Sat,Nov 7... ER (6-9-3) @ NIA (7-10-3)

[Phil Margonis]

Back end of a home-and-home series. Things got pretty physical last night from the sounds of it so hopefully it carries over to tonight and we get a good game.

with Jaroslav Janus (TB 6th rounder 09) back he gives ER lots of confidence because he made lots of big saves last year when called upon.

Special teams edge Erie.

Otters draft Picks

D Davis Shields... STL 6th rounder 09
D Mitch Gaulton... NYR 6th rounder 08
G Janus (see above)
D Tyler Hostetter... PHI signed him this year

F Zack Torquato was a DET draft pick but they didn't sign him and he's no longer their property. He's a free agent and OA looking to land an NHL job.

Keep an eye on... F Andrew Yogan. Expected to go in the top 2 rounds of the 2010 NHL draft. Skilled, creative forward.

What happened to Friesen last night? Dogs better hope he's not out long.

add any thoughts or comments on this one

[AlphaDog]

One of the very few home games I'll be able to attend for the next few months. I was downtown picking someone up last night and had the game on the radio, it was 3-0. Then it went 3-1, then 3-2, I thought great, a comeback. Found out 15mins ago it was 9-3 Erie. DOH!

The Dogs *BETTER* come out hard tonight. If they can't match the Otters skill wise (and there's no reason they shouldn't) I want to see A LOT of hitting. I gave our young D the benefit of the doubt all year up until now, saying repeatedly I could endure a lot of losses throughout the beginning/mid season as long as they show improvement. A 7-0 loss not long ago and a 9-3 last night.. my patience can only be stretch so thin. But of course last night could be chalked up to HORRID goaltending. Even though I didn't see the game, 9 goals on 35 shots!? What the hell. That's letting in 1 out of ever 4 shots.

The Dogs have a lot to prove to their fans tonight.

On paper the teams are equally matched as far as team stats. They have 6 wins, we have 7. They have 58 goals for, 77 against - we have 60 for, 78 against.

Last night we did good (for us at least) allowing only 35 shots on net, but we only had 26 on them !

I want to see retribution on the scoreboard tonight.

[AlphaDog]

Originally Posted by Passionforhockey

lets hope the rematch tonight is much different on the scoreboard..

^^ I cut this quote out of the thread for last night's game.

Well tonight will be the first game I've been able to attend since... I don't even know when. Guelph on Oct.3 ?? Maybe Oct.8 vs. Brampton.

But as some might have picked up on judging from the mood of my last few posts... my tolerance level with this team is really getting close to the breaking point. Our best guys up front are playing great. After that it all goes to .. (where's that poopoo emoticon that we used to have..) Goaltending started out great, with Vis keeping us in game where we were getting outshot by 10 shots every single game. Now goaltending has gone to the crapper, our "big" D play with absolutely zero grit (except Traccitto), and some of our veterans are not only not helping us, they're hurting us.

If a goalie can stay above .900 I'll stay off his case. Not great, but not bad. Mediocre. Any less than that and he's a backup. You cant have your starting goalies below 900. Last game Vis faced 30 shots, let in 7 goals (77.6%) Simila faced 5 shots, and only saved 3 of them (60%). WTF.

I'll try and wait until xmas break and look at their overall averages before I really snap. Hopefully they can pull it back together.

But our D... if they don't start really throwing their size around - to make up for their lack of experience - I'm going to snap much sooner. I was SOO happy that we decided to swap out smaller d-men for big guys, but now it doesn't seem to matter what size they are if they're not going to use their size to an advantage.

Needless to say, I'll have my eyes set very closely on our D tonight. Start bangin and crashing or get off the roster and make room for someone who will. I said I'd be patient with their lack of experience - their skill can only get better. But it takes time. Physical play can start INSTANTLY though. They'd better start with it in order to help getting our shots allowed down. We're never going to move anywhere (except down) in the standings when ever game (on average) we're allowing 9 more shots on net than we're getting.

[strohs]

What a terrible game...after such a great and valiant effort on Thursday night against a top ten team in Canada, the Dogs have been outscored 15-5 in two consecutive games against a sub-par opponent.

I know there are a lot of rookies on this team and there is a large learning curve, but I have to say, three things, are going to make this a long season, and I attribute it mostly to poor coaching:

#1 - The PP...what a joke this is, they can't even gain the zone, and if they do, all they do is try for shots from the point, and rarely setting up a one timer.

#2 - Defense...cannot move the puck out of the zone, there does not appear to be much of a breakout plan in place, very haphazard leaving the zone.

#3 - Goaltending...I have been a fan of Visentin for the most part this year, but that third goal tonight, was incredibly weak, and was the killer in the game I think....I attribute goaltending to coaching as well because I think Simila should be playing more...perhaps Visentin is getting tired.

I think we're now in for a long season...what is going to happen when we start playing the top teams? London...Windsor....Kitchener...yikes...its going to get ugly.

Any news on Friesen? How long he'll be out? Missed watching him tonight.

I have to say th eline of Andrews, Dylan and Moes played quite well tonight...

[sparkymarky14j]

Originally Posted by strohs

What a terrible game...after such a great and valiant effort on Thursday night against a top ten team in Canada, the Dogs have been outscored 15-5 in two consecutive games against a sub-par opponent.

I know there are a lot of rookies on this team and there is a large learning curve, but I have to say, three things, are going to make this a long season, and I attribute it mostly to poor coaching:

#1 - The PP...what a joke this is, they can't even gain the zone, and if they do, all they do is try for shots from the point, and rarely setting up a one timer.

#2 - Defense...cannot move the puck out of the zone, there does not appear to be much of a breakout plan in place, very haphazard leaving the zone.

#3 - Goaltending...I have been a fan of Visentin for the most part this year, but that third goal tonight, was incredibly weak, and was the killer in the game I think....I attribute goaltending to coaching as well because I think Simila should be playing more...perhaps Visentin is getting tired.

I think we're now in for a long season...what is going to happen when we start playing the top teams? London...Windsor....Kitchener...yikes...its going to get ugly.

Any news on Friesen? How long he'll be out? Missed watching him tonight.

I have to say th eline of Andrews, Dylan and Moes played quite well tonight...

I have to agree with you here. But you are way too polite. Tonight was a pathetic performance. If these guys don't want to play hockey then its time to pack it in and let somebody who wants to play the game have a shot at it. D.Hamilton, Insam, Visentin and a few others should hang their heads in disgust. I talked to Freisen and he didn't know what was really wrong with his shoulder. Other than it was hurting like hell. He is missed out there on the ice. We had one spark plug tonight and that was Chris DeSousa. He definately should be made captain. Other than that. Pathetic. Simply pathetic.

[Passionforhockey]

mccourt said on the radio he is day to day, as its an upper body injury
they wont risk him now ... better to be safe than sorry
someone said he was wearing a sling or something

[AlphaDog]

re: Friesen

He'll be out 2 weeks.

re: game

Well, Insam must have read something on here because I was actually quite impressed with him throwing his weight around a bit. Theoret on the other hand needs to start learning to do the same. I actually saw him tonight put on the breaks to STOP from hitting a guy who passed away the puck (and yes he still had lots of time to finish the check).

Goaltending... hmph... 6 goals on ... what, 40 or 41 shots? That's letting in 1 in 7. That's gotta be up around 1 in 10 minimum. Hopefully we can just chalk it up to him still being young and having a hard time to get out of a mental slump. He's SHOWN the skill is there in the past this year, so any struggle he's got going on the last few games has got to be in his head.

I'd like to see more shots on net when we get 10 feet over their blue line, instead of carrying it deep then trying to do some stupid cross-ice pass which always gets picked off. Although this team has always done those...

Dave Brown needs to treat the Pietrangelo situation as though he is GONE. Get a veteran d-man back there. Someone the others can watch. If Petro comes back, juggling things then. But this is just plain stupid waiting and waiting and waiting for him to come back to magically fix everything. If the Blues haven't said to the Dogs "yes he'll be back" then treat him as though he's staying up there. I'm not sure what/who we could trade to get some experience on the D, but we need some experience back there that the other blue line youngins can learn from.

Notable game by Moes who made his presence felt physically and around the net. Nice scrap by DeSousa to start it all off.

[godogsgo!!!]

I think half of our issue is the coaching. We need to do better than Mike McCourt!!! He stands on the bench with his thumb up his butt for most of the night.... Why wouldn't he pull Visentin at the end when we were on the power play and make it a 6 on 3? Whats the worst that could happen they score another goal? We were already down!!!

[sparkymarky14j]

Originally Posted by godogsgo!!!

I think half of our issue is the coaching. We need to do better than Mike McCourt!!! He stands on the bench with his thumb up his butt for most of the night.... Why wouldn't he pull Visentin at the end when we were on the power play and make it a 6 on 3? Whats the worst that could happen they score another goal? We were already down!!!

Mike McCourt doesn't play the game. Granted he may not be the best coach, but look what he has to work with. I was just thinking about it and we are in worse shape now than we were at the same time last year. Does everyone remember what turned the team around? A VETERAN goalie. Our goalies have let in numerous softies in the past few games. We can't play great one game and suck the next two. If we picked up a goalie and added one maybe two defencemen who are not afraid of their own shadows we might do something. How can you be hyped up for a game when you already know the outcome. Its time for management to do something and get a few players or they may lose some season ticket holders.

[slats]

Originally Posted by sparkymarky14j

Mike McCourt doesn't play the game. Granted he may not be the best coach, but look what he has to work with. I was just thinking about it and we are in worse shape now than we were at the same time last year. Does everyone remember what turned the team around? A VETERAN goalie. Our goalies have let in numerous softies in the past few games. We can't play great one game and suck the next two. If we picked up a goalie and added one maybe two defencemen who are not afraid of their own shadows we might do something. How can you be hyped up for a game when you already know the outcome. Its time for management to do something and get a few players or they may lose some season ticket holders.

How are you going to develop a goalie if you don't play him. This team isn't built to contend this year anyways so why waste draft picks to bring in a vet goalie. The last two seasons we have done that and where did it get us?...The second round. In my opinion you need to play the guy and let him get some experience. Having him sit on the bench if we brought a vet. in is just stupid, we will be in the same position next year as far as goaltending goes. How many starts did Visser get after Smith came in last year? This is the OHL, you don't have a contending team every year. You suck for a couple years, and you go for in another year.