The boys came out for warm-ups tonight quiet and almost somber. There was no wrestling, pushing each other around, or taking swipes at each other with sticks. Two teenage puck bunnies positioned themselves at the glass at our end, displaying midriff and cleavage galore, and they barely got a glance from guys who normally would have been giggling and shooting pucks at them.

McGill’s keys to the game were basically play disciplined, don’t take bad penalties (isn’t that redundant?), and win the damn thing. Guys always talk about playing with desperation, but unfortunately the Pack seemed to have skipped right past that and gone waist-deep into panic. Even Captain Ken Gernander seemed to be lost, as he hopped off the bench to join the play on a delayed penalty, but panicked when Dominic passed him the puck and jumped back onto the bench as if he wasn’t sure whether or not he was supposed to be out there. I counted. He was.

The loss of Cory Larose from the lineup due to an ‘ailment’ has caused shuffling and confusion, like the loss of a number one center would on all teams. But it has been two games now, with a day off for practice in between, and the lines still look like they have never skated together before. Tonight we saw the following during warm-ups:

Murray – Moore – Ortmeyer
Wiseman – Gernander – Balej
MacDonald – Dusablon – Giroux
Grenier – Ulmer – Weller

All defensive pairings stayed the same, at least to start. Special teams included the following:

PK:
Ortmeyer – Gernander
Balej – Moore
MacDonald – Dusablon

Pushor – Tyutin
Nycholat – Lampman

PP:
Wiseman – Gernander – Balej
MacDonald – Moore – Dusablon
Murray – Gernander – Weller

Nycholat – Tyutin
Pushor – Lampman
Paul – Filipowicz

But things were weird. We dressed Grenier, and then he got two shifts. Nice of McGill to let him watch from the bench instead of the stands, I guess. But, that’s the clear day roster for you – as long as Grenier is healthy, he has to play before any of the ‘in house’ players can dress. So, even though Cuthbert would have been a much better replacement for Larose, we got Grenier taking up space on the bench. Usually players suffer ‘an injury’ of some kind that clears the way for a roster change, but perhaps McGill looked at Grenier’s size and reputation for violence and decided it was just easier to dress him and staple his butt to the bench. Paul barely played as well. Then Lampman got hurt in the third, necessitating moving Weller back to defense. Shows how much confidence McGill has in the other two, especially considering that Weller seemed to have forgotten most of what he knew about playing defense during his stay up at forward.

The ice looked to be less than outstanding tonight, and perhaps that was the reason for the sub-zero air temperature that the fans were subjected to in the arena. Funny how it seemed to be much more of a problem for the Pack than for the Pens, though. I think they only time I saw a pass completed tonight was on each of Chad Wiseman’s goals. In both cases Chad centered the puck and rushed the net - his first goal was a redirect of a shot that came after he passed the puck to the point, and the second was his retrieval of a pass intended for Layne after he had sent it to Balej. Chad also assisted on Layne’s goal that came 64 seconds after his first.

Other than that trio, though – it seemed as though no one could complete a pass. Time and again I watched Dominic Moore, Craig Weller, Lawrence Nycholat, and others make passes to no one that became easy turnovers in the neutral zone. Balej in particular seemed to be struggling with the puck, barely able to receive a pass or take a shot without the puck bouncing away from him. Deking, his bread and butter, is obviously not an option when he couldn’t even corral the puck in the first place. The only way we could get out of the zone was to clear the puck and hope someone could win the foot race to negate icing. Ice may again have been a factor here, but the team overall looked gassed by the end of the first. My friend Stacy commented that this was the first time she had ever seen Fedor break a sweat.

McGill started mixing up the lines, although I’m not sure how that was meant to address the hot potato response of our players to finding the puck on their stick. Two of the odder ones I noticed were:

Murray – Ortmeyer – MacDonald
Murray – Dusablon – Giroux

It seemed like often times there was one player going ten times harder and faster than their linemates, meaning that they would find themselves at the blueline, look to dish off the puck, and be surrounded by opponents. Murray, Dusablon and Moore were hitting everyone, but the space they created was useless since their linemates were still back in their own zone. Balej and Ortmeyer were flying, but without someone to hand the puck off to they lost possession every time they tried to enter the zone.

This is not a team of superstars, although Balej comes the closest of all of them – and he has to be coaxed and threatened into taking shots. The Pack did not get here on the back of a Derek Armstrong, Brad Smyth or John Tripp. They did it by being one organism, a team of interchangeable parts, where everyone knows their job and maybe even two or three others as well. Somehow, in the last two games, that system has broken down. Somehow, this team has reverted to being individuals. Players are carrying the puck instead of passing, or passing simply to get rid of it. Guys are taking dumb penalties, and letting selfish behavior get in the way of success. In the past, when the team has hit a rough spell, Jason LaBarbera and his MVP season have been there to carry them on his back, producing stellar games while proclaiming that he prefers games in which he has to make a lot of saves.

Maybe Jason is tired. It has been a long year and he has had to be spectacular on many occasions. Maybe the press – he may be the most interviewed member of the team – and the strain of being the go-to guy both on and off the ice has started wear on him. Maybe he peaked too early, as 73 games is one hell of a long year for a goalie. It’s even possible that he’s injured, because the three regulation goals scored on him were five hole, not something that has been a problem for him this year. Whatever the situation, tonight he was not spectacular. If they had won, it would have been in spite of him, not the other way around. Normally when a goal is scored against, the defensemen (at least) circle back to Jason and give him an 'It's okay, Barbs' or 'We'll get it back." On the first goal against last night, the Pack players just turned and skated away, leaving on Benoit Dusablon staring at the net. Benny looked at Jason and shook his head without saying anything before skating away. Not sure whether the guys have lost confidence in Jason, but it wasn't a cheerful sight in any case.

As the game-winning goal was scored by the Pens just seconds into overtime, my five-year-old friend pointed at the celebration and exclaimed, “That’s not us!” No, I told her, it wasn’t. She indicated the Pack players, slumped on the bench and ice, and asked why they were sad. I explained that they had lost, and they didn’t like that. Shaking her head sadly, she said, “No more hockey…” and then paused, straightened up, and proclaimed firmly, “They should have been faster.”

I’d have to agree.

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