Saturday, March 24, 2012

Day Off Thoughts

The ICE and Oil Kings series will continue Sunday afternoon with game 2 of their 1st round series as the Rexall Place is being used for an Edmonton Rush Lacrosse game.
Saturday afternoon the ICE practiced at the home of the NAIT Ooks.



Steele Boomer, a member of last years Championship team, is attending NAIT to become a pilot.
The Ooks hockey team lost last night 3-2 in double overtime to the Augustana Vikings in Game 4 of the ACAC Championship. The Vikings won the series 3-1. The Ooks win Silver medal.

The ICE had a record of 16-3 in last year playoff run and 2 of the 3 losses were shutouts.
The ICE were shutout twice last year in the 1st round to Moose Jaw.
Last night was the 7th time the ICE have been shutout in a playoff game.

It was a frustrating loss as all 3 Edmonton goals came right after the ICE had their best scoring chances. That has been the story in almost all of the 7 head-to-head meetings this year.

How many of you were at the Rec-Plex on March 13, 2010 when Laurent Brossoit made his 1st WHL start and 3rd WHL appearance in Kootenay and made 49 saves in a 2-1 los to the ICE?

As mentioned on the broadcast, one of the keys to the series is the Oil Kings group of mobile defensemen. They have 3 NHL drafted Dmen, Pysyk 1st round, Lowe 3rd round and Gernat 5th round. Plus Reinhart with be a top 10 pick this year, Sautner will be at least a 3rd round pick this year and the talk is Corbett and Geertsen will be solid picks in 2013. This looks like the Kelowna Rockets during their stretch of Championships. Maybe the only negative for this year is they are mostly 17 and 18 year olds.

There are no injury reports in the playoffs so unless a team reveals why a player is not playing it's best not to believe any unconfirmed reports. Even during the regular season there were many wrong reports as some tried to guess at the upper body or lower body injuries. When it comes to injuries it's best to report "unknown" than to get the wrong message sent to the public.

Which team is happier to have a day off between games?

What is it like for Paul Reinhart with 3 sons in one playoff series, hear the interview on Sunday.

Just so you know the ICE all-time Playoff series record when they ...
Lose game 1 - 13 times 7-6
Lose game 1 on the road - 6 2-4 (won 2011 vs Portland, 2000 vs Calgary)
Lose 1st 2 games - 5 2-3
Lose 1st 2 games on the road - 3 0-3
Split 1st 2 games - 12 7-5
Split 1st 2 games on the road - 6 4-2