This Calls For A Round-Up!

I feel bad for letting so much time pass since the last post, but since the blog only has four regular readers I guess I haven't dissapointed too many perople. The Blades are halfway through their road trip, and it has been quite successful! They defeated both the Walleye and the Nailers, and won a game and lost a game to the Wings. They even managed to get a point from the loss, by storming back in the third and forcing a tie. Unfortunately, they were unable to get anything in OT and had to go to a shootout, which they lost. The wins have pushed the Blades up in the ECHL standings, they are now 2nd in the South division, 3rd in the American Confrence, and 5th overall. I think some of the resons are obvious when you look at player standings...

- Flick is 1st in league in points, and Hennigar 9th.

-They are also 1st and 7th in assists as well.

- CBT is 8th and Rebound is10th in the league when it comes to GAA.

-They have scored on the Power Play in ten straight games.

-And Baker is back! He played his first game on Wednesday and has scored a goal in three straight games.

There are three more games this week, they play the Walleye Wednesday, and the Cyclones Friday and Saturday. Then the Blades are back in town next week (just in time for my birthday!). There has been some roster stuff...

- Aiello, Gajic, Roy, and Stanley are all on the IR list

- CBT has been called up to the Amerks, I don't think he'll be getting into something like this...



Some random bits for you...

- I found my new favorite page on the Blades website- The schedule and results all on one page!

- For the home games on the 9th, 11th, and 12th if you bring a canned food item for the Harry Chapin Food Bank, you get a free ticket to the Colege Classic.

- Also if you bring a box of Mac & Cheese on the 11th you can take part in Mac & Cheese night. You get to use it as a noise maker then donate it to the HCFB (this is the teams idea not mine).

- This Saturday is snow day! It's free, and they will be having Zamboni sleigh rides! Also there will be food and other stuff, but come on, Zamboni sleigh rides! I wonder if I can get off Saturday, I'm sure my boss will understand...

- A timely Wikipedia hockey page, Hat-trick! I love seeing the Rangers lose almost as much as the Flyers.

Pens Win!

Monday was so awesome! This is the second time I've been able to see the Pens play live (they've won both times), what made this trip better was the awesome seats we were able to get. I really am grateful to the Panthers organization for dropping ticket prices, and for having such a nice facility.

The Panthers played a great game; they were able to hold off the Pens for most of it. But, the Pens love coming back in the third and they proved it. I was super excited to see two of my favorite goalies, Fleury and Vokoun, in net. I could have lived without the Panthers ugly third jerseys that they chose to debut (I can't believe how many fans ran off during the first intermission to buy one).

I've decided that I'm going to make more of an effort to watch Panthers games; I really did like what I saw (for most of the game). I was also able to catch part of the Rupp vs. Allen fight on video! I went ahead and uploaded that one and some others from last night, as well as last Friday's Blades/Royals game. The Blades are playing tonight, and if my turkey day isn't too crazy I'll try to get a post in.

8-7-2

I just wanted to get a quick post in before heading over to the East coast to see the Penguins/Panthers game. I did go to the game on Friday, which the Blades lost 5-2. I got some videos (which will be up on the YouTube channel tomorrow hopefully), and took some pictures. The team was looking pretty good in the second, and Caria scored a goal in the third, but at the 18 minute mark the Royals scored and then less than a minute later they scored again.

Luckily, they woke up Saturday and ended up beating the Royals 4-0. McJannet, Henigar, Thelen and Hotham all got goals. And Beckford-Tseu was named the star of the night for the shut-out. The Blades will now be on a two week road-trip. They will face the Nailers on Wednesday, the Walleye Friday, back-to-back games this Saturday and Sunday against the Wings, and next Thursday and Friday against the Checkers. Hopefully the boys remember whatever it is they felt on Saturday and earn some points!

We Have Videos!

The videos from Wednesday nights mess are finally on YouTube, but to save you guys the trouble I've embedded them here. Hoffman and Zanons fights came out pretty good, I only got the end of Paquets and McJannets was too blurry.









It was announced yesterday that Zanon was fined and suspended for one game for the boarding that led to that fight. That means he won't be in the line-up tonight, but should be back by Saturday.

I'm not sure if I'll get to the game tonight, but I'm trying! If I do go I will be tweeting live from the game.

What A Fiasco!

The game last night was horrible, I had a ponding headache by the time I left. The only upside were my seats for last night game were awesome As you can see in some of my pictures). I really have to thank you season ticket holding neighbor of my friend! Unfortunately, the Blades didn't play that awesome. They looked sloppy, and undisciplined. The second period had to be the worst, and I was really annoyed by the end of the game.

The Royals players were a bit dramatic with their falls, Steiner even received a penalty for diving (I honestly can't remember the last hockey game I saw that penalty assesed). But some of the stuff that went on last night was just dumb. The guys looked like they had no idea how to play together. It was very upsettng to watch them make dumb mistake after dumb mistake. The epitome of the stupidity happened in the second period, Hoffman, doing his job, got into a fight (and won). McJannet then decides to get into a fight 19 seconds later! Then, 26 seconds later Paquet got into a fight too! I'm sure this would have kept going on if the Royals coach hadn't yelled at his players to stop. I'm all for hockey being physical but this isn't Slap Shot, being a buch of goons isn't the way to win a game. That to me was the best example of what went wrong last night, everyone wanted to be the hero but no one wanted to actually work hard at it. Of course the penalty box was pretty full at this point, so of course Thelen decides to cross check a Royal  a few minutes later(I have more to say about Thelen later). The stupid crap continued into the third period, there was no glimmer of hope at all.

As you can see from the gamesheet, penalties were handed out left and right. There was also a goalie change to start the third with Beckford-Tseu taking over for Brusty. Woody from the NDN Blades' blog later reported that Brusty had experienced a minor injury. He has also reported that coach Cameron was pissed with the guys aftwer the game, and honestly I don't blame Cameron, I was pretty pissed too.

I  feel the need to call out two players after last night. I may be off base on this, but Thelen and Lang are starting to irritate me. I've noticed Thelen taking a lot of dumb penalties lately. He has been very undisciplined. That's dissapointing because I thought he was an important part of the team last year, and was happy to see him re-sign this year. Lang, on the other hand, has been playing without any heart. He has always been my favorite player, and if you look back in this blog you can see how long I waited for the announcement he was playing this year. I could be wrong, maybe last night has me looking for someone to blame, but those two have been catching my attention lately.

 Now that I feel better after getting all of that off of my chest, some odds and ends...

-The team passed out the first trading card set last night. The card included were Metcalf, Gajic, Mcflikier, J. Morrison, M. Morrison, Hennigar, Buck, Hotham, Reid, and Baker.

-Morrison has been called  up to the Albany River Rats as another Hurricanes goalie has been injured.

-Breault has decided to leave the team and go back to college

-If anyone can clue me in on what the little notebook Beckford-Tseu and Brusty were writing on I'd appreciate it. One of my friends at the game, who has played hockey his whole life, had no idea. There was a grid and x's, and some of the guys coming off the ice would tell CBT and Brusty something, which would then be written down.

-The blog is starting to average a pretty decent amount of visitiors which is a really good sign. It's nice to know people are actually interested in the Blades.

-And some awesome shots of our goalies, Brusty pics on the right CBT on the Left (I blame my goalie fixation on Tom Barrasso, by the way).

I did get all four of the fights from last night on video, althought two are pretty blurry and I'm debating if I should upload those two to YouTube. Either way I usually can't get video up until Saturday, but if it's sooner I'll you'll hear about it. And, I'm not sure yet on if I can make the Friday game, althought I'll try. I'm also heading over to the east coast to see the Pens take on the Panthers on Monday, you might have suffer through a post about that, sorry.