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Monday, September 21, 2009

Stars shine

STOPLIGHT GAME REVIEW
vs. Minnesota
09.21.09
Score: 5-1 (Jackets)

GREEN
* The first line came to play. Some great line play as well as individual performances. Brass's pass was a thing of beauty on Clitsome's tally... Nash's goal was jaw dropping.. then the cake topper was the tic tac toe passing of Nash to Juice who found Brass who buried it. I hope that was just a taste of what is to come this year.

* John Moore was absolutely light's out.... as I was saying a couple of folks around me either he is that good or the guys around him are that bad. His skating is world class.. his hockey sense seems far and beyond his age... he vision looks outstanding and then how about that hip check? The kid will most likely go back to junior as you want him developing and not sitting but wow, he's much further along that I would have ever anticipated. This is a prime reason why you hang onto your first round picks folks -- sure some bust but it's how you get your hands on blue chip talent like a Moore.

* Game ops picking up there game! First the replays... the GLORIOUS REPLAYS!!!! From the multiple angle of goals to the replay of the fights.. absolutely LOVED IT!!! Then how about the music? 1,000,000 times better than anything I had heard previously and the crowd was absolutely digging it and getting pumped!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Kimberly Kershaw -- keep it goin!!

* The Hammond B3 gets its own green light. It totally kicked ass!!!

* Fights/scrums. First off I didn't know Blunden could drop them the way he did... then how Boll goes against a guy 3 inches taller who has at least another 20 lbs on him and hangs in there the way he did is somethin... Picard took care of his man with no problem then of course Clitsome's body slam. I generally liked the way everyone right down to Kris Russell was getting their noses dirty in this game.

* Picard was flying around all night. Really like his energy and he was getting down in those dirty areas which we could really use in our lineup. Gonna be hard to keep him off the opening night roster with his play.

* Clitsome... besides the He-Man "I have the power" strength he showed in his body slam take down.. he looked pretty solid out there.. nice finish on the goal and some solid plays with the puck.. I'm a big fan of his but will have to see him a few more times this preseason to tell if he's ready to lock down that #7 spot... he's a guy I definitely would like to see play a lot of minutes to continue his development be it here or another year on the farm.

* Vermette with an absolute beauty of a shorthanded goal that he created and finished all himself. I like his energy and elusiveness tonight as well. That 68% in the dot wasn't bad either!

*Ushers for finally figuring out its preseason and using their good judgement.

* Still love that cannon!!

* Just being in that arena for the start of a new season always gets a green light in my book.

* The Jacket Backers for a great ticket deal for those that renew their memberships!! Stlll tickets available for tonight's game and Sundays! Sign up or renew here!

* Jake's hair! Seriously though looked great and even more confident out there...

* Murray. Loved his game. He really battled hard in the corners and didn't lose many puck battles. I would like to see him shoot a little more when he has the looks.. he was guilty of trying to be too unselfish a bit last night. Guy is playing like he doesn't want to lose his spot which was great to see.

* The R Bar for being the R Bar!!

YELLOW
* Pahlsson looked pretty good... very active sticks.. excellent positioning... guess who was out there at the end of the game?

* Mayorov. Take this to the bank -- this guy will be a full time NHLer this time next season. I think he's taken a gigantic step since last year in every aspect of the game. Much more of a North American flavor to his game now. I just hope he stays committed to North America and keeps workin hard b/c he isn't that far away.

* While game ops took some major steps forward... I had to cringe when I saw the Austin Powers movie clip and then that Kiss Cam... I understand some fans like it... at least there was no sound this time with the movie clip and the gimmicks were kept to a minimum.

* Crowd was sparse but got really loud..especially towards the end with all the action..... I thought they really fed off the replays and music...

* Solid night for Mase between the pipes. He didn't see a whole lot of action but was there when he needed to be.

* Not a whole lot of missed shots which was encouraging.. heck, Huselius didn't even hit a post.

RED
* More injuries... Torres out with back spasms.. it looked like Boll hurt his hand.

* That lack of a big time shot is going to continue to haunt us... all I could think about when we had that 5 on 3 was if only Erhoff was back there to pull the big trigger.. instead we tried to work everything down low was the Wild did a good job of neutralizing.

* Friend of a friend who said "shutout" before the end of the game.. told ya I give you a red light ;)

3 BRIGHT LIGHTS ON THE NIGHT
1. Top line combined for 7 points.
2. Everybody getting their noses dirty.
3. Game Ops is back!!

Was really good to see the boys notch their first win. Even though it's "just preseason" nobody likes to lose.

The boys are back at it tonight at 7:00 EST at home vs. the Boston Bruins!

C-ya there!!

-LTL

5 comments:

Cam said...

How did Methot look last night?

Unknown said...

Dude... any green light on the extreme ice cleaning team?! Holy personnel!

LTL said...

Hahaha.. yeah I can't believe I forgot them!! Also what was up with the "ice girls" being all double layered?

Pub - Methot was solid... good physical game and got some nice shots through to create some offense.

-LTL

Unknown said...

Mary you bring up a great point. Maybe they are in camp too and will have cuts by the end of the week.

Moore looked decent but got knocked off the puck a few times. Looked smart and distributed well though.

The organ was genius, i can't wait to hear more songs while the 12 man team of ice cleaners do their job.

Could have done without the kiss cam, although it was funny with the girl called the guy next to her gay. Kinda ridiculous he was outed like that.

CBJ_Nut said...

The Hammond B3 was absolutely lights out compared to the tinny synthetic crap. Full and rich sound. But, Dawson (the organist) needs more work on it. He needs to develop more music that fits with the situation. Still more room for improvement from the game ops, IMO. Get better, but......we'll see when the regular season gets going and there are more fannies in the seats.