The dream is over for the Giants . . .
March 31st, 2008. . . But they go down fighting.
I was overly critical of this team after periods one and two last night in Dundalk but with a third period effort to get back into the tie I decided to hold back on serious criticism until I seen how they performed over the next two periods. Well ‘heard’ how they performed is what I should have said. As it turns out the Giants performed well and did themselves proud in an effort to fight back into the tie.
Had this team been a top of the table team all season long I still would have been seriously disappointed but it has been such an up and down season with many downs and plenty of highs and a conclusion that when summing everything up that we were just a middle of the road team and not quite good enough to get it done. With all that in mind I’m not overly angry that we failed to squeak into the playoffs past a physical and well-drilled Vipers side.
Yes the first two periods on Saturday night let us down and put us behind an eight ball that proved to be impossible to come out from. But these things happen. Did the players bottle it? Maybe. The pressure of the occasion probably did get to them early on before falling so far behind that they would play care free hockey without any pressure like they did earlier in the year when they won 16 games in-a-row with the knowledge that they had nothing to lose. Back then once they suddenly found themselves in the title hunt, in front of a sold out Odyssey arena against Coventry they found a way to play tense and blow the game. Saturday night was similar. When the pressure was on the Giants struggled but the final four periods of the contest the team were able to click.
There is plenty of time over a long summer to talk about what kind of player replacements are required in order to play in front of a sold out building in the future in a crunch game and not find a way to throw it away like the Giants have gotten into a habit if doing over the past few seasons. Think to the last two playoff semi-finals and any game with an above 5000 crowd in the Odyssey. Under a new coach maybe some of them areas will be addressed. Oh and not for one minute is that a shot at Courtenay who I will praise in a blog later in the week about his contributions to the team.
After losing 5-3 in ‘game 1’ the Giants fought back in Newcastle beating the Vipers 3-1 in regulation to force five minutes overtime and eventually a shootout.
That above paragraph is something that made me very angry and I will follow up this post with a separate one on that issue. Shaun Sutter, Shane Johnson, Pete Campbell and Carlyle Lewis all had good games when the Giants needed it most but the team couldn’t do the damage in the ‘skills competition’. That happens and there’s nobody to blame for that.
So while I get ready for a trip to Nottingham this weekend the Giants will be heading home, but it wasn’t without a last ditch push and for that I’m not going to waste time being critical. No doubt there will be changes in the summer but the 2007-2008 edition of the Giants will not be the worst team you will ever see and at times (the 16-game winning streak) they really gave us something to cheer about.
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