MAINEiacs Vs Rocket-Wednesday

[Krang7]

brec7 said:

What has the PP looked like in the first 3 games? I found it interesting that it seemed like it would start with an umbrella and the 2nd unit would be two guys set up the point.

The PP has been pretty lackluster, for the most part, in the first two games. Adding Latal seemed to help things. We have a lot of skill on the first PP unit, the problem is that we don't have a quarterback in our defence corps. Morrison is probably better suited to play up front on the PP, but we've been using him at the backend for his playmaking abilities.

I'm sure what would be ideal would be to have Morrison play centre on the PP and drop Doyle back to the point with his big shot. If we had an offensive QB type defenceman he could handle the playmaking that Morrison is being forced to do.

A friend and I were discussing how awesome our PP would be if Gragnani was still here. It would honestly be deadly.

[bois]

I will echo most of what was said here.. first period looked like more of the same old same old lackluster crap we'd seen so far but wow whatever happened after Lessard scored and woke the troops up.. what a difference. I do agree the shots were a bit sketchy.. I too noticed Lewy having a shot taken away and in one scramble near Delmas we got credit for 5 shots at once lol

Latal's return obviously was the spark for our top six but our bottom six still worries me.. mostly because we barely saw them... Cliche didn't seem to play much after the 2nd.. Schmidt I don't think had more than 4 shifts.. Desroches also barely played.. Maclean didn't get a shift until the 2nd and may have got 3 in total for the game.... on defense we played the hell out of our top 4 and gave Malouin very limited duty and as mentioned didn't play Clow even once which is a shame... Yannick Jean better get better control over bench management.. in this game there is absolutely no reason not to roll all lines and all 6 d.. Lewiston didnt dress a veteran team... oh well we got our win but it's not much wonder our offense is so top heavy and our "stars" fade as the year goes on.. and our rookies rarely develop

good luck on the road boys

[CrazyJoeDavola]

bois said:

I will echo most of what was said here.. first period looked like more of the same old same old lackluster crap we'd seen so far but wow whatever happened after Lessard scored and woke the troops up.. what a difference. I do agree the shots were a bit sketchy.. I too noticed Lewy having a shot taken away and in one scramble near Delmas we got credit for 5 shots at once lol

Latal's return obviously was the spark for our top six but our bottom six still worries me.. mostly because we barely saw them... Cliche didn't seem to play much after the 2nd.. Schmidt I don't think had more than 4 shifts.. Desroches also barely played.. Maclean didn't get a shift until the 2nd and may have got 3 in total for the game.... on defense we played the hell out of our top 4 and gave Malouin very limited duty and as mentioned didn't play Clow even once which is a shame... Yannick Jean better get better control over bench management.. in this game there is absolutely no reason not to roll all lines and all 6 d.. Lewiston didnt dress a veteran team... oh well we got our win but it's not much wonder our offense is so top heavy and our "stars" fade as the year goes on.. and our rookies rarely develop

good luck on the road boys

You think Jean is coaching to keep his job at this point, by playing the top 2 lines like its playoff time? Or does he typically play his top guys relentlessly? MacAdam did that worse than anyone Ive seen, where you had no idea most nights the 3rd/4th liners were dressed.

[bois]

He typically plays the top guys relentlessly.. and i'm sure there might be some pressure on him to keep his job, however in a game like last nights against a very inexperienced Lewiston club there was no reason not to find the young kids some ice.. and even more disturbing the 19 year olds (Schmidt, Paynter, Locke, Lachaine).. just my opinion

[IslandersHKY]

A couple of thoughts about the game.

Firstly I thought Lewiston played hard but they were missing a their 3 top forwards which makes a huge difference so I personally I don’t consider last night’s win a real sign of anything.

I thought last night Jean looked like he was coaching to keep his job and is likely feeling the pressure already although I hated how he pretty much played only 6 forwards and 4 defense against a weaker team last night. On the positive side at least that meant he kept his lines together with minimal adjustments.

As for player thoughts.

Latal was a burst of energy that this team desperately needed. He continues to fly around out there and really played well especially considering he only just got back from Phoenix. Big addition to have him back and I like that he is showing signs of starting to make more of those opportunities that he creates with his speed by getting good shots on net. If he is keeps that up the goals are going to continue to come.

Walker had a very solid game and I am loving the improved work ethic and his leadership by example. His skating looks much improved and he is regularly the first man on the puck in the offensive corners.

Lessard was his steady self as usual and played another solid game.

Morrison still doesn’t look at his best but still better than 95% of the players in this league. But I really don’t like him on the point because his is not a threat from there. He really should be at the half-boards like Doug Weight.

Doyle had a much better game than his previous two and was effective.

Kana gives you a consistently great effort every night. At only 17 he has some developing to do but he certainly has all the tools and the work ethic. I think he is a player who is going to really produce in the second half.

The message I got from from DesRoches playing top line was Jean was rewarding his good effort from the first 2 games. If that is what he was trying to do then I liked it, although as much as I like DesRoches’s effort he really doesn’t fit there. We will likely see Latal there going forward.

Lachaine had a solid game and he got some good ice time rotating between the 3rd line centre and 2nd line wing.

I thought Locke looked really good in the first half but then didn’t really play much. He really deserved more ice time than he got. Likewise with Malouin who I also thought was solid in the first half but got limited ice time in the second.

Very disappointed that Schmidt barely played because I can’t understand why, likewise it is horrible that Clow didn’t play at all. And it would have been nice to give Paynter, MacLean & Cliche at least a few more regular shifts. Hard to sit cold for most of a period and then get thrown out.

And I have to give some credit to Swit who was much better. Last night he seemed to keep things a little more simple and wasn’t running around all over the place. Still not what I want from a 20 yr old defenseman but he was better than his previous games.

Lafleur let in one weak one but made a couple great saves so it balances out to an average performance but a good win.

Anyway the Rocket are no longer winless but still haven’t really proven anything yet. It will be important to go in with 2 good efforts against the Fog Devils and hopefully 2 wins to show that this team can start to roll.

[Stuck in a Loop...]

Just somethin i should point out there from last nights game, after that great rush from latal when he got his penalty for roughing i believe( which brought out the Boo birds) he did deserve it, he clearly started the scrum by crosschecking the lewistin player, i dunno how many saw that because most were clapping for him at the time, i saw this clearly from section 17....

[Krang7]

There wasn't even a scrum, he gave the Hudon-Paquette a little shove while skating by (which he probably deserved because he was being a pest out there), and H-P gave him a shove back. That was it.

Definetly not penalty worthy for either, it was just Thane trying to get his show in for the night.

[nolman29]

Today at school, me and my friend were gonna find Thane and ask him if he returned his Lewiston jersey back. lol