When your team is 1-5, writing a blog is not much fun. I thought the game Saturday night was a full effort by our team with a very disappointing end result. I could point out a number of highs and disappointments but the main story line is the ineffectiveness of our man down and man up teams which has been our Achilles heel all season. (League: 10th PPGF/ 8th PPGA) Buffalo’s five power play goals (5/8) and our one (1/4) plus allowing a man down goal and there’s the game. Five on five it was 10-7 Wings. (Yes, I know that score means nothing but proves my point) For this officiating crew the unsportsmanlike call was the “flavor of the night” with a whopping three…..all on the Wings. In 24 years I’ve never seen that before. Too bad our guys didn’t figure out after the first one that this crew was a bit sensitive to “sucks.” 

The biggest positive is our team played hard.  They moved the ball, Wailes (4) and G.Snider (3) combined for seven goals and we were better on loose balls. We lost McGlone midway through the game with an injury and Bob Snider should have come out due to a shoulder injury but continued to play. I know some of you are saying “injuries are part of the game” and that I am only making excuses but facts are facts. When you lose the ’08 #1 and last year’s #3 scorer in the league before the season begins, plus Nadelen and Ward in the last two weeks it puts your team in a pretty tough situation.

My partner Chris Fritz has a saying that “it is what it is” and he’s right. No one knows how good we could have been with the team we put together before the injuries. Many who really understand this game have said we would be among the best in the league, but it’s no use talking about who we don’t have but who we do have. WE have some very good players who will go to work and do everything they can to get it done. I hate losing as much as anyone and as I looked around the very despondent locker room after the game Saturday night, I saw a group of players just as disappointed or more than I was. They had been to war and were feeling the agony of defeat, but their biggest issue was not the bleeding knees and aching bodies but the disappointment in letting you and themselves down.  MAKE NO MISTAKE THIS TEAM CARES.  Beat me up over this blog but I am asking you to not give up on them because they are not giving up. Are we good enough to turn this around…all I can say is we have a lot of games left to play and the only guarantee I can give you is this organization, team and coaching staff have not given up. We hope you won’t.