Don't Poke The Bear: Tough 3-2 Double OT loss vs BCHL Champs Poco Express

I used to dislike rather intensely when my parents would talk about silver linings. They would do that when I would come home from school and tell them things like the time I got cut from my middle school basketball team.  "Well Clayton, maybe there is a silver lining in there somewhere? You really are a talented mogul skier, maybe that should be your focus?" I mean what the hell is a silver lining anyway?

Try telling that to Michael Stiliadis or Cole Pickup or Jake Emilio or any of the Grizzlies players last night as they boarded the team bus heading back to the hotel after a heart breaking Double OT loss in the final second of 2OT.  I didn't and don't worry, I don't plan or trying to during any of my interactions with the team today. Have you ever poked a grizzly bear?  Well I haven't tried yet but I have heard that its a very bad idea.

But from purely a practical hockey standpoint, you kind of have to step back a try and see the forest through the trees in a moment like this.  I mean, you can sit around and feel sorry for yourself all you like, but at the end of the day, you are going to only end up where you started, alone, with nobody really giving two "You Know Whats".

The game last night was full of reasons to feel aggrieved though with a Garrett Forster 2nd Period Goal being ruled "No Goal" after what was a picture perfect rebound follow-up on a Matt Kennedy breakaway move. But the Goal Judge at that end of the ice with his Coquitlam Express jacket would be no end of trouble for the visiting Grizzlies all night at the Poirier Centre in Port Coquitlam. The game was the first of three consecutive road visits for the Grizzlies on the weekend before the team breaks up (temporarily) on Sunday for the Christmas Break. With the puck clearly in the net, the impartial and professional Goal Judge failed to depress the goal light and instead chose to interpret the play in the favour of the other team wearing white, black and yellow, the home team Poco Express.

After giving up a first period goal to the Express in the first period, the Grizzlies would fight through a tough series of penalties, some involving 5 on 3 situations and answer late at the end of Period #2 with a Brett Gruber PP goal to make it 2-1. The Grizzlies would be so strangely penalised in the game at one point in the middle frame, Justin Sadler would find himself sitting in the Penalty Box for an apparent hook only to be pulled out of the box to watch a Penalty Shot be awarded to the Express' Brendan Lamont. You could almost see the referees deciding that the penalty call wasn't severe enough, so maybe we better make it a Penalty Shot.  It was just a game of madness last night in North East Vancouver.

The Third Period would see the Grizzlies tie the game (again on the PP by Gruber) and send the game into OT for yet more drama. This of course all occurred in a season which frankly couldn't have possibly squeezed another drop of drama into the Drama Tank.  Both Goalies were excellent on the night with Michael Stiliadis turning away all shots except 3 of the 38 shots he faced on the night. But the other story on the night were the 48 shots by the Grizzlies and the performance of goalie Braden Krogfoss.  Krogfoss, (try saying that name on the air fast while you are angry) apparently, according to Express officials, played his best game of the year on Teddy Bear Toss Night for the Coquitlam Express. He was the game's Third Star.

The game would go to the final second of Double OT before the Express would score on a Buzzer Beater 2 on 1 play while enjoying the more open ice afforded by 3 on 3 Double OT Play. An obviously disappointed Grizzlies Team would leave Coquitlam with technically a loss on the night. But few of the players would know that both Powell River and Nanaimo would lose on the evening, thus giving the Grizzlies one more of those ever so small baby step points as they slowly but surely chip away at the leads enjoyed by their rival Island Division opponents.  Road points are ever so hard to come by, but this one was extra hard.

So it may have been one of those dare I say the words, silver linings games?  Well with Craig Didmon behind the bench, yes, they have technically now lost a hockey game, but the Grizzlies are still undefeated in Regulation Play after 5 games with the new Bench Boss calling the shots.  The team has very quietly earned 8 points out of a possible 10 since Coach Dids has returned to his old office at The Q Centre.

And its funny, because when you get to talk to fans and players through the relative safety of a hockey blog site or on Twitter, you tend to get brave. And I may just be brave enough to tell anyone who takes the time to read this story that last night's game was full of silver linings. The team's goals against are down, the offence is still potent, Grizzlies Specail Teams are very good and there is balance up and down the lineup whether at home or in the unfriendly confines of barns like The Poirier Centre.

So I am going to take my big long electronic stick and do something which is not very risky, at least not here in my hotel room on the road with the team. I am going to poke this Grizzly Bear and tell it something that it secretly knows but is not happy about at all.  That is the simple fact that getting points, any points, even after a heart breaker loss can have some good news attached, especially when you work your tail off.  The Grizzlies play the Langley Rivermen away tonight at the Langley Events Centre.

And now that I have poked the bear on the safe side of the cage, I suspect the Rivermen won't enjoy the fact that at 7pm tonight they will find themselves on the wrong side of that very safety barrier. Because I think I read somewhere that bears don't like being poked. -CC

PS: My parents were right, BTW, even at my advanced age, I can still crush moguls.

  

Drama Kings Return On Teddy Bear Night: 8-7 Grizzlies Over Cents

On the bus ride home from Cowichan on Friday night, there was a moment where I though that my Drama Kings narrative was perhaps dead. If you read this blog, you know the narrative well: big leads become small leads or tied games, late goals force Overtime situations, huge Grizzlies comebacks which don't seem possible end up happening, shutouts and EN goals are few and far between, coaches lose hair or they turn prematurely grey and lost of goals, lots of constant high drama.  That's been the narrative this season. And I gave it a name: I call them the Drama Kings.  They are literally the Kings of Drama.

But late on Friday night as the Grizzlies Team Bus Driver Jason leaned hard on the bus horn exiting The Island Savings Centre I had other thoughts. Jason of course was doing this as a point of formality and ceremony to inform any living soul within miles of The Big Stick that the victorious Grizzlies were leaving town. Right then as the horn finally stopped blaring, to the shock and horror of the local townsfolk, but to the school boy giddy delight of the twenty-one young men in the back of the bus, I suddenly though: 6-0 Grizzlies? This isn't the Drama Kings? This isn't the narrative?

No, this was supposed to be Game #1 under returning Head Coach, Craig Didmon and clearly, Coach Dids was having no part in all of this Drama Kings nonsense. Apparently the game plan going in featured Five Big Points and each and everyone was fully met. Oh well, I thought, I will never complain about a win and it sure was nice to see Michael Stiliadis pick up his first Shutout of the year. It was in fact the team's first Shutout on the season as well. Far less dramatic teams usually have more than a few Shutouts by the mid season mark, but not the 2014/15 Grizzlies. Maybe it will just have to be ok if the Grizzlies develop a new identity and if it involves less drama and a few dominant performances, well that's ok.

But last night after the Merritt Centennials visit to the Q Centre, as I stared down at the ice and watched the Grizzlies pour over the bench to mob a celebrating Garrett Forster, after his incredible OT game winner, I started thinking about the Drama Kings again. Because there if there ever was a word to describe the hockey game I had just witnessed, dramatic would certainly be the word.

In a fifteen goal game, its kind of tough to describe all the scoring but I will do my very best. Here is a quick synopsis of how the game went: Grizzlies score and teddy bears rain down from the rafters, Cents answer, Grizzlies retake the lead and Merritt ties it up, Grizzlies score again and Merritt comes back again with a couple more to take lead for the first time. And that was just the first two periods! You didn't know it at the time but that was only half of the scoring you would see in this wild barn burner down at The Q. Seven more goals would be scored in the 3rd Period. It short this game was nuts, absolutely crazy.

This hockey game witnessed three lead changes and seven game tying goals including a shorthanded goal by Merritt forward Gavin Gould with no less than 9 seconds left in regulation time to force the OT. The game was a wild firebrand style of hockey which if word gets out, could soon restore the typical 1,300-1,400 fans you tend to see on normal game nights in the Westshore. You kind of knew something was up when Cliff Lequesne missed his "One Minute Left In The Second Period" call at the end of Period #2. He never does that. Who knows, maybe he was a little busy down there in the Centre Broadcast Room.

You think?

Yeah, I think I am going to give my buddy Cliff a bit of a Hall Pass on this one. He was very likely just as busy as myself and my Play-By-Play partner Scott Didmon up top. You might say that we had a little bit on our minds at the time. We actually ran out of room to write, there was that much game information flying around. On several occasions in the third period, we both looked at each other in total disbelief about what we were seeing. As for Storm Wahlrab and Cody Van Lierop both in the Press Box on the evening, those players, powerless to affect the outcome, were simply beside themselves throughout the game. I kind of felt bad at times to tell you the truth, they're both just great young men. By the time of the OT it was almost cruel.

Here are some stats which tell the tale: This game featured no less than 16 of 18 Grizzlies players registering at least a point, both opposing goalies with nearly identical save percentages at around 76%, 13 different goal scorers in the hockey game and can you believe it, four goals scored within 60 seconds of one and other.

This game had everything. I say that because I am usually one of the last people to leave the building on game nights. It comes with the job. And I am pretty sure I saw the Q Centre Zambonie driver, Tom, clearing up a kitchen sink which had somehow managed to find its way onto the playing surface during the melee after Garrett Forster finally dispatched the visitors with his eventual game winner in OT.

With the Grizzlies competing with the Westshore Santa Truck Parade in full force outside and all along the Old Island Highway, the 945 fans who did make their way into the Q Centre on the night, certainly left the building happy as the noise in the arena was certainly the loudest of the season thus far. The Q Centre was rocking all night. And as for The Teddy Bear Toss, well it didn't take too long to rain down. Just 38 seconds in was when #8 Brett Gruber would score on the PP and get the building rocking. If you were paying attention, that early goal might have been a harbinger of good things to come on the night. Two and a half hours and 12 goals later, the fans would be on their feet in elation as the Grizzlies found their figurative Drama King crowns just in time and wore them with pride.

The Grizzlies will now get seven days off and likely enjoy the break before they are back in action next Saturday night at the Q Centre as they host the Powell River Kings. Three nights later on Tuesday 16 Dec, will be the team's first "Toonie Night" as fans can get into the building for only a Toonie. Now if you will excuse me, I would write more, but I just talked to my doctor and she wants me to come in for a quick blood pressure checkup. Apparently long term exposure to The Drama Kings is not so good for emotionally invested people like myself who have bought in hook, line and sinker on this amazing hockey team out in Colwood.

Do check out this great video by Roy Anthonisen and our crack Grizzlies Video Team at: youtube.com/watch?v=NJdS6k2ESxg&feature=youtu.be …

Oh and if any of you see Tom around the rink this week, tell him I will grab that kitchen sink off him if he still has it. I am in the middle of a kitchen reno at the moment and wouldn't mind saving a few bucks. See you next Saturday everybody. - CC