Last night the Bears had the opportunity to all but put away the Bridgeport Sound Tigers but they fell in overtime 4-3 after leading the game 3-1.
But before you question whether or not the Bears played their best or if Daren Machesney should get any blame remember this. The Bears were without 3 of their 4 leading scorers AND their leading scorer Alexander Giroux was ill for most of the day and wasn't even a guarantee to play.
Then you throw in the number 1 and 2 goaltenders were not available. Simeon Varlamov is the unquestioned number 1 and he is up in Washington with Coiner while Michal Neuvirth (the number 2) is out for the weekend due to illness.
The 3 Bears missing are probably not going to be back today either. Chris Bourque is out for the weekend after a family member passed away, Keith Aucoin is still in Washington and with word that Sergie Federov had to leave practice today he won't be coming back anytime soon, and Graham Mink is out with a broken hand.
So consider the fact that there is NOT another team in this league that can lose 3 of its top 4 scorers (basically a whole line) AND the top 2 goalies and come out against a top team and get at least a point.
I would say considering the circumstances the Bears played a pretty good game last night. There were obviously some problems on offense and in goal and the defense struggled at times but for a good part of the game Hershey was in the lead.
Tonight is going to be another tough game. Wilkes Barre is going to be well rested having not played in a few days and the Bears will still be short handed. And they could lose another player today IF Federov can't go tomorrow. The Caps are home for Atlanta tomorrow night and they could call someone up to play if needed.
But the Bears might get a boost in goal tonight with Braden Holtby expected to get the start. The 19 year old will be making his first pro start of his career after finishing up his season in the WHL this past week. He was in Bridgeport serving as Machesney's backup and got to take practice earlier in the day. John Walton said that Holtby looked very impressive during practice so if he does get the start he should be ready.
Scoreboard watching for tonight:
Bridgeport is off tonight
Philadelphia is @ Norfolk
Binghamton is home vs Albany
My Three Stars of the Game:
- Sean Bentivoglio - game winning goal and an assist
- Darren Reid - easily his best game of the year and he scored a goal
- Jesse Joensuu - a goal and an assist
Grading the Performance:
- Offense - B - They finished with 32 shots and 3 goals which isn't terrible. Considering who was missing from the lineup I thought they played very well. Even the fourth line with Kip Brennan and Grant McNeill got into the act.
- Defense - C - I thought this group really struggled last night at times. Sami Lepisto had a couple serious mishaps that either led to a good scoring chance or a goal for the Tigers. Even Karl Alzner had a moment or two were he didn't seem 100% focused. A rough night for this group.
- Goaltending - B - Average is the best way to describe Cheese's game. Some great saves and some really questionable moves. I don't blame him for most of the goals (except the first one) but he could have done better I thought. BUT I also thought he gave the team a chance to win.
- Power Play - ? - They only got 3 chances and they scored on 1 but it was tough to really get a read on this group.
- Penalty Kill - ? - Really the same as the power play. They killed 2 of 3 and the one goal scored was a great deflection.
- Overall - B- - Not a great game by any means. I think if this was the team the whole season there would have been a lot more games like this. It would be tough for any team to go into a huge game like this late in the season with so many key players missing. Overall it wasn't a terrible game but there was definitely something missing.
LET'S GO BEARS!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment