I know some won't find this to be particularly redemptive of last night's goose egg, but as usual, our mid-westerner behind the lens, Chris "Not Lusty for Brusty" Jerina did a great job capturing the game and making it look not nearly as painful as it actually was.
I feel slightly less hateful after looking at them. Though that could also be from spending my morning taking it out on all the frozen-dead foliage in my back yard. Gardening is therapeutic.
Let's eat our veggies first:
Sorry Smitty. It was hit in with a high stick, according to the ref, so No Goal. I still don't understand how, if MY defenseman hits it in with a high stick, it's still a goal against me, but if my opponent does, it isn't. But that's another story.
How the hell does this not go in?
Would love to be a fly on the cage here... Kinda wanna blocker the smug right off Santorelli's face. True Fact: Goalies are allowed to use blocker as a verb. "I blockered it into the corner." "He ran my crease so I blockered him right in the jewels."
Welcome to everywhere BUT the inside of the net, puck.
ROBBED! Have mercy, Dex...
Okay, on to the pretties:
*shudder* Yes. Just like this.
CRRRRONCH!
Me, too, honey. Me, too.
And finally, my favorite of the bunch. So many intense faces. Love it.
But whatever the case, the Aeros were terrible tonight. They're playing like a team with no leadership, even though apparently the room is full of leaders. I'm not seeing it, folks.
They're letting the frustrations get to them. They're gripping their sticks, shooting everything wide. They're fighting needlessly. Yeah, it's good to drop 'em strategically, but this was too much and hurt them in the end.
Never ever should Max Noreau get himself into a situation where he's off the ice for 7 minutes straight. If there aren't enough tough guys on this team, then get more tough guys, but Max is the team's second leading scorer, the top scoring defenseman in the AHL... we know you WILL do stand up for your teammates, Max. But don't.
You too, Almond Joy. Sometimes you just need to be a Mounds bar instead and go try and put the puck in the net.
Credit to Milwaukee for smelling the blood in the water and being opportunistic. When guys are skating into their offensive zone with the puck dangling 10 feet away off their stick (when did Pouliot come back? and why is he skating funny?), turning it over (and over and over) that says to the opposition that they've got a bunch of guys who don't wanna get hit. A bunch of guys who don't want to pay the price to protect the puck and hold the zone.
Dekanich was good, but not terribly challenged outside of a few scrambles. And of course, got lucky with the non-goal that was waived off due to coming in off a high stick, though my all accounts it was a legit call.
On both Aeros goals against, the defense was trying to do Brusty's job for him rather than covering his backside where he really needed him. Look boys, he's good at this. Let him see the puck. GTF out of his way, get where you can clear rebounds and protect the back door. It's ridiculous that there were TWO guys tightly flanking Brusty on that first goal when it was just a straight on shot and there was a rush coming down the other side at an open net.
*deepbreath* Here's the gamesheet if you want a sense of the senselessness.
Chris "Remind Me Why I Like the Aeros More That the Ads?" Jerina will have some pics to share tomorrow, I suspect. Apologies to him as he is stuck with this team one more night in Chicago. You're a real trooper, man. Thanks.
Here is a good read about former Aero Hnat Domenichelli, who is currently playing for Team Suisse in the 2010 Games.
He was a dynamic part of the Aeros 2003 Calder Cup Championship.
Enjoy!
Also, the Aeros have 24 games left, and they need to go AT LEAST 16-8 the rest of the way to have a good shot of making the playoffs. If the Aeros go 16-8 (.667), that will give them 94 points. That means Milwaukee needs to go 13-9 (.541) the rest of the way for the Aeros to have a shot.
You can start marking them down now; if the Aeros get to nine losses before the end of the season, they are done.
First off, John has a new Aeros post over at the Press looking at the dire straits the Aeros are in with regard to the playoff push. Please go check it out, leave nice comments, etc.
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Also, our very own Chris Jerina has seen the light and started a Photo of the Day blog to show off his fantastic photos that just don't get used for whatever reason between A.S.S. or T3I or wherever else. Of course, they're not necessarily Aeros photos but they're all good stuff.
Have a look. It's only on day 2, but it's worth throwing on your Google Reader list so you can enjoy some great hockey photography every day. Or at least when he feels like it.
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Finally, fellow Aeros (and other stuff) blogger, Blog 4 That, has a cool report from a locker room tour over the weekend. Looks like a fun excursion!
For those of you who didn't make the game, here's an iPhone photo of the Aeros alt jerseys that they wore today. The only thing, in my opinion, that ruined these jerseys was that stupid Aeros logo. I know I'm in the minority, but I just don't like the team's logo. But the colors looked great.
That was a pretty pitiful weekend of hockey, if you ask my opinion. The Aeros, with a chance to gain some ground in the playoff hunt, found themselves playing not only some uninspired hockey, but some stupid hockey.
There were numerous defensive breakdowns throughout the entire weekend, and if not for Barry Brust's play in goal, there's no telling how bad the losses would have been. And twice over the weekend the Aeros gave up short-handed goals. I see the stats, and I know the Aeros are supposed to have a good power play, but when's the last time we've seen a power play goal from this team at Toyota Center?
Kevin Constantine defended the team's offense tonight, saying that while the team wasn't scoring, it was getting good chances, and that all that you can ask is for a team to get good chances. The problem, as I saw it, however, was that the right players weren't getting the good chances. Some of today's best chances came from Brandon Rogers. I like Rogers a lot, but he's not the guy who should be having the best scoring chances.
And I know the played three games in three days and that they were tired. But I hate that excuse. The Chicago Wolves were playing their third game in three days tonight, all on the road, and they were missing some of their best players. But that didn't get to them. And not to go off on a rant, but I'll tell you what's hard and tiring. Try being so damn desperate work that you have to take a temp job that demands you work 11 hours a day, five days a week, and wants you to work weekends -- and where they make you ask permission to go to the doctor if you're having problems with your hearing because you didn't request that time back last month before the job started. That's hard. That's tiring.
I'm going on too long about something that has nothing to do with the game. I'm just disappointed, and I know that I didn't see the team play on the ice like they're capable of playing.
************************************************* One further note: Peter Zingoni was reinjured in Friday night's loss. I saw him Saturday before the game, and he wasn't in the best of spirits, and I can't help but feel for the guy. He was just trying to make a play on offense, trying to get off on a breakaway, and he went to hit a guy in front of him, and just like that he was hurt. You can just see not only how pained he is by the injury, but how pained he is by not being able to play.
He missed most of last season with an injury, and he came to Houston hoping to prove that that season was a fluke. He got off to a really hot start, and teamed up with rookies Cody Almond and Carson McMillan, he looked to be having a break out year. Then he hurt his knee, and he's been in-and-out, mostly out, for the season.
That's it. Thanks, as always, for reading us here at T3I. We do appreciate it.
It was Texas Lottery night at the Aeros game. I missed the intermissions so I have no idea if someone won a million bucks or whatever, but I do know that 55 seconds into the extra session tonight, the nearly 7000 fans in attendance tonight saw 20 guys who looked like they'd just won a million bucks.
Kevin Constantine called it playoff style hockey and said the team has to be able to play these tight games. Well, play they did. It looked like another team out there compared to the night before with odd man rush after odd man rush beating both goalies down mentally and physically in the 7-2 loss to the very same Grand Rapids Griffins.
Mainly the defensive play was the big improvement. Fewer turnovers, incredible, crisp work around the net, getting sticks in the right places, clearing rebounds, etc. But improved goaltending was the other side of the coin.
Constantine said the decision to play Brust again after being "average" last night was a tough one. But he said he went that route because he deserved the chance to redeem himself, and great athletes will do that.... after a lousy, er, "average" appearance, they have that bounce-back-ability.
He made 22 saves en route to his first shut out of the season, and showed yet again why he's one of the better "back against the wall" goalies in the league. He was seeing the puck well, great lateral movement and positioning, challenged shooters. Just great stuff.
I found this on the floor outside the visitors' locker room tonight: But like I mentioned in my post on Ms.C this morning, as much as it undermines your confidence as a goalie to see your team floundering from the get-go, it instills that much more confidence when you see them clicking well from the start. And it goes full circle. A confident goalie means the team doesn't feel like they need to overcompensate for them, so they just do their jobs.
It wasn't a perfect game for sure, but the penalty kill was very good, which it needed to be due to a few lapses in discipline. The power play, on the other hand, was pretty weak. The Griffins are excellent at shutting down advances into their end, clogging up the neutral zone, and just making life difficult, and that applied to the power play and pretty much the rest of the game.
By my estimation (and keep in mind, I was at the other end of the rink the whole time), seems like probably half the shots on goal for the Aeros were just gritty work around the net trying to jam a rebound in, not from necessarily spending a whole lot of TIME in the Griffin's end.
And that's exactly how Daoust's OT game winner went in. Just one of those go-stand-in-the-dirty-area-and-pray kinda goals, off a shot from Noreau that scrambled around a bit and finally punched in. That was Daoust's 17th goal of the season, third game winner, and Noreau's 41st point of the season.
That also makes Noreau the #2 scorer on the team, one point ahead of DiSalvatore. Pretty impressive for a d-man. You have to start wondering when he gets a sniff up in Minnesota, right?
Anyway, the Weebles wobbled but they didn't fall down, and in an 80 game season, that's just kinda how it has to be sometimes. Great story of redemption tonight.
John's off having a well-deserved bender, so I'll be your DJ tonight. How about a little Zombie action:
Sorry, I've got no comforting words after this one. The final score might have been 7-2, but trust me, it wasn't that close. Barry Brust didn't appear to have his best game tonight, but then again, his defense didn't appear to have its best game either as both he and Wade Dubielewicz, who played the last part of the third period, were both hit repeatedly by odd-man rushes and breakaways.
Kevin Constantine wasn't in the best of moods afterwards. He was disappointed by his team's non-thinking on the ice. He was very displeased about how the team played a chance at a potential 5-3 power play into being on the penalty kill. The defense wasn't good. The offense didn't take advantage of their chances. There's just nothing good to say.
Peter Zingoni left the game in the first with a lower body injury. Constantine played only three centers in the second period, then he moved Brandon Rogers up front in the third.
The Aeros needed this win tonight -- they just about need a win every time they play. And they looked awful. Not sure of what else there is to say. So I'm out going to wrap it up. Let's hope tomorrow night leaves us with a better result.
Apologies, again, for the short post. I've got to get up at 5:00 a.m. for the temp job -- I'm should get about 65 hours this week and I have decided that sleep is overrated. Hopefully Heather or Andrew can add some more words of wisdom than I'm capable of at the moment.
So, when I play like shit, my teammates just kind of keep their distance. I'm not stupid. I know I sucked. I don't need a lecture. I do, though, get a lot of looks like the Goalie Angel was dishing out tonight: But to be perfectly honest, it only makes it worse. And in fact, a word or two... a tap on the pads... would do wonders for me when I'm in quicksand up to my ears.
So, my dearest Aeros... Here you go:
"Hey boys. Get it together. You're letting them under your skin. " *tap tap*
Back to front, this team is so much better than it was tonight. KC didn't really have an explanation for it. It's just one of those, "Don't do it again" kinda nights.
John will pick it apart a little more for history's sake, but really.... maybe it's best to just pretend this didn't happen and get a do-over tomorrow. That feels good to me.
CRRRRONCH!
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