Frustrating Loss.
The Tigers blew 3 two goal leads.
Positives
I thought in the first half of the second period the Tigers were playing pretty good defense. Brandon had a slight territorial edge during this time but the Tigers never really gave up any good scoring chances, and it led to Curtis Valk putting the Tigers up 4-2 at that point. If they are looking for video of what they did right, that is the part of the game they did well on.
I thought the best players on the ice for the Tigers was the 4th line, Elgin Pearce, and Tyler Lewington. Ryckman played good as well. The Tigers coaches were throwing the 4th line out almost double shifting them in the third period, because they seemed to be the only line that was playing in Brandon's end consistently.
I was impressed with Cole Sanford I thought it has been a couple games in a row where he has played really well.
The powerplay was 2/3 with both goals coming off shots from the half-wall.
Now for the Negatives
I thought the Tigers defenseman got caught too many times trying to skate the puck out of their own end and turning the puck over when their were passing options open, (more-so directed towards Busenius, and Becker)
Dylan Busenius has a tendency to hesitate with the puck instead of head-manning the puck, and whenever he does this I cringe a little because his % of making a decent play drops like a batter on an 0-2 count. I counted 3 plays tonight where he didn't headman the puck and put himself in a low percentage spot which resulted in Brandon turning the puck over and scoring.
Its hard to fault a goalie when a team gives up 42 shots on net, but I thought MacAuley didn't look very good in the net against Brandon. He wasn't very good fighting or controlling his rebounds and his reaction time was slow.
A little concerned as Jayden Hart wasn't dressed tonight. I Hope he didn't get sick again?
Thoughts/Ideas
This may sound funny to you but despite the Loss I thought the bottom 3 forward lines took a baby step forward in their defensive play. The top line however a combined -11 is unacceptable. (-16 if you count Bus)
What do you guys think of breaking up Shinkaruk and Koules? Perhaps testing out Pearce on 1st line right wing, and dropping Koules to the 2nd? I think it may be an idea worth exploring if Pearce can play right wing.
This team is 4-7-1-0 but I think with some better play in their own zone the record could have been reversed. Now that Bunz isn't here mistakes in the D Zone will be magnified.
40 comments:
I have to admit, first I am concerned that in the last two games our goalie combine for 11 goals against. Not good. We need a new goalie badly. I was in my truck and heard Darren say that 'somewhere along the way our goalies need to make a save' so the coaches are not happy with goaltending. This was huge as they don't often single people out. Hunter is fighting the puck, a lot. He is trying, tough seeing him struggle. I did like seeing him on the line with Boston, who is a firecracker and can hopefully get Hunter going.
Bus needs to step up or we should ship him out. We rely on him to be a leader and a top guy and you never know what you are going to get from night to night. When he plays well, he plays real well, when he is bad, well, then it is like tonight.
I like Labelle and think he deserves a consistant spot in the line up each and every night.
There were good things, 2/3 on the PP is great. 6 goals is great.
It is just that after forwards we have nothing. We need a goalie, we need an experienced defenceman to lead the young guns.
Good write up. Have to agree . I'm curious why Tigers did not carry three goalies while Clouston did this failed goalie experiment. Why would they cut or trade what experience they had at all levels? Makes the young team excuse lame. As it stands we are out of any contention except Vancouver and they beat us too. We can't expect 6 goals for and loose, scorers must be frustrated with bad goaltending too.
I also forgot to add that I hear Theriau is pretty close to returning.
It will probably take him a game or three to get his timing back, but having him come back will be a welcomed addition.
I knew it wouldn't be long before someone suggested putting Pearce on the 1st line. How about taking The flamingo off the 1st line instead of Koules. That's the guy who lifted one leg on Brandon's winning goal to get out of the way of the shot. Instead of putting his team first, he showed why I don't believe he is Captain material. Could be why some of the players handed him his butt after the game. The players were choked that he bailed on an opportunity to block the shot.
When the game is on the line , how can the Captain expect his team mates to dig down deep; when he won't. The players don't respect a "C" when the guy wearing it is more concerned Bout his on stats. -4 nothing more needs to be said on that.
As for the rest of your comments I agree. 3rd and 4th lines played very well.
I did mention in the last thread before the game actually at 3:13 I said which goalie would play. I also said Pearce, Leiersy and Cox would figure in the scoring. When Leiersy finally scored the 6 th tigers goal. I was bang on for the score and the players. What I didn't plan on was the flamingo line.
I do not think Kenny could have filled the role. His GGA and save % is not that great adn that is a league below. We really needed to draft a goalie high, like we did with Bunz, to carry us through.
I like the forwards, it is a bit bumpy but they are pulling together adn getting it done. Nice to see.
D is really talented, just super young with little experience. And they are not being led by the D with experience.
But I have always thought that if you had a good goalie then you see a team play with confidence, we do not get that. I really think we need to give up a draft pick and get a goaltender.
Recovering from his surgery I'm guessing will take more than 1-3 games. Hopefully the arm chair GM's can be patient.
If you are all waiting for Theriau to be the 'end all' to the woes of the Tigers, you are barking up the wrong tree. He may well be a good addition, (until we see him play), but he isn't going to make or break this team into any kind of win streak or even win a game.
We don't need a goalie. We need two goalies, Like Darren said our "goalies" need to make a save. Last year our back up kept the games close, at least giving us a chance when Bunz was out. Who gets the call to play goal next game? maybe Roary the Tiger? And not to split hairs but last 2 games were 13 goals against. L 6-3 & L 7-6.
Welcome back Theriau.
Anonymous said...
If you are all waiting for Theriau to be the 'end all' to the woes of the Tigers, you are barking up the wrong tree. He may well be a good addition, (until we see him play), but he isn't going to make or break this team into any kind of win streak or even win a game.
October 17, 2012 12:04 AM
So with Theriau in the line up, are yo saying we won't win more games let alone 1 game?
This kid came to us banged up. We saw a glimmer of what he could do the last two Febuarys. I'm not saying he is our savior, but I have seen him skate in practice since he came back last week .Theriau is already skating better than he did all last year.
We still need to make some more changes, but getting Theriau back healthy ain't going to hurt us.
As for Valky,Pearce, Leiesry, Lapelle, Cox up front, thanks for showing up tonight.
Lewy, Becks, and Ricky ya'all had a good game.
What Theriau will bring is accountability in the defensive zone. Defensively, he is good. that will get passed down to the rest of the players back there.Count on it.
Maybe Kenny could not fill the role but we will never know. But from what I see now we are messed up with both goalie spots. And Clouston missed out on Mac Engel.
The Flamingo line, ha ha that's good, LOL.
Just had a couple more peeks at the highlights. Bredo should have laid down to block the first goal, would have been better than sceening our goalie. On the 6th goal against, Bredo can't get beat wide in his own zone.
Can someone tell me why the line that was a dash 11 for the night was out , when we pulled our goalie? Shouldn't we have gone with Pearce's line? Should have gone with what line was on fire tonight.
We can not win with these goalies. Period. Theriau will help but we need a starting goaltender. I watched the replay of the game and Dawson let in shots that he had a clear view of. That is not going to cut it. I do not recall the last time the tigers were this terrible in net. Even Holfeld was better, now that is saying a lot! We need to find us a Keetley!
I thought this game was embarrassing. We have our forwards killing themselves to get goals and at the other end we have our choice of 2 sieve's. Something needs to be done. I hate blaming the goalie for scores but if you review games from the beginning of the season, you can see the weak link(s). We need a goalie. We will not make playoffs without one, period.
When Theriau comes back and IF he looks go you gotta think Bus is on his way out Stanton and the younger D men looked fantastic and no question Bus is one of our worse d men in his own zone, goaltending unfortunately may just be one of those things we gotta stick out for a year, to get a good starting goalie that isnt 19 or 20 you would need to give an arm and a leg. Also agreed with the Labelle comment he is playing fantastic and hits everything in sight i would keep him in the lineup on a constent basis, i also loved that 4th line tonight by far our best line and i loved the effort Bredo had tonight he is constant night in and out
Negatives as far as i saw (that i haven't posted) Hunter just seems to be frustrated out there and without Etem out there to draw attention he is handling the consistent top Ds of other teams horribly, and Valk seems to be lost out there at times
I love it - the flamingo line lmao! Its true though. Not sure why we have Bredo on the team, he doesn't ass anything to the team. Busenius played like the guy we all love to hate last night, If Tigers want to go with the young team philosophy then, trade both of them for a G and let Staples, Stanton, and the young forwards play for often
For those that were clamoring to see McCauley play, well he got his chance and failed miserably. He's big and that's about it. Very little athletic ability, if the puck doesn't hit him its going in. One thing thats bugged me for a while now is the coaching staff and match ups with the other team. It was quite obvious to me that Brandon wanted their top d pairing against Shinkaruk and our coaches did nothing to try to get away from it. It was the same story against Edmonton who had their top guys against him all night.
It was also nice to see Clouston show some guts and sit the so called top line for a lot of the third and give the kids a chance and finally why is Bredo still here? He brings little to the table as a 19 year old.
On the Tigers website it still shows JF Martel as our goalie coach. Does anyone know if he still is? He was responsible for part of Keetley's success, turned Holfeld into something half decent and was a big part of helping Bunz to where he is today. For the limited games Cameron got last year, maybe MacAuley would have benefited better with a year with JF and have more confidence this year?
Unfortunately I still think we take our lumps this year and hope JF can work with these two guys lots this year to set us up for the next couple years. If we go out and get a 19/20 yr goalie this year with the younger team we have, we will be in the same position next year.
Valk needs to pair up Shinkaruk. They are more familiar with each other and both can be creative and find each other. Last night I noticed Koules show some frustration with Shinkaruk a couple times when he thought Hunter should have passed to him.
Possible forward line combos that I think may work better with players style of play.
Shinkaruk - Hart - Valk
Pearce - Cox - Koules
Leier - Bredo - Doty
Combination of kid line
Leier has been working hard and deserves more minutes and an opportunity to play with more skilled guys, I just don't think he beats out anyone on the top two lines skill wise and scoring touch. Hard work, he brings it every game.
That's enough of my opinion for now. Growing pains, don't think as fans we need to be calling for anyones heads. Nothing probably sucks more than knowing you didn't have a good games(s), then coming on here (which i'm sure they do) and read that you suck and are at fault for losing. They are only kids.
Go Tigers!
Everyone, don't break a leg jumping off the goalie bandwagon you all were so hyped up about in the beginning. Marek being NHL drafted is a joke on all of us. And Dawson tweets about ideas for a new mask paint scheme after only one win. Get a Swiss Cheese paint scheme or maybe beach balls, something more appropriate. A goalie should not be bragging, bad karma.
This game was a duel of the bad goalies and the other guy made one big save and this won Brandon the game. Hope game vs oilkings is at least a respectable loss.
Just looked at the replay and Brandon was good at knocking the net off.
On Cole Penners chance. It clearly shows the Brandon goaltender pushing off the post which knocked the net off its moorings. Penner's goal should have counted, or their should have been a penalty.
Also Pearce was knocked into the net after a rebound came right out to a tiger player with the goalie down and out, no call on the play.
Ok I am going to use the "this is a young team" so I am going to excersize patience & see what team developes over the next month. In addition remember our guys were playing their 5 game in 7 nights - Brandon their 3 in 5 nights. We had nothing left in the tank going into the 3rd period. The young guns played every 2nd game so they had better legs. We were missing Hart no doubt about that either.
As for the goaltending. I am still not sold on this play until you lose philosophy. I think this is added pressure on these two goalies that, given that they are both rookies, is not working. McCauley is good & will get better. Against Edm he gave our guys a chance to win but when you don't get at least a couple games back to back you can't improve - game play is different than practice. Confidence comes with experience - this is not a confident team - coaching needs to step up.
Absolutely right Tiger ... what I don't understand is why these two weren't reviewed?
You always go with the hot goalie. When you DON'T have a hot goaltender, or even a lukewarm one, you cry HEELLLLLPPP!
Again, we need a couple gritty forwards to open up the ice for the skilled players - they do fine with the odd man but with 5 on 5 they are not strong enough down low or along the half boards.
Please don't use the 5 game 7 night excuse. Every team in the league has the same schedule. There is no patience with 2 sieves in net (previously mentioned). Yes there were missed calls with net knocked off, but refs did not make the difference. Mention of JF goalie coach working with goalies is good too. Brad picked a guy, JF worked with him, with improvement and then after a year of grooming Clouston blew that chance up. We dropped our chance with a 19 yr old goalie JF was making to be a Keetley. As for added pressure on both "rookie" goalies, This is what Clouston picked, He is responsible for this messed up GAA. McCauley is not good and not getting better, neither is NHL phenom pick Marek. JF is starting from scratch and probably taking heat from coach who made both these poor goalie choices. Coaching does not need to step up, they need to step out. This is embarassing, but just my rant. All I want for christmas is a win.
I bet the moderators are busy this year, vetting posts they are unable to post. Must be interesting to read what all are saying. You guy's get player of the game from me.
So easy to be an armchair coach! Good luck with your team.
The coaches need to get there effing shit together!!! Especially on defence!!! There are no consistent D partners! They are bouncing guys all over the place. I thought Kruger was a better coach that this! They aren't doing any line matching to the other teams top line. They need to take koules off the top line. And why is koules playing PK? He doesn't work hard on PK. The forwards need to start helping the defencemen and make sure the are rotating and picking up a guy and play defence, instead of standing still and watch the puck. Dawson was giving some easy shots and he couldn't stop them. We need to make those simple saves!!!!
Anon 11:14 I'm guessing that your comment about JF grooming another Keetly was in reference to Kenny Cameron. I'll just say that he's still playing in the AJHL and there are other teams in the WHL looking for goaltending help and no one has knocked on the Tigers door. As far as the hate for Clouston, whether you like him or not the Tigers don't now nor have they since Willie was here make decisions without input from all the coaches, asst gms and sometimes scouts. It's not a one man band.
Dear Longtimefan,
Your damn right I'm talking about Kenny, another guy who never got a chance along with Dieno, Sheen, Petryk, Hurley. All that are better off not being with the Tigers and Clouston in charge. Keetly came out of nowhere. I may be in a Wheelchair peeing in a bag, getting beer spilt on me regularly by all you people who have no idea that some of us like those that gave up soo much and got shafted. Your damn wrong, Clouston is a one man band and his puppets have no say. He is an arrogant SOB and should be held responsible. But what do I know , I'm just a crippled fan. But thanks to the Tigers for the disabled parking, only good thing in my miserable life. I only wish I could skate but I can't.
Tiger fans are not just those that know it all like you. Maybe longtimefan should try seeing things out of a rose coloured glass. Tigers suck right now and this is all there is to it. Goaltending sucks the most and coach,GM is responsible. What we had was good, What we have now is horrible. Just another rant from a gimpy fan.
Cam Lanigan.... we needed a goaltender but he sure has had some lousy stats during his long career. GOOD LUCK tho!!
Cam Lanigan.... we needed a goaltender but he sure has had some lousy stats during his long career. GOOD LUCK tho!!
LOL, back at four 20 year olds. And even better they now have 3 goalies. I must say Shaun Clouston sure has made some head scratching moves so far.
I heard Sheen was a problem in the dressing room and not well liked. It was not a matter of hockey abilities but personally, that is why he is gone. Plus I would still play Labelle, Penner, Cox etc over him.
But we have a goalie now. Someone with experience - at least he has probably played goal unlike the other yahoos - so lets hope this kid can bring his A game.
Do you think our new goalie means good-bye Dawson?
Lanigan is a beast i imagine he will stick and if they get rid of Ryckman for Theriau Clouston is a train wreck and will run this team into the ground within a year
Dear, Longtimefan. Update... no one is knocking on Tigers door for players. Duhh, They gave up the good for bad. Of course nobody wants scraps the tigers have, They are gone. And probably happy not to be here, Clouston is $ guy hiding. Even the players/goalies they have now do not underachive. Clouston threw them/rookies in the deep end with no life vest. Every comment about current bad goaltending is accurate. We sold the farm for unknown NHL dud. Why not support the guy's commited and got dumped. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Maybe JF is the guy to blame if you all think Clouston is a hero?
anon 11:14 this is a blog based on peoples opinions and i'm fine with you not agreeing with me but i don't think Kenny Cameron would have been the answer in goal. Sounds to me like you have a personal axe to grind with Clouston but I don't know the man so I have no comment on your comments. As far as your health issues are concerned I'm sorry to hear that things are not rosy in that area of your life. May you have better days ahead.
Kenny's stats are not great in the league below. Not sure how, taking that into account, he would have faired much better. His save % is about the same as what we have but IN A LOWER LEAGUE aka NOT the answer.
I am shocked. Clouston has made moves. And if you read any posts everyone has been complaining about goaltending. So he gets a goalie. And then there is complaining that he is going to run the team into the ground. What do you want? I do not mind what Clouston has done. He has taken a risk with a young team, love that, we can grow. He has done his best with getting some big guys like Doty. He traded Kessy who was unreliable - for Pearce - who has been one of the better forwards of late. So we have 4 20 year olds, not a biggie, we get rid of one. Not all trades will pan out, not all players will pan out, you have to roll with it and sometimes you get burnt on a trade, happens to all teams. Clouston has done nothing but put a team together with a lot of potential, especially for the years to come. He has adapted to the barriers thrown in his way and has done so without giving much up. In addition, he was able to get us a goalie before we buried ourselves in the bottom of the standings. The year is young and we have lots of time to improve. So lay off all you arm chair GMs!
Great move by Clouston, picking up Lanigan. And as were basically my comments about Theriau last night. Lanigan is getting zapped by some armchair GM's already. And he hasn't even laced them up for us. I wish him all the best as well as Theriau.
Great comments. 100% right. Still lots of time to turn this ship around.
Clouston good work on pulling the trigger on Lanigan.
Now time to pull a player or two off the Flamingo line. Lets shake that top line up. And actually hold the guys accountable - 11 last night for that line was ridiculous. Lets have all those players earn the honor of being on the top line. Nothing should be handed out. Not one of the three current players has earned a spot on the top line by themselves. You have coat tails, who can't light it up without Etem. You have the kid from the South who inherited the 1st line winger, and you have a guy who can't out the puck in the ocean regularly and is currently -5 as one of the best defensive players in the Dub!!
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