Oh we're gonna be singin' tonight. Either a sad blues song because we lost, or a slightly less sad one because we won but still have to play 20 more games and we're almost eliminated.
Okay, so last time these two teams met things did not go well. At all. Well we didn't actually play that terribly, but a red line goal that wasn't an empty netter is pretty embarassing. Then in the Nashville game we just looked pretty god awful. I don't know that really really could have played a whole lot worse. The Preds pilled up the Shots on goal in a hurry and Bryz saved a lot of them, but get enough quality shots and they'll start making their way through.
Five for Winning
Just Play Hockey: I don't know what game you were playing in Nashville. Tiddley-Winks? Monkey in the middle? Monopoly? Whatever it was it didn't look much like an NHL team. Break everything down into it's simplest parts. EVERYTHING! Put you name on all you equipment. Even your mouthguard. (Though I know you already put it on Jovo's, he needs the help) Yell "Heads up" When you're passing. Yell at the puck if it doesn't go in too. It worked for Happy...
Turn the Hitting Game Around: The hitting in our game on Tuesday against the Blues was brutal, and not in our favor. Remember that hit by Cam Janssen on Mikalek? (Video included later) Hopefully our guys do too because there should have been some sort of retaliation by our guys, but nada. Way to be. Hopefully our guys can play a decent game with a good crowd and light the Blues up. By the way, who names their kid after a character in some kid's mystery books?
Play Like a TEAM: All i've seen lately are guys skating around the ice on their own doing what they think they need to. I Haven't seen a TEAM skating with a mission, a purpose, or even a clue as to what THEY need to do. Granted that's hard to do when some people on the team aren't playing smart but if you're going down, you're all going down together, so you have to make it happen.
Stop it with the turnovers!: There were a constant stream of them in the last game at Nashville. And with them we handed the Preds the win on a silver platter. You have to treat the puck like it's yours and no one else is allowed to take it. Otherwise you end up getting the assist on the other team's goal. (Nice pass to Arnott, Jovo...)
Help a Brother Out: Ilya Bryzgalov faced 47 shots in the Nashville game. 47! That's absolutely rediculous. That happened as an all out failure of the rest of the team to do anything at all with the puck either on defense or being able to hold on to the puck for longer than 10 seconds at a time. You have to be the one taking the shots. Give Bryz a second to think at least.
Here's to hoping that we're in for a win tonight. The fans could use it, I could use it, Z4Dfense could use it (Happy Birthday!) EVERYONE (Blues excluded) Could use it.