Well, that was a poor imitation of the Kelowna Rockets we saw tonight in a 2-1 loss to Windsor. No passion, no spark, no life in that team at all. The last two or three minutes of the game said it all - Kelowna lazily skating around with the puck, no effort being made at all to tie the game. Hell, they never even pulled Guggenberger at all. They didn't care if they lost.
I mean, I get why they didn't care....they're in the final regardless. And really, there is no harm in having Windsor win and thus require the tiebreaker game to be used - it basically opens up the possibility that Kelowna's opponent on Sunday will have had to play Thursday AND Friday, and maybe Wednesday too if it's one of the QMJHL teams that advances to the final. So it increases the chance of Kelowna's Sunday opponent being a tired hockey club.
But all I can say is, they better win on Sunday now and not have any bad habits from tonight's snoozefest carry over into the championship game.....
7 comments:
Sorry have to disagree a bit on this one. You call Cody Almond blocking 4 shots on the penalty kill and Colin Long another shot or two after that as not caring? I mean it's IMPOSSIBLE to play a rare May meaningless game like it's a Game 7 but for what the game meant I though Kelowna played a solid enough game and Googenberger was solid too.
It took all Windsor had in a must win game to pull out a tight one goal victory. Heck it makes the tourny more interesting and like you said the team that plays Kelowna will have to play an extra game or two now. No small feat this time of year.
OK, but what about that weak powerplay? Or the nonchalance, the total lack of urgency the Rockets showed once Windsor got the lead? There were enough guys in red last night who, in the third period for sure, simply weren't bothered by the idea of losing the game.
I'm sure some guys cared, a lot. But definitely not everyone.
I'm not criticizing the Rockets....we all know this was a who-cares game for them and we're talking about teenagers here, so nobody should be surprised really.
And the only way this can possibly hurt the Rockets is if Windsor somehow finds a way to get to the final and then wins. If that happens, I'm sure the Rockets will be wishing they had put the Spitfires away when they had the chance. But I can't see the Spits winning out in this tournament so really, it's a non-issue.
Actually the team that plays Kelowna may not have to play the extra game. That only happens if the winner of the tie breaker gets through to the Final.
I don't think the Rockets have played a 60 min game yet..they haven't had to. They played putrid last night. If the had played that way in the playoffs they wouldn't have won two rounds in the Dub. They were unmotivated, listless with no sense of urgency, Backlund was MIA and list goes on.
I don't think Kelowna cared overly because why make it easy on the Quebec clubs, they wouldn't on us. If Rimouski for some reason advances to the final, they would have to play 3 games to get there. Windsor and Drummonville have to play 2 more. Kelowna is still clearly in the drivers seat but I didn't like some of the bad habits creeping into their game.
Almond and Long blocking shots means, that they were 2 of only a few who really cared last night.
Look this happened both in 2001 (Red Deer) and 2002 (Kootenay) where they played Regina in 2001 and Victoriaville in 2002(the only team the lose their first two, have to play a tie-breaker and yet make it the final game).
Both yrs the WHL team could have gone 3-0 and yet lost to the team that was 0-2 and desperate for a win. Didn't matter then and it won't matter now.
It's not the point. If you're a competitive team, to go anywhere you have to have the desire to win, NO MATTER WHAT. I have no idea where you get that idea.
I think the Rockets are a competitive team, just ask Tri-City, Vancouver, and Calgary along with Rimouski and Drummondville.
It was ONE game that meant NOTHING as far as winning the cup goes. Like I said several teams before them have flopped in a meaningless game as well and still won the cup.
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