Saturday, January 10, 2009

Aeros v. Quad City Chuckos - Game 42

Have you ever wondered what it will take for Ms. Conduct to finally just get spitting mad at this team? I'll call a guy out here and there. But generally, I give the team the benefit of the doubt when others are ready to just call it a season and break out the golf clubs.

But tonight, I finally hit the wall. Here's the formula for pissing me the hell off:

  1. Spend two days trying unsuccessfully to write a mid-season report for PHN that doesn't say exactly the same things my last three PHN articles have said, and in the process, come to the realization that this team hasn't improved significantly since the beginning of the season.
    In fact, I feel right now like they've gone backwards on this road trip. Granted, there have been call-ups, injuries, and a brutal game and travel schedule, so some difficulties are to be expected, but is everybody on this team playing up to the very best of their ability?
  2. Play Quad Cities, who should lose all their games because they're hosers. Oh yeah, and have Chucko out with a hangnail so I don't even have anyone to hate.
  3. Spend 40 minutes a game dumping and changing. Dump and change. Dump and change. Because every time you've got possession of the puck, you've just exhausted a line trying to defend your own zone and have to change up.
  4. Spend 15 minutes of a game dumping and chasing. Dump and chase. Dump and chase. Because you can't manage to carry the puck into the zone, because your teammates are either changing or haven't caught up to help you from when they were defending their own end.
  5. Spend 5 minutes shooting right into the goalies chest or leg pads from the top of the circle before you wheel around and change up.
  6. Add a dash of the Wild sucking hard, while still having players up who could be making a big difference in Houston. I mean, if you're gonna suck anyway, send Kolanos and Scotty back.
Bada-bing! Pissed off Ms. C!

The bottom line is that if you never get to the net, you simply won't score. Somebody on this team has GOT to step up and own this. Somebody has got to get fierce and angry and confident and get that puck into the zone and get that puck at the net.

Goddamn Quad City. Come on, man!

*deep breath*

The rational side of me knows that they'll come home and rest and heal up and get back to just being mildly frustrating, and then they'll spend the last half of the season fighting tooth and nail to crack the playoffs. Right now, though, even my pretty Kolanos photo won't help my nasty mood.

But this kinda makes me smile:



BTW, as for what happened in the game, QC got one dirty, goal-mouth-scrambly goal, one run-the-goalie goal, and one empty netter. I don't put any of this on Schaefer, who was in goal tonight.

The lone Aeros goal from Beaudoin (the new guy up from the ECHL!) was on a rebound off a Deitsch shot on goal when the two of them managed to get into the zone WITH the puck together so they could actually do something with the rebound. Amazing how that works!

The rest was just boring as watching paint dry. No fights. Hardly any penalties. Some pretty good hits though. No love lost between these teams, for sure. But still damn boring as this match-up usually is unless you're taunting Chucko.

6 comments:

hollcan  January 11, 2009 at 12:09 AM  

I agree Ms.C but hey look at the situation....we have "no" 1st picks playing, "no" natural scorers, play the "dump and change", get outshot every night, win less than 50% of the face-offs, and have the worst schedule. Plus Minny must be pulling strings getting certain players playing PP.
It ain't looking pretty!

Robbie  January 11, 2009 at 1:55 AM  

hello there. my name is dobbles. i post on Calgary Puck. thats how i found your blog. i actually emailed you today looking for a good mitch love picture. i found one. we made a nice sign with it. after last time you guys came to town, mitch kinda freaked out on us leaving the ice for comparing him to luigi. so this time we had a sign. he was a good sport about it. most of the team got a laugh. he even signed our sign after the game. here's a picture of it: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3124/3187138520_41657b6fd9.jpg couple of notes: thats not me in the picture thats the guy that sits next to me. also, the sign says 'hey mitch where's mario?' and has a picture of luigi with mitch's face photoshopped onto it.

i saw his blog on your sidebar and posted a nice comment there about him. i hope he reads it. if you run into him at a game, tell him the qc guys got mad love for him.

see ya around msconduct!

Robbie (aka dobbles)

Ms. Conduct  January 11, 2009 at 8:08 AM  

That's pretty funny about the sign, Robbie. Mitch is an exceptionally good guy by all accounts, so I'm not surprised he had a sense of humor about it. I may love to hate your team but y'all seem like pretty good fans there in the QC. And what is UP with that mustache on Love? Lord. He really does look like Luigi with that thing.

Hollcan, what do you think? Is this a product of this miserable road trip? Or is this team really this bad? I mean, Locker's a natural scorer. Rosa and Schultz can pot 'em pretty regularly. Hamilton, if they can get the puck to the net, can do this Holmstrom dirty goal thing.

I guess I'm wondering, are we spending this much time in our own end because we're just too tired at this point to effectively clear the zone and carry the puck down the ice? Like, it is just all they can do to defend defend defend? Is there just nothing left to play other half of the game? Honestly, I don't even see how they got 20 shots on goal, unless the ones they shot before changing up that happened to actually be aimed at the goalie counted.

Anonymous  January 11, 2009 at 8:38 AM  

Yea, dump and change is about all we do these days. I thougt the new guy, Smith, was doing a good job of staying with the puck on zone when he first arrived. How refreshing that was! I guess Constantine had a talk with him about that because I noticed after the first game he was changing lines with the rest of the team.

Robbie  January 13, 2009 at 2:39 PM  

yeah, it was weird about mitch. after the first game here, he totally snapped on us after the game. i chalk it up to being frustrated about the loss. because as i was looking for a pick for his sign, i noticed his blog and he seemed pretty down to earth. and he did take the sign pretty well.

regarding the flames. i also am amazed how we end up with such high shot totals. earlier in the year we were consistently losing games where we would outshoot the team almost 2-1. we also seem to get tons of shots without getting any good scoring chances. we will get dominated for a period and somehow the shots will be 10-9 or something weird. then we play well and shots end up like 30-16 for us!

i am just glad we are getting competitive again! if you ever make it up to the qc for a game let me know and we will definitely have to meet!

Ms. Conduct  January 13, 2009 at 2:55 PM  

Oh, yeah, Robbie, that sounds very familiar. In fact, I've made a case here before that the Aeros actually tend to win more when they have fewer shots. I'm not sure the stats bear it out but it sure feels that way. Though not so much lately.

Glad you guys in QC are having some success though I'm sorry Chucko is involved and I'm sorry it's at our expense. We'll gitcha next time. :)

And yeah, I need to get to some Aeros road games. Never been to one, but it's interesting looking at how different the crowds are when I watch the games on AHL Live. Y'all are a pretty spirited bunch even if there aren't a ton of you there in QC. Though I can't imagine the circumstances that would land me in Moline... :)

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