Blue Monday

Yes, yes, I know...enough with the terrible puns already!

We're all a bit down again with their performance lately. I don't have much to say about Saturday night, except that I too dropped my dinner, and John Tortorella dresses every bit as badly as our Jimmy. I'd like to see some improved defensive zone coverage, especially in our own barn. Tampa managed to generate a lot of PPs and well, goals, because we simply weren't able to clear the puck efficiently.

Other local hockey news... you have to check out the Herald's post-game summary of yesterday afternoon's Hitmen game. Crazy attendance figures for a game in the juniors, vomiting (I feel your pain, Spence), and a goalie fight! What's not to like?

Umm. Back to the big boys. I'm still not that worried about playing the Blues, particularly at home. I can't help but emphasize how important it is for the guys to try and move up the standings a bit before the playoffs start - who really wants to play Nashville for starters? More to the point, who wants to play more teams after they play Nashville for starters?

There are some bright spots out there. I think the tandem of Stuart and Regehr is improving - Stuart had what I thought was his most impressive game so far Saturday night, with some amazing plays to help out Kipper. And will we see Friesen extend his goal-scoring streak to three games? A lot of people have been dumping on Friesen all year, though I've suspected for a while that it hasn't been completely deserved. One day, when I have more free time and the inclination to do a bit of number crunching, I'll present a deeper analysis. But Friesen has been quietly playing a lot of hard minutes on the PK, and I think he's a big reason why our special teams have improved this year.

What else, what else? Hale is getting better though not ready to play yet (or should I say, not hale yet? I kill myself, hahahaha), Conroy is reportedly out with an upper body something (Saturday night I thought it was a knee or somesuch). Hopefully Lombardi can retrieve some of his minutes and get himself out of the doghouse (or is that the igloo with the cute baby seals?).

That said, I think we can expect a strong game from the boys, especially because they lost on HNIC.

I'm going keep on predicting 5-2 for the good guys, until they win another one.

PS. One further lil' administrative note. We got off our lazy asses and finally signed ourselves up for some email action. Hate us? Love us? Let us know, at openicehits (-@-) gmail.com.