Last night the job made sure to welcome Avery with open arms… or something like that. There were plenty of signs around the arena that we got a good laugh out of. One of my friends had a sign that said “Avery is a” and then had a purple pansy with his head at the center. She went down to warm ups with it and Avery called her a fat fucking bitch. Way to stay classy Avery. Avery got a couple of penalties and I have never heard a crowd cheer so loud; it was great. That’s what you get for calling our Captain over-rated in every interview you have. Seriously, do you have a crush on Doan or what?
Ott also received a warm welcome from Carcillo. The first time, the refs wouldn’t let them go and just gave them 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct. I still think Barch should have gotten a penalty also, as he tried to get in on the fight making it two on one. Almost as soon as those two got out of the box, they went after each other. The highlight of the fight was when Ott stuck his tongue out at the cameraman and Carcillo gets his arm free and just hauls off and punches him. As the fight was at the end of the period, the boys went straight to the locker room. When they came back, I couldn’t concentrate on the game because they were still jawing at each other. After awhile, it looked like Carcillo was just laughing.
Even though Carcillo didn’t get a goal, he played a good game. He was energized and hitting every star player he could. He was still favoring his right leg. In warm ups, he kept picking it up. He was always pushing off with his left foot and he kept doing this hop move to get going fast. I think his knee may be bothering him.
Jokinen again took a stupid penalty right off the bat and then disappeared for the first and second periods. He decided to make an appearance in the third. He was too busy doing fancy moves to score though. Seriously, I don’t care how prettily you can skate; I want you to put the puck in the net.
Two things that we need to work on: consistency and face-offs. We could (and should) have beaten the stars. They were not playing well but neither were we. We were going in streaks. We’d have a good five minutes or so where everyone was trying, the energy was up and we were doing good things and then we’d back off not play all out for about ten minutes or so. As for the face-offs, we need to find someone who can either do a good face off or find someone who can teach our guys to win. At key moments, we would lose the face-offs, making it harder to control the puck. We won maybe 3 face-offs all night.
Bryz actually had another good night. Yes, he let in three goals, but those can be blamed on the D letting him down. Our D probably sucked the most out of all the guys out there. It’s a sad day when Yandle is probably your best dman out there.
Oh yes, we need to work on communication. Passes were all over the place and guys were running into each other. Overall, not our best game and we definitely deserved to lose that one.
Scratches were Daniel Winnik, Brian McGrattan, and David Hale. Winnik and McGrattan were definitely missed. I want to see McGrattan in the lineup. Put him in against Chicago on Tuesday. That is definitely a game we can’t afford to lose.
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