Last night the Colts were in Owen Sound to play the Attack. Maybe they should have stayed home? The Colts were BLOWN AWAY 6-1. Daniel Gibl was in goal for the Colts. Though he let in 6 goals, his performance was not the only reason for the amount of allowed goals.
It seems to be a continued theme for the Colts. Early in the season they managed to get by in games taking poor penalties and being out shot but as mentioned, you cant be a contending team with those kind of negative stats.
Instead of breaking down the goals and all that, lets take a look at the ACTUAL game (or lack of).
Here are some problems I saw and continue to see...
Special Teams: The Colts took 8 penalties. It is one thing to take poor penalties but lets take a look at the OHL's breakdown of the penalties taken.
The main reason the Colts were losing like this was because they were taking bad penalties. And you look to leadership to try and help keep your cool...
Leadership: Right now, though we have yet to name a new captain it seems clear that Lemieux is one of the leaders on the team. Yes, Lemieux is the type of player to cause trouble and try to get under the skin of the other team. That is not what is happening though. These are bad penalties to be taking, look at the stats above and you can see that. There are moments in a game where we need Lemieux to anger the other team. To get them off their game. Last night, there were no points where this was needed. Not only Lemieux, but the entire team were just careless and it shows on the final score. Guys like Lemieux and Blandisi need to worry about wins. Bad penalties don't win games.
You need to shoot: The Colts were out shot 40 to 21... This isn't new, but it wont win you games. Especially when we have Gibl in net. Unlike Blackwood, Gibl has not seen a lot of action this year. To go from sitting to playing and being laced with almost a shot a minute is not easy for any goalie weather they are an OHL backup or a starter in the NHL. This team needs to give their goalies a better chance.
Offensively we need to be shooting more. SHOOT THE PUCK! You don't know what will go in. Owen Sound did it last night. 40 shots. Not all of them were good chances but they got them on goal. The result. 6 goals.
Defensively we need to tighten up. Block shots. Maybe switch up pairings because having nights with 40 shots cant keep happening. Obviously there is something not working and our coaching staff needs to consider moving some guys around because if we have Blackwood or Gibl in goal, it wont matter on nights we get heavily out shot.
These are not simple nor difficult fixes. The coaches need to really stress these issues to the players because so far this season they don't seem urgent to the team and if they want to have any success this season they will need to make these adjustments.
The Colts play next on Friday when they head to Kingston. Puck drop is set for 7 pm.
#GoColts
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