Sorry for no posts this last week or so - I've been in the middle of moving to a new house and haven't had time to update the blog.
I did see the Brandon/Windsor game last Friday, the Calgary/Brandon game last night, and most of the Calgary/Moncton game on Saturday. Saw none of the Brandon/Moncton, Calgary/Windsor, or Windsor/Moncton games, unfortunately although I saw the highlights.
I posted about the Brandon/Windsor game already. Some thoughts on the rest of the Memorial Cup....
I thought Moncton was better than an 0-3 team. They very nearly beat Calgary and they didn't look terribly out of place against Brandon or Windsor. Granted, Calgary and Windsor could have played better for portions of those games against Moncton. Was it just me or did the Windsor/Moncton game look like Windsor would have been OK with a loss? They were already guaranteed a spot in the Sunday final and a Moncton win would have forced a tiebreaker game tonight between Moncton and the loser (Brandon) of last night's Calgary/Brandon game.
Windsor looks awfully good and it's going to take a heckuva effort by Calgary/Brandon to beat them on Sunday. Whoever the WHL rep in the game is, they will need better goaltending than they got in their round-robin games with the Spitfires. If they're going to beat a team like that, they can't give up any freebies.
Calgary has gotten better as the tournament progressed. Poor first 40 minutes against Moncton. Better effort against Windsor but still not as good as they can play. Good effort against Brandon.
The game last night may have been almost meaningless in the standings picture (Calgary's win gives them last line change tomorrow night, and that's about it) but are the psychological implications more important for the Hitmen? They have now beaten the Wheat Kings five straight times, including three straight times in Brandon's rink. The last two meetings have a combined score of 11-2 for the Hitmen and have both seen Brandon's play get chippier and chippier as their frustration built. Methinks Calgary is in Brandon's collective heads right now...."can we beat this team or not?".
Question for the Hitmen right now: do they play Brandon Kozun tomorrow night against the Wheat Kings? So far his sprained ankle has not allowed him to play more than a few shifts in the tournament, in the game against Moncton. So do you dress him tomorrow night in the first do-or-die game of the tournament? Or do you take the chance that you can beat Brandon without him, just like you did last night? That would allow his ankle two more days of rest and hopefully allow him to play on Sunday against Windsor. But of course, the risk is that if you don't beat Brandon tomorrow night, then there is no game to play on Sunday. Tough call, I think....what would you do?
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