The road woes continue for the Kindersley Klippers as they dropped all 3 games on this past weekends road swing. With the loses Kindersley now falls to a league worst 2-15-1-0 on the road this season.
The road trip started out with Kindersley showing a ton of fight against the defending league champions. This was a game that could of went either way in my mind as both teams went blow for blow. In the end the Ice Wolves were just a bit to much for the young Klippers to handle as they picked up a 6-5 win. A lot of positives were shown though by Kindersley. The young trio of Daniels, Davies and Stewart were arguably the best line on the ice for both teams. Davies scored his 1st 2 goals of the season, the first of which was a beautiful feed by Beau Stewart cross ice to Davies who did the rest. Davies 2nd marker was a snipe job. He took a pass from Daniels down the wing, walked in and went top corner with a riffle. It was one of the best looking shots I have seen in junior A hockey. Like I mentioned Kindersly played a hard game but a few defensive zone breakdowns lead to the Wolves victory. Kindersley also lost a couple players late in the game as Taylor Wasden took a strong check from Dumais forcing him to leave the contest. Wasden would not play the rest of the weekend but he is listed as day to day and should be good to go on Wednesday. In terms of Davies he was also day to day and missed Saturdays game but he was back in the lineup Sunday night out in Humboldt.
On to Saturdays game against Melfort, Kindersley to be frank layed an egg. They scored an early goal and played a hard opening period but after that it was almost as if they just gave up and thought they already sealed up the 2 points. Melfort would score 2 quick goals early in the 2nd period which took the life right out of Kindersley. After that marker a number of players looked like they had given up, there was no jump or urgency to the Klippers game and it was tough to watch. They really could of used a fight to spark the bench after Melfort had scored those 2 quick goals but no one stepped up and to be frank once again, someone needed to in the situation. The Klippers sure could of used Taylor Wasden and Zane Morin but unfortunately Wasden was injured and Morin had the flu. Kindersley had called up Jeremy Leclerc and also Chris Thorimbert and they were arguably the 2 best Klippers on the ice Saturday night. Leclerc just kept things simple from the back end and really looked comfortable out there. Thorimbert was using his speed and also created a number of scoring chances. I was really impressed with the way both those young kids played. Rockie Zinger agreed and felt they also were the 2 best players for his club.
Kindersley looked to salvage the road swing against the Humboldt Broncos on Sunday but were dropped by a score of 8-2. Despite the score, I thought Kindersley played a much better game then they did against Melfort. Some energy was created right off the opening puck drop when Brad Buckingham dropped the gloves with Taylor Johnson. It was a spirited fight with both players landing a few solid punches. I applaud Buckingham for doing what he did here because it showed the Broncos that Kindersley was there to play and they weren't going to back down. The fight seemed to spark the Klippers bench as they would score the 1st goal of the contest from David Haaf who fired a quick shot from the point on the powerplay. About a minute later though Humboldt would respond with a quick strike from Matt Glowa who walked in and let go a nasty back hand that went bar down to tie the game at 1. The Broncos weren't finished there as they then scored the go ahead marker just over a minute later from Robbie Ciolfi. Kindersley really fell asleep after the Broncos took the lead and Humboldt cashed in 2 more goals to give them a 4-1 lead shortly after. I have never seen a team turn it on quite like the Broncos managed to do in that situation, they scored 4 goals all within a minute and forty five seconds time. It had looked like it was going to get ugly from there but it didn't. Yes the Broncos won by a final of 8-2 but Kindersley somewhat sustained them the rest of the way through, in the end though the Broncos were just to much to handle for the young Klipper squad. On a positive note Kindersley had also called up Cody McKinnon and Kadin Schmaltz for Sundays game. Just like Leclerc and Thorinbert did on Saturday, these 2 youngster provided Kindersley with some quality minutes. Schmaltz is a good skater and will likely be a Klipper next season. Mckinnon was also very impressive up front, he works hard and has some offensive upside to his game. I would say the future is bright for Kindersley who is already a young team to begin with but they have a number of prospects that will be very solid Junior A hockey players in the near future. Quickly on the Broncos side, Taylor Duzan made his Bronco debut and he played a pretty solid game. He picked up an assist on the 4th Bronco goal and was his usual self in terms of competing hard. He was lined up with Kieser and Johnson in his debut, and at times they showed some good chemistry. Moving forward Bronco fans will be very happy to have Taylor Duzan on their squad.
Having said all that Kindersley as a team failed to take care of business on this road swing and the Notre Dame Hounds made them pay over the weekend. Notre Dame took down Melville and Nipawin increased there Sherwood Standings cushion to a 6 point deficit with 2 games in hand. The good news for Kindersley is they play their final 6 games before the Christmas break all on home ice.
That's all I got for today, have a good grind it out back to work Monday.
Every team, no matter sport it is, must go through a re-building stage, and it seems that is what the Klippers are doing. Patience and understanding is what the boys need now, we'll see some leaders emerge in the second half of the season. I beleive that the boys are working hard, but just falling short, it will turn around. I'll support them with emcouragement by attending the games, listening to them on the radio when they are on the road. All the vets that were either traded or released showed the promise of being great leaders, and helped some of the younger players what it takes to be succesful in the SJHL. We have some boys like McDonald, Lund, Daniels who have shown signs of promise, but will need to develop their skills. This group will eventually be a great team, but it's totally up to them, when they want to be recognized as a great team.
ReplyDeleteO.k just to but this so called rebuld of the team into perspective.The team goes on the road in La Ronge a back and forth game was probably real exciting for the boys to be in. One mistake the one that probably cost them the game was the turn over on the PP.So my question is this rockie and the team have come to the conclussion that the team is rebuilding so his stradegy is this after the turn over that led to the goal he benches the line that got scored on. Now in the right circumstances you have to be accoutable for yor actions if you want to be a contender wich obviously there not so instead of letting them no and letting them play in a close game wich they also scored a goal not to mention he benches this line .Well rockie just a little piece of advice you are loosing respect from some players and they are or dont wana play for you and this is just one of the reasons why please can you or some one and i mean some one who has any knowledge of this situation explain what is going on here?
ReplyDeletewell lets put it out there already. 4 goals in a minute and 45 seconds and the goalie is left in there for 4 more goals? i fully understand from the outset Ullsy that you likely aren't going to publish this one but i gotta say something, and i'll do my best to keep it clean. what is this guy thinking? obviously the season is gone but the players aren't, they are still there everyday, even the lines that don't have Kissick, Bosovich and the likes in it aka "Rockie's Boys".
ReplyDeleteYou can say you are building for the future all you want but what are you doing to the future of some of the guys out there, leaving a goalie in for 8 goals???? what does that do to his confidence????? what does that say about your confidence in him????? just hand him a knife and a map to the jugular vein while your at it. you might wanna blame the losses on a goalie, that would be easy, but the coach is supposed to be better than that, know more than that, know that sometimes a goalie can have a bad night, but not every night, some nights its the team, like maybe the forwards not getting enough goals or how about how many times have i read this "but a few defensive zone breakdowns lead to the (insert any team in the leagues name here) victory". That being said, thats hockey, ups and downs, good games, bad games, good years, bad years; but when you leave a guy out there for the whole game like that it says one of two things, either you aren't a leader or you don't care about the team. Rockie, if you aren't a leader and have found yourself in over your head then do the right thing, cut your losses and admit you aren't cut out for this and quit screwing with other peoples lives cause believe it or not little man, thats exactly what you are doing. and i don't mean the fans.
Hey Jay, take a deep breath and calm down. Sure it's tough on a goaltender to let 8 in but let's look at the flip side. Justin McDonald had not played in few games, he's a huge competitor and he's facing one of the better teams in the league. Combine all those things and if you asked him he probably wanted to stay in, as crazy as that sounds. He has a great attitude and as much as it sucks to have 8 go by you can be sure he just looked ahead to the next shot.
ReplyDeleteTo all the Klipper fans, please try and be positive and patient with this team, they are going to do some good things in the future. They are learning the hard way and it is painful, for the fans and more so for the players.
A public forum is no place for vindictive personal comments.
Well you have to say it here because no one will listen when you talk to them anyway. All I can say is I feel sorry for the boys that got traded because they wanted to finish out there last year here. But I know they will be welcome with open arms to the teams that got them. You all will be missed.
ReplyDelete