I am not a nerd. In fact, if one of us in this situation is a nerd it's you. I mean look at you on your computer reading the internet while I'm out trying to figure out a way to franchise an ice cream shoppe on the side of a mountain...probably. Now that we have that settled...

I'm not going to do anything drastic and say that this is going to be a recurring feature, because one cup of coffee can get you to say that, but to get you to actually make it recur is an entirely different story. But for tonight's game (and possibly others) we headed down to our lab and ran an NHL '10 simulation, and I think you'll be happy with the results.

Disclaimer:I didn't put it on easy or anything, it's at a level that I would lose at quite often if I played video games, which I think we can all agree that I do not.

1st Period

The boys came out a little confused and out of position, but fast. Fast as in skating not as in scoring, because just 4 minutes in Ray Emery played a puck that he probably shouldn't have and Tuomo Ruutu tucked it into an empty net. 1-0 Canes. 2 minutes after that Mike Richards and Eric Cole, of all people, got into a shoving match and ended up having a go, which Richie won decidedly. Momentum however did not shift, mainly do to the poor play of Mika Pyorala and by the end of the period it was 2-0 canes on a Joe Corvo goal with Claude Giroux in the box for hooking.

Second Period

The second period we were all out there just playing hockey. The 4th line of Carcillo - Betts - Asham was bumping bodies. The skill guys were being skillful. It was entertaining. But with 5 minutes left in the period the boys were dangerously close to going into the third down two goals. That's when I threw out the third line of van Riemsdk (not enough room for the proper spelling when I was creating him) - Giroux - Laperriere and after Giroux made a nice steal high in the offensive zone Rabbit hit Lappy for an open net one timer. 2-1 with 21 minutes of hockey left.

Third Period

This was my speech between periods: "I'm not expecting much from you guys." Boy did set the room ablaze.

Four minutes into the period Gagne (Lappy, Giroux) wheeled around the net and into the slot and fired a backhander past a screened Cam Ward. Then after some gritty and tense play the Flyboys started to mount some steady pressure in Carolina's zone. With 2:44 left in the game a fresh Jeff Carter and Scott Hartnell went in on a 2 on 1. Hartsy hit Cartsy with a beautiful pass (Pyorala secondary) and the Flyers had come from behind to take the lead! One minute and three seconds later, at the end of the same shift, Carter banged home a Briere rebound (Hartnell secondary) and put the game out reach.

What a game.

Danny Briere looked slick out there and led the way with 4 shots. Matt Carle got stabbed with steroids by Daniel Carcillo before the game and led the team with 8 hits! Pronger and Hartnell were right behind him with 6 each. Betts was at 100% on faceoffs, going 1 for 1. And put all your doubts back in your underwear drawer because Ray Emery stopped 19 out of 21 shots for a save percentage of 90.5%.

If this prognostication comes to fruition I'll be shot gunning Coors Light bottles by 9:30 tonight!

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (5)

Name

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment Preview