Last nights game wasn’t nearly as epic as Wednesday nights game. We lost 7-4. There were some good things and some bad. But needless to say, we are not panicking. The sky is not falling. It’s one game. In a best of seven series. No need to freak out. After the first game, I read many things on a Detroit blog and you could tell they were worried but trying to act tough. There is no need for that here, as I know my boys can (and will) bounce back. I have confidence in them and they have confidence in themselves.
What we did well:
- Scoring by committee – we have done this all season long. It works for us. Yandle started it off by coming in down low. No one knew he was there, no one expected it. Good job kid. You have played so well you have Stevie Y asking Panger who you are. Wolski, Lombo and Doan contributed also. Yes, you read that right… Shane Doan got a goal. And I have seen that man happy before but never like this:
The tv image is much better, it captures his expression from the front. Photo borrowed from the Coyotes website.
- We were physical again last night. It wasn’t as well executed as Wednesday. We were looking for the hit instead of having it just happen.
- Pru. Enough said. That boy should have like 89789534 goals this season. You can see his confidence is starting to come about. He made a nifty move on a Red Wing player, just couldn’t put it past Howard. If I can help him, I will. Just let me know…
- Bryz. There may have been 6 goals scored on him (the last one was an empty netter) but he worked his ass off. He didn’t let in any soft goals like that first one Wednesday.
What we didn’t do so good:
- Defense. Jovo I am holding you personally responsible for at least one of those goals. That resulted in my yelling and tweeting “damnjovo”. Where is the Jovo from Wednesdays game? The one who made good hits and hustled? You made bad decisions tonight and forced Z to be the only dman at times. And Z is good, but he’s not that good. Get it together man! I don’t want to have to utter the dreaded “damnjovo” again this series!
- We made bad decisions. We tried too hard to hit them.
- We hung our goalie out to dry in the second. Bryz was just flipping around and the Red Wings were racking up the goals but at the time so were we. Unfortunately because of that, we couldn’t pull ahead. We reached our quota on goals for the game. Next game, we have got to play defense and can’t let the red wings walk all over Bryz like that.
- We didn’t play our game. Every game that we have won this year was a direct result of playing our game and dictating the play of the other team. Every game we’ve lost? We let the other team dictate.
- Power play. It was so good the other night. Tonight was the power play I remember from the season. Wednesday must have just been a fluke.
What the refs didn’t do so good:
- The call on Pyatt early in the game. He was clearly at the top of the crease, gets shoved into the net by a Detroit player and when he tries to get out, Howard blocks him. First with his stick. So Taylor tries to go out the other side. What does Howard do? He moves his body to block Taylor. And Taylor gets called for goaltender interference. Horrible call. Horrible.
What I saw the Detroit fans do:
- When Fiddy was down and hurt, they throw a freaking octopus on the ice. Our guy is hurt, he has the trainer out there looking at him and you think it’s an appropriate time to throw an octopus on the ice? Grow up.
What I heard the Detroit fans did:
- Threw lit cigars on the ice after the win. First off, you shouldn’t even have lit cigars in an arena/public building. That is still considered smoking, which is illegal to do in a public building here. Second off, you could have burned someone. Yes, it wouldn’t have been a serious burn but the fact of the matter is, it’s still not the right thing to do. Third, we don’t want lit cigars on our ice. You want to throw a cigar? Fine but do it at your arena, not mine.
What our fans did:
- We were loud and proud! I could hear a lot of the cheers very clearly. There were several “Let’s Go Coyotes” chants throughout the game. There was the taunting of Howard. There were several loud boos, especially on the Pyatt penalty.
- I did not see any snake throwing. I have on good authority that there was but cannot confirm that.
I realize I did not do the quote of the game last time. Man, I am slacking! I guess you get two this time then.
From this game:
“It’s only two games in and you’ve got to keep going and play good for a longer period of time,” Zetterberg told reporters. “Nothing is done yet. We stole one game. That’s what we wanted to do.”
From last game:
“I’m not a goal scorer, let’s be honest,” DMo said with a smile. “But when the opportunity arises, I can still wind it up.”
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