Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 3657
Wk's road trip
1/26/2009 at 11:42 AM
They have the tough trip coming up, 4 games in 5 days. If they can win the first 2 in RD and Edm it'll take the pressure off the games in Ktn and Cal. Anything over .500 should be considered a success imo.
It's been an awesome last 7 weeks, 16 wins, 3 losses and 2 OTL, for a .810 win %, if we play anywhere like this the rest of the way we'll get seeded 2nd or 3rd for the playoffs.
We appear to be playing a lot more consistent, a lot of team character/toughness standing up for each other, credit to the players and coaches for that.
I enjoy watching the attack minded hockey with d-man jumping up into the play, sure it leads to some 2 on 1's against us but also helps us score. I also enjoy the physical presence our team puts out there now. Kelly mac has given them a kick when the effort hasn't been 100% a couple times (earlier in the season), and they have responded. Clark's line in particular has improved in leaps and bounds which gives the other scoring lines more space. Other guys imo who have really stepped it up more than an average rate of development are Aulie, Cowan, Melnychuk and Stone.
At this point there isn't a guy on the roster who isn't contributing 100%, kudo's go to the coaches b/c I imagine it must be tough trying to keep twenty four 16 to 20 year olds motivated and focused!!
I can't remember another time that we have had 5 guys in the top 20 league scoring? (We had 4 the last year of Fehr/Stone).
Negatives to the campaign (few and far between) are:
King getting injured just when he was really embracing and contributing in that checking role.
Miller getting sent down
Erb missing games with injury (we really miss his physical presence)
Calvert's bad back (but he might be real fresh in the playoffs)
Schenn not making the WJC team and Glennie not even being invited to the camp
If anyone hasn't been down to WCC to see them play lately, do yourself a favour and buy a ticket for next weeks games, it's very entertaining at the moment, even if we're down by 2 goals in the third it's not over b/c these guys can score in bunches!!!!