Memorial Cup

On Thu, 22 May 2008 09:55:18 -0700 (PDT), Gerry <gerry14 RemoveThis @hotmail.com>
wrote:

>On May 21, 8:31 pm, Rick Currie <rickcurri... RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>> Anyone watching any of this?  Specifically Belleville and P.K. Subban?
>>
>> He looks pretty good.  I gotta say, he's a hell of skater.  
>
>I'm watching. I'm most surprised so far by how Kitchener has kind of
>lost their edge. They've really struggled on D, and I've never really
>trusted Unice. It looks like the trade for Mason is really going to
>bomb for them.
>
>l8r,
>Gerry


I heard that Yannick Weber was injured. Could that account for the
struggle on D?
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On May 22, 5:56 pm, Jim Herriot <bimps....DeleteThis@spamsasktel.net> wrote:

> I heard that Yannick Weber was injured.  Could that account for the
> struggle on D?

Weber has been back the last two games. He was pretty rusty in the
first one, but he looked a lot better against Belleville. Still,
Weber doesn't really provide any defense to the team. His forte is on
the PP, with a side dish of help on transition. But where the
Kitchener defense has fumbled IMHO is more in the coverage situations
in their own zone, and I don't see Weber doing too much there. The
Rangers have still managed to get their shots and scoring chances on
offense even through this latest tumble (dating back even to
Belleville's 3-game win streak in the OHL finals). Having Weber in on
D will nevertheless be better than having a forward like Scott
Tregunna playing D.

Not getting clutch goaltending will always make the D seem worse too,
and I think we're seeing the "real Josh Unice" in net for them now.
Not that Unice or his level of play has really changed. But his
weaknesses were somewhat masked in the day-to-day OHL action when the
Rangers were more capable of overpowering their opposition. Now you
stand him in there against strong teams like Spokane and Belleville,
and better goalies like Murphy and Tokarski, and Unice just isn't up
to those challenges IMHO. At least, not to a degree where he's likely
to be a positive difference-maker for his team, which sometimes you
want your #1 goalie to be. Unice isn't terrible or anything, and he's
a fair pick as an NHL draftee, but I find he still plays too deep and
he's down too quickly for a guy who doesn't have a lot of size to
compensate.

I guess we'll see if Kitchener can pull their dream season hopes out
of the fire tonight in the semi-final against Belleville. As Habs
fans, we'll have either Subban or Weber through to the final anyway.

l8r,
Gerry
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Just as a post-mortem on that, our guys lost. Still, you can watch
Spokane and admire that it's the "Habs colours" winning on the ice,
even if Weber and Subban were eliminated. :)

Subban was pretty brutal I thought in the semi-final. He made some
costly errors and blew his coverage a few times in the midst of the
9-0 drubbing the Bulls suffered. Of course, they were steamrolled and
pretty much everybody stunk for the Bulls, so his play didn't really
cost them.

The Rangers played better than the score would have indicated in
losing to Spokane, I thought. Weber didn't do too much. He had a
couple costly penalties, and Spokane effectively stymied the Rangers
and Weber on their PP attempts.

Well, we still have our ECHL affiliate in Cincinatti active in the
ECHL finals, so we're not finished yet! Go Habs! :)

l8r,
Gerry
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