On Friday night the IceHawks looks monstrously larger than the Komets, but not so much on Saturday so I asked coach Al Sims what the difference was.
"I don't know if they were tired or what, but they didn't look like they had the jump that the had last night," Sims said. "I thought our guys came out hitting in the first, and we didn't last night. We didn't really hit them until the second period last night, but I felt we came out hitting right off the bat. I think they knew they were going to get hit every time they touched the puck, and they were giving it up and making turnovers.
"You have to use your speed, No.1. They have a bigger, slower defense than us, and it's a big rink that we have here. We used our speed good here. A lot of guys went wide on their defense and broke in. Speed is the way you're going to beat a heavier team and not playing as much in your own zone. Once they get you in your own zone, and they get control of the puck, they are tough to get it from because of their size. We tried to play in our own zone as little as possible.
Comments
Did they spend the night last night? I hate hotels and plan my travel to try and avoid them
Yes.
Blake. I have a quick question for you. Do you have the statistics for the Komets team on faceoffs won and lost? I know that they keep track of them. I may be wrong, but from watching the Komets all year, they really do not have a go to guy for faceoffs. I know that people will argue that Chalk and Curadeau are good, but it has been my experience that they lose many more than they win. Controling the faceoff, as you know, is an extremely important part of a hockey game. When on the penalty kill it allows them to get the puck out of the defensive zone and on the power play it automatically makes the opposing team go into their defensive "block". In my opinion the last really good faceoff man was Terry Marchant. If you have those statistics, would you pass them along? As I said before in a previous post that I believe, when healthy, I would match our forwards against everyone else in the league. However, I think we are weak in the faceoff circle. What are your thoughts?
I don't have those statistics. I know Al likes to use Colin whenever he can, and I think Leo does a pretty good job as well. You're correct that Marchant was excellent.
I also think faceoffs are like anything else, you have hot and cold stretches. Maybe without Chaulker around that's something they haven't had as much time with in practice of late. Since Kory Karlander is out of the league, though, everyone's percentages should have gone up. LOL.