Give us a break Bobby

By: Henry Whitfield

(Photo Credit: Richard LaFortune)

With the Halifax Mooseheads down 3 games to none against the nationally fourth ranked Montreal Juniors, it’s safe to say the writing is on the wall for this season and probably was before the Moose limped into the playoffs.

That being said, it’s not enough to just mail in these games and the Mooseheads showed for three periods that they were willing to work against all the odds.

It’s a shame then that their head coach let them down in the final few minutes and showed once again why this franchise can’t move forward without the right personal behind the bench.

With less than two minutes left in the game, Captain Travis Randell rang a hard shot off the crossbar before Luca Ciampini was then denied seconds later.

Whether the Randell shot went in or not, it was clear when the play was stopped that the Mooseheads were both exhausted and emotionally spent. Charles Bety had his head hung low and the players on the bench were slumped over, knowing that they had missed stealing this game by a matter of inches.

With no review called on the play, Smith had one responsibility and that was to call a timeout and regroup his players, making sure they had their heads on right and were ready for that last minute and a half.

Instead of doing what a Head Coach should do, Smith adjusted his tie and the game moved on and with momentum swung the other way Trevor Parkes raced down the ice and scored the game winner seconds later.

While it is impossible to tell whether the Mooseheads would have won, it’s up to the coaching staff to make the right decisions and do their jobs.

The boys on the ice played one of their best complete games of the season only to be let down inexperienced coach.

With one, maybe two games left for this year, let’s hope that Bobby is done with his little experiment and gets someone with experience to lead this team next year.

Hopefully much deeper into the playoffs.