Santa Fe - Blues

Santa Fe is starting to wake up. They are definately not playing like a last place team.

Corey Stark had a huge night against Springy with a Hat Trick and 2 Assists for 5 points on the night.

Looks like things got a bit heated at the end of the game. There was a total of 63 Penalty Minutes handed out at 19:47 of the third.

Santa Fe has dug themselves too deep a hole to be around in the post season, but they could very well play the spoiler down the stretch.

I think you are right tw and they will create some problems down the road, but they are not completely done yet

At this point of the season NOBODY is in too deep a hole. I said at the beginning and I will still say any team in this division is very capable of making the playoffs. The Cats and the Jr. Blues have both got to keep playing and winning to make the playoffs.

I was at the game and am sorry to say that I can't believe the lack of heart from S.F. (Although the local paper suggests that the coach has them on a pretty short leash). I mean, toward the end, Springfield runs the goalie, punches the captain from behind and tries to instigate a line brawl and S.F. basically cries to the official and skates away. Fortney was shoving guys around the whole series and no one stepped up and took a shot at him. I know he's tall, but he's no Bertuzzi. Vossberg, Johnson, and one or two others could have put him in his place. I don't know. I am a die-hard S.F. fan, but their willingness to be pushed around, skate away when the gloves are dropped, and not back up their goalie is sad to see. The only guy who had a lion's heart on that team was recently traded, and that was Luke Beuwtow. Seems like this coach has a very "niiiice agenda". Oh, they're "sportsmanlike" alright....all the way to the E.R. for the captain's separated shoulder!

Buetow

Where did Luke go?

Not sure where exactly he went, just that he was "traded". My brother and some of our friends will occasionally run into Roadrunners mgt. at the local Applebees, after the games, and that is where they received the info. At an earlier run-in with some of the team mgt., my brother asked why Luke was not as physical this year, as he had been previously, and they had responded that he had been "warned" by the league to tone it down. That was the last discussion they had about Luke, until they got this latest news. Too bad. We really enjoyed watching that kid and he had grown considerably since last season.

Being tough is only 1 part of the game, so much more to it. Defensive skills and off ice behavior would be important as well. Maybe there is much more to it than we know. Good luck in Billings Butes. You will be missed

Good points, Slab. We all figured that probably had to be more to it. It was just nice to have someone around that would stick up for teammates when the time came. Like I said, he had the heart of a lion and was obviously still worth something to another team, so he could not be all that bad, either skills-wise or in "the room". Maybe just not a good fit with this batch of guys, or maybe the coach. Either way, a real bummer for us.

without Luke there will be many more games like the Friday night incident. Nobody will be able to fend off the bigger tougher kids from other teams. Luke didn't fight because Lamger told him not to. Just Luke's presence was enough to stike fear into the other teams. But now who do they have? Gens? Johnson? Luke will be resting his shoulder at home and the RR's will get nothing for him, since he felt he was betrayed by his team. He didn't want to leave,he wanted to finish his career with Sf but was pegged as a BAD INFLUENCE on the team. So he was sent to Siberia for it and the team he would have died for, will now have to stand up for themselves and fight for their own survival. You can expect many more needless injuries to the team since nobody will respect them now and nobody to defend them

Bad apples,

That is my point exactly. I am not a bloodthirsty "I don't get the game, but just love to see fighting" fan. I do understand the game very well and can plainly see that there is zero physicality on that team. That is fine in rec. league, but in juniors and higher, it will get a team crushed. It is also apparent that players with the heart to get done what needs to be done are being restrained from those at the top. Either ownership or coaches. You know the new non-profit group that owns the team is promoting this as a squeaky clean group that will serve as an example to the area youth. I think this is feeding some of this bias toward a rec. league style team, rather than a hardcore, winning, junior hockey team. It's plain as day if you read the mission statement in the owner's area of the team website. If you like to mix it up every now and then and play by the code of hockey, don't look to play in S.F., I guess.

Don't get me started on Springfield! We lost a team captain and leading goal scorer for 8 weeks after a game up there and we lost a great forward for the rest of the year after our last game up there. That being said hockey is about good skating and puck handling BUT there is a time to drop the gloves and defen your teamates. goalies etc. Congratulaations on beating the Jr. Blues in the Friday night game.

Jesus Christ, Bussey! You guys ran into that buzzsaw of dirty players as well, I guess. That's alot of bodies to lose against one team. They are probably the dirtiest team I have ever seen live. They have a bunch of tall guys, but they are all very skinny and don't look terribly imposing.
That is exactly the type of team you need a tough guy for. Someone to put these loudmouth stringbeans in their place and get back to the business of playing the game. S.F. had no interest in doing the former and have now lost Ramirez, the team captain, for an undertermined amount of time because no one would step up.

Stick a fork in the Runny Roadkill, they're done. Their next six games are against the Tornado. They'll be lucky to win one. They won't be getting out of the cellar this year. About this time last year there was a big discussion on whether or not Scott Langer was a great coach. Guess not.

Kramer seperated his shoulder by trying to reach out with his stick as a player was skating away. It was a freak accident not a dirty play.

GR Goon wrote:

Stick a fork in the Runny Roadkill, they're done. Their next six games are against the Tornado. They'll be lucky to win one. They won't be getting out of the cellar this year. About this time last year there was a big discussion on whether or not Scott Langer was a great coach. Guess not.

Lucky to win one game? Got beat tonight by a score of 3-1 and escaped with one last night in a shoot out. Don't overlook the Runners as they are a better team than there record shows. Congrats to the Roadrunners!!! Cheeks sure is giving it to the Nado tonight.

I said all along, that RR are the best last place division team and alot better than their record shows.

Great game RR's!

Goalie Mom,

I agree 100% and considering the last two games, Santa Fe's opponents have a .621 winning percentage. That is the toughest schedule in the league. If they were playing in the North or West rather than the South they would very likely be a third place or better team.