I'm not even going to put the score up there.
The palpable rage I was already feeling when it was 4-1 was enough, but THIS...we don't deserve to be subjected to this.
A word on Todd Marchant...I hate the guy's guts and pretty much have for a long time, but boy did he man up after that Souray shot. Watching our disgusting joke of an offence blow a 4-on-2 and then allow a clear by a man who took 2 minutes to get up afterwards was sure a study in contrasts. What an effort by that man. Kudos. HUGE kudos.
On the other hand...we had a 4-on-3 PP with Dustin Penner on the ice. Why Ales passed to him, I'll never know, but even after he'd blown a gimme goal by not getting the puck up, he had all the time in the world and panicked like Jacques does every time he sees the disc headed his way. Sad. Too bad too because I liked what Penner did pretty much otherwise...especially his screen on the 4-3 goal...which was promptly rewarded by getting sent to serve a penalty by Captain Genius over a guy like Jacques who has no business on the ice in the third period, much less during a PK with 2 to go. Penner might if they pull the goalie. But Captain Genius proved he doesn't think before doing things...
I don't care if 18 players were screaming at him to call Selanne...(and I don't think they were because players don't do that)he has to have the brains to look up, see 2:11 on the clock and a team that has just scored twice and tell them to get back out there and get #3. Show he believes in them without any hokey crap.
Instead Captain Genius put the final nail in the coffin. There's almost no way this team's rattling off 5 straight. Not now. Maybe 2 months ago but not now. Not with a defence hampered by having poor Jason Strudwick stretched so far beyond his means. The Ducks were literally toying with him by dumping it into his corner.
Souray didn't really do much again, and played weak D. Disappointing but I can't dog him too harsh with how much he's meant this year.
Roloson reverted to mr down-too-early tonight and it cost us dearly. Oh well I guess.
What can you even say when the season's on the line and your best player wears #46???
I don't even know how to express what I think of that joke masquerading as our hockey team right now. A fair number of them put out some effort tonight, but there's no direction and no consistently executing effective plays. There's just nothing that's going to win you games when the other team even half-shows up. Anaheim relaxed for an extended period tonight...they never should have been afforded that chance.
Sure all the chance at the end was a maybe...but to have that taken away from us, and from players like Sam Gagner who's busting his butt out there...man did that hurt. Maybe I'll have more to elaborate on in terms of the game tomorrow, but my god...we just had our season finished off by an attempted illegal stick...of all the utter bs I've ever seen on a hockey rink...
I won't be there on Thursday as I'm unfortunately stuck in Calgary. A massive part of me hopes they win. An even bigger part of me hopes they're coachless. I don't like the odds on either at this point.
7 comments:
I could not believe the check Selanne stick move. They've just scored 2, have the momentum and the coach takes a bench penalty. When was the last time you saw that call work? Talk about a deflating move.
I think there's a lot of pressure put on Penner by MacTavish and fans because of all the "hate hype" and "fat jokes" about him. Jonathan Willis showed that he was previously one of the Oilers most effective players. Since being called out by MacTavish, he played well for a while but the rest of the team suffered because he was not being utilized where he could be most effective. Worse yet, he may even start believing some of the things MacTavish and others have said about him. He may not show the most desire on the team, but who would be guilty of such a trait on a team like this anyway?
A word about MacTavish and the stick-call bench minor:
1. The game was lost almost 50 minutes before this happened.
2. The fact that he caved into whatever pressure he felt is pretty good evidence that he has lost the locker room.
3. MacTavish has to play Strudwick because Chorney is, and I say this regrettably, not a better choice at this moment in time. Mathieu Roy might be, though.
The guys over at LT's were saying MacT has tried this before and it worked. He said he had good intel and he truly believed the stick was bogus. The guys have been crap on the PP for the most part and the risk was warranted by the possible reward.
The game was lost way before the last 2 minutes and if you check the scoring summary, none of our vets had a point tonight. Good gamble with huge personal risk for the coach. I give him props for laying it all out there.
It did kill the momentum, but how about the momentum kill from a lacklustre powerplay? If we had killed off just one of the second period penalties it wouldn't even be a problem. So I would disagree with Charlie and agree with David that this game was written in stone a long time before the MacTavish stick call.
With 2:11 left and trailing by 1 the game is not "written in stone", especially if you have just scored 2 goals in the last 1:16. The opposition is reeling and the lifeline they need, a penalty, is thrown to them not on a stupid play but by the coach.
Huge personal risk to the coach? MacT isn't going to get replaced when everything is on the line. Lowe put MacT there and is keeping him there, Lowe acquired these nonperforming players ...
In the end it's the fans who pay to watch this team that suffer. Tiger Woods recently demonstrated what it means to compete but there are no Tiger Woods's on this team and there are no motivational geniuses behind the bench.
I wonder why Pittsburg was so successful changing coaches this year? I wonder why we didn't try something that radical given that upper management claims we have the talent? Maybe they're more risk averse than the coach? Maybe making the playoffs isn't as important as keeping the old boys club together? Maybe Katz is watching this and thinking about spring cleaning?
"Huge personal risk to the coach?"
You bet. MacT likely scuttled the game on top of making himself look like an idiot for doing it. He admitted as much in the post game presser. The guy hung his nuts out. That's how much he wants to win. It's the coach's equivalent of going down to block a Souray slapshot.
You know what? If the rest of the team did as much in the previous 58 minutes, this never would have come up.
"Maybe Katz is watching this and thinking about spring cleaning?"
Based on what came to light after the SJ game it appears that spring cleaning, at least in reference to MacT, isn't going to happen.
So if it's not managements fault then it's obviously the players fault. In business, management is held responsible for failure but maybe Katz doesn't think sports is business.
As ezra would say Fire. Them. All.
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