About Last Night... Hawks 5 - Blizz 1

What did we learn about last night's 5-1 loss at the hands of the Nipawin Hawks? Well #1 don't get to the rink three and a half hours before the game. This team  Too much downtime and the players didn't have their legs, not much skating last night.

Most of the Blizzard's problems occurred in their own defensive end, too many time they got caught with four or even all five guys below the has marks trying to defend. The problem? Leaves the high slot wide open and it makes Justin McDonalds job much more difficult to track the puck.

Turnovers in the high slot was a problem as well, multiple times the Blizzard were unable to breakout of their own zone, they looked very disorganized.

All around it was a poor effort in the defensive end.

The Blizz also got away from their physical play, which is supposed to be the trade mark of this big team.

Undisciplined play led to too many penalties, something the coaching staff will have to work on.

Some of the positives?

Grove, Gray & Valiquette looked very good together. Valiquette and Grove can both fly and dish the puck while Gray is great at retrieving the puck.

Wilson Dumais looked strong again, although his wild side did show.

Thomas Ward-Cardinal looked great again, the guy can shoot, pass and skate with the best of them in this league.

Justin McDonald was the victim of a porous defense in making 22 saves, two goals were tip ins and several were scrambles. All around he looked better than he has in his last few outings.

This team has potential, but the coaching staff has lots of work to do to get the compete level of this team up and get everyone on the same page.

The Blizzard are in Flin Flon on Tuesday and we'll have that game for you live on CJ1240.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, speak to you on Tuesday!

-Brad-