It was too little too late. We weren't up to the challenge at the beginning. We figured it out in the third period and played good hockey, and at that point the referee put his whistle in his pocket and nothing was a penalty any more which is to me disturbing. That's not the reason we dug ourselves a two-goal hole. We didn't play our style effectively enough in the early stages of the game. There's times when we can really control the pace of the game, and we dictate the pace. There was a lot of times tonight when we just couldn't seem to get it all together. You need everybody. It's a team sport, you know.
Whatever they were doing, they weren't trying to do anything different in the third when we stepped up our intensity and were skating better and moving the puck better and supporting the puck better. Just a lot of little things that we've been drilling since Day 1 and we didn't do them well enough. Against a good team that will make you pay if you are anything less than your best out there.
They are a good cycling team, a good counter attack team. They'll stretch you out when you make a bad change, or a poor dump, or you miss an assignment covering an area on the ice. They'll fire the puck up the ice quickly and get in behind your defense.
Is that team any better than Rockford? They're good and they have weapons and they are clever. They have some guys that can make a heads up play and get it going the other way quickly.
What was a penalty at the beginning of the year is no longer a penalty. You're trying to score a goal and they mug you and it's not a penalty. ....there was a closed-door meeting and nobody decided to tell this particular coach. How am I supposed to tell our guys to defend now, anything goes, you can tackle?
It obviously was a closed door meeting for a reason. They don't want to be the only league in all of hockey that calls it a different way. I would say I'd be mad at the referee tonight, but I can't because this is becoming a trend now, this style. If you are beat you can stick a knee out, you can run people from behind face first in to the glass, and you can grab a hold of a jersey, or a guy's arm or his stick, and you can hook. You can do those things, especially if you are down a goal or if it's a close game. Ridiculous. It's ridiculous.
I'm not just saying that because we're on the losing end, but when you start to play better and it's a one-goal game and you're in the game, and you can't get on the power play no matter what
