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Fall of the Firebirds
#1

The Fall of the Firebirds

Season 35 is in motion and eleven games have been played so far in the SMJHL. Even though it is early in the season it looks like the Prince George Firebirds are out of playoff contention already. With just three wins and eight losses they share the bottom spot of the league together with the Halifax Raiders. A dramatic start for the franchise who is having the longest cup drought in the league. The fans are already giving up and understand that this year is once again not his year.
It is a shame that the Firebirds perform so badly as in terms of training hours they have the best two prospects of the S34 SHL Draft on their roster in Xander Green and Dani Forsberg. But due to a training cap they are forced to play handicapped and not go over the 350 training hours which is the leagues maximum. What is going on with the team? Lets have a look at the games they played to see if there is a specific reason for being in the position they are in.

Game 1: Vancouver Whalers vs Prince George Firebirds
The season started good for the Firebirds as the first goal they scored this season was a Shorthanded Goal by Tomas Toothsome. However the first period the team got outshot and outscored. With three event strength goals against they simply got outplayed by the stronger Whalers. This also happened during the course of the second, the Whalers outshot and outscored the Firebirds again. The third period the Firebirds were more efficicient by scoring once on seven shots compared the one in eleven from the Whalers, but it was not enough and the score would 5-3 in favor of Vancouver. Artom Zhumbayev had a horrible game with just 15 saves on 19 shots, while Dionyz Vyskoc was the rotten apple on the ice with a plus/minus rating of -2, while most of the team just had a -1. Bright light of the game was Tomas Toothsome with 2 goals and Dean Melanson who did not give up a goal in relief, but this was not enough to avoid a loss.

Game 2: Colorado Mammoths vs Prince George Firebirds
The second game of the season resulted in another loss for Prince George. Early in the game Vincent Garland scored on Zhumbayev in a period where the Firebirds got outshot by a wide margin. The second period the offense of Colorado took a break and Prince George had a 7-3 shot diferential, but once again failed to score. In the third period both teams had an equal amount of chances but with 2 powerplay goals for Colorado they did not manage to get back into the game. The lone goal for the firebirds was scored by Jay Beagle Jr. The biggest reason for the loss is the special teams of the Firebirds. The Mammoths only got 2 chances on the powerplay but they capitalized on both, so the defense for Prince George really needs to step up, especially when your own powerplay only scores once out of four chances.


Game 3: Prince George Firebirds vs St. Louis Scarecrows
Their third game they finally outshot the opponent, even though it was just by a single shot, but as the games before, they did manage to lose once again. This time the Scarecrows gave them a lesson in efficiency as Jimmy Wagner showed he was the superior goalie to Artom Zhumbayev. With a 3-2 score after just 1 period, the offense of Prince George did not manage to score a single goal in the last 40 minutes of the game and considering the goal of Xander Green was scored after 10:29, it was almost 50 minutes without a goal. You won’t win games like this if you don’t manage to score in such a long timeframe. The offense was just shitty, and defensively Tomas Toothsome was unreliable and ended with a minus 2 result. So far there isn’t really a single reason for the losses, there are multiple and it shows that Prince George needs to work hard if they still want to make something nice out of this season.

Game 4: St. Louis Scarecrows vs Prince George Firebirds
After losing versus the Scarecrows 4-2, the game after the result was immediately repeated, showing the difference between the two teams is not based on an incident but a structural thing. The first period alone the Scarecrows shot 18 times on goal. This is truly insane, the Firebirds did do nothing to stop them and they can be lucky that there only were two goals against from this period. In the third period Dani Forsberg scored his first two goals of the season, but once again the Scarecrows were so dominant this period that the tie was short lived. With two more goals St. Louis once again took home the win. Biggest reason for the loss? The sloppy play on defense. When you give away 40 opportunities to your opponent to score, it becomes really hard to take home some points. With this result the Firebirds are 0-4 for the start of the season.


Game 5: Prince George Firebirds vs Detroit Falcons
It took until game five before Prince George finally could get a win on the board. But once again it was a really close call. After getting an early lead with a 6 second goal the Firebirds climbed to 4-0 after 39 minutes of play. But the Falcons did not give up and actually managed to get back in the game, with 1 minute 14 to play they even scored to get within one. The Falcons dominated the third period offensively and had the Firebirds nearly figured out as they were saved by the bell.

Game 6: Prince George Firebirds vs Detroit Falcons
The victory was not long lived as the game after Prince George once again faced Detroit. This time it were the Falcons bringing home the win. The teams were about equal in this game but the horrible defensive play of Vyskoc, Light Jr. and Hagan were on the ice for all goals against. The Firebirds need to pay more attention to what happens on the ice if they actually want to win some games.

Game 7: Prince George Firebirds vs Kelowna Knights
In the seventh game of the season the Firebirds once again lost with 2-1. But this time it was a score that fit the play on the ice. The Knights had 10 more shots than the Firebirds and got the lead in the 2nd period. Even though the Firebirds did equalize, it were once again the Knights that lighted the lamp and bring back the victory home. This time it were Tommy Toms and Lucan VanDenBroek that were on the ice for all goals against, something the Prince George players really have to stop doing, as right now they are 1-6 for the start of the season.

Game 8: Colorado Mammoths vs Prince George Firebirds
When you see the result of this game you wont believe the Firebirds are one of the shittiest teams this season, the were dominant over the Mammoths and despite a powerplay goal against, they managed to score five times in total. Zhumbayev stopped 19 out of 20 shots while offensively Smirnov Light Jr. was a bright spot with 3 points. Dani Forsberg and Colton Hagan also both had two points as the Firebirds finally got another win for this season.

Game 9: Prince George Firebirds vs Colorado Mammoths
The game after the Firebirds were actually even more dominant over the Mammoths, this time they had a 10 shot differential in the first period which resulted in a 3-1 lead after the first period. After these three goals they just couldn’t get the puck behind Aleksandrov which gave the Mammoths an opportunity to get back into the game. Finn Larsson scored the 3-2 but in the last 13 minutes Colorado couldn’t push through. Despite the dominant first period, still a close win. They are now 3-6 in the season and thinks look to be on the way up.

Game 10: St. Louis Scarecrows vs Prince George Firebirds
Looks can be deceiving though when St. Louis is their opponent again and its like they almost have agreed on each result as once again 4-2 was the result. The only players of Prince George that ended positive were Declan Reilly and Tomas Toothsome, but the offense isn’t powerful enough, the defense doesn’t play hard enough and the goaltender is not stopping enough pucks. This team does not have what it takes to defeat St. Louis as they once again got an easy win.

Game 11: Colorado Mammoths vs Prince George Firebirds
And in the lowest amount of shots we have seen in one game this year resulted in another loss. The mammoths scored 3 times on 19 attempts, while the Firebirds scored twice on 12 attempts. Percentagewise they outplayed the Mammoths but it did not result in a win on the scoreboard. EJ Dunkel scored his first goal of the season, but after two wins versus the Mammoths it was time to lose a game against them. With this result the Firebirds end the first 11 games of the season with a 3-8 record, a horrible start which has the playoffs father away then imaginable.

Fixes?
When looking at the games you know there is not a direct fix. But the Firebirds do need some help, so either they try and gain some strong assets in trade or start to focus to building towards the future seasons by sending away players who won’t be returning next season. The management is still confident that Prince George can turn it around, so lets hope a line switch here or there is the spark the team needs to get back in playoff contention, because after more then 25 seasons without a cup, that is still the main goal for Prince George and they cannot just give up this early in the season. They might need some luck of the sim, but it ain’t over until the there is an – ELIMINATED - behind their name.


Words: 1711

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#2

:o

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#3

Quote:Originally posted by Insayne@Jun 21 2017, 02:40 PM
:o

Yep, we suck so far :(

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Update Thread - Player Page
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Former players:
Ivo Willems (S9 SMJHL) (S10-28 SHL)  
Xander Green  (S33-35 SMJHL) (S36-47 SHL)
Vorian Atreides (S49-51 SMJHL) (S52-61 SHL)

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#4

i remember when firebirds were kill <a href='index.php?showuser=2646' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-3'>therealsleepysheep</a>

MWHazard Wrote:i'll playwith anyone
playing with my teammates is part of the intangibles I bring to the table
i play with them a lot.
they didn't like it at first
but after a while, it just felt normal
Justice,Sep 18 2016, 02:09 PM Wrote:4-0 and 0-4 aren't that different tbh
McJesus - Today at 10:38 PM Wrote:FIRE EGGY
HIRE ARTY
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#5

should go back to being Regina Force tbh

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#6

Quote:Originally posted by WannabeFinn@Jun 21 2017, 07:12 PM
should go back to being Regina Force tbh
Yeahthat :force:

hewoe
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#7

Quote:Originally posted by WannabeFinn@Jun 21 2017, 01:12 PM
should go back to being Regina Force tbh
I still have GM perms Ninja

MWHazard Wrote:i'll playwith anyone
playing with my teammates is part of the intangibles I bring to the table
i play with them a lot.
they didn't like it at first
but after a while, it just felt normal
Justice,Sep 18 2016, 02:09 PM Wrote:4-0 and 0-4 aren't that different tbh
McJesus - Today at 10:38 PM Wrote:FIRE EGGY
HIRE ARTY
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#8

Quote:Originally posted by artermis@Jun 21 2017, 12:06 PM
i remember when firebirds were kill <a href='index.php?showuser=2646' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-3'>therealsleepysheep</a>

aploge for bad english

when were you when Firebirds are kill

sat on couch watch tv when fone ring

"firebirds are kill"

"no"

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arigato to everyone for the dope sigs <3

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#9

Green-Forsberg and who ever still make up a deadly line. Artom in net, a solid d-Man or 2 Plus lots of young guys on the wait and see. PGF is still a threat on any given day.

Izzy -

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#10

Quote:Originally posted by Coach Biz@Jun 22 2017, 07:41 AM
Green-Forsberg and who ever still make up a deadly line. Artom in net, a solid d-Man or 2 Plus lots of young guys on the wait and see. PGF is still a threat on any given day.

Izzy -

Tell that to STHS Tongue

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Update Thread - Player Page
Update Scale

Former players:
Ivo Willems (S9 SMJHL) (S10-28 SHL)  
Xander Green  (S33-35 SMJHL) (S36-47 SHL)
Vorian Atreides (S49-51 SMJHL) (S52-61 SHL)

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