Ryan Hillier: veterinarian

For the second time in just one week Ryan Hillier has found himself in the unusual situation of being the only guy around capable of euthanizing a box of cats. Following a slow start in the first period with the Moose being down 0-2 after 9 minutes of play, Brad Marchand became an assist maker in the second and set up goals for Andrew White in a 5 on 5 opportunity, as well as on the PP for Ryan Hillier. It was Hillier’s short handed goal in the middle of the third period that gave the Mooseheads a 3-2 lead over the hometown Moncton Wildcats. Desperate to keep their playoff hopes alive, the wildcats pulled Riopel from nets in the dying minutes of the game. This allowed for two empty net goals: one by Tomas Knotek and one by Hillier, thus rounding out his hat-trick.

Here is my point-form brain-vomit description of the game as it happened:

First Period:

1. Whitey shoots at Riopel’s head. Stop being jealous of goalies.
2. Lines are weird. Where is Swan?
   
3. Watching Moncton broadcasts involve using your imagination while the camera remains fixed on the boards for 5 minutes…damn good thing I have an active imagination.
4. Double minor – way to go cappy. Repeat of last night?
   
5. 2 point lead by cats in 9 minutes
6. Yeti/Yetmen allows 2 goals in 4 shots….ugh
7. Penalty by Marchand
8. Penalty by Voracek…oy
9. ~8 minutes of PK in first period.
10. Bouchard hugs it out with Herr (part two)

Intermission:

Swan out with back spasms…or brain spasms!

In the second:

1. Oh how I love my puppy. Take good care of my puppy Marchand. 22 goals for #22, horray.
2. Voracek lost or broken?
3. PP for Moose
4. Hillier from Marchand – goal
5. Moose get a PP on a hit to Bouchard
6. Holy fuck, they took Jakub off the point. It only took 65 games to try something different on the PP. Bods and MacMillan on the point
7. Why does it feel like lines change 20 times during a game? Why don’t we have set lines and stick with them…allow guys to get comfortable with other guys. There are only 4 regular season games left.
   

In the third:

1. Bona in a box
2. 42 shots, 2 goals. What kind of soft ass shots do we put on net. Dumb question.
3. Hillier hates cats. Second two-goal game in two games against the 'cats. Short handed goal.
4. Voracek break-away, no goal. Riopel is fancy.
   
5. Knotek succeeds where MacMillan fails- empty net goal
6. Hillier - empty net hat trick

Final shots 49/ 27 in favour of the moose.

I am glad Yetman was able to pull his socks up.

Big props to Monast and Corsi for their two assists each, and to Marchand for three assists.
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My Rant:

It may be good to start P-O tomorrow as a confidence builder? In his last game against PEI he was 1/26, and in his last three game winning stretch he was 3/81 with a GAA = 1 and a 0.963 save%. One bad game combined with the coach, town and team showing a lack of confidence in a boy can kill a boy (hence Bathurst - and this does not even account for a complete defensive breakdown on the part of the Moose in the first 1o minutes of play). Two bad games and an eternal benching will only make it worse. Let's not forget that Yeti/Yetty was not so fancy in Bathurst either. Yetman's 4 goals-against alone were also enough to lose us that game.

The Titan defense was decimated with the flu so I don't want to hear any shit about an inability on the part of our forwards to battle back from a four goal deficit after the first period... 'but we were too sad to fight it out...waaa waaa'. Andrew White and Jakub Voracek are never too sad to fight it out, but two boys do-not-a-team-make (and actually Jakub was down and out today - 0 points). In fact, Andrew shines brightest when we are down. If Cam fears 'the let down effect' then he should pull the goalie after he lets in three, not after he lets in five.

Geeeze. Lately, when Pelletier does poorly and Yetman comes in to back him up, Yetman also does poorly. Is it the team in front of them, or the team's lack of confidence in the boys behind them, or the worlds shittiest coaching that is causing these problems? Yetman was doing poorly for the greater part of this year, most likely because of bad coaching decisions and because coaches and team leaders did not show confidence in him, so they left his ass on the bench to get all rusty. We do not want to turn P-O into 'December to February Yeti'. Cam will likely continue to sit him out and do just that. Or perhaps it is just that Dallaire is a bad goalie coach(?). Why does it seem as if Halifax is the place where fancy goalies come to die?

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Elsewhere:

• Across the causeway - Saint John Sea dogs lose to CB Screaming Eagles 4-2. These teams are now tied for second place in the Eastern conference. Benda gets the win for CB, Mayer gets the loss for Saint John. Fullerton in for tomorrow?
• Facebook - I dislike children.
• Marty # 1 is king of the universe.