I can think of nothing but the line from Conan The Barbarian after this game when asked "What is the best in life?", Conan answers, "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of their women." Being on the wrong side of that is .... shall we say; ... not good.
Tonight's game turned on a couple of crucial moments late in the 3rd period. Though down 2-1 there was still every expectation that UAA could make a go of it. The guys were giving it their all but got tagged with a 5 minute major to Brad Gorham. Didn't see the contact and there was no replay so I'll offer no critique of that call.
But then early in the 5 minute penalty Tommy Grant broke fairly clean in on goal and was hauled down before he got to the crease by two pursuing UAF players. No call. At this point it's important to remember that earlier in the game UAF was given a 2 minute penalty for a play nearly identical to last night awarding of a penalty shot to UAF. So when no call came on this second breakaway, Shyiak lost control.
He tossed a water bottle on the ice and when the whistle blew he jumped over the boards and onto the ice to give the referee a piece of his mind. At first, the referee just made him climb back over but after a brief conference they tossed him from the game and called a 2 minute unsportsmanlike on UAA. That gave UAF a 5-on-3 power play and they didn't squander it. Game over man.
There were other factors that contributed to the loss. Unlike Friday night when UAA went 3 for 5 on the power play, tonight they only got the late power play goal with Jonny O pulled for a 6 on 4 advantage. Had they scored on any of the other chances earlier in the game then the "crucial" moments might not have made such a big difference. But they didn't and so it was.
Coach Shyiak has to man up on this and say, "It was my fault" or "This loss is on me" or something along those lines. Anything less will be inappropriate. And I won't be surprised if Bruce McLeod sits him for an extra game regardless of what he says. I don't blame Shyiak for losing his cool. Don't get me wrong. I would have went ballistic too.
The first breakaway haul down was fully deserving of a penalty shot call. When they did nothing on Grant's shorthanded breakaway ... man, that would have fried my ass if I'd been behind the bench. So Shyiak has to man up publicly, it is only such a mea culpa that can do anything to even slightly mitigate the situation.
Sucks to get swept by the hobbits. And I'm looking forward to a little WCHA referee payback next season. OMG ... Did I just wish for WCHA referees to call a UAA game?
14 comments:
Donald, still maintain that the weight numbers are flubbed? UAA players got overpowered and outmaneuvered by "hobbits" multiple times on the boards.
It's nice for you to have a target where you can come and gloat isn't it? You're welcome I guess. I'm not happy that I provide that for opposition fans but I sort of understand it. Sort of ...
And guess what? I write this blog to inform and entertain UAA fans. I have lots of feedback from them that leads me to believe that my style week in and week out is liked by the majority of them.
When and if UAA fans offer me a negative critique, I politely engage them and explain my motives so they get an understanding of what it is I'm trying to accomplish by berating opponents, poking fun at their cities/schools and generally trash talking them.
What I generally don't do though, is go to opponents websites/blogs after victories and gloat. That's something any crap throwing monkey can do. I on the other hand talk a lot of trash before the game. I put my belief, hopes and positive faith in my team before the games happen.
Fans like you just wait for their team to win and then stream in with the gloating. I can't say that makes me think much of you in terms of your character as a human being.
When my team is down my regular readers will tell you that they see me suffer here. I give them my passionate honesty with regard to the program. I go out of my way to be optimistic and positive in a forward thinking sense.
There are three groups of college hockey fans that in my experience love the gloating. UAF, UND and SCSU. Congrats to you on being in such fine company.
Woa dude calm down! You accused the university of faking it's weight numbers, and now that they've played twice, with the way the players handled themselves it should have been obvious you were wrong.
I apologize for nothing. Win/loss is a secondary issue to honor & integrity, which you challenged by accusing UAF of outright deceit.
You coined your new little nickname of "hobbit" on this issue. You keep pressing it. But your wrong and refuse to admit it. Strength and conditioning were crucial to this years success, not just this weekend.
To quote you: "UAA is still much bigger overall than UAF and can still go out and push the (now fat) little hobbits around."
If it'll help you calm down, I'll pretend that I just got hit with a flying water bottle.
Or we could just be happy that we got the Cup back, and call it a day. Just throwing it out there...
I personally enjoy this blog. I don't agree with everything Donald writes, but overall it's interesting, informative, and even entertaining. And yeah, that includes this week's coverage, hobbits and all. It's a rivalry series, no sense getting all worked up over it, especially when there's a big ol' "smartassery" label slapped on there.
To the Seawolf faithful, good luck going into the playoffs.
Anon:
You misinterpret the spirit of the whole "trash-talking" meme.
The "Shenanigans" post was a jibe, a poke, a little dig, a tease or a minor parody if you will. it is akin to dozens of posts I make every year prior to a series against any opponent.
Is it my fault that you didn't "get it"? Nope. I don't write for you. As the name of the blog implies, this is the UAA Fan Blog. That's who I write for. UAA fans. They "got it" ... they enjoyed it.
Do not confuse my verbosity and desire to make myself clear for an emotion state. The diatribe above is not rant ... rather it's a detailed frank explanation of some of what I'm doing here.
Earlier today, some member of your fanbase chose to use the Alaska public records search with my name out of some sick emotional need to embarrass me. They posted the minimal results in the comments section of my follow-on post which was also full of jibes, jokes, digs, pokes etc toward UAF and Fairbanks.
It is not the first time I've been personally violated because of some excellent teasing I've done here that some idiot fan of another team didn't "get".
Essentially, they creepily stalked me. How am I to know to what extent some miscreant fuck with a psychological problem will go with such a thing? Will they be showing up at my doorstep next? My name and phone number are right there on the page for all to see. Yet lazily anonymous (and sometimes creepy) people come here all the time and attack me personally.
Most times it's not an issue. It bothers me not to be called some name. But searching out my court history on a public database and posting the results (none of which are particularly interesting btw ...) here? What the fuck is that?
So excuse me if I take a few extra words to explain myself in response to your gloating. But as I said, don't for a second think that I need to calm down. Checking yourself might be in order. You didn't get the "fudged weight" references nor the "hobbits" joke and that's not my problem.
Spend more time supporting your fine blogger's efforts by commenting there and less time misunderstanding me and my motives and things will be all peachy. K? I don't want, need or desire your traffic here.
AKJD:
Had I seen your comment prior to mine. I may have just skipped answering anon's "calm down" comment. Well said and thank you.
Saw a lot of anger (ignorance to me) at Shyiak on USCHO and I know it's coming here. So Donald, here's my thoughts from my USCHO post:
Ok I'll be the one to defend him.
What he did is called showing passion for his team and defending his team against what seemed to be circus-like officiating. Multiple times people, Suze especially (and yes I am singling you out), have said that Dave never showed enough passion in the past when the refs seem to make horrible calls. Now, when he actually does it, you guys want him fired! WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot do you want from him?!? :rolleyes: He was caring for his team, showing passion for them, the same exact thing that you people say you do for the players. That's part of his job, that what's coaches do in situations like that, hoping his players respond. If a UAF player had cheap shotted some player and Kevin Clark or Nick Haddad had fought the guy and gotten a 5 and Game DQ would you want them kicked off the team and out of school? No! Well that's akin to what the referee was doing to Shyiak and so he fought back. Is he going to be punished? Yes. Should he be suspended? Yes. Should he be fined? Yes. Should he be fired? No. He's not the first coach do that (and IceAngel I'm willing to bet money that a UAF coach has done something like that before), he won't be the last.
And I dispute that his penalty led directly to the goal, did it help? No. But remember that UAA was killing off a 5 minute major at that time anyway. And with the way UAF's PP had been, that probably would have been a goal anyway.
we have beat or tied minnesota-duluth the last two years.
one win and we will be off to st. cloud for the playoffs.
win the wcha playoffs and the whole year will be forgotten.
this is the time for the team to pull together. The seniors this weekend need to play there best, a great finish will encourage a strong playoff.
all the best in your final weekend play.
the team will still finish in 8th place a better finish than the last three years.
shyiak finally showed emotion, maybe at the wrong time, but the referees don't allow us to play our physical style of game.
to all the departing seniors who are moving on, all the best to you and your families.
Look, beyond bragging rights, this was an exhibition series. The Seawolves shot themselves in the foot Friday, which is something that has beleaguered them all season. Last night again they were the better team with nothing to show for it. I thought Shyiak had to do what he did. All season they’ve got the short-end of the stick by overbearing overprotective refs. My God, I pay money to see a hockey game and wait for one to break out. But no, the refs are the show. Last night the Seawolves survived three in a row in the second as I recall. The Seawolves need something to rally around, and Shyiak’s ejection might serve as that. Something had to break. The water-bottle is the ultimate insult for the stripes. Let the boys play hockey. Don’t like the rough stuff? Lie on the ice until a 5-minute major is called and hop back to your Hobbit-hole? You’re in the wrong sport. Pick up a basketball. If that’s the CCHA, you can have it.
Unfortunately, not enough goals in general are scored, so it is important to get those pp goals. Both goals last night were scored by defensemen, so we need to really work on players stepping up to score when we need the goals.
A few players had great games last night.... yayy Jonny, just too bad we lost.
@ -30-, the CCHA refs are a disgrace and hurting the league. The only good news - the CCHA is likely to return to 3 on-ice officials to save on travel costs.
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It's ok to not be an offensive team. But obviously you need to he a defensive team then. UAA continues to struggle in goal, and that is a hole that needs to be plugged for this team to find success.
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As to conditioning - if The dough boy is cnditioning his team, I promise you Shyiak is too. People who harp on this need to fall back on hockey cliches and stratgies from movies - since they obviously know not what they are talking about.
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As to coach. A quick written or in-person apology. Cobb should go gentle on him. The person above that said if a player retaliated - would you want his head too? No! So you are not getting the head of the coach. It was good to see some fire. It was good to finally see a coach hld CCHA refs accountable for their inconsistent performance.
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Here is to a Sawolves sweep against UMD next weekend, and to an upset in the playoffs.
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And finally to the UAF lurkers - your team struggled against Western once. WMU played well this weekend. Their coach also wants to leave having made a statement. Don't assume you have an easy road to Marquette. Another school you have struggled against. Afterall - our school name is a significant part of FAilUre.
Its tough to swallow half of what jmjamacrap has to say weekly in your blog. Shiak lost the game. Glad to see emotion.? cmon. To lose the game like that proves nothing. The bottom line is we have lost 5 in a row and our team is going the wrong direction. Spare us your ignorance.
I think there's room for differing perspectives as to speculating about what would or would not have occurred. My post contains some of that and JJ's comment does as well.
It's really impossible to say what would or wouldn't have happened if a ref had made the penalty call when Grant was hauled down. Or earlier when Clark was hauled down.
But in Grant's case it certainly would have mitigated 2 minutes of the 5 minute penalty. There would have been no bottle thrown and consequently no 3-1 lead.
There's validity to the view that Shyiak was cummulatively fed up with blown calls by referees. It's equally valid to express that both teams have the same shitty referee.
But as I said, I don't think there can be any doubt that Shyiak crossed the line with the water bottle. I also said in my post that I don't blame him for doing it.
I can understand the desire to defend or even praise it. I can understand the concern that it sets a bad example for the players. I can also understand those that feel it is a black mark on the school and/or program.
It's a mixed bag really.
I'll be interested to see how WCHA officials interpret Shyiak's actions. Will he be suspended for another game? I know Dr. Cobb didn't have any comment as of last night as he hadn't had a chance to review the situation.
Irregardless of whether he was justified in doing what he did or not, I'm sure this has been one heck of a 'did I really do that last night?' kind of a morning for him.
Poor guy. Damned if he do, and damned if he don't.
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