In Red Deer last night the Rebels had two new faces in the lineup in D Devan Fafard and C Charles Inglis last night but it was a Rebel regular who did the Ice in as Tyson Ness notched a couple of goals and added an assist on the game-winner as the Rebels doubled the Ice 4-2.
Drew Czerwonka and Elgin Pearce scored for the Ice while Nathan Lieuwen surrendered four goals on 25 shots.
The Red Deer Advocate has a gamer here while the highlites of the game are here.
A slow start and the hot-hand of Deven Dubyk stymied the Ice who lost D John Neibrant in the first period. Radio said that D Tanner Faith was supposed to play but he suffered an injury in practice and his status was questionable for tonight.
The Ice fall to 22-11-1-2 and 47 points and lose a spot in the Eastern Conference standings to the Tigers who beat the Hurricanes 5-2 last night. The Tigers now sit third in the conference, a point up on the Ice who are now fourth.
Just a couple of thoughts on the deadline that's fast approaching:
There has been some speculation that the Ice could be sellers at the deadline, if the right - inflated, I imagine - price was posted. Some of are of the theory that building for a big show in the next two seasons with the 16-year-olds now when they're 18-19 being one of dominating groups in 2-3 seasons, could be the goal right now. Supporting that is the lack of real impact players available out there at this time. It's a seller's market to the nth degree.
I don't buy it and I do so from a very logical standpoint. Given the club's success last season there's a very real possibility that this club could go deep into the playoffs again, second round or even conference final. And given the experience on the roster, that's a lot of possible playoff home dates for a small market team. As well, of course, that any team always plays to win every year and this season the club's in the thick of it again, only 1-2 games off of last season's pace at this time.
But I really don't see the team loading up and expending some of those blue-chip 16-year-olds they have to get them over the hump this season. The price (high) combined with the lack of real impact players reasonably for sale says to me the club won't do much this year at the deadline.
I guess the next couple of weeks will prove that out one way or another.
The Ice host the Spokane Chiefs tonight at the Rec Plex at 7PM.
12 comments:
Trade dirk. Kid is useless.
If your thinking sell then who? The Ice would get the most by trading one player. Rhymes with who
funny, Max does not rhyme with who? lol.
Dirk and Neibrandt are both useless at this level. A constant struggle to keep up in the WHL. Dont see how either of them has lasted this long.
Dirk has steadilly gotten worse and worse.I have never seen him look so poor out there as this entire season. To bad for a guy who was essentially given a roster spot without even coming to camp only a couple years back and who was this big projected NHL draft pick. Dissapointing to say the least.
Neibrandt is the biggest wussy Ive seen play here since steve makway. kids huge and wont even hit the small guys out there. Cant shoot, sorta skates, wont fight and wont hit. Lets guys walk around him to the net every single shift. A constant liability imo.
just another Ryan Molly.
you mean Holy Molle?
agreed that they would get the most for lieu but they need him. trade for a solid d-man (dumba or pysyk would be sweet) and ice are good.
I would like to say that 90 percent of the people commenting on this blog have no clue about hockey. First of all if you were to trade lue it would not be for another current star player it would be for a younger player who will contribute to the teams future success. Secondly Edmonton is a first place team making a run of their own, why the hell would they trade their best d man?? And lastly I would like to defend diirk and neibrandt. Dirk has more skill in his left hand than mr. Anonymous calling him out. Both he and neibrandt were ranked in the top 200 players in north America for the draft! Do you know how man hockey players in north America were eligible for the draft? Roughly 20000, so that not too bad considering. Neibrandt plays solid defense for the ice and has the highest plus minus on the team, not to mention he's in the top 10 of the entire league!! So maybe you want to reword your comments but I don't see how either of these players are "useless" or "liabilities". In the future think before you comment, thanks.
Neibrandt is useless untill he decides to start using his using his size and toughness. If he wasn't playing with Leach his +/- would be way worse, the only reason Leach's is worse is because he is out on the ice when the game is on the line and Neibrandt is on the bench after he collected his +'s. As for Dirk, I like Dirk, he just had a bit of a tough spell but it looks like he is well on his way out of it. That is my opinion and I thought before I posted. I agree that alot of the trade rumours you were referencing are rediculous, so I don't count myself in your 90%
I think your being aufully hard on the way you rank your players. Not every player in the league is a superstar thats gonna be able to do everything. In a perfect world the ice would have mcnabb and leach partnered up for all 3 d pairings. In the meantime we have a group of players playing as a "team" and each player brings something to the table. How do you thing our boys won the title last season? It wasn't because we were the biggest (MJ) or the strongest (stoon) or the fastest (mh) or even that we had the most talent ( Portland )... We won because we had the best team of players working together. Anyways my point is that no one is "useless" on the Ice. Give them some credit there the ones You pay money to watch them be "useless".
McNabb's not with the team this year. If it was a perfect world we'd have Lidstrom and Chara paired up on all three pairings
the comment about pysyk was not a realistic one dumbass. thus the statement "would be sweet". cause it would be, wouldnt it?
I'd also like to say that dirk as no business playing in this league. he is simply not good enough. not that he is a bad player, he just cant compete at this level. place him in junior b, and hes the best in the league.
your a joke, what gives you the right to say that. i dont know you but if i had to guess, you never made the western league yourself and now spend your time bringing others down on anonomous blogsites to make yourself feel good.. im not sure if you watch the same games i do but dirk seems to be on a 3 game point streak or so. with a fight to go along with that lately
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