Player Pos. No. 1st 2nd 3rd Total
Lees F 16 10:05 9:30 8:42 28:17
Bissonnette D 4 8:35 7:20 7:43 23:38
Gibson D 12 7:09 7:37 8:12 22:58
McNeill D 8 6:04 8:14 8:36 22:54
Misharin D 5 6:28 8:17 7:44 22:29
J.M. Rizk F 29 4:32 8:27 5:48 18:47
McCutcheon F 18 6:22 5:44 6:11 18:17
Jenish F 14 6:23 4:03 7:45 18:11
Pyatt F 27 5:21 5:47 5:27 16:35
Suggs F 17 5:09 5:25 5:55 16:29
Sturgeon D 22 6:39 5:40 3:36 15:55
Dix F 11 4:35 3:16 5:45 13:36
M.A. Rizk F 21 4:26 2:56 5:20 12:42
Pain D 7 5:05 3:29 4:05 12:39
Asselin F 23 3:10 3:11 3:11 9:32
Borges F 19 3:27 3:02 3:00 9:29
Crowder F 15 3:20 2:37 2:47 8:44
Kozak D 2 0:00 0:00 0:00 0:00


A couple of points:

Kozak was dressed as the 7th defenseman but never touched the ice except to skate to and from the locker room door. I understand if the coach wants to bench the "Saginaw Three" for a night, but at least humor us a bit. Let the 18th man touch the ice for at least 2 seconds?

Perhaps a better and more humiliating situation would have been to dress one of the forwards sitting out and then not play him? Or, let him play on the 4th line with Borges and Crowder and get fewer than 9 minutes of ice time....

Bissonette is back! Not that alien zombie that was made to look like him who is only average defensively. After playing second fiddle to Gibson (and sometimes third, fourth, and fifth fiddle to McNeill, Misharin, and Sturgeon), Biz is back to leading defensemen in ice time, and not allowing any minuses. He was on the ice for the PP goal that was scored against us tonight, however.

Meanwhile, Sturgeon's ice time went down. He was on the ice for three minuses last game in Plymouth, so the coach is doing the right thing, cutting his time back a bit to let him re-focus on his game. It worked tonight, no minuses....in fact, no minuses tonight for anyone!

It appears that the ice time which was left up for grabs by Platt, Gimblett, and Raszka who were sitting out was spread pretty much evenly among the rest of the forwards....except Mike Suggs whose ice time actually was less than normal.

The team called on Marc-Andre to center the third line tonight, while Pyatt moved up to the second line and Lees moved up to the first line with Platt out. The extra ice time did not slow him down. It was much more than usual but he did not look worn out.

I am warming to the idea of Jesse Jenish on the power play, as long as he can take a few ideas from the Tomas Holmstrom and Dino Ciccarelli School on How to Screen the Goalie While on the Power Play and Ignore the Beating You are Taking. It looked like he was hard to move from the front of the net. He has to develop a nose for rebounds. Mike Suggs is much better at that.

There were times during the game where I noticed Borges not playing hard enough. Maybe he deserves a rest next game, and we can plug Raszka back into the lineup.

I hate to single out any one player, but there were backchecks, etc. where he did not really skate hard enough to get back. It reminded me of Platt in the Brampton game.

So Disco Stu are you saying that anyone who is playing on the fouth line should feel humiliated?

No, but Geoff Platt should if he normally plays 20 minutes on the first line.

Do you know why Geoff Platt, Taylor Raszka, and Jesse Gimblett didn't play last night (saturday) against the Greyhounds??? Thanks.

Here is my take. No inside info. Mo was not happy with the effort of the team on Friday in Plymouth. It is clear he is looking for team players and was not happy with the individual efforts after the game. He stated in the paper he was going to shake things up for Saturday. By sitting three regulars I think he is sending the message that no one is un-touchable and everyone needs to play hard night in and night out. This, in my opinion, was a gutsy move. This team needs points bad and to not play some of your best players against a team like the Soo was a bit risky. It sure paid off though. I sure hope it lights a fire under these guys and gets them playing like a team. Next weekends games are very important. These guys need to prove they can win on the road. They need to do it now. A four game winning streak could be just what we need to turn this season around. Every team in the west has at least 30 points and we have not reached 20 yet. We need to catch up, and catch up fast if there is any hope of making the playoffs this season. Unless we have a big month in December, look for players to be moved in the first week in January. If you want to play in Saginaw this is not a good time to be on Moe's Sh** list.