Well, chalk another one up in the "Mike misses part of game" column. I had to go to work today, when 90% of the country is off today – I only missed half the game though.
I caught just about 14 minutes of the second period, so the only thing I missed was boring hockey. Lucky for me, I got to witness the Isles begin to self destruct by taking some penalties the result of being stuck in the defensive zone.
They are not clearing the puck well, giving up turn overs on bad passes and those horrid clearing attempts. When they get into the offensive zone, they are clearly not putting enough pressure on Thomas.
What's up with all these behind the back and drop passes lately? Sillinger attempted to drop the puck to Hunter, who was about 3 steps in front of him when he tried a behind the back. Comrie is again trying way too hard to be pretty with the puck.
Hopefully the boys can snap out of this funk and get on the board starting the 3rd on the power play – they need it.
20 seconds in and we have a 5 on 3 for almost 2 minutes!
Blown 5 on 3 due to horrible passing, absolutely horrible.
1:53 pm: Poor Hilbert, hits the post then gets knocked down going for a rebound.
1:57 pm: Sutton lays out Kessel open ice! What a hit.
2:01 pm: Passes behind players, bad break outs lead to several icings. It seems that the other teams have done their homework on the Isles – limited space through the neutral zone and causing the Isles breakout to suffer.
2:12 pm: Metropolit scores for the Bruins, looks like it was deflected of Gervais.
2:14 pm: Another offsides call against the Isles – between icing and offsides, how can they keep the pressure on?
2:17 pm: Sillinger scores 2-1 5:39 of the 3rd. How funny is this – I was just about to tell Tom through my blog – SHUTOUT to jinx Thomas! Let's go boys!
2:24 pm: Berard pulled down – POWERPLAY! Look for Ricky to be pulled soon.
2:25 pm: DiPi pulled, can't hold the offensive zone.
2:26 pm: Timeout Islanders – hopefully they will address the horrible passing. Berard also has no control accepting a pass tonight – seems to bounce right off his stick.
2:32 pm: And that does it. Isles blow some power play chances – having NO SHOTS on a 5 on 3 and they lose by one goal.
Something needs to be done about the power play, there is absolutely no crisp passes – in the words of my High School hockey coach "No more SISSY MARY passes!". At least having a home and home gives the Isles a chance to come out even more determined to win tomorrow night.
That's about it for me today, I have to go move the rest of my stuff from the old apartment to the new apartment. Have a great day guys.
UPDATE Brendan Witt was hit with a high stick in the later part of the 3rd period and did not return. Hopefully it's nothing too serious – but look for him to come out fired out tommorow night.
Caught the first 2 periods before having to get to work myself.
I thought they Isles were real physical the first period and had the tone set to score but blowing the 5-on-3 seemed to ruin their chemistry.
Having 3 shots hit the post in the first 2 periods was very frustrating and Boston kept their heads to get one past DiPi in the 2nd period.
They better address the Power Play and stupid penalties or else they're gonna drop another game to Boston tomorrow night.
I think tomorrow's game will be a VERY physical game because of the number of scraps and talking today. Should be REAL fun to watch.
Thanks for the blog. Keep up the great work.