes: Foster and Benson out indefinitely. I suspect neither will be going on the team’s impending East Division road trip. There are also some other minor injuries that are day to day.
Zebra Cage: Duncan Brow and Mike Campbell. I was hoping not to have this section too often, but tonight the calls were so punitive and soft and at times simply misread entirely by the officials – that it had to be included. So very weak and unnecessary and not consistent at all.
The Giants out shot the Rockets 31-25. The Gs scored two goals on their major going 2 for 3 overall on the PP. The Rockets went 1 for 6. I liked the effort of the team in this one and although they spent a ton of time in their own end for large stretches they had a strong commitment to pressure on the puck and sacrificing their body. I lost count of the number of blocked shots turned aside before getting close to the net. The Rockets are a fast and opportunistic team and it is necessary to limit the clean chances you give them, as you will be usually fishing the puck out of your net. The Gs had a tough time clearing the puck from their zone, but they didn’t give in and they were rewarded for their effort.
I liked Popoff’s game tonight, he was quick to the puck and pressured well at both ends. Osipov sacrificed a lot in this one and is turning into a really powerful presence in his own end. Most of the forwards had their chances, but I need a few more selfish players to take the shot when they have an open look and not try to pass through the slot, especially on the rush. If you don’t have a great shot, then shoot for the pads and let your buddy tap in the rebound. Too many nice chances squandered, but it was good solid win so no real complaints, just observations.
Jesse Roach redeemed himself after a less than intense effort on Friday. He looked faster and played harder at both ends. His reward was some nice offensive chances. Bondra continues to look good. I would like a bit harder physical play, but at least he doesn’t play perimeter hockey. I also liked Dawson Holt. A few rookie errors here and there, but he was going after the puck consistently and coughed up the puck less than he did versus the TBirds.
The Giants have a few days to practice before heading out for a long East division road trip. 6 games in 9 days stating Oct 2nd in Prince Albert. Having a couple of wins under their belt will help give them a bit of confidence and hopefully give them the momentum to get at least a split away from the Coliseum.
Three Stars
- 1) Dmitry Osipov
- 2) Jackson Houck
- 3) Radovan Bondra
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Carter Popoff. A couple of assists and he tracked down the loose pucks well and committed to working hard at both ends of the ice
A Solid and Sloppy Opening Night
Giants Edge T-Birds
Vancouver 3 Seattle 2
Opening night on Renfrew. I was pleased to see some solid forecheck from the team, but their sloppiness almost lost them the game. A great, simple and classy honour to anthem singer elite, Richard Loney, who passed last week. A throwback video between the Canucks and Jets, with Loney singing the anthem and an empty microphone stand lit up by a couple of spots in the arena. Classy and simple. Gave me a few chills. RIP Richard Loney. Ty Ronning had a two-goal night being in the right place at the right time. I also thought he was one the most consistent fore-checkers on the team tonight. I don’t recall the G’s ever opening their season versus the Thunderbirds before, but I could be mistaken. The T-Birds are also missing four of their top players to NHL camps, so this was an opportunity for this young and potentially fragile Giants team to get a win, and gain a bit of confidence. Lee was average between the pipes, but in his defense he was left high and dry on both of the goals against. I liked the effort of new euro Radovan Bondra. A nice hungry goal to open the scoring and he had some jump. For such a big guy I would like to see him play with a bit more edge moving on in the season though.
Bondra opened the scoring for the G’s and is now the answer to the trivia question: “Who scored the Giants first goal in the 2015-2016 season?” Jackson Houck and Ryley McKinstry had the helpers. Ronning gave the boys a two-goal lead late in the second. The G’s had a flat first half of the middle frame, but stepped it back up and pushed hard for the latter half of the period. Brennen Menell did most of the work, bringing the puck down the ice and deking through the defense, before putting the puck on net. Ronning was ready at the side of the net and put the loose puck behind Taz Burman, who was letting out some juicy rebounds in tonight’s game. Dawson Holt got the other assist. The Seattle squad tied it up in the third, coming back with two of their own. A careless delay of game penalty on the Thunderbirds, gave the Giants the chance to take back the lead. Once again it was Ronning in the slot who found twine. It was Carter Popoff who did all the work to get the puck to an open Ronning. Kirichenko had the second assist and Taylor Crunk created a nice screen at the front of the net.
Fight Night: Dakota Odgers versus Luke Osterman. A really good hard, middleweight tilt. There was some nice even toe-to-toe action, where both players got in some good shots. Odgers got the marginal take-down.
Team Notes: Tyler Benson and Thomas Foster are out for several games at least with injuries.
The Giants were out-shot 26-25. The boys went 1 for 4 on the PP, while the T-Birds were held to 0 for 3. A sloppy hockey game at times. The crowd was quiet while the Giants were leading, but upped their energy and support when the Seattle team tied the game. Good to get their first win out the way. I suspect that wins will be rarer than the fans and the players would like this season, but if they keep up that effort – their mistakes will be forgiven. Menell is morphing into a decent special teams quarterback. I’m not sure where the team goes from here, but they need to keep up the pressure and make sure they bring the forecheck for the whole game and not sit back and try to protect leads like they did in the third period.
The Giants take on the usually deadly Kelowna Rockets at the Coliseum, before going on a long Eastern road swing, which could have the team struggling when they return home. The puck drops at the Coliseum at 6:00pm PDT.
Three Stars:
- 1) Ty Ronning
- 2) Taylor Crunk
- 3) Keegan Kolesar
Dondo’s Hardhat: Goes to Dakota Odgers. A nice fight and hungry at both ends of the ice. Always finishes his checks and hits hard and clean.
What The Hell Was That? Questions About a Questionable Season –
Where Do We Go From Here?
The Giants have just completed one of the worst seasons in recent memory with something like 7 road wins. Last year they made the playoffs only to get swept 4 straight in the first round. The 2012-2013 season was their nadir and possibly the worst the franchise has suffered winning only 21 games. After that season there were no shake-ups no changes and the brain trust was allowed to continue to be in denial that real changes needed to be made. The year before they were eliminated in the first round going down in 6. They have the acquisition of Adam Morrison to thank for the delay of a much needed retooling. The 20 year old made them respectable down the stretch, but even he could not bring them up to a competitive playoff level. The year before that they were eliminated four straight in the first round. The year before that made it to the third round, only to be taken out in 6 by Tri-City. That was the last respectable season the Giants have to hang their hat on. That was 5 years ago.
Since then we have been middling to average with no real changes taking place with the real nuts and bolts of the team. The management remained the same. The coaching staff more or less the same and worst of all – the scouting group remained the same. Since that time we have had five years of first round busts and have not improved our team through the draft or by developing players with potential. A few players elevated themselves despite the organization behind them and one of the best players in recent years was a very late round pick, by the name of Brendan Gallagher.
Our euro drafting has been even worse. While other franchises are getting top level quality players with their two euro spots, we have been filling them with also-rans, pipe dreams and project players – none of which have broken into the top scoring echelon. We have also drafted a lot of under-sized “skill” players incapable of elevating their games at the WHL level and too soft to really make a consistent impact. Basically we have failed across the board on the scouting front and even worse with our player development.
So the question remains – where do we go from here? Do we continue with the same management team and the same scouts and expect a different result? We got rid of Don Hay after many seasons in the off-season this past year and everyone in the front office were eagerly pointing at him as being the cause of the all the team’s problems. Yet we dragged our heels for months getting a new coach, eventually losing out on multiple candidates we were unwilling to commit to (or pay for – trying to lowball most of the best candidates early in talks I hear) and settling for a troubled Troy G Ward, formerly coach of the Abbotsford Heat. Had they had any real leadership and management in place they would have gone after their guy early, not waited so long and paid market value. The new season was greeted with the same lip-service by the brain trust. The same promises made and the very same denial continued unabated. To me Ward seemed to be the wrong choice from the get-go. It was funny, but from the first time he talked about the team at the seasons ticket pick-up party he seemed to be evasive and uncommunicative. I felt his answers were pat and tended toward the negative, not the realistic and it almost felt like he felt he was slumming it a bit. Maybe that’s some hindsight, but I did comment a few times how I got a bad vibe from this guy from the get-go, to people I was with at the time.
Fast-forward to November where he was summarily dismissed under extreme team duress and was a veritable poison in the dressing room. Claude Noel gave the team a lift right away winning his first 6 games, but the reality of the back room spectre clawed back and began to drag the whole lot down. At the trade deadline we should have been sellers, acquiring some real talent to play with Tyler Benson. Yes, TYLER Ronny Toigo, Tyler – not Tyson – you dumb fuck. Once again we did not make many moves and did not move major pieces like Mason Geertsen who could have got us a top level journeyman to push Benson next season. I like the Zane Jones acquisition, but I would have dealt Bellerive not Hamilton if push came to shove. I can only assume that the other team didn’t want Bellerive. We also continue to hold out for players like Ty Ronning, who despite the name plays nothing like his dad. In the POE his numbers were impressive, but he has been a major disappointment at this level and despite the injury excuse he really has not done anything with the ice-time he has been given. Small skilled players without hunger or durability are frustrating at this level and Ronning lacks that hunger and it hurts him and the team.
Questionable choices are being made at all levels and to me it feels as if we are rewarding poor judgement and reinforcing that culture throughout the franchise. Tough decisions are not being made. Coaches at all levels are allowed to languish in their positions despite being unable to full-fill their job titles. When was the last time our skills coach actually enhanced and improved the team’s skill? When was the last time our special teams coach had a top three PP or PK? We have a current assistant coach who seems more yes man than assistant to me and his post-game interviews are always superficial and falsely positive. Is that how he coaches? Does he shy away from pushing the guys to do their best and allow them to just be good enough? I know Hay’s time was done here and he no longer played/coached the kind of intense forecheck game we had come to love, but at least he made average players better and brought focused hungry journeyman up to a point where they were considered NHL prospects. We have not had that kind of progression in years.
I personally feel the time has come to reassess every position, every employee and every manager in the group. This is a broken franchise and starting by removing all of the nepotism is a start. Who is Peter Toigo and why is he a Vice-president? What are his credentials other than being named Toigo? Why does Bonner’s Dad continue to head a damaged and wanting scouting division? There are those who will argue some of the decisions made around our scouting, but the proof is in the players. Our player development needs a serious over-haul, but when we get players who are not quite up to their draft position then other questions need to be asked. How do other teams get these top prospects while we seem to get perennial journeyman who can never make the jump from potential to elite? Why do we, year after year, see young kids with potential only to see them plateau and often sag as their career moves on? Quite a few of our players who appear to have some nice potential, who seem like they just need to play and get some seasoning to reach that potential, often slip with each passing season instead of improve. This is quite a disturbing trend in my mind. Even players like Jackson Houck who has the potential to be a lot better (and has been better number-wise at least) is being allowed to float, disappear for periods at a time and really not put in the effort he is capable of giving every shift. Is that simply a player issue or is it a deeper poor development issue? I suspect mainly the latter.
As far as I am concerned we should have cleaned house after that dismal 21 win season, but we continued to work in denial and now we have the same situation with no last minute saviours to squeak us undeservedly into the playoffs. These problems have been most evident for about 4 or even 5 years and yet nothing has been done to address the team’s major deficiencies. Deficiencies like a perennially porous defense (notably dropping off after Craig Bonner’s departure), a woeful lack of player size despite the team being pushed all around the ice for years now and questionable player development. We used to have those things. Are people just getting lazy? Complacent? Wishful? Everyone knows that Junior hockey goes in cycles, but we are 2 or 3 years past our renewal period. We have squandered top picks regularly, made very questionable drafting choices and then exacerbated those choices by not taking our skilled players to the next level and beyond.
Game Management Bores Fans and Ruins Game
Rockets Trip Giants
Vancouver 3 Kelowna 4 OT
I don’t know what the league is doing, but the favourtism from the officials has reached laughable proportions. This game could have been a good game except for the horribly inconsistent and simply awful officiating – give the goat’s head to Kevin Bennett who simply made the stupidest fucking calls ever. That aside the franchise is broken and when you have the owner (Ron freaking Toigo) calling his franchise player TYSON in a high profile interview (multiple times) while they are interviewing he and TYLER Benson you know you have issues. I mean seriously how fucking stupid and mindless do you have to be to call your up and coming superstar by the wrong fucking name?? It’s clear Toigo has no fucking clue about his team or how it is being run. That’s not a harmless mistake – that is a damaging error of mammoth proportions. I still can’t my head around how misinformed you have to be to make that kind of mistake.
The other interesting comment made by Steve Ewen recently in a podcast was that Craig Bonner was the glue which held this group of back-biting, egotistical fucktards from imploding and it’s pretty clear to me that he hit the proverbial nail on head. Since Craig’s departure they have been a group lacking cohesion and focus. Hay left because he couldn’t deal with Bonner and Bonner is too much of a milquetoast to actually have some balls to do something to improve his team. He can no longer whine about how it was “all Hay’s fault”. Time to blow up the whole freaking thing, Bonner, Toigo, all of the coaches and even the PR staff who seem to think that more stupid PR schemes will help all of the team’s woes. Time to fire Bonner’s Dad and Ripplinger who as player development whatever title he has gifted himself, has neither scouted nor developed a player to their highest level of skill in his tenure. Why he got a contract extension is anyone’s guess. I personally am so done with this lot of clueless clowns that it is time to clean house across the board. Maybe losing another 1000 season ticket holders will wake them up, because that is what is going to happen.
Okay on to the game. I would have liked a lot more physicality in this game, a lot more. Noel dressed 7 possibly 8 defensemen and Atwal bounced from forward to defense most of the night. The Rockets had a tough time getting momentum 5 on 5, but capitalised on some pretty damn soft and bogus penalty calls. I was sitting next to the Sportsnet camera-guy and he showed me some replays through his eye-piece and confirmed that the late “charging” call was not only NOT charging, but was a very nice clean, shoulder to shoulder check. The Giants used a PP to open the scoring. Kelowna capitalised on poor coverage coming into the zone in the second to tie it up. They added a PP marker to take their first lead. The Gs found the back of the net early in the third off of a weird bounce and a broken play. The home team added a goal ahead marker on the PP a few minutes later. The Rockets tied it up off of a bogus charging call on a clean check. The Kelowna squad then took the win on yet another PP off of yet another weak call. The “checking to head” was marginal, they got the wrong player as it was Baer who actually made minimal head contact (sorta), not Jones. Basically all-around incompetence ruining a decently played tilt.
Mason Geertsen opened the scoring on the PP, wiring a ballistic smart missile from the point. Brennan Menell and Carter Popoff had the helpers. Kelowna tied it up early in the second and then used a PP marker to get the lead. In the third it was AP player Dawson Holt finding a puck that caromed off of the stanchion on a dump-in and bounced out front of the net and Holt going to the net got the loose puck past Michael Herringer. The goal was unassisted. Alec Baer used a PP in the final frame in regulation to take back the lead. Menell got his second helper of the night and Jackson Houck got the other point. The Rockets used a PP gift to wire one past Cody Porter from the face-off dot. The Rockets used yet another bogus soft call in OT to put the game away.
Team Notes: Sward still out with injury. Lots of end of the year awards they didn’t seem to be organized enough to show which award was going to who on the big screen. A real fail, in my mind.
Fight Night: nada – not a lot of emotion and clean hard checks were being called charging, so the refs were eager to manage the game to death and they did.
Zebra Cage: Ryan Benbow and Kevin Bennett. Bennett in particular was very useless in this one and called seriously soft penalties at bad times. None of his calls affected a scoring chance or scoring rush. Benbow was no better. The last home game I saw the Giants got called on penalties where the opposing players dropped their sticks after having them slightly tapped. Tonight I watched three separate times where the Gs had sticks slashed out of their hands with no calls. Yet Dosanjh slashes a Rocket stick (with the Rocket player dropping it pretty easily) and it is called slashing, why were the other ones not called slashing? This league has no credibility when the game is called very differently by officials in most every single game. I think it has become a major league issue as the officiating this season has been wholly abysmal.
The Giants marginally out shot the visitors 26-25. They went 2 for 5 on the PP, while their opponents went 3 for 5 off of the aforementioned bad calls. I wasn’t too impressed with the boys in this one. I have to give them kudos for some of their goals and finally getting some production from their PP. No single Giant player stood out for me. I liked seeing Stukel take the puck to the net. I enjoyed Benson’s tenacious play. Houck was invisible, despite getting a PP point. I am too tired right now talk about specifics – both physically and emotionally. It’s been a long and suffering season and until they fix all the problems behind the scene it matters not what level of players they get on the ice. Time for a Giant broom to sweep away the troublemakers and pretenders.
Tri-City and PG’s wins tonight mean that even if the Gs did win tonight they would still be out of playoff contention. As they should be, they have not earned any post-season berths for a few years now and even when they did squeak in they would be swept four straight. This franchise has now become a joke and if major over-hauls do not take place in the off-season they will lose season ticket holders in droves and their best players due to overwhelmingly apathetic ennui.
Three Stars
1. Dawson Holt (seriously?)
2. Leon Draisaitl
3. Tyson Baillie
No hardhat for me. I really didn’t think anyone elevated their game enough to be set apart. No one was awful, but no-one was great.
Giants Can’t Quite Climb the HIll
Chiefs Beat Giants
Vancouver 3 Spokane 4
I have to say that the anthem singer was probably one of the worst for pretending it was her Idol audition. Painfully slow and ornamented, there was no way anyone was going to be able to follow her. Truly someone completely unclear on the concept. Here’s a hint – it’s a sing-a-long, you are leading a sing-a-long – the idea is to start with a brisk consistent pace and maintain it throughout the anthem. It is not your chance to shine, or an audition. You are not a star. You are a facilitator. Figure it out.
Okay, the game. The Giants opened the scoring early, almost by surprise, slipping one past the Spokane netminder. A nice goal, but they steadily sagged from then on and seemed to be behind the play most of the night. Spokane added two more of their own in the first taking the lead into the first break. The goals were far easier than they had to be as the Gs were caught out of position and unable to recover. The Chiefs made it 3-1 early in the second period as yet another poor give-away lead to a quality scoring chance. The Giants closed the gap in the second using a rare PP to find the back of the net. The Gs got it to within one early in the third period, but that was as close as they would get. The Chiefs played a tight checking game, did not give the home squad room to move or make plays and forced turnovers. They were quick to loose pucks and won the majority of the face-offs. The score actually flattered the Giants a bit. Thankfully the Giants did not delve into listless pout mode and kept their energy up, but their puck support, possession and passing were suspect.
Thomas Foster opened the scoring 2:07 into the first. Tyler Benson and Jakob Stukel combined to get the puck to Foster who buried it behind Garret Hughson. Spokane evened it up about 8 minutes later. They took the lead at 13:28 of the opening frame. The Chiefs added another one in the second, before the Giants responded on the PP about mid-way through the period. Jackson Houck found the back of the net, assisted by Alec Baer. Spokane got that one back late in the middle period, off of a questionable non-call at the Chiefs end of the ice and a breakaway goal the other way, off of the turnover. Very early in the third Zane Jones found twine behind Hughson drawing the Gs to within one. Houck had the lone helper. The Chiefs shut down the quality areas of the ice after that and the Giants had a tough time getting to the front of the net and few or no second shots.
Team Notes: Sward is out the rest of the season with an upper body injury. The Gs dressed 7 defensemen in the game, with Atwal playing up front. I still think Atwal is more effective on the back end than as a forward. The loss was the G-Men’s 7th in a row and despite a decent effort the follow-through and finish were lacking. They are supposed to be battling for a playoff spot, but have mostly been plummeting down the ladder hoping Tri-City sucks just enough that they might shoe-horn themselves into a wild card spot. Not going to happen. They face Victoria three times and Kelowna twice in their final five games. Apparently we also have players who come to the rink and can’t be bothered to find out what the keys of the game are for the upcoming tilt. That would be standard operating procedure, wouldn’t you think?
Fight Night: Thomas Foster v. Evan Fiala. Fiala laid out David Brumm coming into the Spokane end of the ice and Foster had had enough. Foster had the upper-hand for the majority of the tilt and although most of the blows were glancing, there were many – with some connecting nicely. When Fiala tried to pound back Foster fed him some nice uppercuts taking the decision.
Zebra Cage: Jeff Ingram and Dexter Rasmussen. I really don’t know what game these two were watching, but it wasn’t the same one I was watching. Just because someone drops his stick off of a soft tap; it is not slashing. Just cause someone drops their stick it is not interference, either. When a player cutting around the net has some extra help to go down (in the form of pushing his skate) – that would be tripping. When a player holds another guy’s stick to the point of them stopping and not able to skate that is called “holding the stick” and yes, it is a penalty. Ditto if a player grabs a guy’s shoulder and whips him around… this is called holding. The game was a mess mainly by what was not called, but when what is called is soft as melted butter and more serious infractions just drift by the way-side you know you have crappy officiating.
The Giants were out shot 26-23. The Chiefs spent most of the third on the defensive and shut down attempts at breaking into their end of the ice. The Gs went 1 for 3 on the PP, holding the Chiefs to 0 for 5. The PK looked kind of ugly and left holes, but it came out perfect on the night. There were a few gamers with effort in the game who were trying, but the individual effort did not really add up to a cohesive whole. I liked Jakob Stukel’s jump and appreciate he seems to be the only Giant player who consistently goes to the net with the puck. I would think that kind of play would be obvious and a staple of any offensive player, but it seems that the lesson has been lost on more than a few. I loved Foster’s fight, sticking up for his teammate and his effort. I felt our D were mostly soft and were easily out positioned. I hate to say it as he still bugs me, but Thrower was one of our better D-men on the night. We missed Atwal on the back-end. I would have liked his size and intensity when the Chiefs came into our end. Houck had a few really nice shifts and a few middling ones. Benson had some good jump at times, but wasn’t really able to make his work pay-off. We really need more and better offense from Popoff. He’s a gritty small guy, but really he needs to be burying the puck on a regular basis. Geertsen was solid if unspectacular. Jones had flashes, but no consistency. I hate to say it, but Ty Ronning looked quite lost out there in this one, maybe trying to do too much and then looking over-whelmed. It was a hell of a lot better game than they played in Spokane though.
To a man the Giants were forced by the Chiefs to make plays before they were ready. There was a ton of sloppy passing and poor puck handling, but some of that can be attributed to the pressure from the Spokane group. The Giants have a few days before taking on the Royals at the Coliseum on Friday. It really is a must win. They need to get the 7 game loser monkey off of their back and if they hope to even have a chance at a berth in the post-season they will need to sweep the Royals and steal at least a point out of the Rockets. I don’t expect that to happen, but stranger things have occurred. They are actually a better and more dangerous team than they have shown lately, but it requires effort for the full sixty and smart plays. They need to go to the net hard looking for rebounds and pay the price in front of the net. They also need to have the hockey gods not only smile, but beam. Puck drops on Friday at 7:30pm PDT (yes Pacific Daylight Time).
Three Stars
1. Blair Oneschuk
2. Thomas Foster
3. Jakob Stukel
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Thomas Foster. Decent effort, nice opening goal to ban the shut-out spectre early and a great, sticking up for his teammate, bit of fisticuffs.
Zebras: 5 MInutes For Interference
Rockets Stripe Giants
Vancouver 2 Kelowna 5 EN
At least the Giants came out to play in this one and were at least ready to stay close to the dangerous Rockets, but in the end they had to contend with forces outside their play to have a chance and that proved too much. The reffing in this game was, in a word, abysmal. If they weren’t too busy ignoring high-sticks and players being cut down from behind, they were over-reacting and inflicting punishments far beyond the actual scope of the infraction. It was a joke. The Gs played two competitive periods against the best team in the league and if they weren’t gaining ground they were at least able to hold level. Not too many regulars at the arena expected a win in this game considering the Giants play of late and the level of the competition, but this is why we play the game because you never know what can happen. What happened was a goal early in the third by the visitors off of some pretty shoddy work along the boards and the Gs inability to clear the puck. A few minutes later the Giants were given a five minute major for a hit that was possibly not a penalty at all, as the player being hit turned his back as he was lined up shoulder to shoulder. It was in no way a deliberate intent to injure, which is what a five-minute major penalty represents. The Gs scored a goal SH’d on that major early on, but ending up coughing up two during the major penalty, which essentially was the game. The Rockets added a SH’d marker of their own when the Giants misplayed a face-off and were caught flat-footed as the Rocket player powered down the ice and put it home. The Giants got one back, but the visitors were able to add an empty net goal.
The two teams skated to a 0-0 draw after two periods. In the first period Jakob Stukel was hauled down from behind on a breakaway and given a penalty shot he failed to cash in on. The Rockets opened the scoring, taking a shot from the sideboards near the blue-line and deflecting it in the slot past Payton Lee. The Giants responded while killing off the major penalty. Jackson Houck found open ice and rumbled his way down the ice, being hooked and held the whole way. A delayed penalty was going to be called, but the puck was flipped to the front of the net where Thomas Foster put it past Michael Herringer before a Rocket player could touch it. I thought the player rumbling down the ice was Osipov, but maybe it was Houck and then again it is a distinct possibility that the WHL stats folks got it wrong. 22/27 – they look alike. The Rockets cashed in two goals during the rest of the major. They added a shorthander a few minutes later to gain a three-goal bulge. The Giants made it a little closer later with time ticking down on a PP. Houck found the back off the net off of a nice feed from Brennan Menell. The Kelowna squad added an empty net goal late.
Team Notes: Now on a 5 game losing streak the Giants sit at the bottom of the BC Division and their only hope is that Tri-City sinks enough that a wild card spot opens up. The Giants have to help themselves by beating Everett on Saturday though. Dalton Sward is out for the rest of the season with an upper body injury. Mason Geertsen is currently wearing the C, with three As spread around the line-up.
Fight Night: A couple of good fights. Josh Thrower v. Chance Braid mid-way through the first. A good toe to toe battle with both players connecting. Slight nod to Braid, but I think it was even. Dmitry Osipov v. Rodney Southam. Osipov had laid out a Rockets player with a great hard open ice hit and Southam took him to task later in the shift. Osipov was slightly out matched but he held his own, took some good hard shots and stayed standing before getting in a few nice over-hands. Good fight. I love that Dmitry dropped the mitts and was amenable to stand up for himself.
Zebra Cage: Steve Papp and Mike Langin. As mentioned above these two had a tough time figuring out what their actual job was on the ice. Early on Ronning was high sticked with no call and there was a bunch of clutching and tripping which went uncalled as well. The major penalty call was simply a huge over-reaction and giving that kind of gift to the best PP in the Dub for a questionable infraction was just irresponsible. Very late in the game a Rockets player crushed a Giants player from behind into the end boards, which was an act that was more of a major than the one they called. No call. A very frustrating outing by a couple of clowns who actively decided the game by what calls they chose to make or not make.
The Giants were out shot 32-27. They went 1 for 2 on the PP, while the Rockets were 2 for 3 with the man advantage. Both teams coughed up shorthanded markers. I liked the work of a few Giants players for the most part and appreciated how they brought a decent forecheck and a heavier hitting game than in recent outings. Houck had some nice shifts. I appreciated the game that Osipov brought and the fact he was hitting hard and stuck up for himself. Had he not been a first overall euro pick I would actually like his game more, but I still can’t get over what we should have got as opposed to what we did get. Geertsen was solid, but sloppy at times. Benson is so close to being an impact player I can taste it, but not there yet and might not be there next year unless we get some quality players to challenge him and elevate his skill-set. Atwal was also one of those players who was making things happen at both ends and was making solid safe plays out his own end. I liked his physical game as well. It was good to see Zane Jones playing with Benson as well. Sadly Thrower again left his feet on a nothing play to take a charging call against a team that is deadly on the man advantage. Stukel had some good shifts as well and could be one of those players who will elevate next year. It’s a shame the kid missed a season due to injury.
It was nice to at least see a better and smarter effort by the Giants, but their few errors seem to be quite costly lately. I do not agree that Lee should have been second star. He was solid and did his job and stopped one nice breakaway, but overall his performance was not star worthy in my mind. We face the Rockets twice more before the end of the season and we have got to figure out a way to play the game we played for two periods for the full three. It was a bit of a frustrating game to watch from the stands as you saw potential and no real finish. Looking at a half-full glass I guess I should be happy that there was potential being shown and that effort that had been woefully absent on the road was at least back to a certain degree.
The Giants have a home tilt versus the Silvertips, a team they have struggled with this year. They will be in tough Saturday night at the Coliseum. The puck drops at 7pm PST.
Three Stars
1. Tyrell Goulbourne
2. Payton Lee
3. Leon Draisatl
Dondo’s Hardhat: I’m giving it to Osipov in this one. He was even on a night when his line-mate was a –2. A good fight. I enjoyed his effort and how he hustled at both ends.
A Kid-Packed Nooner – Hooky Day Win In Extra Time
Giants Shave Warriors
Vancouver 3 Moose Jaw 2 OT
A nooner with a flash mob and masses of kidlings occupying the upper reaches of the Coliseum, to the tune of 10K+ in the arena. Not the best game by any stretch, but there were some nice moments. Jack the Giant got his head ripped off by the slingshot thingy (first time I’ve seen that) and there seemed to be great preponderance of people in suits trying to drag the slingshot back into launch position. One contestant was flung off sideways and the other dived too early and had to crawl to the pins. A Jack and two contestants and one whole pin down. Flash mob was good and lively during the ice-scrape break in the second intermission. The videos and incessant yammering through the intermissions were mostly just that. Kind of poorly thought through in my mind, but whatever – acceptance was the word of the day as the anti-bullying messages flashed across the screen.
Back to the game. Rough first period, where the Giants just could not connect, relied more on individual effort than team unity and didn’t really battle to get their chances. Moose Jaw was playing their second nooner in two days edging the Royals 4-3 after scoring twice in the first two minutes of that tilt. Moose Jaw opened the scoring in the first minute of the second when the Giants could not clear the puck from their zone and gave up the puck (badly) four separate times when they had the opportunity to get it out. I am adding a doghouse tonight because there is one player today who totally pissed me off. Puck support was awful in this game and the Giants spent a lot time trying low-percentage long passes. It was another example of individuals trying to do too much. The Giants hit some red iron and lacked finish around the net. They really should have taken this game handily, but made it tougher on themselves than it should have been. Anyway, the Giants bounced back tying the game on a rare PP and then adding the go ahead goal in the final minute of the second. How many times have the Giants rescued a period scoring in the final minute this year? I would hazard to guess double digits. Moose Jaw tied it up early in the third off of yet another nothing play and a bad give-away by the home squad in their own zone. The Giants earned the win in the final minute of extra time with a beautiful finishing play starting off the side boards.
The two teams skated to a 0-0 draw after the opening frame. Moose Jaw opened the scoring when the Giants were simply unable to clear the puck from their zone. Blame effort and poor decisions with the puck. As I watched us struggle in our own end I could feel the MJ goal coming. I was the crazy guy, sitting alone in the corner talking to himself with occasional out-bursts and more board pounding than I expected to do – hi. Thomas Foster tied it up on the PP. Mason Geertsen worked the puck down to Tyler Benson who got the puck to Foster at the side of the net. Foster spun and took a shot, which bounced off the Warriors back-up netminder and was batted in (by the Moose Jaw ‘tender) as the goalie tried to recover and find the puck. The Giants took their first lead in the final minute of the second when Geertsen wired a puck from the point. Benson and Clayton Kirichenko had the other helpers. The Jaw tied it up off of an unassisted play in the third. The Gs were not able to get into those really nice scoring areas in the third period and barely held on for the point as the Warriors brought some late pressure. Payton Lee might have earned that point stoning a skilled Warrior on the breakaway late in the final frame. Geertsen scored in OT coming down the slot, as Benson cut off the side-boards and into an open area, dishing the puck to a wide open pinching Mason. Carter Popoff had the second assist on the play. It was a very smart hockey play by a great playmaker and although I would love to see Benson shoot a lot more there is no doubting his superior vision of the ice. This kid is going to be fun to watch grow up.
Team Notes: I noticed in the stats sheet today that the only Giant player to suit up for all 57 (now 58) games this season is Popoff. Good to see Payton Lee back to take some pressure off of Porter and a couple of nice wins in Kennwick and versus the Warriors today.
Fight Night: nope .. very little emotion although a few scrums
Zebra Cage: Mike Campbell and Nick Swaine. Not impressed with the zebras. I know I have said this before, but allowing the boys to play does not mean allowing them to cheat. Lots of holding and obstruction let go in the first period, mainly from the visitors. Sward gets levelled as he is trying to enter the zone and join the rush, which was pretty clearly interference and Payton Lee is run into with no call. I love that Osipov is called for roughing after the Warrior he hit slashed Lee’s glove after the whistle. They both should have gone, but I will take that roughing call any time. Nice punch.
The Giants out shot the Warriors 32-25. The Giants went 1 for 2 on the PP and perfect on the PK holding the Warriors to 0 for 3. I liked the look of both special teams units. I would have liked a less passive PK and a bit more challenging of the puck carrier, but it was solid. I never really had a clear hard hat in mind while watching the game and found myself wondering who to pick half-way through the third period. Geertsen came to mind for sure, but despite all the points he got in the game he struggled a bit in his own end at times. I liked Benson’s game, but he was lacking that real finish until the end. He is one player who has to learn how to trust his teammates and use his vision and a bit of patience to really dissect defenses. If he ever really gets that into his head with the confidence to back it up there will be no stopping him.
The three stars were kind of a joke, in my opinion. The Warriors tender was solid, but really if our boys hadn’t been missing the net, flubbing on a clear cut breakaway (Foster) and hitting red iron then he would have looked very ordinary. Lee had a couple of big stops, but not star worthy in my mind – maybe third. I really did not like the second goal, which he had a piece of but bobbled badly. I guess this is sounding pretty negative for a victory, but there were really nice flashes and players trying to generate chances, but not quite getting there. Stukel was one of those players with jump, but no finish. I liked our hitting today. I think we laid the body nicely.
The Giants head down to Portland for a Friday tilt before coming back for a game on Saturday versus division rivals Kamloops Blazers. Let’s hope we do not waste our game in hand against the Blazers and really take it to them. We need to maintain third place in the BC Division and a win versus Kamloops would help a lot. Should be a hungry, hotly contested game.
Three Stars
1. Brody Willms
2. Payton Lee
3. Mason Geertsen
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Mason Geertsen. 2G and 1A and in on all three goals, gets the game-winner and has a solid night (day). Although not perfect by any means (none of the boys were) he scored when he needed to and made some smart pinches both offensively and defensively
Dondo’s Doghouse: Josh Thrower. I swear this kid has some of worst defensive instincts I have seen in a while. Maybe I’m being unfair, but bad giveaways, consistently unable to get the puck out of his zone in the game, soft on the puck and then taking a useless charging penalty, by leaping with his forearm extended into a players face in the neutral zone for no real reason or purpose. It was the first penalty call of the game and was called when the Warriors had the lead and momentum. It could have really turned game the Warriors way had the Giants not killed the ensuing penalty. I really hope he changes my mind the next time I see him, but I think he’s been defensively suspect since joining the team. Today was just one of those days I was really keying on him and I was not pleased with what I was seeing.
Scrambly Win Versus Kings of Oil
Giants Jack Oil Kings
Vancouver 3 Edmonton 1 EN
A more scrambly game I don’t think you will ever see. Man that was a whole lot of missed passes and inability to clear their own zone. For both teams, but the Giants were the ones scaring the beejeezuz outta their home-town fans. Some positives, a bit of luck and some deficiencies, which if they show up on their weekend roadsie will spell disaster for the team. Noel had some odd line mixes to begin the game and shuffled them up in third as he sat the passengers and played the workers. I personally like that kind of a shake-up. Fourth liners Vladimir Bobylev and Jesse Roach moved up the line-up by the third period and players doing flybys like Alec Baer and Ty Ronning saw themselves slide down the depth chart. The Oil Kings looked tired to start the game and the Gs had some great chances early on, including two breakaways by Jakob Stukel, but could not finish around the Edmonton net. The Oil Kings found twine (wearing some ugly Arena Football looking third jerseys – with none of their actual colours) mid first with an unassisted tally off of some Giants careless play in their own zone. The Giants rebounded with two goals early in the second and then held on by their very fingernails until they scored an empty netter in the final minute of the third.
Edmonton opened the scoring at 9:42 of the first. The boys weathered a 5 on 3 late in the opening frame, keeping the game close for a comeback bid. Early in the second period Tyler Benson stripped the puck in the neutral zone and wheeled with speed, slipping the puck down to Thomas Foster who made a nice tape-to-tape pass to Carter Popoff on the far side with a wide open net. Popoff made no mistake tying the game at ones. A short time later the Giants worked the puck out of their zone as Dakota Odgers got the puck up to Dmitry Osipov moving with stumbling speed up the ice. Just as I was muttering under my breath whether he knew what to do with the puck, he backhanded a pass wide to Vladimir Bobylev who wired the puck past Tristan Jarry. The Gs were pinned in their zone for most of the rest of the period as the Oil Kings ramped up their game. I was happy to see the boys, though scrambling, gamely sacrificing their bodies to make certain the puck stayed out of their net. The third played much the same as they frightened me repeatedly being unable to cleanly clear their zone and making blind back-passes into the slot. Cody Porter’s rebound control was erratic, but his battle-mode was fully engaged and he recovered from poor bounces quickly. He made more than a few clutch stops down the stretch and held the fort when the team got careless in their own end. It was a tense period as the boys hung on to their slim lead until Dalton Sward found open ice across the red line and dished the puck to Carter Popoff who notched his second of the game into the empty cage. Benson got the second helper.
Team Notes: Arvin Atwal still out of the line-up and although he is probably still suspended by the league I have heard rumour that there is more to the Atwal vs Giants scenario. Ryley McKinstry was in the line-up. The win pushes the Gs back into a playoff spot and third in the BC Division, one more than Kamloops. The G-Men have two games in hand on PG and Kamloops, but they still have a few games versus the high-flying Rockets and tough Victoria Royals. It will be the two head-to-head games versus the Blazers which will be the most telling though.
Fisticuffs: nada, not much emotional energy at all really
Zebra Cage: Sean Raphael and Mark Pearce … inconsistent. I wasn’t too fond of some of their early calls, but they eventually let the teams play. At least they didn’t really impact the game, but if the game goes a different way on that 5 on 3 the Giants probably don’t get the W.
The Giants were out-shot 32-24. They went 0 for 3 on their PP and looked pretty ugly in their man-advantage chances. Their PK looked better and less porous though and they needed that gutsy 5 on 3 kill to turn the momentum. I really need to see Benson take that shot and not pass every time when QBing the PP fro the side-boards. A few good chances around the net for a lot of different players, but wow – no finish. It was the fourth liners who seemed to help turn the game around with a nice hard shift when the boys were struggling. Bobylev and Roach were noticed in a good way and I guess the coach thought so too, as Sward was playing with Jones and Roach in third for a few shifts. Roach also played on the opening line-up, which doesn’t necessarily mean much, as it was the fourth line of Odgers, Roach and Bobylev to open the tilt, but possibly indicative of some belief by Noel for these players to step it up. Make no mistake the game was still very scrambly and was really ugly hockey at times, but not too many players had the luxury to take shifts off. Those that did found themselves riding pine for the majority of the final frame.
If a lot of the Giants depth players can get the puck on their stick to tickle some twine the Gs might have a chance versus the Tips and Ams on the weekend. It will need to be an all men on deck and ready to play kind of road trip. Porter will have to be sparkling and return to the December form, which won him the honour of WHL Star of the Month and our skill players have got find the back of the net. A nice short-handed tally by Sward would be most welcome, just sayin’. The puck drops in Everett at 7:35pm PST, hopefully Friday the 13th will be unlucky for them and not us.
Three Stars
1. Cody Porter
2. Carter Popoff
3. Lane Bauer
Dondo’s Hardhat: I’m going off the boards for this one and was happy to see the stats reflecting my thoughts. I’m giving it to Dmitry Osipov. Nice assist, very solid in his own end and one of the few Giants defenders who didn’t flip the puck out into the slot in his own end. He was strong on the body and hustling hard. Add in a +3 and he was effective at both ends.
A Gutsy Bounce Back Yo-Yo Game
Giants Pluck Thunderbirds
Vancouver 5 Seattle 4
It dismays me when teams sit back after having success pressing in the offensive zone. The boys coughed up far too many goals playing poorly in their own end and failing badly on the PK. I never got the theory behind the strategy of sitting back when you have the lead. First of all you tend to get flatfooted in the neutral zone and one forechecker does pretty much nothing to break up a break-out except in extreme circumstances. The boys really did not do well in their own end, but the positive is that they did not give up and pressed very hard when attacking.
Some nice checks and an early fight (24 seconds) between Hauf and Geertsen seemed to boast a potentially feisty affair, but it ended up being a paper tiger as the game itself was quite sedate. The boys had an intense first period and three PP chances where they were able to achieve nothing, despite firing 16 shots on back-up tender Logan Flodell in his 4th start. They held the T-Birds to 5 shots and it worried me that we had all of those chances and could not find the back of the net, mainly due to our inability to finish. Seattle opened the scoring in the second and The Gs answered with two to lead 2-1 going into the third. The T-Birds tied it up on a carryover PP from the end of the second. The Giants took back the lead about 5 minutes later. The T-Birds tied it up (again on the PP) when the puck found twine, but bounced out and a horn had to sound after some cycling to indicate a goal by the video boys in the rafters. The Giants tied it up again off some good forecheck and a quick shot. The Birds used some poor puck play to tie the game for the final time. The Giants used a late breakout/breakaway to take a lead they would not give up, but they tried their damnedest to give it back and gave my heart a few jolts in the process.
The teams skated to a scoreless first. The Giants dominated on the shot sheet and with scoring chances, but they could not solve the rookie netminder. The T-Birds opened the scoring in the second about mid-way through the period. The goal came off of a bad defensive breakdown by the home squad. The Giants tied it up on a great individual effort by Jackson Houck (unassisted) after a good turnover created by some hard forechecking. The Gs took their first lead of the game in the final minute of the period, when Jakob Stukel came hard out of the corner and cut across the front of the net, deeking the defender before slipping it past Flodell. Jackson Houck had the lone helper. Seattle tied it up early in the third, off of a kind of bogus penalty at the tail-end of the second. The Giants reclaimed the lead 5 minutes later after a fine shot by Jesse Roach rifling the puck stick-side on Flodell low post and in. I need to see a lot more of that from Roach. I think he has that game in him, but he needs more minutes and more of those situations in my mind. He’s also the type of player we have wanted for some time, a bigger forward with some skill. I truly hope they don’t waste him playing just fourth line minutes.
Seattle used yet another PP opportunity to draw even a short time later. A great forecheck by Dalton Sward, who should have had an assist on the play in my estimation, popped the puck free on the end boards and an opportunistic Zane Jones picked up the loose puck and roofed it short-side on Flodell, to retake the lead. Seattle tied it AGAIN just past the mid-way mark and the home-town boys were back to square one. Credit the Giants for continuing to press and stopping that stupid mid-ice trap they were doing while they had the slim lead(s). Tyler Benson was sprung loose on the breakaway (while the Gs were playing 4 on 4) and was fed nicely by Carter Popoff off the rush as Benson crossed the blue-line, cut toward the net and picked the top corner over the glove of the Seattle netminder. The Giants gave their fans a scare as they scrambled around their end while the T-Birds cycled the puck with their goalie pulled for the last two minutes. A few more scares and a couple of clutch stops by Porter down the stretch preserved the win for Porter and his team, who got a bit of puck luck and made some big saves when needed.
Team Notes: Houck’s 17th of the season, Jones’ 26th. Atwal was out of the line-up I suspect for the fisticuffs and a game misconduct from Saturday’s game after the final buzzer. A hard price to play for a pretty mutual bout. The Seattle player did not get a game misconduct in Saturday’s tilt, but did get a fighting major.
Fight Night: 24 seconds in Mason Geertsen agreeably dropped the mitts with Jared Hauf. A pretty even tilt, but some extra board banging by yours truly (as the fight was right in my corner of the ice) and it appeared that Geertsen took the upper-hand getting the marginal victory. It feels like this bit of fisticuffs was a carryover from Saturday night in Kent.
Zebra Cage: Jeff Ingram and Tyler Adair. I didn’t mind the reffing for the most part, but there were two calls, which seemed to be stretching a bit. I didn’t like the mutual roughing call that sent on Osipov alone to the sin bin. I really hated the embellishment call on Menell when the replay shows his foot being clearly taken out from under him. A really dumb addition with zero evidence to support it. Also, who is going to dive carrying the puck in their own slot trying to get it out of danger? I also was not too fond of the boarding call on Foster at the tail-end of the second, but I didn’t see the play well enough to really bring a full-on grumble. I did appreciate that when the penalties were 3-0 Giants that they didn’t get a “just because” call to balance out the scoresheet.
The Giants out-shot the T-Birds 34-30, but considering they were leading 16-5 after the first you have to be a bit disappointed. The Gs PK was simply awful. They were not challenging the puck carrier, leaving clean lanes to the net and were poor clearing the front of their net. The Gs had a rough time in their own zone for 2/3rds of the game and frequently failed to clear the puck from their zone, getting caught scrambling. They were quick to loose pucks in the offensive zone, but slow to react in their own end of the ice. They lacked finish, especially in the first period and did alright with their first two PP chances, but sucked pretty hard on their last two. Too much over-handling of the puck, not enough traffic to the net. It would be nice to run a screen and have Benson take that shot from the top of the face-off circle instead of making that pass every time either cross ice or to the side of the net. If you don’t take the shot then the goalie will never play the shot. He has a quality shot and needs to take it more, ideally with bodies going hard to the net for the screen or the rebound.
A good bounce-back game despite the deficiencies. Claude Noel was checking his heart and blood pressure and looking at his grey hairs in the mirror along with most of the fans after that yo-yo third period of not always welcome excitement. I loved that the boys did not give up or give in, but I would have been okay with a few less goals against and a more comfortable finish, but there’s no denying how exhilarating a battle back win can be. The Gs have another home game on Wednesday when the Oil Kings come to town. It doesn’t get any easier. Puck drops at 7:00pm PST at the Coliseum.
Three Stars:
1. Tyler Benson
2. Shea Theodore
3. Jackson Houck
Dondo’s Hardhat: Goes to Tyler Benson… he got the game winner, but he was all over the ice tonight and seems to be the PP quarterback the Giants have been needing, but he has to trust his shot more. Early on he was noticed trying to do too much himself, but when he began to trust his teammates and go to the open ice he became more effective. If we ever get him a real quality skilled linemate around his talent level he will dominate this league. He is just too hockey smart not to really shine eventually.
Gritty Battle Back At The Rink on Renfrew
Giants Catch Rebels
Vancouver 5 Red Deer 4
Now that’s more like it. I really have to ask the boys… isn’t it a hell of a lot more fun and exciting to play that brand of hockey? Isn’t it better to stick up for teammates and instill a bit of fear in your opponents? Isn’t it better to jump over the boards hungry to play, than floating through period after stultifying period? I wasn’t able to see this game live, but I did listen to the tail-end of the first and the second and third periods and the Giants actually battled in this game. They stuck up for one another and finally broke their 0 for 17 slide on the PP. They were still sloppy and still sat back when they should have pressed, but they did not give up and came from behind three times, before using a timely major penalty to good use. Not perfect by any means, but at least there was some effort and energy.
Red Deer took a two goal lead in the first. The Giants got one back in the last minute of the opening frame. Jackson Houck found twine for his 16th of the season, assisted by Carter Popoff and Thomas Foster. The Giants came out hard in the second period, but coughed up an early unassisted goal when they got careless. Lately that would have been it for the Vancouver squad, they would have folded up their suitcases and soft-soaped it for the rest of the game. I was happy to see that not happen as the boys kept up the pressure. Zane Jones really turned the tide and the feeling of the game when he scored a PP marker at the 7:15 mark of the middle frame. Playing with a mashed-up PP unit, Jones found a lane, skated the puck in and roofed it over Taz Burman’s shoulder. Up ‘til that point Burman had been holding his fort well as the Giants brought some pressure to the offensive zone. That pressure continued for the rest of the period and The G’s came out hard in the third ready to draw even. Clayton Kirichenko potted a goal off the rush when the Giants turned aside a good scoring chance in their own end of the ice and came back with numbers. Alec Baer and Brennan Menell had the helpers.
Red Deer threatened to derail the Gs surge as they scored an easy one about five minutes later, once again taking the lead. Baer scored on the next shift going hard to the net and potting his own rebound never giving up on the puck. Josh Thrower and Jones had the other points on the play. Late in the game Ty Ronning went down when a Rebel player took him out knee-on-knee. The Rebels were given a 5 minute major. Ronning managed to get back up after a spell on the ice and concerns that he was once again injured were allayed. Ty got his revenge as he scored his first goal (of the season and possibly as a Giant) on the ensuing PP. Tyler Benson with a smart hockey play and Brennan Menell had the assists. The Gs gave their fans a scare as they took a late penalty in the final minute, but they were able to kill the clock and get a much needed win.
Team Notes: Ty Ronning scored his first goal in his tenth game of the season after going down with injury in the Giants very first preseason game. Ronning has never really been healthy playing for the G-Men and hopefully this is a sign that he’s about to turn a corner with the team. Giants break their 0 for 17 slump with the man-advantage. Eleven Giants players garnered points in tonight’s tilt, spreading around the wealth. Defenseman Clayton Kirichenko scored his third goal of the season. He was on the shelf with injury until recently. Zane Jones continues to be the most reliable and consistent Giant player since coming over from Lethbridge. He plays with energy and has a nose for the net, notching his 25th goal of the season tonight.
Fight Night: Dalton Sward (yes, Dalton Sward) v. Scott Feser and Jackson Houck (yes, Jackson Houck) v. Colton Bobyk. Bobyk got the upper-hand early, but Houck got his right hand free and fed some back. Bobyk missed a big punch and they both tumbled over to the ice. I love that these two especially dropped the gloves, as they have both been suspiciously MIA lately. Geertsen was ready to demolish Strand for kneeing Ronning, but the linesmen got in the way early.
Zebra Cage: Brett Iverson and Nick Swaine. The reffing was actually pretty good in this one. The fights were called even and the Giants didn’t have their first PP until the 2nd period. The Rebels were undisciplined in the third and got tagged for it. I’m sure Rebels fans didn’t see it that way, but it felt to me as if the refs weren’t game managing, but rather calling the game in front of them. The late tripping call on Jones at the end of the third, might have been the only soft(ish) (make-up type) call.
The Giants had double digit shots in every period (something that I could not have said for a fair number of games) and out-shot the Rebels 36-31. The Giants went 2 for 5 on the PP, using a third period 5 minute major to get the win. The Rebels went 0 for 1 as the usually undisciplined Giants cleaned up their acts in this one. It was nice to see some of the boys stepping up. It was also nice to see a little battle, some physical play and teammates sticking up for one another. They have needed that lately. They had that at the start of the season and then in December, but sunk in the mire throughout January and it wasn’t so much that they lost, but more how they lost. They are still not a good road team, but I have to believe that playing with effort is a lot more fun than phoning it in. Harder, requires more focus, but it has got to be much more enjoyable – especially when you are rewarded. Tonight they had better effort and were turned aside at times by a goalie on his game, but they did not give-in and kept at it and that is a big positive. The Vancouver squad still have a tough time holding onto a lead or continuing momentum from shift to shift, but game’s like this help reinforce that good effort and better habits equal more success. Even had they not been able to come back all the way, it was clear they were trying harder than they have been.
The Giants don’t have it any easier tomorrow in Seattle (Kent) taking on the strong T-Birds and it might take another stellar effort by Porter for them to win again in Kent, but if they choose to bring the same kind of effort they might just eke out a win on the road. Game time on Saturday is 7:05pm.
Three Stars:
1. Alec Baer
2. Brett Cole
3. Zane Jones
Dondo’s Hardhat: I think I can give one of these out for this game and from my perspective it was Zane Jones who got the puck moving back in the right direction. A goal and an assist and a feisty night.
Giants Apparently Too Cool To Show Up for the Game
Blazers Singe Giants
Vancouver 2 Kamloops 3 OT/SO
I would have loved to have been mistaken about the team seeing my first live Giants game in about a month, but sadly the boys sucked as badly live as they did over the internet. I still can’t figure out how a team who lit it up in like they did in December have now suddenly decided that they don’t have to have the same work ethic in January. So many poor plays to count and the fact that we even got a point is a small miracle. It all came down to individual effort, but that is also this team’s downfall. Our team game has gone like dust in a stiff breeze. Most of the player’s work without the puck is non-existent. Traffic to the net is sporadic and more often than not to the side of the net, instead of right in front.
I have rarely seen an entire team so very weak on the puck as this crew is proving to be, one small check and they cough up the biscuit almost every time. It was quite sad to watch. I cannot believe that the boys who have proven that they are capable of better think that this is acceptable or even enjoyable (to watch or play). Great scoring chances were rare and far between, but it was mainly the sloppy passing and play without the puck which caused my blood-pressure to steadily creep up. The other thing to elevate my anger was the lack of checking, not just the hard kind, but of the pop the puck loose type. Where the fuck was that?
Another first period where the Giants cough up a goal off of a nothing play. The Blazers opened the scoring 1:38 into the game off of a horrible give-away and serious lack of positioning and back-check in their own end of the ice. The score stayed that way until the final seconds of the period, when Tyler Benson held onto the puck in the offensive zone for what almost felt like too long. He finally circled in the slot, stepping past a screen using a seeing-eye wrist shot to pick the top corner with a mere 3 seconds left in the opening frame. Carter Popoff and Zane Jones had the helpers on the play. Kamloops padded their score in the middle frame. The Giants squandered most of the game before getting some momentum later in the third. The Gs had some concerted pressure in the offensive zone and a quick change left a streaking Zane Jones with an open look and a tiny space above Connor Ingram’s shoulder and he picked the spot. A nice cross-ice pass by Clayton Kirichenko put the puck on Jones’ stick. Tyler Benson got the other assist on the play. Another example of individual effort shining. The goal came at 14:10 of the third. OT solved nothing even though the Giants had a 4 on 3 PP for two minutes and got some chances, but over-passed far too much. The game went to the most egregious of Bettman constructs, the shootout. The Blazers scored two the Giants none, game over.
Game Notes: Payton Lee is injured and out 4 – 6weeks. Someone Baillie was Porter’s back-up tonight; a call-up that cannot play unless Porter is injured. If Lee is going to be out for an extended time, maybe the Giants should call-up a real back-up and not just a stop-gap (just sayin’). Jackson Houck had some sort of flu and is currently day-to-day. Lots of bums in seats hoping to win a Lazyboy recliner. I guess Toigo needs to have gimmicks to trick people into the building because to be honest the hockey is embarrassing.
Fight Night: none and this game could have used one or five.
Zebra Cage: Clayton Hall and Dexter Rasmussen were not awful. Not that it was a tough game to call, but their calls seemed fair and balanced for the most part.
The Giants out-shot the Blazers 34-33. They went 0 for 4 on the PP, while the Blazers went 0 for 2. While watching this I had all sorts of player analyses, but now that I am writing this I just don’t have the energy or desire to say a lot of what I have said for what seems like years now. I expect more from this group and versus a team we are competing against in our own division, I expected a lot more hunger, battle and intensity. Instead I got a whole lot of floating, a few great rushes without proper puck support and whole lot of standing around. We were too cute on our PP. We weren’t hungry enough on the puck. We were soft on the puck, along the boards and in front of our own net – pretty much everything I hate about a hockey team when they fail to execute.
Frankly I am done. I do not blame Noel in the least. What I saw tonight was players incapable of working hard enough to execute team plays they should know backwards and forwards by now. Hunger and work begets wins and success. Floating, coasting – actually in this game I saw one player with the puck drive into the zone and go towards the net and I watched (gritting my teeth, ready to rip my seat from it’s moorings) three Giants players (side by side) glide into the zone. Glide. Coast. Not skate. That is NOT acceptable, not in any league and not at any time. It’s freaking insulting to your teammate who IS working their butt off, if only for that instant.
At the end of this season I am expecting a management implosion and an almost complete over-haul of the roster. I better see our scouting division gutted and replaced and Bonner’s freaking DAD no longer our head of scouting. I really am angry right now and if the team doesn’t believe they are going to lose STHs in droves after this fiasco of a season then they aren’t paying attention. We had a chance to trade from strength during the trade deadline and we did pretty much nothing. Don’t get me wrong I like Jones a lot, thought he was probably the best Giants players out there tonight – but we could have got him AND dealt players who are not going to be around next year.
We have about a week of practice before we take on Red Deer at the Coliseum. I hope the boys take the practice seriously and maybe rediscover their ability to check and to pass and to finish around the net. The Rebels are no pushovers and if the Giants take them lightly they will lose big as they did in Red Deer. I have truly lost patience with these players who seem not to care if they win or lose and seem to be above working and playing as a team.
Puck drops on Friday at 7:30pm as it does on Fridays. The boys need to show up for the whole game and in every part of the rink.
Three Stars
1. Tyler Benson
2. Connor Ingram
3. Zane Jones
There are no hardhats, nobody worked hard enough or long enough to earn anything.
Sloppy Victory to End The Year
Giants Stomp Blazers
Vancouver 6 Kamloops 3
A pretty ugly win. The number of unforced errors by the Giants in the game were far more plentiful than I like. They made mistakes while not being pressured to make them and if they played this way against a skilled team with more than just one really productive line, they would have been fishing the puck out of their net all night long. As it was they managed to score some nice goals and despite some really sloppy play, got the win almost in spite of themselves. Great depth contributions by Jesse Roach and Thomas Foster as well as Arvin Atwal with a three point night and a Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Blazers open the scoring early off of a quick shot in the slot, which Cody Porter never saw. The Giants bounced back and tied the game and then added one in the final minute of the period. The Gs worked their lead up to 5-1, before coughing up a few poor goals. They righted their ship and added another goal to take the 6-3 victory.
The Blazers opened the scoring just over 1 minute into the game. The Giants responded when Atwal came hard into the offensive zone, picking the puck up and driving it to the net. It looked as if he was about to make a move, but the puck slid off of his stick and between the wickets on Connor Ingram. Alec Baer and Mason Geertsen got the assists. Roach added some insurance at 19:44 of the opening frame. Vladimir Bobylev and Atwal had the helpers. The Giants game in the second was kinda ugly and very sloppy, but they found twine. The Giants were over-passing and sloppy with the puck and when Geertsen finally got the puck at the point I recall saying “shoot” and at the same moment Geertsen wristed a seeing eye shot past Ingram. Your welcome. Brennan Menell and Roach had the extra points. Dalton Sward finished off a give-and-go play pounding home a rebound off of Thomas Foster’s shot a bit later. Dakota Odgers got the other point on the play. Roach and Bobylev hooked up again for another goal past the mid-way mark of the period, bringing the home team’s total to 5. The Blazers got one back on the PP late in the period. The Giants weathered a late 5 on 3 due to some seriously bogus penalty calling. The Blazers added another mid-way through the third period. Thomas Foster got that one back ripping a loose puck in the slot past the Blazer netminder. He was assisted by Atwal and Josh Thrower on the play.
Team Notes: Kirichenko and Ronning still out with injuries. Brennan Menell back in the line-up, McKinstry scratched. Brumm also out.
Fight Night: Arvin Atwal vs Luke Harrison … Atwal had control of this bout. A wicked upper-cut popped off a lid, sending it flying. A late left-handed flurry of punches and the pull-down for the win.
Zebra Cage: *sigh* Sean Raphael and Chris Schlenker. I don’t know where they found Schlenker, but they can return him as far as I am concerned. He out and out sucked. He made some really knee-jerk calls coming off of very limited information, basically assumption and invention, while at the same time ignoring nasty crosschecks from behind into the red iron among others. Raphael wasn’t much better. Some really precious calls being made on one side of the puck and ignored on the other. Inconsistent, unpredictable and assinine. #WHLRefFail.
The Giants were out shot by the Blazers 35-33. It was a very close game shot-wise, but not so close goal-wise. Porter had to be really good at times, especially when the game was close. The Blazers went 1 for 6 on the PP, while the Giants were 0 for 5. Some very sloppy hockey, especially on the PP. Too much bad passing along the blue-line and not enough puck support or hunger with the man advantage. It’s good to get the win, but if they played this kind of game versus a skilled opponent they would not have had the victory. We can do better. Despite getting three points and a good chance at a hat trick, Roach seemed to be mostly invisible except when he was finding twine. I just see such good things from this kid, that I expect more even as a 17 yr old. We might just have a budding power-forward, but he needs to play a bit harder every shift, not just occasionally. I suspect more ice-time would help that. I liked his game tonight, but didn’t love it. By contrast I loved Foster’s game. Always had his nose in there, great at both ends of the ice and was a noticeable +3 tonight. Atwal also had a great game with an even better +/-.
A good way to end 2014. The Giants take on the Cougars at the Coliseum on Jan 2nd, 2015 . The Cougars are not quite the push-overs of the past few seasons and beat the Rockets tonight in Kelowna, a rare event this year. The Giants will need a better game than they showed tonight, while keeping a lot of the positives of tonight’s game. A bit more focus and better puck support would go a long way and the unforced errors have got to go. Puck on the 2nd drops at 7:30pm.
Happy New Year Everyone and all the best to you and yours in 2015.
Three Stars
1. Jesse Roach
2. Arvin Atwal
3. Thomas Foster
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Arvin Atwal… Three point night with a goal and two assists and a fight for the Gordie Howe hatty. Also a great crushing, clean, hit – which was called a charge by idiot zebras. He was in the game. He was also a +4. Honourable mention to Foster for me. I loved his 200’ game.
Giants Effort Not Smart Enough
TBirds Chop Giants
Vancouver 2 Seattle 3
The boys had a good chance at a point and possibly two after gutting out a great come-back. Their first period was rough. They were lucky and unlucky and very unlucky and then fortunate they weren’t down by more than two after one. The puck was bouncing off of their sticks and moves they were making during their winning streak ended up being turnovers more often than not or less than perfect plays. Credit the boys for gutting it out and keeping up the effort, but they really missed the boat supporting the puck and too many times were making long passes. The TBirds got way too many chances and open looks in the first and Payton Lee was both great and ugly. He misplayed an easy puck, which he fell on and knocked into his own net. Luckily he got a quick whistle and what was a goal was suddenly, not a goal. Later he kicked out his right pad, robbing the TBirds of a sure goal. He also stopped a penalty shot chance in the first period. The Gs managed to tie the game up at 2s, but a bad give-away in their own zone eventually ended up in the back of their net with a couple of minutes left. A late PP chance for the Giants solved nothing.
Seattle opened the scoring a couple of minutes in. Not the best goal as it was scored unassisted coming off of some really poor puck management by the boys. The visitors used a PP chance to put themselves up by two. The Gs dodged a few bullets and despite some poor play throughout the rest of the first, they started to gain back some momentum by the end of the opening frame. It took until the latter half of the second for Jackson Houck to finally solve Taran Kozun. On a delayed penalty, Vladimir Bobylev got the puck to Tyler Benson, who had been buzzing in the zone. Benson passed it to Houck who slipped it in on the backhand. Alec Baer tied it up in the third driving the net and sliding it past Kozun. Bobylev and Arvin Atwal got the helpers. I think that might have been Bobylev’s first multi-point game. Some late scrambling in their own zone caused the Giants to fail to get the puck out and they paid the price.
Give the TBirds full credit for the win though. They were very quick to the puck and pressured the Giants all night, forcing some turnovers and not allowing them to make plays quickly enough. It was a pretty good physical game as well, ending with an almost line brawl. Were it five years ago it might have been a bench clearing melee, but in this hand-wringing era it was mostly pushing, some gloved punches and whole lotta yapping. Hardly what I consider to be good Canadian hockey. Gone are the days of Tristan Grant lifting Dustin Slade’s mask (when he was still playing for the Regina Pats) and pounding the goalie to dust. Kozun was good when he had to be, but the Giants could have pressured the TBirds D-men a bit more and forced the puck to the front of the net.
Team Notes: Kirichenko and Ronning still out with injuries. The Giants point streak is done at 8 games.
Fight Night: Dakota Odgers vs Luke Osterman – A toe to toe tilt, which was mostly dominated by Odgers. Odgers managed to get off Osterman’s helmet after a few big punches and then scored some clean shots before they were stopped.
Zebra Cage: Derek Zalaski and Ryan Benbow – Usually these two are the perfect storm of bad reffing, but tonight they were pretty consistent. Maybe a tad too quick on a few whistles, but in the end it was rare I was wondering what had been called or questioning the call.
The Giants out shot the Thunderbirds 35-24. They went 0 for 5 on the PP (scoring on a delayed penalty), while the TBirds were 1 for 4. Good effort, but it felt like the boys earned a better result in this one and need to learn how to make safer plays in their own zone down the stretch.
There were a lot of hungry Giants on the ice, but also a few passengers. Jesse Roach and Shaun Dosanjh felt pretty floaty to me, but really those were the only two who I thought should have brought a lot more effort to the rink. I saw a good hungry forecheck, but inefficient checking. There were a few good hits, but rarely did the Giants come away with the puck. All four lines had some chances. The story of the game really was small errors becoming a bit bigger and some dangerous passing and careless puck play that could have been worse. Too many passes right into the slot by Giants D-men in their own zone. Tyler Benson was unlucky not to get points in this one as he was all over the ice and made a couple of rookie errors and a bit of over-passing at times, but really you cannot fault his effort or seeing chances opening up. It was tenacious but careless hockey and lacked good puck support and some basic fundamentals, which were evident during their recent winning streak. It was also a good game, with some pretty decent hockey. Almost 7000 fans came away entertained, if a bit disappointed.
The Giants have a day of practice before taking on the Blazers at the Coliseum on Dec 30th. It would be nice to see them return to their winning streak form and clean up some of the holes they had in this game. I need to see a bit smarter hockey as well. Puck drops at 7pm on Tuesday.
Three Stars
1. Taran Kozun
2. Scott Eansor
3. Dakota Odgers
Dondo’s Hardhat: No clear hardhat player tonight, but a few guys I noticed every shift. One was Odgers and the other was Sward and another one was Benson (note all on different lines). Geertsen was his usual solid self, but I really liked Osipov’s game in this one. Some really smart plays with the puck, low hard shots getting through traffic and very savvy defensive plays. So I guess Osipov gets the marginal nod from me. Props to Bobylev for his two assists.
Giants Fall Short After A Great Effort in Everett
Tips Edge Giants
Vancouver 0 Everett 1
Okay Steve Papp, how can you call nothing since the first period and then call that? Seriously dude that is a brilliant example of really bad reffing – inconsistency. Sadly Porter’s great night and Austin Lotz boarding up the net aren’t the story anymore as it comes down to a weak and petty call in the OT after ignoring every infraction for over two full periods. This is why the WHL sucks for officiating. You let them play almost the whole time in regulation, and then pull that one out of your butt? How was that any worse than everything that had occurred throughout the rest of the game? You dumb f*ck.
Some great effort by the Giants in this one especially after the first period. They were solid on the back-end and tenacious in the offensive zone. They did not give up on the puck and Lotz stole more than a few labelled shots. No scoring for three periods and an early PP in OT breaks the dual goose-egg. What a crappy way to end a good tilt.
Team Notes: Houck back in the line-up. The streak ends at 7 games, but the effort continued and a good point earned tonight.
Zebra Cage: Steve Papp as a solo ref is too stupid to live
The Giants out shot the Tips 28-22. They went 0 for 1 on the PP, while the Tips were 1 for 3, scoring the game winner in OT. I listened to and watched bits of this game on-line. I felt the effort was excellent. I liked the hustle from the boys and was happy that they did not come out of the break in a turkey induced stupor. I was expecting them to drop this game, but I did not expect to see so much puck hunger and battle. Great back-check as well. The boys deserved a better fate in this one. Some nice stops by Porter, but the boys were very good at keeping the Tips away from the net and out of the danger zones.
The boys have to regroup for tomorrow’s tilt versus the T-Birds who are missing a few key components. If they play the same way they should do well. Lee will probably get the start. Game starts at 2:00pm, at the Rink on Renfrew.
Three Stars
1. Austin Lotz
2. Cody Porter
3. Nikita Scherbak
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Arvin Atwal – two great chances off the rush and some nice effort up and down the sheet. Honourable mention to: Cody Porter for the almost goose-egg.
7th Straight Win: Versus A Tough Tips Team
Giants Clip Tips
Vancouver 2 Everett 1
A great test versus a tough team. The Tips started their back-up goalie Carter Hart, who has pretty solid numbers. He allowed two hard-working goals against by the Giants in the first and Austin Lotz was between the pipes to start the second. Everett is a stifling team that really hamper team speed on the other side of the puck, what else would you expect from a Constantine coached squad? The Giants were given few chances, but their aggressive forecheck and positioning garnered them opportunities through the Tips tight play. The Gs allowed the Silvertips a bit of a surge early in the second, but bounced back and started to get some shots on net. The chances were not quite as good as their looks versus Hart. The Tips finally solved Cody Porter, who got the nod for the G-Men between the pipes, with a nice top corner far-side shot and not quite close enough checking. The goal came just past the mid-way mark of the third, but the Giants did not falter though. They improved their back-check and although the hockey got a little hairy when the Tips pulled their goalie, the Gs held the fort for the hard-won victory.
The Giants opened the scoring in the first. A soft shot found its way to the front of the net and rebound to the open side, where a seemingly surprised Tyler Benson tucked it in as he cut across the crease. Carter Popoff and Matt Bellerive played give-and-go before getting the puck to Benson. The Giants added some insurance in the last minute of the opening frame, when Popoff cut through the slot and fired back across his body to pick the short side on Hart. Lotz started the second period and the Silvertips pushed back getting a bunch of shots on net, but not too many of the dangerous variety. I don’t recall the Giants ever really scrambling, but early in the second they were not checking quite as close or pushing back as hard as they did in the first and sat back more than I like. The Giants bounced back in the latter half of the middle frame; restoring their former work ethic. No-one found twine in the second. At 12:49 of the third the Tips found the back of the net. Using Benson as a screen and possibly tipped off of his stick, the Silvertips player picked top corner far-side on Porter. I appreciated that there was no panic in the Giants game and that the boys continued to work hard. Momentum shifted slightly to the visitors, but the Gs managed to hold onto the lead and shut down the Silvertips snipers.
Team Notes: Kirichenko, Ronning, McKinstry and Houck sat this one out, mainly nagging injuries. Apparently Bobylev is still #32, just not for ugly sweater night – I suppose they ordered them early and since the numbers were printed on the hockey sweaters they didn’t have a #32. Too bad I liked him wearing #24, #32 is too nebulous for me. The Giants have achieved a 7 game winning streak for the first time since Jan/Feb 2009, where they had a 10 game streak. The franchise record for winning streaks is 11.
Fight Night: A fight! Dakota Odgers vs Remi Laurencelle – Laurencelle was out-matched in this one and took the brunt of the blows. Odgers got the win and the take-down.
Zebra Cage: Nick Swaine and Adam Griffiths – Everett is the least penalized team in the league, but considering the number of pick plays and deliberate interference infractions which went uncalled in this one I have to wonder why they are getting the benefit of the doubt. I also watched them knock their own net off without anyone around without a call and I’m not talking the time Lotz bumped his own net off, which did look like an accident. As for the quality of the other calls, they were lacking pretty badly. Soft hooks, bumps being called cross-checks and generally kind of missing the boat. They almost didn’t call a wicked slash to the back of the legs on Scherbak when Geertsen laid him out with a hard clean check and then went back at him after he was backhanded across the back of the legs. It was up to the ref at the other end of the rink to call that one. Great game. Suspect striped ones.
The Giants were out shot 25-21 in the game. Both teams were 0 for 3 on the PP. A nice hard-working game, the kind we (surprisingly) saw early in the season before their spirits were apparently crushed. Our top two lines of Popoff, Bellerive and Benson and Foster, Sward and Stukel both had good hard-working nights. Joel Hamilton had an almost great game, as he was creating some chances, but his vision of the ice and puck bobbles hurt him from finding the scoresheet. The defense were solid and checked close and well. Again we saw smart passes and puck support from the blue-liners. I don’t think any D-man cycling in the back of his zone had to make a D-to-D pass longer than ten feet. Geertsen continues to be a bit of a monster and after he took Scherbak to task for his retaliatory slash, no Silvertip wanted a piece of him.
I am enjoying Claude Noel’s interviews as he has a way off not letting anyone off the hook and calling them out, without assessing blame or looking for a scapegoat. When he names names it feels as if it is coming from a more conversational point of view, as if to say ‘oh yeah we need to fix that’, but lacks an accusatory edge. This is not a coach that will leave his players to hang out to dry and twist in the wind. I also enjoy how supportive of the team he is being and how he sees the kids as a good cohesive group that is willing to work and sacrifice for one another. Not something I ever would have guessed a month ago. I acknowledge that winning cures all and that a winning streak like this is pretty easy for a new coach to a new situation, but it feels as if the players are continuing to have their spirits lifted while instilling in themselves a hard work ethic. As my buddy sitting beside we said .. I love this forecheck and haven’t really see it since the heydays of Don Hay. I agree. I never understood sitting back in the neutral zone and waiting for opportunities. I would much rather see players apply pressure and force the issue and then hustle like hell on the backcheck. I also never understood how Hay was saying that we weren’t a good enough team to play that way for the past several seasons as forecheck is less about skill and more about work ethic and effort. Now a team with skill on the forecheck can make those opportunities cash in a lot more, but that doesn’t dismiss the need for that kind of work being needed all the time.
A 9 day break for the boys over the holidays and a break for me from writing recaps. Now to focus on the World Juniors. Enjoy your holiday break with friends and family folks. We’ll be back at ‘er on the 27th in Everett (that’ll be a tough one as Everett will be motivated) and back at the Coliseum on the 28th to take on the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Three Stars
1. Carter Popoff
2. Nikita Scherbak
3. Cody Porter
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Carter Popoff. In on both of the goals, Popoff was seriously buzzing out there tonight. It felt like I noticed him every time he jumped over the boards.
Giants Shine In Ugly Sweater Hockey Sweaters
Giants Mace Royals
Vancouver 4 Victoria 0
I really didn’t see this one coming. I expected the Royals to bounce back and really drive the puck to our net and force us to respond, but instead they floated through the first period and allowed us to get our PP going. The Giants had great effort at both ends of the ice, but really they did not face much of a challenge. Are the Royals missing Lowry behind the bench and Hicketts behind the blue-line that much? Noel is saying that the boys are wanting to win and putting in the effort to make that happen. The poor puck luck of November is a thing of the past and the Giants are making their chances count, out-scoring their opponents 25-10 during the recent win streak, which is now up to 8 games. You have to go back to fall of 2011 to find our last 6 game win streak. It’s a nice streak, but there have been a few games in which we really haven’t played our best hockey, but the past two games have been full effort at both ends of the rink for the majority of each of the 60 minute games. I really don’t know if it is more that the Royals are not showing up except for flashes or the boys are living up to their potential, but it is a fun run while it lasts. Everett, who are sitting in the top ten of the CHL, come to visit the Coliseum on Tuesday and if the Giants can continue their win streak versus some of the best then I will begin to believe this might be capable of being far more than the sum of their parts.
Mason Geertsen continued his tear scoring four minutes in on the PP. A really nice set-up pass by Brennan Menell laid the puck out on a platter for the one-timer. Joel Hamilton had the other helper. Josh Thrower scored his 6th from the point on a PP later in the period. Matt Bellerive and Geertsen had the assists. Early in the second Alec Baer went to the net and found some twine. Dakota Odgers and Hamilton got the extra points. A bit later in the second Geertsen scored his second game from the point on the PP. Interestingly enough the shot before from the point on the other side was a bit high and as I was commenting on that, Geertsen wired a much better shot that found twine. Again it was Menell with a perfect set-up. Thomas Foster got the other helper this time around. The goal chased Victoria back-up Jayden Sittler (any relation to Daryl?) from the net to be replaced by Coleman Vollrath. It felt to me like the Giants backed-off in the third and to be honest when a team sits back, equalizing goals tend not to be far behind, but the Gs kept up enough pressure in this one and Cody Porter made a few great stops down the stretch to preserve the shut-out and the win.
Team Notes: You can’t tell the players without a program. Some number changes. Dakota Odgers is now #18, from I believe #36 and Vladdy Bobylev has made yet another number switch. Formerly #47 before the arrival of Thrower who got his brother’s old number, Bobylev changed to #32 (not really a memorable number in my mind and I was wondering why a mainly offensive player would choose such a digit). I suppose Bobylev thought the same thing as he was sporting one of my all-time favourite Giant player Garet Hunt’s #24. And no kids those are not hashtags, but number signs. Ronning, Houck and Kirichenko remain injured and McKinstry and Ramsey were both scratched.
Fight Night: Not the emotional game I was expecting. In fact I felt the Giants resembled the Tri-City Americans with their efficiency without emotion.
Zebra Cage: Dexter Rasmussen and Reagan Vetter. Not two of my favourites for good reason. Tonight I really didn’t see any penalties worthy of being called. Marginal checks were mostly clean. Interferences were often players running into players who had position on them and the player with position getting the sin bin. The Boarding was two players going for a puck and sadly is often called in today’s game, but is not in my mind ever worthy of a whistle. Silly roughings and nudges being called “cross-checks” talk about precious – —– my preciousssssss….. my precioussss whistle…. – musssst blow, muuuussssttt blow… I never even heard a board rattle. What sad days are these when zebras like this are allowed to call such a soft game.
The Giants out-shot the Royals for the second game in a row. The final being 51-27 G-men. Once again the special teams were on fire. Giants were 3 for 3 at one point and ended up 3 for 5 when all was said and done. The Royals went 0 for 5 with the best chances on net from the Giants short-handed, in my estimation. Another complete effort across the roster, but Geertsen was really special tonight and not in the Olympic kind of way. I also thought the best line 5 on 5 was Hamilton, Odgers and Baer. I liked Foster and Sward doing the little things and really couldn’t fault any of the defensemen in this one. Porter was not required to be amazing, but he had to make a couple of robbery stops to preserve his shut-out. Not a big crowd, but some good solid hockey. Not a whole lot of highs and lows other than goals, but they got the job done. Another thing reminiscent of the Ams.
The newly energized Giants will face a really tough challenge on Tuesday when the Constantine lead Everett Silvertips come to town. It will be the Giants last home game before the Christmas, or whatever holiday you observe, break. The Tips are on the CHL top ten list and have been dominant in the Dub. If the boys can continue their winning streak versus this team I will be impressed. I only hope the Tips aren’t playing the Constantine trap-hockey of old, cause with the new kinder gentler Dub AND the neutral zone trap I will be beyond bored whether we are winning or losing. Puck drops at the Rink on Renfrew on Tuesday at 7pm.
Three Stars
1. Mason Geertsen
2. Cody Porter
3. Joel Hamilton
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Geertsen, Geertsen, Geertsen
Giants Spoil Royals Teddy Bear Toss Night
Giants Bear Royals
Vancouver 6 Victoria 3
I picked a great game to break the seal on my WHL Live away package. We got it as part of our season’s package, but haven’t been able to get it together until now. Teddy bear toss night in Victoria. A really well-rounded game by the Giants and probably the best road outing other than perhaps Calgary this season. 6 different goal scorers and some line shuffling due to Houck being shelved for a lower body injury, which occurred when he missed a check late in the last game and went awkwardly into the boards. Once again the Giants were solid in their own end getting to loose pucks. Lee wasn’t busy, but made some timely saves and held the fort when the Royals pushed back. I listened to the Royals feed and although there were flashes of homerism they were no worse than Bill Wilms. It was also nice to see the boys from up high around centre-ice and see plays developing and watch some players from another perspective.
It took until the final 30 seconds of the first period for the Giants to finally solve Coleman Vollrath. Mason Geertsen scored unassisted on a late PP. The Royals scored their teddy goal early in the second. The Giants responded with three unanswered in the middle frame. Thomas Foster tipped a Brennan Menell shot on the PP, with the second assist going to Geertsen. Jakob Stukel found the back of the net assisted by Dalton Sward and Foster. Jesse Roach tallied a PP marker going to the net and slipping the puck past Vollrath. Vladimir Bobylev and David Brumm got the assists. You gotta love the fourth line getting a bit of PP time and capitalizing. Victoria got a bookend goal in the second, pushing the puck in with what appeared to be a glove. In the third the stats are wrong, but Dakota Odgers tipped a Joel Hamilton shot in, with Alec Baer getting the other assist. Oddly the WHL stats line has ignored Hamilton in the mix. Victoria responded a couple of minutes later, dangling and then ripping a beauty far side top shelf. Tyler Benson crushed a few hopes when he used Sward going to the net as a decoy while he whipped around the cage and slipped in a wrap-around SH’d marker.
Team Notes: Houck and Kirichenko out with injuries. McKinstry sitting out, but I expect him back in tomorrow night. Some line juggling. Benson with Popoff and Bellerive, Sward with Foster and Stukel, Hamilton with Baer and Odgers and Bobylev with Roach and Brumm.
Fight Night: lots of scrums, but no fisticuffs
Zebra Cage: Fraser Lawrence and Kyle Kowalski – on the good side they were consistent, but they missed a few dangerous calls and allowed Lee to be run multiple times without punishment. Not awful, but could have been better.
The Giants out-shot the Royals 44-29. They had a great night on the PP going 3 for 4 and looked as dangerous as they were. The held the Royals to 0 for 3 and scored a short-handed marker to cap off the night. The Royals play by play guys were saying that the Giants were 5th overall on the PP going into this game, is that true? I would never have guessed that, but I suppose it has been the most consistent part of our game after a couple of years of it sucking pretty hard.
The Royals were not at their best in this one and left players wide open frequently and the Giants made the most of those opportunities. Vollrath was alright, just alright. His rebound control and positioning seemed suspect at times. Credit the Gs for putting the pressure to the net. In his brief post-game interview Erhart was saying one of the things the Giants were working on was not just dumping in, but when they had to dump in they needed to dump in effectively and put the puck into places they could retrieve it. I saw evidence of that tonight and a lot less soft, blind passing. I don’t think the Royals were awful and the Giants were the better team on the night, but the Victoria squad was missing the dangerous and dominant Hicketts on the back-end as he went to World Junior camp. That’s also a small silver lining for the Giants, as they won’t be losing anyone to World Junior camp this season.
It felt like Noel rolled four lines tonight and the fourth liners had some really good chances and some jump. Bobylev turned into a playmaker. Roach a power-forward and Brumm a bit of a dangler. My favourite line was Sward, Foster and Stukel. The line had speed, defensive responsibility and was working at both ends of the ice. The top line of Benson Bellerive and Popoff brought some good offensive pressure to the net. Odgers created some space for Baer and Hamilton. The boys weren’t perfect by any stretch, but they did not have their 10 minute plus hiccup in this game and worked pretty hard to a man.
On the defensive side a few things caught my notice. I really liked Atwal’s game tonight. Seeing him from above ice-level I noticed a lot of small plays he was making that quashed chances before they developed and he was quick to the puck and passing well. Geertsen had a great night and seems to be beginning to understand the kind of impact player he could become if he continues. I counted only one really poor pass out to the front of his net that luckily cruised through the slot untouched. I also like that Osipov is discovering he has a shot and is managing to get it through the traffic. Brennan Menell is making a bid to be a regular and Josh Thrower who is usually a meh for me, had the kind of game that Atwal was showing, small plays breaking up chances before they could develop and he was really solid clearing the puck from the front of his net. Oddly enough both Atwal and Menell were –2s in this one, but they didn’t seem to be playing that poorly. Plus/minus is a tricky stat, but maybe I missed some bigger gaffes.
A really good, hard-working effective win all-around and after the Raiders snoozer, some good puck.
The Giants have the back half of their home-at-home at the Coliseum tomorrow night. It will be ugly sweater night where the Gs will be wearing their ugly sweater hockey sweaters on the ice. I would love to see the same kind of effort across the board with possibly a bit more physical play. I suspect if the Royals run Porter (who I think will get the nod) tomorrow gloves will fly. Puck drops at 7pm.
Three Stars
1. Mason Geertsen
2. Thomas Foster
3. Travis Brown
Dondo’s Hardhat: I am going off the boards and choosing Dalton Sward to wear the construction lid. He sacrificed his body blocking shots, was very effective at both ends and could have had more points in this game. I really saw a huge amount of hustle from him and think he deserves the honour. Honourable mention to Foster who very quietly plays a very effective game and is finally getting points again.
Shaw Arrogance Mars A Nice Giants Win
Giants Quell Raiders
Vancouver 3 Prince Albert 0 (EN)
The evening started off pretty crappy due to the Shaw broadcast crew being tremendously arrogant. For years now the broadcast cameramen set-up at the bottom of the stairs in the corner of the arena, but tonight they decided to put the cameramen in the middle of the row in the corner. In my section all of these front row seats are seasons tickets seats. When I informed him of this the intern (most likely as he was more cameraboy than cameraman) camera op lied to me telling me the seats had been “killed”. Not one of those seats had been killed and never before has any video camera operator set-up in the middle of the row. Even if the seats are not occupied, the camera op blocks the view of people in seats around him. To be blunt, someone arbitrarily decided to place cameras in that position without authorization. The camera op blew off the PNE host when he was brought into it and we were forced to involve the arena Giants rep (Service and Ticket Manager) to get the guy to move. The camera op stalled by saying that he was “talking” to someone.
Meanwhile the lights have gone down and the camera op is still in the middle of the row. He finally begrudgingly moved down to the end seat reserved for still photographers. This could not have been handled much worse, as the camera op never apologized for lying, for setting up in the wrong area or for being rude and obstinate. From the second period on he was perched in the corner at the bottom of the stairs. No Shaw rep came to apologize either. Very badly handled with very little offer of compensation or any real apology for basically usurping seats, which had already been paid for – the owner of which who had never been contacted. The owner of those four seats beside a very long-time season ticket holder and me showed up close to the beginning of the game and got involved as well. He frequently gives his tickets to clients and he would have been choked had they showed up with a camera op planted in the middle of their seats
Okay on to the game. As you can probably surmise I was not exactly focused completely on the game in the first period, but although the boys got a bunch of shots I felt they were just going through the motions for most of the opening frame. I liked their second and third periods more and saw better teamwork, puck support and hunger. We whiffed on a few chances on the doorstep, but we were there and trying for the puck. Lee did not have to be excellent for the shut-out, but he made a few timely saves and was solid with his positioning. The Gs cleared the front of the net well and seemed to be quick getting their sticks on loose pucks. The Giants broke the goose-egg mid second and then added some insurance in the third on the PP and an empty net goal when the PA coach pulled the goalie with about 2 mins left.
The Giants out shot the Raiders in the first, but it didn’t really feel like they had jump and cohesion. They weren’t awful in the first, just not together. Their attention to their play improved as the game went on imo. Jackson Houck finally broke the zeroes, tallying his fifth goal in four games – rifling a puck through from the slot. Carter Popoff and Dmitry Osipov got the assists. Joel Hamilton put home a rebound in the third on the PP to give the Gs a bit of buffer. The Giants were being rewarded for some hard work and missed chances leading up to the goal. Tyler Benson made sure he skated to the red line before firing the puck at the empty net to salt away the victory. Matt Bellerive and Mason Geertsen had the helpers.
Team Notes: Houck went down awkwardly into the boards late in the game. Noel seems to think he should be okay, but Houck did not come out for the “star skate” or for the final several shifts. Vladimir Bobylev found his way back into the line-up and Noel seemed to think his line was the best in the first period.
Zebra Cage: Mike Campbell and Sean Raphael … Seemed kind of uneven to me, but I never found it to be horrible.
The Giants out shot the Raiders 38-29. The hometown boys went 1 for 3 on the PP, while holding the PA boys to 0 for 5. Not really an emotional game for anyone. It had a few scrums, but nothing of import. I liked Sward’s jump tonight and he was unlucky not to get a goal. The Raiders were a bit sloppy with the puck and were fortunate not to be down by more. Houck, Benson and Popoff always looked dangerous. I liked Ospiov’s game more as well; he seemed to be making the simpler smarter play. I noticed Stukel and Foster.
I think the Raiders might have been a tad fatigued down the stretch as they played in Victoria last night. I felt the Giants controlled the play for the most part and deserved the win. The PA goalie was pretty solid and a bit lucky, but he was tough to beat down low. I did not mentally note him as one of my stars and I did watch two periods of him right in front of me. Had the Gs got to some of those loose pucks I suspect the game would have been out of hand earlier. A team just below .500 are the kinds of opponents that the Giants need to make sure they don’t let off the hook and tonight they didn’t.
That’s 4 straight victories and three for Claude Noel as coach. I expect the home-at-home series this weekend versus the Victoria Royals to be more of a challenge. The Giants head over the Victoria for a Friday night tilt and then return to the Coliseum for Ugly Sweater jersey night on Saturday. I’d love to see the Giants take both games, but I will be happy with great effort and the split.
Three Stars
1. Payton Lee
2. Jackson Houck
3. Nick McBride
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Lee… I like how he battled for the puck and pounced on rebounds. Good solid shut-out. Turning aside 29 of 29 will help bump up his stats a bit.
Winning Teddys Fly Despite Giants Lack of Focus
Giants Blunt Blades
Vancouver 3 Saskatoon 2 OT/SO
It was an odd game and I think that Claude Noel had a great handle on the game. He was saying that last night he saw a disciplined team playing more of a system game with puck support and defensive responsibility; tonight was team wanting to score the teddy bear goal at all costs who played in their defensive zone like they wanted to be playing in the other zone. I was wondering was I was watching and that was pretty much bang-on. There was no lack of effort, but it was scrambly and disjointed. We had a ton of chances on net, but none of the really stellar variety. The Blades goalie was solid, but was never required to be excellent despite turning aside 38 of 40 in regulation time and OT. It was funny listening to Noel who seemed to me to be still a bit shell-shocked after his first Teddy Toss experience. He seemed confused and amused by the players taking pictures with bears and the whole drama around that first goal by the home team, flying bears and media scrums on the ice. Eventually he put his foot down and gathered his players to the bench on hopes of re-focusing them. The team got their chances on the net and worked in the offensive zone, but it felt like every man for himself to me as opposed to a unified team game.
The Giants came out with energy in the first and mostly dominated the opening frame, but could not solve Blades 1B Nik Amundrud. As many chances as they got the Giants still lacked a cohesive focus. The Blades finally broke the scoreless draw on the PP in the second scoring a less than stellar goal against Lee. Two Giants players went to the boards to challenge a puck carrier leaving the front of the net wide-open and the Blades capitalized. The goal sucked some energy out the building, but didn’t slow the boys down from at least trying. The Giants didn’t find the back of the net until 2:18 of the third when Jackson Houck found twine behind the Blades tender off of Carter Popoff and Arvin Atwal. The bears flew and flew – 5 minutes of flying bears of all varieties littered the ice. Always a spectacle to behold and a fun time was had by all in attendance. Saskatoon took another lead just past the mid-way mark of the period, off of some more unfocused coverage. Jakob Stukel scored his first goal this season to tie the game at 2s. Stukel slipped the puck five-hole coming from behind the assisted by Thomas Foster and Atwal. OT solved nothing and Houck scored the only goal of the shootout to give his team the victory. Lee was very steady on the shootout and made one great pad stop on the Blades first shooter.
Team Notes: The team won their very first game of the season to go to extra time. Noel is now 2-0 as the Giants head coach and seems to me to be bringing a gentle reality to the team.
Fight Night: Dakota Odgers v. Josh Uhrich – Dakota got in some shots early and finished off with a nice flurry before Uhrich cried uncle. A clear win for the Giants player.
Zebra Cage: Steve Papp and Trevor Shively – not a lot called, a ton missed. A trip called on the Giants in the third was a Blades player tripping over his own skates. Some marginal kneeing calls and missing a clear high stick on Benson along the boards and a Blades player corralling the puck with his hand in the slot. Yet another poor performance by the striped ones.
The Giants out shot the Blades 41-24. They went 0 for 2 on the PP and went 1 for 2 on the PK. The Gs special teams followed suit with the rest of their game, never looking formidable either defending or attacking. I see that Atwal got the first star and a couple of assists, but he also had a few too many turnovers for my liking. I felt both Baer and Bellerive were floating again, which is a shame as I was hoping for a Baer to Thrower teddy goal. That said I don’t think any Giants players had much focus tonight and despite some chances here and there they had a decided lack of consistency throughout the game. Noel commented that the game scared him and I agree – it was one of those games, which could have easily gotten out of hand but the boys managed to hold on. The Blades and their goalie played most of the game trying not to get scored upon and played a trappy game for the majority of the tilt from where I was sitting.
The Giants have a few days to regroup and get ready to take on a better Prince Albert Raiders team on Wednesday at the Coliseum. I have a good feeling about where these guys could go and Noel’s ability to get a handle on the team. It really felt like the teddy bear imperative was the real story of the game and the reason the boys lacked so much focus and continuity.
Three Stars
1. Arvin Atwal
2. Nik Amundrud
3. Jackson Houck
Dondo’s Hardhat: Not really a hard hat kind of night for the boys, but for the teddy goal and the shootout winner my nod goes to Jackson Houck. He was actually the hungriest around the net and he and his line-mates had the best chances on the night.
New Coach, New Attitude – also RIP Pat Quinn
Giants Crack Winterhawks
Vancouver 3 Portland 2
Pat Quinn memorial night, where they raised a banner to him into the rafters. Nice video montage of him to start the game. First game with new coach Claude Noel behind the bench. No-one wearing the “C” tonight as Sward, Houck and Geertsen all had “A”s on. Noel stated post-game that he did not know who the players were and that he should have a better handle on their tendencies after the two weekend games. I guess he was taking a page from the Montreal Canadiens book, seeing who will step up and claim the honour and responsibility. I’m hoping to see that kind of hunger continue, but with the PQ energy and the new coach the boys would have to be dead to not have been fully motivated to play in this one.
A good hungry game tonight by the boys. Really active sticks on the back-end and in the slot by the Giants who got to loose pucks and corralled deflections quickly. This was also one of the few games I have watched this year where the Gs did not have a “sag” period. They were tenacious on the puck and did something that is very difficult to do, namely take away ice and space from the very mobile, talented and intense Winterhawks. I have to say I was most impressed with our play without the puck on both offense and defense. The G-Men went to the net and were very good in their own end. Payton Lee allowed one really bad SH’d goal he wants back, but he bounced back and when push came to shove he bricked up the cage down the stretch and was excellent with a bit of red iron luck. That gaffe would have shut the team of a just a few weeks ago down and they would have collapsed like a poorly stacked house of cards, but tonight they regrouped and held the line.
The Giants opened the scoring on the first shift 20 seconds into the game. Tyler Benson fed the puck to Houck who wired it past Brendan Burke. The Gs added to their lead on the PP a little later in the period. Carter Popoff tickled the twine, finishing off a play from Houck and Benson. The Winterhawks found the back of the net late in the period, pounding in a rebound off of Lee’s pad. The Giants spent the second period killing poor penalties against. Poor because of a bit of soft play, but mainly poor because the officiating was garbage tonight. The boys were excellent on the PK tonight and were very good at not allowing the Portland squad open looks. They challenged the puck carrier and held the front of the net.
The Gs killed a bunch of minors and a 2 man advantage to hold their lead. I really think they played some of the best two-way hockey I have watched them play all season. Houck used a PP in the third to give the Giants a two goal lead. Popoff wheeled out the corner, got the puck to Benson at the face-off dot. Benson got a sharp shot on net and Houck buried the rebound going to the net. The ‘hawks scored a lame SH’d goal, which appeared to me to have deflected off of Lee’s stick and into the top corner. A dump-in on net from the point ends up in the back of the net. That play could have folded the old Giants, but the crew tonight rebounded and upped their game. Lee made some clutch stops down the stretch and got a bit of luck and the boys did not give in and gutted out the one goal victory.
Team Notes: Ronning and Kirichenko are still out, but McKinstry was back in the line-up. No Cs were on sweaters tonight as Noel went with three As until he gets a handle on the team.
Fight Night: There was a lot of yapping by some of the skilled players on the Winterhawks and I was expecting more than just the one fight, but I love how this fight came about and what it means team-wise. Thomas Foster v. Keegan Iverson. Iverson levelled McKinstry behind the Giants net and Foster took him to task for the hit. Neither player seemed super interested in fighting and after Foster threw a few punches both players just kinda hung on for dear life until the linesmen broke them up. I still love that Foster who is not a fighter stood up like that for his team-mate.
Zebra Cage: Brett Iverson and Kevin Bennett (sporting a go pro camera on his helmet, but it should have been a propeller and a red clown nose)… Officiating was simply a joke in this one. Calling soft as butter stuff while letting dangerous plays go by the wayside. Consistency was non-existent. Lee got run multiple times and then in crunch time when Lee was not only run, but he was deliberately elbowed in the head. No penalty was called (I would not be surprised to see a suspension come out of the play). Take off the stripes boys, ‘cause you were embarrassing your selves and the league throughout this game.
The Giants out-shot the Winterhawks 37-34. The hometown boys went 2 for 5 on the PP, coughing up a soft short-handed goal against. They held Portland’s dangerous PP to 0 for 6. I really liked Mason Geertsen’s game tonight he was physical yet responsible and I saw very few of his poorly reasoned passes. If he can be smarter with the puck while still bringing that edgy game he will realize his potential. I also like Atwal and Osipov tonight. Bobylev was apparently in the line-up but I seriously do not recall seeing him all night. I felt Bellerive and Baer were a bit floaty, but their line-mate Hamilton had a few good hard shifts. Foster was held off the scoresheet but did a lot of the little things tonight, as did Sward who had some jump of his own. Both Sward and Foster played very solid two-way games in this one and Sward had one great breakaway and a few good chances on the offensive side of the puck. I noticed Jesse Roach in a good way as well. Nothing amazing, but pretty solid in the corners. Gage Ramsey had a moment right in front of me where he backed off the guy with the puck and looked very bunny in headlights. He had a chance to go for it and challenge the puck carrier, but he just stood there looking pretty stunned. The top line of Houck, Benson and Popoff had serious jump tonight and looked dangerous as a unit for the majority of the game. I liked Benson’s smart game and wish Houck would play with this intensity every game, instead of every five games. I find him being a passenger too frequently, but he has always been a slow starter before ramping up so hopefully he’s just ramping up and will maintain the level. Popoff was gritty in the corners and used his mobility well to find open ice.
Three Stars
1. Jackson Houck
2. Tyler Benson
3. Oliver Bjorkstrand
Dondo’s Hardhat: I’m actually giving it Mason Geertsen tonight. I thought he played an excellent shut down game and used his size better than I have seen recently. A small nod to Foster for a strong two-way game and standing up for McKinstry.
A Win! In Calgary! What?
Giants Snipe Hitmen
Vancouver 6 Calgary 3 (EN)
The Giants needed some puck luck. Got it. The Giants needed some goals. Got 6. The Giants needed to build off of last night’s momentum. Got that too. The Giants needed to not give up a quick goal. Check. The Giants needed their goalie to steal a game and hold them in there until they gained some momentum. Check-a-roony. The Giants also needed some of their young guys to step it up and contribute. They even got that. The Gs played a convincing tilt in Calgary, a place they usually struggle but after an almost forgettable Central Division road trip the Giants get the kind of game they can grow from and build on. They even got their special teams working for them. Part of me is not surprised at the win for when the situation looks lost that’s when the hockey gods reward good work. So – where was this team hiding? This is the squad that started the season. There were a few nice changes in this one as well – like putting Geertsen on the doorstep during the PP, um d’uh! Screening goalie with big guy is kind of S.O.P. Why we didn’t do that before now is beyond me.
Calgary opened the scoring in the last minute of the first period after Payton Lee held the fort for the majority of the opening frame. A really nice wrap-around goal from a very skilled player who will have the Canucks and the World Junior Canadian contingent drooling. Recent history would mean that the Giants would sag, drop off and the more skilled team would roll over them, but the hockey gods had a different idea. Matt Bellerive working below the goal-line threw the puck out front and off a player past Calgary’s back-up ‘tender with a mere 4 seconds left in the period. Dalton Sward had the only assist on the play. Effort. Check. Puck Luck. Check.
The Giants took the lead in the second, yes the lead. Jesse Roach scored his very first WHL goal in his brother’s old stomping grounds. Tyler Benson and Bellerive had the helpers. Jackson Houck followed that up with a PP marker about four minutes later. Carter Popoff and Mason Geertsen got the other points. Calgary bounced back off of Lee’s only poor play of the night, going out to play a puck and coughing it up in the process. The Gs took a 3-2 lead into the second intermission with a carryover penalty still in force. Josh Thrower scored his first goal of the season and first as a Giant since coming over from Tri-Cities early in the third on the PP. Benson made a great pass and as Thrower was being checked the puck went in off of him and past the Hitmen’s starter who came in after the Giants third goal. A young player contributing and puck luck in one play checks a few more boxes. Thomas Foster got the other helper. Cue Gage Ramsey who strips a Hitmen player of the puck, goes in all alone and scores his first WHL goal. Thank you hockey gods. Not taking anything away from the effort of the boys, but fortune was definitely smiling on them in this game after frowning for so long. That 6th overall Canucks draft pick found twine again as he was rolling hard tonight, but the Giants weathered the late onslaught and scored an empty netter to salt away the victory in the final minute. Bellerive gets his second of the night, assisted by Thomas Foster.
Team Notes: McKinstry, Ronning still out with injury. Kirichenko also injured currently. Holterhus, Baer and Bobylev scratched and Stukel and Roach back in. Giants break their 6 game losing streak. Three of their players score their first goals of the season and two of those score their very first Dub goals.
Fight Night: nada
Zebra Cage: Sean Raphael and Chris Schlenker … maybe I’m just happy about the win, but the reffing seemed to me to be consistent and balanced. So kudos.
The Giants were out shot 35-29, but Lee shut the door when he needed to and got his 7th win of the season. The Giants were good on both aspects of their special teams. The Gs went 2 for 3 on the PP and held the skilled Hitmen to 0 for 4. Some nice jump from the vets tonight with some good work from Bellerive, Sward and Houck, with an additional nod to Popoff. For those of us who were wondering where Benson had gone, like Waldo tonight he was found busily feeding the puck. His speed and passing tonight was notable. Geertsen in front of the net on the PP. Hands up all of you who didn’t think of that. Yeah I thought as much. Roach was playing a good power-forward kind of game tonight. Maybe he just needs minutes and opportunity to step up a level or two. If he can be dangerous it would help, as he is the kind of player we lack in the top six.
I was so happy to see Lee get the start and even happier to see him earn the first star, the reason his team was in this game and for him to get the win. Nothing against Porter, but Lee really needed this kind of start. I have to say that I am liking some of the small changes that Matt Erhart has made. The steps in Edmonton and then building on that effort for a convincing win tonight is a very positive move forward. The guys seem to be happy to refocus on driving the offensive zone and going to the net with the puck. In this one at least, gone was the fragility and the lack of confidence.
The boys have almost a full week to practice and for management to find a head coach before the team takes on the Winterhawks at the Coliseum on Friday. I’m looking forward to an exciting tilt, honours to Pat Quinn and a possibly rejuvenated squad with a positive outlook. Kudos goes to Bonner for not dragging his heels and pulling off the Band-Aid quickly. The puck drops at the Rink on Renfrew at 7:30pm PST as it usually does on Friday’s games.
Three Stars
1. Payton Lee
2. Jake Virtanen
3. Mason Geertsen
Dondo’s Hardhat: goes to Lee for a bounce-back game, hanging in there and giving his team a chance to curry favour from the hockey gods, with hard work and great effort.
A Shot From The Corner 