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Post by MidlandSpiritFan on Jul 2, 2008 11:36:01 GMT -5
And I predict that the ice in the Dow Event Center will be better than it was at the end of last season. What makes you say this?? Are they installing a new compressor system this summer at Wendler Arena?? If not, then the ice will be as crappy as ever. |
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Post by darrenpangfan on Jul 2, 2008 12:36:53 GMT -5
Shanghai, that was one of my two wildcard predictions. It couldn't be any worse than prior to the cancelled Game 2 against the Soo, could it?
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Post by bpfox on Jul 2, 2008 16:37:41 GMT -5
Wow, bp, it was a typo. Chill. The regular season will burn you out if you start in this soon........ As I said 3 posts before this one............. Perhaps you should chill, I was just "Sass"ing you a bit. All in fun. It's what happens when there is no hockey. Peace. |
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Post by thepuckman on Jul 11, 2008 20:56:23 GMT -5
new to this blogging thing, but here we go:
Saginaw will finish 2nd in the West Division, 3rd in the Western Conference and win at least one playoff series
Jordan Szwarz will score 30+ goals and have three clean knockouts in fights
Ed Pasquale will put up All-Star numbers, but because World Jr. goalies get the all-star spots, he will be left out (All U.S. goalies in the west - McCollum, Unice, Smith - two will make the U.S. World Jr. roster)
Neither McDonough will play for Saginaw this season, but Ryan will play in the league someplace
One of the three drafted D-Men this year will be traded by the team at some point for some additional offensive help
Adam Comrie will continue to morph into Nigel Williams, but a little more defensive
The two import players will make an impact on the club this season (anybody else think the scouts watched one game to get two players from the same team? I digress)
I will make it to the final three arenas I have not seen in the league yet (PBO, OTT, KGN)
I will continue to blog - this is pretty cool
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Post by acwright84 on Jul 12, 2008 0:42:25 GMT -5
wow those are some pretty bold predictions puckman. I like the positive mindset we need more of that around here.
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Post by IGive1 on Jul 17, 2008 20:05:25 GMT -5
Heard this week:
1.) Looks like neither Saad nor Parker will report
2.) Last year's pick Brad Walch will be returning to play another year in Des Moines of USHL
3.) Pachis blew out his knee and his playing days may be over
If DE called last year a "transition year", I will be curious to what he calls this year because it is lookly pretty bleak.
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Post by newguy on Jul 19, 2008 12:15:31 GMT -5
Heard this week: 1.) Looks like neither Saad nor Parker will report 2.) Last year's pick Brad Walch will be returning to play another year in Des Moines of USHL 3.) Pachis blew out his knee and his playing days may be over If DE called last year a "transition year", I will be curious to what he calls this year because it is lookly pretty bleak. Wow. Someone feel free to correct me, but I don't believe in the previous SIX seasons of Saginaw Spirit hockey, that ANY pick in the first 3 rounds ever didn't come and play for the team the year he was drafted. I know Pyatt was real late in signing. That's over twenty hockey players Now still in Don Edwards' first 12 months on the job, you're telling me... 1) He won't get his 1st round pick to report this season 2) He won't get his 2nd round pick to report this season 3) The player the owners and Dan Haliburton chose last year as their 1st round pick (Pachis) was rated by nearly EVERYONE below the guy they took in the 2nd round. 4) It looks like they have a potential bust of a 1st round pick. Go back in time and no one even on much worse teams like JM Rizk, McNeill, Corrente -- none of them were as ineffective as Pachis was last season. I'll be curious to see if Edwards tries to pass the buck to someone else on this one. He did for the most part, "inherit" his scouting staff, but being extremely inexperienced in the league when he was hired, he probably needed their assistance in those initial months. Of course, I won't be as harsh on him if one of those two kids does report. Even Plymouth has had a couple 1st round picks (Nick Petrecki) for one, stiff them. Have heard a rather well known story that Garber screamed at Mancini and Haliburton to take Petrecki at #3 in 2005 instead of Torquato. I think Garber and Goslin have proven over and over again they shouldn't even BE in the draft room. They should both go play golf that weekend. As it was Petrecki never came to the OHL. Then again, Saginaw also drafted Torquato over Drew Doughty and Josh Bailey. So, you know. Nice going. But either way, yeah, red flag on Edwards (if it wasn't there already) if you can't get EITHER of your top 2 picks to come. It really is on him to prove he was worthy of the job now. If you're comparing who "Mancini" players are compared to "Edwards" players. The only Edwards players I would consider to be his are now: Pasquale, Taylor, Underwood, Pachis, Szwarz, Pleckaitis, Tront, and Smith. Everyone else is a "Mancini" guy including Comrie, Allicock, and Oglivie because Mancini drafted all of them, they just came a year late much as Priamo and Chappell did. Look, Mancini also drafted Chris Ferguson, Sobczynski, Tom Craig, and Scott Fletcher, all absolute disasters, really. Just saying you at least gotta get your kids to report. |
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Post by kivpit on Jul 19, 2008 13:06:45 GMT -5
Heard this week: 1.) Looks like neither Saad nor Parker will report 2.) Last year's pick Brad Walch will be returning to play another year in Des Moines of USHL 3.) Pachis blew out his knee and his playing days may be over If DE called last year a "transition year", I will be curious to what he calls this year because it is lookly pretty bleak. Wow. Someone feel free to correct me, but I don't believe in the previous SIX seasons of Saginaw Spirit hockey, that ANY pick in the first 3 rounds ever didn't come and play for the team the year he was drafted. I know Pyatt was real late in signing. That's over twenty hockey players Now still in Don Edwards' first 12 months on the job, you're telling me... 1) He won't get his 1st round pick to report this season 2) He won't get his 2nd round pick to report this season 3) The player the owners and Dan Haliburton chose last year as their 1st round pick (Pachis) was rated by nearly EVERYONE below the guy they took in the 2nd round. 4) It looks like they have a potential bust of a 1st round pick. Go back in time and no one even on much worse teams like JM Rizk, McNeill, Corrente -- none of them were as ineffective as Pachis was last season. I'll be curious to see if Edwards tries to pass the buck to someone else on this one. He did for the most part, "inherit" his scouting staff, but being extremely inexperienced in the league when he was hired, he probably needed their assistance in those initial months. Of course, I won't be as harsh on him if one of those two kids does report. Even Plymouth has had a couple 1st round picks (Nick Petrecki) for one, stiff them. Have heard a rather well known story that Garber screamed at Mancini and Haliburton to take Petrecki at #3 in 2005 instead of Torquato. I think Garber and Goslin have proven over and over again they shouldn't even BE in the draft room. They should both go play golf that weekend. As it was Petrecki never came to the OHL. Then again, Saginaw also drafted Torquato over Drew Doughty and Josh Bailey. So, you know. Nice going. But either way, yeah, red flag on Edwards (if it wasn't there already) if you can't get EITHER of your top 2 picks to come. It really is on him to prove he was worthy of the job now. If you're comparing who "Mancini" players are compared to "Edwards" players. The only Edwards players I would consider to be his are now: Pasquale, Taylor, Underwood, Pachis, Szwarz, Pleckaitis, Tront, and Smith. Everyone else is a "Mancini" guy including Comrie, Allicock, and Oglivie because Mancini drafted all of them, they just came a year late much as Priamo and Chappell did. Look, Mancini also drafted Chris Ferguson, Sobczynski, Tom Craig, and Scott Fletcher, all absolute disasters, really. Just saying you at least gotta get your kids to report. Ogilvie was never drafted by Saginaw... He played for Edwards in Oakville the year before... |
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Post by IGive1 on Jul 19, 2008 13:37:30 GMT -5
Heard this week: 1.) Looks like neither Saad nor Parker will report 2.) Last year's pick Brad Walch will be returning to play another year in Des Moines of USHL 3.) Pachis blew out his knee and his playing days may be over If DE called last year a "transition year", I will be curious to what he calls this year because it is looking pretty bleak. I think Garber and Goslin have proven over and over again they shouldn't even BE in the draft room. They should both go play golf that weekend. No truer words have ever been spoken! The Gs fancy themselves to be GMs, but hey it's their skin that's in the game so they can do what they want. On Pachis, other teams had him at a lower round pick. Garber made the decision to take him based on looking at his stats. Forget what your scouts have to say, just look at stats. Why even have scouts, just hire statisticians? I doubt Garber had even seen Pachis play and if he did does he really know the difference between a wrist-shot and a wristwatch? Good point on Petrecki, makes sense since he is an American kid and the franchise likes them when they can get them. I've been with this franchise since day one, but now I'm really afraid that unless and until the Gs stay out of the hockey side of the business, the future will look like the past with really little if any progress being made. I think it is really going to hurt at the gate. I don't have to tell anyone how bad the economy is and whether people are going to spend their discretionary dollars on continued mediocrity remains to be seen. |
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Post by newguy on Jul 19, 2008 18:55:23 GMT -5
I think more and more people are getting this about Richard and Craig, instead of blindly defending them.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that they brought hockey to the area, but the dumbest defence of them is: "Look, hockey wouldn't even be here without them, so I'm not going to criticize them".
I don't know what final attendance figures were, but they HAD to be lower than for the excellent team we had the year before this. Forget that they had more points but watching guys like Haskins, Bass, O'Marra, and obviously the guys we already had was loads of fun.
Either way, gas prices are WAY higher than they were at the start of last season. I'm going to guess that when you go from 2.60/gallon (just a guess) to 4.10 or so a gallon, and lots of folks are driving to Spirit games at least from 30 minutes away, they're going to suffer big at the box office.
It's all great to guy and I'm not saying people and families will STOP going completely this year, but attendance will be down, and I don't even blame it mostly on ownership, because the economy and gas prices and people just being a lot more careful with their income will make a big difference. I happen to be one that believes the team won't be as good this year as it was last year. From last season's start, you're missing McDonough (the one that can actually play), Daniels, Asselin, Mursak, Zaborsky, Sinfield, Nigel, Berard (I know he didn't play during the season), and possibly Combs. We shall see. That's an awful lot of talent to lose.
Such a good core got built more through trades than drafting when Mancini was here, but now this team this year unless Combs and Daniels are back, won't even resemble any part of the first two playoff teams we had here.
I think we all know enough people in the organization to know that Mancini being fired didn't sit well with a lot of people. And if he was only the GM, that would have been fine with me, and it sounds like, fine with him too. But then to have people leave the organization en masse seemed a bit strange. I don't know all the people on this list, but to lose:
Ian Herbers
Shawn Camp
Cameron Knowles
Lisa Blue (sp?)
Greg Brady
Brian the trainer
They ALL left on their own. Almost all had been with the organization since the very beginning. Surely that doesn't seem like normal turnover, does it? Just wondering out loud. It's always something I've been curious about.
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Post by eric8199 on Jul 20, 2008 12:35:04 GMT -5
I always find it hilarious when people predict that we will do horribly before the season even begins...Who knows if this is even the team we'll have when we step out on the ice for the first game. Also, you can't criticize players who didn't play much last year, because I've seen PLENTY of players who you didn't even know their name the year before become star players. Look at Combs. Before last year, he was the guy who Mancini put out on the shootout because he could score there, but he didn't get a lot of ice time and no one knew who he was. Then this past year he was our star guy.
I know that the season hasn't started, and there's nothing else to talk about, but stop writing the team off before they even report for practice. Last year at this time we weren't going to make the playoffs, and while we didn't make it past round one, we had a great season. And had we not had the ridiculous ice problem for game 2, I believe we would have come close to making it to the second round, if not going farther than that.
I have two predictions: I think this team will exceed expectations this year, as they did last year. I also believe that we'll see some guys step up that did nothing last year.
Not only that, but the team we have is young, so NEXT year, we'll be even better.
Go Spirit! I'll wait until they hit the ice to start bashing them.
And I am SO tired of the Edwards bashing, and am really tired of people bashing Garber and Goslin. I agree, they don't really know their hockey, but regardless, this team has gotten better every year. Last year was a snag, but that's because we threw everything away to try to go for a championship. You have to take that risk once in a while, and we still did very well with what we had last year.
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Post by newguy on Jul 20, 2008 13:54:34 GMT -5
Eric,
Good for you that you have that enthusiasm. I agree that right now they're 0-0-0-0. So is everyone else...but...
They didn't throw away "everything" to go for a championship. If the team returns two very good NHL-drafted Europeans, 2 top scorers in Combs and McDonough, seasoned OA vets in Asselin and Berard, a 'good enough' goalie in Daniels, a very good 'offensive' defenceman in Nigel Williams, and two improving D-men in Crawford and Brodie, then you can hardly say that Edwards already didn't have some pretty good clay to mould with.
If you tire of the Edwards bashing, then count me as one that thinks Mancini gets a bad rap for leaving "the cupboard bare". It was ownership that prevented him from trading for Daniel Ryder or Steve Downie. The deal with Peterborough was set and Garber refused to let him make it.
As for your definition of last season as "great". That's a bit too much pom-pom waving for me. 76 points? No playoff victories? Sorry, it was better than many of us thought Saginaw would do, but "great". If "great" means that 15 OHL teams won more playoff games then our team, then knock yourself out.
I was hardly bashing Edwards but again if his top two picks don't report, and his Europeans aren't very good (still TBD), and Pasquale can't be an excellent starter, then he deserves to get hammered and considerably so. Except for Combs, Brodie, Crawford, Comrie and Murovich, all decisions can now be hung on him - good or bad. I think they have a very good coach in Todd Watson, but as he criticized Edwards for earlier last season, he needs players.
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Post by sensspiritfan on Jul 20, 2008 15:55:35 GMT -5
Murovich was not brought in by Mancini he was brought in by Edwards last year as a free agent.
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Post by bpfox on Jul 20, 2008 15:55:53 GMT -5
Keep in mind here folks that our favorite Saginaw News reporter comes to this site to get his facts. If he even reads this last page and takes even 5% of it as factually accurate, we are in big trouble. I for one sure would like to see some documentation on some of the bs being poster here. All I can say is wow.
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Post by MidlandSpiritFan on Jul 20, 2008 16:54:13 GMT -5
The good news is that this is the most banter during the summer prior to August I can ever remember on this forum. That in and of itself is a good thing IMO. That means people in the Saginaw area are interested in this team, good or bad.
Have to agree with bpfox's statement about backing up some of the things being said especially newguy's claim that Mancini had a deal as good as done for Daniel Ryder and/or Steve Downie but that it was nixed by the front office. By the way newguy, you don't get something for nothing. Who or how many draft picks supposedly would Saginaw have given up to get 1 or both of those guys??
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