More on Pickard

The more I think about last night the more amazing it becomes. I would be willing to guess that none of us may ever see a better statistical night for a goaltender ever... EVER. Think about that... we may have actually witnessed something last night we may never ever see again.

If Pickard isn't player of the week... someone at the league isn't paying attention. If he isn't goaltender of the week... I don't know what to tell you and if he isn't the CHL goaltender of the week somebody else better have gone 3-0 this weekend and have a couple of shutouts.

I thought the shot total was pretty accurate. I think there were some shots that were padded but I also thought they missed a couple... so if the real total was 53 instead of 57 would it really matter? No it wouldn't...

Also... Yeah I did think Charles Wells had a nice game and that nifty spin-o-rama was fun to watch but Sena Acolatse definitely should have earned the 2nd star. I thought his physical presence definitely excited the crowd and the deflection goal was not only huge but deflating to the Americans who had put 41 shots on the Seattle goal without scoring, only to see the Tbirds take the lead.

I'm only going to waste one short paragraph on this because I think we should be celebrating the performance of Calvin Pickard. That was still not a well played game by the Tbirds. The concentration just isn't there. You can tell in the passing... Tri-City passes are crisp and are received crisply. Seattle passes are hesitant, fumbled, unsure and just generally unfocused. The Tbirds just are not playing with confidence and it shows on the scoreboard. Allowing 57 (or even 50+) shots on goal is just a sin and it isn't always the fault of the defense. At times I thought the defense played well and at times the entire 5 (or 4) men on the ice just played entirely too passive. I can't recall seeing a penalty kill as passive as I did last night. Seattle almost crowded around Pickard and allowed the perimeter Americans to roam freely on the power play. Ok I'm done... I don't want to harp on it anymore.

I did think the effort was there... Early in the game Seattle appeared willing to put the work in that would have been necessary to win. It just wasn't working... I always hesitate to be an advocate of physical play because we are dealing with 16-20 year old kids here but I really believe the Tbirds need to be more violent.... not violent in the form of swinging sticks or being goons but just more eager to hit people and punish them into the boards. With the exception of Acolatse, Doty and a few others this team is just too nice.

That is all for this weekend... a big win for the Tbirds... even if it wasn't an impressive win. A win is a win and if we think this team is somewhere between the 6th and 9th seed in the Western Conference every win is going to be huge even if it takes a historical 57 save shutout from your incredible goaltender.

Btw... one last note. I searched everywhere for the NHL and WHL record for highest save total shutout and I couldn't find ANYTHING. If anyone finds anything or wants to do some research feel free to post it here.