"Hey! Who's on defense? No, Who is the center. What? What is a forward. Huh? He's another forward. What? Forward. Who? Center. Why? He's on defense. Who is? No, Who is the center. What? Forward. I'm confused. That's the other defenseman. Who? Who is the center. I don't care. That's the goalie. What? Forward. I don't care. Like I said he's the goalie. Why? Defenseman. I'm confused. The other defenseman. Help! That's the backup goalie." Sound familiar?Shots for the Wranglers were definitely lacking, a whopping total of 13 (4-5-4). River City had a total of 36 shots (11-17-8). Perhaps, no perhaps about it, it was the road trip, combined with lack of sleep, and a game less than 24 hours later that contributed to the Wranglers poor performance. They just couldn't seem to get it together. Again, poor passing, no puck control, little or no hits, and little or NO DEFENSE. This game got out of control because the Wrangler "D" did not follow through. A couple of defensive lines just didn't get the back door player or the player coming into the slot. Also, if someone is going to camp in front of the Wrangler goal you got to move them out. Otherwise it's just a manner of time that they're going to score. And that's what happened. If you look at the +/- ratio you're going to see who are the effective lines and who are not.
The road trip, bus ride, and another game less than 24 hours definitely had an affect on the Wranglers. You could see it, skating through the neutral zone was "oh so slow." The fast moving Jags took advantage of this misfortune by stealing the puck and shooting on goal. The leading Jags scorer Kevin Nighbert even got a hat trick out of tonight's game.
If there was a bright spot for the Wranglers it was that there were no major penalties that would result in upcoming game suspensions. So the Wranglers should have a good line up for next weekend's games.
Oh well I'm glad this one's over. Kind of like the economy, these are tough times for Wranglers and Wrangler fans. The Wranglers travel to Portland to play the River City Jaguars this coming Friday night, Dec. 12. Then on Saturday, Dec. 13, the Wranglers once again travel to Bremerton to visit the Puget Sound Tomahawks. I hope the Wranglers have a good practice week, work on building lines with the new forwards, and working on hockey basics - passing, skating, shooting, and checking.
