The Peerless was in attendance at Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza for the Portland Pirates' visit to the land of the Baby Penguin, and here is a brief (yeah, right) summary of one fan's perspective.

It was the biggest crowd of the season in Wilkes-Barre (almost 8,400) so it had a real "hockey" feel to it. The game wasn't three seconds old when Garrett Stroshein and Mike Sgroi decided to start the dance competition . . . the two circled one another briefly. Stroshein landed a couple of decent blows, but being rather uncertain on his skates, he was spun around, then whammed in the back of the head by Sgroi, dumping him to the ice and ending the ballroom competition for the evening (Sgroi on a decision).

The first period was pretty much played in the Portland end (we'll have more to say about this later). WBS was (is) the much faster team. They are not particularly big, but they can skate. It was all Portland could do to keep pushing the smaller Pens to the outside and minimizing the chances available. As a result, Maxime Ouellet had a good amount of work, but nothing too untoward in the save-making department. Marc-Andre Fleury could have knitted a comforter between the pipes for as much work as he saw.

The second was largely a replay of the first (sans the dancing). Lots of play in the Pirate end, Fleury writing an opera at the other end in the spare time made available to him. Finally, Darcy Verot broke his stick, which allowed Kris Beech to move the puck from down low on the right wing boards to the right point and Ryan Whitney. Whitney walked across to the middle of the ice, and with Verot doing the best he could to distract Whitney without the benefit of a twig, Whitney sent the puck to the net, where it hit Matt Murley in the knee and trickled across the line to Ouellet's left.

The third period was as if a different pair of teams took the ice. Contrary to the first two periods, the Pirates actually looked as if there was a method to their effort and made an effort to go to the net. They had 12 shots in the final frame, many of them good opportunities, but Fleury was up to the task. He looks a good deal more confident than he did in his short stint with Pittsburgh last year, and if his comments after the game (which I saw on TV) were any indication, he's having fun playing this year, too . . . it seems less of a burden.

As for the teams themselves, neither team is going to scare anyone offensively, at least with the teams that dressed last night . . . and that is for entirely different reasons. The Penguins don't have a natural finisher, no one who could remotely be called a "sniper." They have to rely a lot on passing skill to open things up on the ice, and this group looks better (or at least improved) from the group I saw a couple of times last year. Beech looks (finally) like a hockey player. As a group, they are a bit further along than the Pirates in their development.

As for the Pirates, I have to preface this by saying that it's only one game, and with Yonkman and Morrisonn out, it's hard to get a full picture. But geez, their offense was painful to watch. They play no discernible system (what I could figure out was that it is "linear" . . . they try to pass up the lanes instead of across the ice, but that's part guess on my part). Their passing was three shades of hideous, unable to complete consecutive passes for minutes at a time. They spent the first two periods skating along the perimeter, unwilling to mix it up, despite having what looked to me to be a size advantage. They too, have no pure finisher, at least from what I saw last night. Most curious was the play of Sutherby. He looked very much like the player he was up here, and I do not mean that as a compliment. He played earnest defense, took the body, and was responsible enough, but he never looked for anything on offense (he was credited with five shots, but for the life of me, I can't remember one of them . . . had to be from whacking at the puck from in tight in the third period). I would think by now he'd have mastered (or had hard wired in) the "responsibility" part and would be honing the skill parts of his game. But, based on what I saw (and again, it was one game), I'm fearful that this is all he's got. If that's true, he isn't going to be a steady player at this level. He played like a fourth line grinder . . . a useful role on a hockey team, but not the one I suspect many folks envisioned for him.

Eminger looked like a man without direction. You can see the skill...he is a superior skater and a better than average puck handler . . . but he looked lost in his own end, as if he didn't quite know where to go. That isn't very comforting for a defenseman.

The guys who played of whom much is expected -- Klepis, Johansson, Aulin, Gordon -- had a total of five shots among them (none from Klepis, who had a very interesting night . . . he might be getting suspended for abuse of the officials after the final horn sounded . . . he had a point; his tripping call was a dive worthy of Greg Louganis, but he needed to shut up about it when the game ended).

Maxime Ouellet was tested more than Marc-Andre Fleury, but that's not saying a lot. Still, it is evident that there is little more he can do to develop at this level, and in some respects, staying here is a hindrance (his talent will cause temptations to rely solely on that, and from there bad habits could creep in). He was sound and square to the puck, rarely having to scramble to make a save...the goal was a deflection through a screen that he still almost reached with his glove before it trickled over the line.

If one thinks of the Pirates in terms of development, it's reasonable to say that no first line forwards are in Portland (Ovechkin, Semin, and Zubrus are doing other things these days). Yonkman and Morrisonn were out. Eminger has talent, but I wonder if he isn't being coached within an inch of his life, causing brain-lock. J.F. Fortin played a pretty decent game (a late icing he took when the Pirates were trying to pull Ouellet was among the lamer calls you'll see . . . you'd never see that call in the NHL).

It is no accident that Portland is last in the AHL in goals scored per game. Their offense was simply inept for 50 minutes last night, never posing a serious threat to score. They had a couple of brief flurries, a product of pressing to the net. One tells oneself that they're young, and they first must learn to fundamentals of responsible hockey. One tells oneself that they will be better late than early (or than they are now). But one also tells oneself that they should have shown much more than they did last night. WBS can be a difficult place to play for visitors, but the Pirates didn't seem to bring much energy to the game last night, at least for the first two periods.


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Play hard, shake hands, drink beer.

"LA needs two hockey teams like Switzerland needs two navies" -- Norman Chad (from "My 10-Point Plan to Save Gary Bettman from Himself")


If you've read this far, you probably could use a hobby

Painful is right...now you know how I have felt lately.

They did manage a win tonight. Mostly on the back of Gordon, Willsie, and Ouellet...

After thinking about that game and the year-long struggle on offense, I wonder if the strategy (if there is one) isn't the "Norman Dale" approach. Like in the movie "Hoosiers," he had to tear the group down to build them up, stressing the most basic fundamentals. In the Pirates' case, there is a fair amount of latent skill, but the object might be to instill a defensive mind set and a strong positional game that becomes instinctive. The Pirates did do a good job of keeping WBS out of the middle of the ice and played a good "road game" in that their stifling play took the crowd out of the game, for the most part.

After pounding the idea of defense and responsibility into their young heads, maybe then they can develop the sense of when their talent can take over and be used at the right moments. They've given up 2.53 goals per game in their last 17, and only ten in their last five.

Hey . . . it's a thought.

___________
Play hard, shake hands, drink beer.

"LA needs two hockey teams like Switzerland needs two navies" -- Norman Chad (from "My 10-Point Plan to Save Gary Bettman from Himself")


If you've read this far, you probably could use a hobby

The Caps acquired a fellow by the name of Fleischmann lastyear.
Is he in Portland ?

TAK Fleischmann has 5 g 7 a 12pts and is -7 in 31 games. A very skilled offensive forward with good speed but he is dangerous in Portland's end.

I think fjc is onto something but what concerns me is that with the latest losing streak they are 8 points out of a playoff spot and Worcester (the team they trail) has 4 games in hand. That is a lot of ground to make up once they find their identity.

good update. thanks. this is the first lively thread over here in a while! good to see some familiar faces, so to speak.

Same old Caps, same old Pirates. ::sigh::

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Seize the day? I can't even reach it from here.

pgreene...I hate to say it but I eventually went back to the official boards to do my Portland updates. Only because I wasn't getting much reaction and I was cutting and pasting too many comments. I just figured it was easier to do it all in one place where most people could catch them and respond.

If people want to ask questions anytime I am on and will see them.

BTW this isn't for mass broadcast but fjc I bounced, (well I lifted it really) your ideas about Army, off a players wife at the AHL Boards (don't know if you are ever there) and she PM'd me some interesting stuff. A couple of the marginal prospects (I have to keep them nameless) are really fed up with some of the so call marquee prospects for dogging it lately. Again without naming names some of these guys think that they don't have to work for Army because they know that they will be in DC when the NHL starts...and they for the most part know it won't even this season. Portland just isn't a pretty picture of harmony. Leadership is a real issue with this group. They need some vet influence and need it fast or this season will be lost.

That's interesting, and it betrays something of a personnel management error the club (Portland and/or Washington) might have made in putting this team together.  It is a good thing to have all the kids playing together (I thought so then, and I think so now), but that is half a solution, as the Portland experience shows.  I'd agree that they do need that veteran leadership to fill in the blanks -- how to comport themselves on the ice, how to deal with adversity, sticking up for one another -- the things that don't show up in a box score.  I was looking at all the players who have complied any statistics for Portland this year . . . the oldest of them is Dwayne Zinger.  He's 28.  Next is Darcy Verot.  That these ARE kids makes the seeming cleavage into the "DC-bound" and the rest of the team unsurprising, kind of like the "teacher's pet" syndrome.

Based on what I've read and what I saw in WB, I can hazard a guess as to who might be sliding by.  What the club doesn't appear to have is someone to put the fear of God in them.  I'm always reminded of Rod Langway in these situations, the story behind whom was that he was not beyond getting into a teammate's face when he felt that the guy was dogging it . . . and one thing you didn't want was Rod Langway in your face. Maybe this team lacks that, and maybe it's the thing of a bygone era.  They could use a "Crash Davis" -- a grisled minor league vet (or two) on a team of "Nuke LaLoosh's."  Whatever, it seems as if Portland is turning into something of a dorm party from the description.  The kids run the asylum.

___________
Play hard, shake hands, drink beer.

"LA needs two hockey teams like Switzerland needs two navies" -- Norman Chad (from "My 10-Point Plan to Save Gary Bettman from Himself")


If you've read this far, you probably could use a hobby