So is this going to be the second round of a weekend war? In case you missed it, the last 7.7 seconds of the Trail/PG game last night turned into a bit of a battle. Cam Brodie and Davies went one on one in a good, legit fight. Brad Davis hit Jordy Christian and it turned into a mini-brawl with Patrick Martin and McLeod. Davis apparently pushed the linesman and he's out for at least three games with a gross misconduct. Sam Muchalla jumped into the Brodie/Davies fight as the third man in. Paul Levarsky followed him in to even the odds, and Forsythe jumped into that fight as another third man in for Prince Geroge. Finally, Dylan Herold evened the odds so that the fight was 3 on 3. The linesmen quickly broke it all up before anyone got hurt. From what I can tell all the players involved came away relatively unscathed.
Unscathed, but not unpunished.
Davis received a gross misconduct while Dylan Herold got a game misconduct. I still haven't figured out why Herold was singled out for punishment. He came into the fight to make sure Levarsky wasn't double teamed. Seems odd to punish him for that.
McLeod, Muchalla and Forsythe also received game misconducts. The score sheet specifically mentioned Muchalla being the third man into a fight. It didn't mention the same thing in regards to Forsythe so I'm not sure if that's why he got the misconduct or not. McLeod is another case where I'm not sure why he's getting a misconduct. From my perspective both Herold and McLeod were justified in their actions. Davis, Muchalla and Forsythe all likely deserve to sit.
So will we see the re-match tonight?
Saturday, December 8th, 2007: Trail (14-15-1-2) at Prince George (12-14-1-5)
For the first time in several months the Smoke Eaters are sitting under .500 in regulation. They're winless in five games after a couple of great wins over Salmon Arm and Penticton. Right now the momentum is anything but positive.
We still haven't heard whether or not Ourosov's suspension after the game in Quesnel is one game or two. That will be the difference between Trail being down a full line or just two players. Prince George will apparently lose three guys for the game. I heard their midget teams are out of town so there are no AP options. If that information is accurate, we're going to see a couple of short handed teams tonight.
One might think that we're going to see these teams go to war again tonight. I have a feeling they're going to play a pretty clean game. With McLeod and Forsythe out of the line-up, PG is likely going to move Davies back to D and sit with 5 D and 10 forwards. That's what I would guess anyway. Trail is going to have all six guys back on the blue-line, but they may be down to 9 forwards. If Ourosov plays they'll have 10, without him there are no additional players for Trail. They came on the trip without any extra players so they'll be short tonight one way or another.
With each team down that many men it wouldn't be all that wise to start getting into penalty trouble. The last thing either team needs is to have players sitting in the box for 5 minutes at a time. They certainly can't afford to have anyone kicked out of the game.
This could be exactly the kind of thing Trail needs. It's a put up or shut up kind of game. They've been badly outscored in two games on this road trip, now they're going to be short players and are at risk of falling to 7th place with a loss tonight. If they can't find passion and motivation going into tonight's game than I don't know when they ever would. You can see the looks on their faces today. It's a determined group. They absolutely don't want to go home empty handed.
There have been some positive notes for Trail this weekend. Corcoran looks very determined to take on the role of the top goal scorer on this team. He leads the team with 15 goals including two more this weekend. He's working very hard in the corners and fighting for pucks... driving to the net. Corcoran is one of the players who absolutely has to step up in Arduin's absence, and so far he's doing just that. You certainly can't ever question the hard work of Casey Shade and Kevin Limbert out there. They kept fighting and battling for pucks even when the team was down 5-0. Ryan Bulach had a couple of glorious chances including his goal last night. He's a player who will certainly be counted on to take on additional responsibilities. I like the progress Braden Kinnebrew has made lately. He seems strong on the puck and more confident in his decision making. It may not seem obvious in 5-1 and 6-2 losses, but I think Kinnebrew is really coming along.
These guys all work hard, they all want to win. Game in and game out there are several people on this team who I can point to and say those guys give it their all. But when you're losing there has to be another gear. Everybody has to step up their game to get Trail out of this funk and save this season. This is still a veteran group. They've only moved two 20 year olds. There are still a lot of 87 and 88 born players here. Those kinds of teams can't be satisfied with what they've produced lately.
On the other side, Prince George has improved a lot since we saw them in September. The young players are growing and maturing. Ketlo is very composed in net for a 16 year old. Christian is nothing short of a superstar in this league. Even with a line-up full of rookies, nobody can take these Spruce Kings lightly. They're going to just keep getting better in the last couple of months of the year. This is a team to watch.
It's gut check time for the Smoke Eaters. Win and they have something to build on. Lose again... get blown out again... and it's back to the drawing board on Monday. It's hard to imagine there won't be more moves if things don't improve.
Gotta love the drama. That's hockey, baby!
*UPDATE*
The official word is in on the suspensions and I have to say I'm a little bit shocked.
For Trail:
- Brad Davis is suspended for at least one game, but no official word on if it'll be longer.
- Dylon Herold is out for one game in a call I still don't understand. Herold's only action in the fight was to follow Forsythe when Forsythe was the third man in on Levarsky/Muchalla. Herold just evened the odds. Should he have let his teammate get double teamed? What am I missing?
- Cam Brodie is suspended for continuing to pound on Davies in their fight. A fight that both parties agreed to and that nobody broke up. They in fact both stopped fighting for a while, but since no one broke them up they started up again and Brodie took him down. Should he have simply walked away from the fight? Neither man did, but both could have. Why is Brodie faulted for winning when no ref or linesman stepped in to tell them to stop or to break them up?
- Assistant Coach Brian Youngson is suspended for the game because he was the Coach at the time of the incident. Ingram had been kicked out earlier and will be back on the bench tonight, but by himself.
- Steve Ourosov serves the second of a two game suspension for being in the second fight after a whistle in Quesnel.
For Prince George:
- McLeod is gone for the game for I'm not sure what. His suspension like that of Herold seems very strange to me. He was getting involved in what was a four person pile up in front of Trail's bench, but I didn't see him doing anything particularly worth of suspension.
- Forsythe is gone for a game for what I assume is being the third man in when he went after Levasky... who had gone after Muchalla... who had been the third man in on Brodie's fight with Davies. But Herold also got suspended for evening those odds.
That's it.
Muchalla somehow avoids suspension despite the fact the he was obviously a third man in. I don't know how that can possibly be justified. Let me paint a picture for you.
Brodie and Davies had a fight. They were standing there taking a breather while there was a pile up by the Trail bench. They start to go again a little bit. Muchalla, from the other side of the ice, skates all the way into the Trail zone to try to break up the Brodie/Davies fight himself. That or to help Davies against Brodie I don't know. Either way he skated halfway across the rink to get involved in a fight that had been going on for like two minutes between two guys who had both consented to the fight.
How do you define third man in? Is that not the most blatant example possible?
Paul Levarsky quickly followed Muchalla into the Trail zone to even the odds. He did so because his teammate was now facing two Prince George players. It's the same action Herold took, evening the odds to make sure his teammates weren't out-matched.
Someone please explain the logic of these rulings to me.
I think I'll try to phone the league on Monday and find out before my Overtime show. I don't know if they'll talk to me, but it's worth a try.
LIVE UPDATES
...Smokies played a much better first period. Kept things simple, a very effective penalty kill on their three PKs, stronger on the puck and quicker to the puck in those corners. A few really good chances and a PP goal from Limbert. I believe Rollheiser gets his first BCHL point assisting on the Limbert goal. The Captain had a very good period. One shift in particular on the PK where he intercepted a pass in front of the net, won a puck battle in the corner of his own zone, got the puck deep to kill some time and made a big hit on Christian. That's leading by example. Christian is so fast and dangerous for PG. I think his line is limited tonight because Davies had to move back to D with McLeod and Forsythe were out. Good period, both teams played solid.
...Corcoran scores his second of the game in double overtime for a Smokies win. Possibly the most exciting game of the year. More later. Thanks for listening and reading! Now a 12 hour bus ride home...
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1 comment:
Thank you Shawn for the excellent reports from on the road. Keep up the good work!
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