Give Me The Puck, Damn It

Okay, Matt Hackett didn't really say that to Mike Yeo on Sunday afternoon. We don't know really know what the two said. We just know what they told us they said. But what we know is this: Yeo was going to start Josh Tordjman today. He told Hackett a couple of hours before the game, when they were at Toyota Center. And Hackett asked to play instead. And Yeo said fine, go for it.

It could be argued that Yeo, no matter what, should have gone with Tordjman in this game with the San Antonio Rampage. There's some validity to that argument since Tordjman has a lot of AHL experience, so he probably offered up the better chance for the win. But Yeo was after something else. He wanted to see what his young goalie was capable of. Whether he had that fire.
I think we saw the answer, a 3-1 win that saw Hackett play an excellent game.

I didn't see Saturday's 4-0 disaster at San Antonio -- I was watching the NFL Playoffs, and from what I understand, is you tried AHL Live you couldn't see it either -- so I don't really know how bad the kid, or the team as a whole, looked. But they held their own against San Antonio today, and Hackett did a hell of a job against one of the best teams in the league.

So, here are the bullet points.

1. Yeo says it is not his practice to let a player dictate his lineup, and he's not going to make it a practice. But there are circumstances when you let Hackett do what he did. Today was one of them.

"It’s quite the story," Yeo said. "We’re a development league, right? But we’re also here to win hockey games. I was going to play Josh today, and after talking with Matt, he wanted it. Badly. He said, I’m ready for this. I want the game. This is something that I’ve talked to him about, and we’ve talked to him about. The next step for him is, he’s got to show that he wants that. That’s he the guy. That he’s the man, take the wheel. I want to see some fight."

[SNIP]

"If he wants it that bad, I’m going to see what you’ve got then. I’m going to give you that opportunity, and he responded the right way. I was pretty impressed."

2. For those wondering, things like this happened with Kevin Constantine, as well. I can remember talking to Constantine in his office after Nolan Schaefer or Barry Brust had had a bad game, or several bad games, and asking who would go at goal the next day, and he would say one guy, then come game time, out would skate the other guy. And KC would say after the game that they talked and he saw that they wanted to get back out there and set things right.

3. I know that there will be injuries, and people moving up and down from Minnesota. I know that different guys will join the team and depart, etc., but...

I really like the way the lines shape up right now. I think that Peters/Ortmeyer/Gillies line is doing a great job of getting things started with just the right sense of energy and urgency. And I'm also liking the Rau/Earl/Daoust line. Earl's been playing some really good hockey for several weeks, but Daoust has suddenly started to come life.

4. We talked to Daoust after the game, and he attributed part of his early season slump to bad luck: "I’ve been working hard, and all of that," he said. "The puck didn’t bounce for me since the beginning of the year."

But Daoust attributed his turnaround to something besides the puck finally bouncing the right way. Yeo's got him paired up with Rau, and Daoust likes the pairing. He said they were paired a lot last season and they work well together.

5. Was that really Max Noreau almost getting into a fight at the end of the first period? Seriously, I can't remember the last time I saw Noreau close to a fight. That's not a knock against Max, it's just not his game. The framing's a bit off, or I would post a photo of it, but the best part of the near fight was Max jawing it out with Nolan Yonkman who as just towering over him.

6. The Lake Erie goalie didn't hang out in his corner when I was down there on Friday. But Matt Climie was sitting in his corner on Sunday. He was supposed to be taking notes, as he had a clipboard and paper and pin, but the guy was having fun, talking to the guards and arena personnel. People were handing pucks for him to sign, and he was doing that. And there were these kids behind us shouting about how they wanted to see blood and kill them -- the standard hockey stuff -- and he was just laughing away.

Once again, while the results do matter, it's all just a game, and it's all about having fun.

7. One of the guards asked him when he was going to play in Houston again, and Climie reminded him that his last time out, he got raked over the coals by the Aeros, so he wasn't eager to repeat the experience.

8. I'm kind of sick of the Rampage. So I guess it's kind of nice that these two teams won't face each other again until mid-March.

9. I'll have a story in the Press sometime on Monday with a focus on Hackett. So please look for it. I'll try and post it, but I'm facing a possible root canal on Monday morning, so I might have other things to worry about.