Duvie Wescott, Jason Chimera and Ole-Kristian Tollefson won’t have to worry about facing the Sheriff tonight if they pull a repeat of their cheap-shot act against the Avalanche. Scott Parker did not travel with the team and will miss the game due to the flu.
However, Ian Laperriere was activated from IR today and may play tonight. And that, as they say, is a good thing.
To make room for Lappy, the Avalanche sent Wyatt Smith to Lake Erie (AHL). The Smith fiasco has been well covered, so I won’t pile on. I will, however, mention that it will be nice to avoid hearing announcers clarify that Wyatt Smith is not related to Ryan Smyth.
I’m all about piling on!
So are you saying that Wyatt Smith cleared waivers? No other NHL team is shopping for forward depth at “Scrubs-R-Us?”
Good news about Lappy. They need 2 more Lappy’s to put together a decent checking line that isn’t downy soft.
McCormick / Guite / Lappy is a solid checking line. I anticipate they’ll be together tonight.
I think that is a solid 4th line (McCormick isn’t a 3rd line forward, and Guite is borderline 3rd/4th). But the great teams have solid 3rd lines as checking lines, in general (sure there have been exceptions) that can play very significant minutes and shut down other team’s top lines. Seriously. Remember how key the line of Messier-Yelle-Podein was in their SC run in 2001? That somehow turned out to be a great checking line, and they played very significant minutes during the entire SCF series against the Devils. And as much as I hated them, the grind line in Detroit was damn solid during their cup runs as well.
I think this team may have too many scorers at forward and just not enough grit. Can you really expect Svatos or Brunette or someone like Hensick to be decent checking line forwards? Wyatt Smith certainly wasn’t an answer, but they need another Yelle or Podein type player who can be. It is also why their PK continues to struggle. Well, that and the soft play of the defense. And poor goaltending. And questionable coaching. Other than that, I think they are real close.
Duvie Westcott won’t be facing anyone. He’s out with a well-deserved concussion.
bummer?
Am I the only guy who is worried that Parker won’t be in the lineup today?
If NHL toughness was measured exclusively by heart, Lappy would be among the best in the league. But unfortunately, size and strength has a lot to do with it. I haven’t forgotten last game, where Parker was yelling from the penalty box while bleeding from his mouth. They took runs at a few of our guys whilst Parker was in the box;
do we have a solid answer tonight for any of the many cheap-shots and dirty tactics that Hitchcock isn’t afraid to use?
McCormick is pretty tough pound for pound but isn’t a heavy weight. Hopefully the game won’t come down to that crap, even with the Avs up big late.
Brad, I don’t think anyone on C-Bus can too much damage, maybe with the exception of Jarred Boll (who has a losing record this season) and the enforcer with the Worst Enforcer Name Ever, Jody Shelley. (Seriously? His parents didn’t worry that he’d have not one, but two girly names? They didn’t even take that into account, despite already knowing that their last name was Shelley? Why not name him Rock Shelley, or Brutus Shelley, or Muhammad Ali Shelley, something like that. What’s his middle name, Pat? Adrian? Or how about one of these? http://www.yeahbaby.com/article.php?page=79)
Anyway, back to the BJs, they were crapping their pants when Parker was running around looking for a face to crush earlier this season. Maybe they’ve gotten some courage since then, but I’m not so sure. And if they have, Lappy and McCormick will step up, because they’ll have to. McCormick’s scrap with Godard shows he’s not afraid to go with the heavyweights, even if that’s not the smartest move.
As Joe pointed out, Westcott’s out with a(nother) concussion (he missed half of last season with one, too). As Adam Deadmarsh can attest, concussions are often very serious. But if Westcott and Parker had both played, I’d have absolutely loved to see Parker get his revenge for that chickenshit cross-check. You’re playing a big-boy sport, and if you’re gonna charge around with your stick up like that, you need to be prepared for the answer.
Well, that was the most dissapointing game of the season
Well, that was the most dissapointing game of the season
I thought the same thing, except I spelled disappointing correctly when I thought it
Damn! In my defense, I am writing a term paper in German, so my English grammar and spelling are a little off at the moment.
that is the Bacashua of words to me - I can never spell it right.
Firefox update with an automatic spell check FTW (maybe it’s a new windows patch, whatever it is the red squiggly line under words gets a lot of work on my computers.)
And yes I misspelled it too, but caught it with the spell check
yeah, FF has had that for a while now, and I love it.