AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > March > 24
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Aimless effort vs. Pens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dear God,
I don’t pray often … in fact, most of my prayers were the “If you help me live through this, I’ll never do it again” variety in college. You knew I was kinda kidding, right?
Anway, back on topic.
Dear God,
Please tell me an entire hockey season can’t come down to a goal like this. It can’t right? A guy takes a back-handed swipe at a loose puck, and it bounces off the end boards and over the goalie’s leg, landing on edge just inside the goal line for a game-winning goal … something like that can’t derail an entire 82-game schedule, can it? These guys don’t deserve it. They’ve worked too hard and put in too much effort to build this franchise to this point.
Of course … it’s happened before. Steve Smith, anybody? Didn’t Chris Osgood give up a 70-footer to lose a playoff series?
Wow. I can’t recall feeling so empty after a game in a long while. Maybe not since Terry Pendleton hit a HR off Roger McDowell in the third-to-last game of the ‘87 season to all but eliminate the Mets. That one hurt. This one hurt. That lucky sonofagun Staal …
So now the pressure is on. If indeed this is basically the first round of the playoffs, then we are down 0-1. We need to win four of the next/last six games, in my opinion. Or we’re gonna need some help. And so far, help has not been forthcoming.
We’ll need to channel some serious ill-will in Tampa Bay’s direction tonight; we need our old friend The Heater to help us out.
My one observation of this team over the past two days is this … and it’s a scary observation: Over the past two games, this team has reminded me of the Curt Fraser years. We’re not controlling the play in any facet. The action is always in our end, constant pressure … and we’re just playing for whatever offensive scraps fall off the table. There is no rhythm on offense, no sense of objective … just guys flying in on transition and looking for a lucky bounce. Our shots have a sense of desperation, like, please find a hole, please let the goalie bobble it. In short, we are not in control, like we’re waiting for the hand of God to come down and scooch us into the playoffs. And as we saw today, God clearly is not on our side.
Don Waddell did his job. He put the pieces in Bob Hartley’s hands. Now it’s up to Hartley to get these guys scoring goals again.
Game 2 is Wednesday.
