Postgame Report

All right, I have had a few days to digest Saturday night's season opener for the Express. What can you say?? The Express laid a giant egg. Obviously, it's way to early to draw much for conclusions from what I saw in Albert Lea a couple of days ago.

Tidbits:

- The loss of Jake Sloat just 2 minutes into the game hurt the Express. He was ejected for fighting after the whistle along with the Thunder player who started the melee. He is a veteran defenseman in his third year of junior hockey and started the game with fellow veteran Marco Fiala. His ejection forced the Express to play with only 5 defenseman the rest of the game, with 2 of those guys in their first NAHL game.

- The Express were also without veteran forward Chris Darnell who missed the game on account of the flu.

- The loss was the first in the history of the Express to the Thunder. The Express went 12-0 against our closest rivals last season.

- Again, it's way to early to draw any major conclusions, but it looks like the Thunder might be a little more competitive this season. As I mentioned several times last season, it is important to the Express to have a healthy rivalry with the Thunder. Let's hope they can take down the Bobcats, Outlaws, and Blizzard a few times this season as well.

- Express forward Cory Thorson laid out one of the Thunder players early in the first period with a crushing check at the blueline. It took several seconds for the Thunder player to clear the cobwebs and limp over to the bench.

- The Thunder staff still haven't figured out how Pointstreak works. Three of the Thunder goals were short-handed, and some of the penalties they inputted just don't jive with what actually happened.

- Former Motor City Machine goalie Joe Rogers was in goal for the Thunder, and looked fairly good between the pipes. Rogers was born without a full right hand, yet is succeeding in the NAHL, and has committed to play college hockey at Notre Dame. Read an article about him here: http://www.usahockeymagazine.com/article/2008-12/not-your-average-joe .


My take: The Express took one on the chin Saturday night because they gave up 3 short-handed goals, and didn't play their game. As we learned last season, the Thunder want to goon it up, and the Express fell into that trap. There are 57 games remaining, and the cream will rise to the top.


See you at the rink.

--BK