1	1	0	2
	2	1	3	6

That could’ve gone better.

I was tempted to write a smart-assed tweet before the opening draw that, because of all the nice things I’d said about the Hitmen defence, they’d get outshot 40-20 and lose horribly just to spite me. I wasn’t quite on the mark – the Hitmen actually outshot Brandon 36-32 – but the “lose horribly” part was well in evidence, as Calgary dropped Game 1 by a mostly-earned 6-2 count.

The thing I really want to highlight here is just how terribly the defence played. To a man, they were blowing coverage, making blatant unforced errors (the two giveaways that led to the third and fourth goals), and generally running around like rookies. It was a highly disappointing and uncharacteristic performance that really left goalie Chris Driedger without much recourse. No, that second goal shouldn’t have counted, and yes, he might like one or two of those back ideally, but none of the goals were egregious sieve jobs as I’ve seen on some evenings. Driedger didn’t have a fantastic game, but I can’t fairly blame him for this loss. It’s the guys in front of him who didn’t do enough, and the Hitmen are going to need a much better and smarter effort from the D and from the leadership of the team (as you’ll see below, Jimmy Bubnick had a night to forget) if they want to avoid carrying an 0-2 millstone around their necks for the long bus ride to Manitoba.

The other thing that caught my attention was that Alex Roach dressed as a forward last night. I assume the Hitmen are short bodies, because Roach played in the bottom six, predominantly with Chase Clayton and #1 bantam pick Jake Virtanen. Roach acquitted himself well enough, though there were a few plays where he looked a little uncomfortable with the weird positioning. It’s not the first time head coach Mike Williamson has moved someone from their normal spot: captain Cody Sylvester took a few turns on D in the early season while the roster was getting sorted out.

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