TONKA at Edina (1-31-08)
Moderators: Mitch Hawker, east hockey, karl(east)
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Neutron 14
- Posts: 5339
- Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:48 pm
watchdog, your green colored glasses might be fogged. I've never said Ness was or wasn't the best player in the state. All I said is you can't compare Gardiner playing against Edina with Ness playing against the "Stiff of the Night". Gardiner didn't look that great last night, and I'm not going to form an opinion on one outing against what I consider the best team in the state. You have read here the same that I have, that Gardiners strength is being an offensive defensman. Against Edina I don't blame him for being a little tentative.watchdog wrote:neutron- i would'nt put two cents in stock of anything you say from what ive read of your post. your vision of what a hockey player looks like scares the hell out of me. ness is without a doubt best hs player in the state. im not saying that because im from roseau. its just that obvious. in my opinion anyone that cant see it is not much of a scout.
Your last sentence has me a little confused though. Who told you I was a scout? I'm quite sure I didn't, and I'd probably know!
The only soft spot I see is the one between my legs
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Penalty Shot
- Posts: 127
- Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2003 11:32 am
Saw the game and I have seen both teams 3 times this year. Comments about Gardiner being unimpressive I believe are fairly naive. When he was on the ice he controlled the play. He made several turnovers during the game but so will anyone else against a team like Edina. Who touches the puck and controls games like he does? Think about how many times he successfully broke the puck out of his own end. I was impressed with his abilities and his desire. Third period he found 15 feet of open ice and took it through nuetral and brought it in and beat Cashetta with a great wrist shot that buried the pipe, a quarter inch away from being the ultimate hero in a classic game. He has some learning at his position but wouldnt it be fun to coach a kid like that and watch him develop because he will! He has the whole package and works hard to develop. His brother Max is very impressive as well, he has the opportunity to be another Wheeler type. Brian Urick is a great young man who is putting his resources back into youth hockey. The skippers are lucky to have a coach like him, he also has the experience of an assitant coach they call "Joe Pa" who in his own right was a fabulous head coach, the combo is very good for the kids and High School Hockey. Cudos to Buddish who took the game over in his last 3 shifts. Edina had lost all momentum but the first line of Edina dominated the last 3 shifts of the game and scored 2 goals to make the differance. Should be a great rematch see you there!
This probably had something to do with some of the mistakes.Slap Shot wrote:Keep in mind it was a game that featured two teams rated in the top 3 in state, two heated rivals and the game was on TV. I think it's to be expected that some of these kids were gripping their sticks a little tighter. I imagine the rematch will feature a bit more quality defensive play.
But I'm also gonna say that I think some people maybe had their expectations too high. It is high school hockey after all. Also, I thought it looked like two teams that are very good at pressuring their opponents, so many if not most of the mistakes were perhaps BECAUSE of the quality on the ice. Certainly some turnovers that could have been avoided. Both teams looked like they worked hard, and you could see the definitely see the effect on some players in the third period (is that not to be expected?). Some missed assignments led to goals. There again, the goals came because the scoring team executed well enough to capitalize on the mistake (in the end, Edina did more times than Tonka which was why they won). I, for one, thought this was a very great hockey game.
About Gardiner - at times he controlled the game. Clearly he has some great skills. Yes, he made some mistakes (some could have been very costly). I don't think he quite lived up to his billing in this game, but it is only one game. First time I saw him, so I'm certainly not going to say he is overrated. He is a very good player.