Devils Vs Manchester Storm - Sun 24 Sep 2017 - League - Chat/Updates

august04

Well-Known Member
#81
Don’t underestimate what effect these tough guys have on team morale in the locker room too. The Voth's, Ware's, Mac's, Janssen's, Bordy's of this hockey world were loved by their teammates and are often the glue holding the dressing room together and keeping spirits up. They might be a dying breed but we need to find something/someone from somewhere. It often goes overlooked but the difference in team spirit from this year to last year is marked. Now is the time for action, the writing has been on the wall for weeks. Listen to your customers - the amount of negativity amongst swathes of fans exiting the rink was something I haven’t heard for a long time, so it’s not just a small section of fans on here wanting change. It’s time to stop the rot, get rid of some dead wood and bring in a player or two to add some spark and much needed energy to this team. If any new addition is a tough guy too, then that’s OK by me.
 

Paul Sullivan

Well-Known Member
#82
The point isn't all about Bordy it's the fact we have no character/player like him that can stir things up and cause a dent.
Actually, I believe we have several. However they are not currently doing it. That's the Challenge for Lordo, to get the undeniable talent we have to perform as they can (and have already), consistently.

This is an excellent squad - I don't remember these concerns being raised when players were signed (a few exceptions aside). They simply need to do their jobs better - as we all get told once in a while, I'm sure.
 

Gazza272

Well-Known Member
#83
I thought we really missed Pope in the game tonight, he's been on the front foot of all the physicality on that Martin line, and i thought he was our stand out player the week before. Hope he can get back to fitness soon.
 

ASHIPP

Well-Known Member
#84
Don’t underestimate what effect these tough guys have on team morale in the locker room too. The Voth's, Ware's, Mac's, Janssen's, Bordy's of this hockey world were loved by their teammates and are often the glue holding the dressing room together and keeping spirits up. They might be a dying breed but we need to find something/someone from somewhere. It often goes overlooked but the difference in team spirit from this year to last year is marked. Now is the time for action, the writing has been on the wall for weeks. Listen to your customers - the amount of negativity amongst swathes of fans exiting the rink was something I haven’t heard for a long time, so it’s not just a small section of fans on here wanting change. It’s time to stop the rot, get rid of some dead wood and bring in a player or two to add some spark and much needed energy to this team. If any new addition is a tough guy too, then that’s OK by me.
Blimey August - that last sentence is going to mean that the Club would have to make some tough, radical decisions for someone to depart so soon. That hasn't been their style so far with underperforming players - they usually build a role for them or try to accomodate their individual style in a different way.

But this is not just about defending the titles - that's the long-term dream. The immediate issues are all about competitiveness, consistency team spirit etc. Those things have to be right in order to achieve at least a good performance so maybe a stance on tough decisions will be taken this season.

At the risk of being flamed, one change I would like to see is the Captaincy. The Captain should be a game-influencing, 'take no crap' motivator who takes a strong lead from the front ( good example - Sidney Crosby working the Penguins' bench in this year's NHL Playoffs was truly something else). Our actual Captain has been relatively anonymous on-ice during this disappointing little run of performances. Instead, that on-ice senior leadership role is being fulfilled by Lordo himself at the moment - it is worrying that the team has to rely upon our coach to lift performance when he plays when there are others who could be/should be doing that role for him. Hasn't Lordo already got enough to do? Matthew Myers or Joey Haddad would get my Captaincy votes right now.
 
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#85
Firstly, I just want to say that Craig Moore played absolutely top class last night. He is everything you could want from a young up and coming player trying to make an impact. Very impressed.

Secondly, I feel like the balance of this team is all wrong!
I'm glad all of the happy clappers on here who have been buying in to this team toughness rubbish are starting to wake up and smell the coffee. Our players aren't playing with the confidence they had last season. We are always second best physically and are given less space, whilst also getting more niggly stuff off the play. The annoying thing is that to an extent I'd argue we were bullied a little bit last season too but this year it's just something else. This needs to be addressed.

We all know that lord is too pussy to gas a player mid-season. But I hope I hope he considers some changes...

Reddick - I feel like I could do as good a job because I'm sure I would constantly be out of position and out muscled too.
Mo is passed it, said it when we re-signed him and he has only re-affirmed my opinion. - Would give the captaincy to someone else as well.
Crowder - the jury is still out on him and I haven't been impressed so far.

Maybe there's something behind the rift in the dressing room rumours?

Whatever the case, my short term suggestion would be to gas Reddick, move Batch back to D, and bring in a tough player to protect our guys and bring a little spark when needed. See how it goes from there and maybe make some more changes if others don't start upping their game.

EDIT: having seen ASHIPPS post regarding captaincy, I have to agree. Lordo is the captain at the moment, he lifts the team when he is on the ice. Obviously you can't have the player coach as captain, so again echoing ASHIPPS post, I think Joey Haddad has all the attributes to be an excellent captain.
 
#86
Team toughness is one thing, but every time someone steps up they get a penalty so we are down a man.. people complain when we have too many penalties but also complain when no one steps up.
Ideally needed is an enforcer type who doesn't need to fight, as his presence is enough, but these are a dying breed... check out the ice guardians film - it says that by taking out the enforcers then it causes other problems, which I think we are seeing, although this is just a small part of our issues.
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#87
Just watched the 'high'lights! Jeez, what a shocker. Bryce on the ice for quite a few of those goals!!!

Didn't quite see the point of pulling Murdy at 1-5 down!

Hardly looking forward to watching Devils v Vaxjo after that shambolic performance.
 

Pondlife

Well-Known Member
#88
Looking around the arena you could feel the depression. Everyone slumped backwards and arms folded. Except for some small child in block 20 still chanting "lets go devils" as loud as she could when we were 5-0 down.

She should have got MoM.
 

Have Hope#35

Well-Known Member
#89
Just watched the 'high'lights! Jeez, what a shocker. Bryce on the ice for quite a few of those goals!!!

Didn't quite see the point of pulling Murdy at 1-5 down!

Hardly looking forward to watching Devils v Vaxjo after that shambolic performance.
I would guess it was more of a training exercise thing... Good practice for when we're a goal down in a game in the future and not 4!
 

osh

Well-Known Member
#90
Just watched the "highlights' and Lord's interview. Easy to see how gutted he was and still managed to give straight answers to the questions he was asked. Watching the highlights only emphasised how badly out of position our players were at times and certainly not doing their respective jobs. I'm not going to make mention of individual performances - apart from the great effort Moore put in to his game last night - but some of the guys are walking a very slippery slope at this time I'd say and Wednesday night's game now becomes even more important in order to make suitable amends for a ridiculously poor performance as a team last night. I stick by my comment of last night when I said we need to make changes, irrespective of what happens on Wednesday - and I believe we need to make at least 2 changes ( but could easily be 4 ) it probably won't happen but we as fans are entitled to voice opinions - good or bad - as each game is played.
First thing I would do when the team are gathered together again is sit them down and make them watch last nights horror show and be held accountable.
 
#92
Very much in agreement with Milky's post. Lord regularly mentions the Penguins, in terms of speed, skill and team toughness. I think Lordo bases his team identity on the Pens (clearly, not at the same level, but using the same strengths).

Thing is, the Pens have just brought in Ryan Reaves from St Louis to stop Sid Crosby, Malkin and Kessel being smashed about (Brooks Orpik and Dubinsky both gave Sid minor concussions in last seasons' play offs in consecutive rounds, and Pittsburgh suffered the most man-games lost to injury in the NHL last season - WITHOUT a tough-guy). And that's in a league where there are very few out/out enforcers any more. That's because a fair few of them are plying their trade in our league over the past two or three seasons. I'm all for the Devils picking up a big, tough, nasty power forward to look after Martin, Asselin etc. Maybe put up some points, but a player like that would certainly lighten the pressure on Louis, Batch and Faryna, too. We don't want Hoth fighting.
 

ASHIPP

Well-Known Member
#93
Like any job, it's about individual accountability and ownership of your performance. The improvement in recruitment and skill around the teams in this league means that teams need to work harder to get results. There is no such thing as a 'comfort zone' to hide in - other players can't cover for you if they are playing poorly themselves, or have their own performance to maintain.

The fact the Devils won 3 trophies last season is completely irrelevant to our opponents. It's only important to our Club and its fans. To retain those trophies the team will have to play very hard and smart to earn them - and play like they want them.
 
#94
I was behind the bench last night and have never seen Lord so agitated. Half way through the third period he gave Fournier a right mouthful as Fournier came back to the bench. Fournier sat down and Lord turned to him and let him have it again. At this point Fournier (who I thought was our best player) lost it and in frustration threw a towel at Lord. Lord was not happy said something to Fournier again then looked away. I do wonder if there is a bit of frustration in the camp. Hopefully it was just two competitive guys blowing off a bit of steam. I think it was just a case of out thought and out fought last night.
It’s this very reason not all players make great coaches. There has to be a line clearly defining roles and relationships between player, coach & management. I could be wrong, but the line in the team or organisation may be the issue. The vast majority of comments I’m reading agree we have talented players. Is team recruitment the sole responsibility of one person. Players don’t become rubbish overnight for no reason.
It must also be very frustrating for a player such as Lord to observe, react & then coach players in this situation. It wouldn’t surprise me if last night those actions of Lords was his player hat getting confused, his actions being more of say the Captains than the coach.
As a complete novice with no understanding of people management outside of my own world experience. My opinion as a simple observer is that team recruitment is confused, for whatever reason, but l feel not all blame is Lords or the players, but an amalgamation of several factors of which those are included. Lord l feel does not have the right temperament, one hell of a player, average coach and is struggling in these repeated start of season slumps, of which this year has been the worse. Honestly though does it really matter, as a simple fan, l find it entertaining, will l cry myself a river if this year we win nothing, nope, simply put l don’t really care, l just love Hockey [emoji177]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

BostonBart22

Well-Known Member
#95
looking at the highlights it didnt show the 3 hits by moore, they were the only highlights worth watching after that rout. if i was coach i would show the other players those hits by moore just to embarass them , on another note i hope the team are bussing it for wednesdays game and not flying, no more comfort zone for these players please.
 

Leighton

Active Member
#96
Looking around the arena you could feel the depression. Everyone slumped backwards and arms folded. Except for some small child in block 20 still chanting "lets go devils" as loud as she could when we were 5-0 down.

She should have got MoM.
she's a legend... i wish the crowd would get behind her more as she leads the chanting... was belting out the national anthem too fair play to her.
 

august04

Well-Known Member
#97
looking at the highlights it didnt show the 3 hits by moore, they were the only highlights worth watching after that rout. if i was coach i would show the other players those hits by moore just to embarass them , on another note i hope the team are bussing it for wednesdays game and not flying, no more comfort zone for these players please.
Yep, should be on the bus to Dundee. These players want for nothing, get treated superbly by the organisation and then put in that kind of effort. Unacceptable.
 
#98
After taking a while reflecting on the game last night, reading through some of the unbelievable posts on here and re-watching the highlights, I thought that I would make an account and post my thoughts on the night.

Firstly, a great road game played by the Storm who stuck to their game plan well and caused us trouble all night. They're going to be a tough team to beat again this year and look like they are stacked whilst being built for their own rink where games against them are going to be real wars this year. Clemente played a blinder stopping 37 shots including one that sticks in my mind at the beginning of the third period from Myers from the top of the crease, a well deserved MOM and was excellently supported by his D. Auger took his three goals well, the first one with a great read of the rebound off of the boards, the second coming from a great pass by Stanisz moving the puck well on the powerplay and of course Auger's third being the empty netter. The Storm used big bodies to screen (Byers/Rosehill) leading to two of their goals which lead Bowns to be unsighted, especially so for Ehrhardt's slapshot where Rosehill and Hotham were battling in front effectively creating a double screen. Again, Storm looked excellent and thoroughly deserved the points.

For the Devils, the players that stood out for me more than others were Moore (excellent), Fournier, Louis, Haddad, Bentivoglio, Batch and Murdy who once again showed us he's more than capable of coming into games and doing a good job. Bowns would obviously like a couple of goals back especially Auger's second (3-0) when he fanned on his initial shot but got enough of it to get a second chance. I thought that the shift at the end of the first period by Moore's line with Batch and Myers was excellent throwing their bodies around and like what has been previously mentioned, got the crowd back engaged with the game and could have been the start of a shift of momentum. Louis did a great job of sticking up for Richie after that hit and I applaud him for doing so. After his goal tonight, Haddad proved to me why he could potentially be a good candidate to wear the C, where just before the face off at centre ice he got all of the players who were on the ice together, was doing all of the talking which looked like he was taking a leadership role and just trying to make things happen.
There were a few long shifts tonight where we looked to struggle breaking out of our zone and were being caught by Manchester. I can imagine the turnover rate being high. Lord talked about the need to block shots in his post game interview and lead by example tonight by getting in the way of a couple, unfortunately after one massive block from him the puck fell straight back to Stanisz who took the same shot again and capitalised. It was interesting to see Todd go straight around to the locker room immediately after the post game lap from the team, I wouldn't bet against him speaking exactly how he saw it tonight as he did last year when the owners were over for a game.

It's not all doom and gloom as people are seeming to suggest and looking positively at our league record (as that's the big trophy that requires 9 months of madness and not just 9 days) we're still 2-1-0 in 3 games. I know there have been 3 disappointing domestic defeats so far this season but there's no need to panic at all. I don't see the logic in calling out players at this point of the year and overlooking simple things such as Crowder's and Ulmer's face off win percentage. For CHL games alone they are at 56% and 65% respectively and I have no doubt that these are higher in the regular season so far. Also to the point made about Reddick being on the ice for a few goals tonight is correct, however, he was on the ice for two special team goals and one in open play which makes him a -1 for the night. Team toughness is a funny thing this year, we have players that are more than capable of dropping the gloves and are spread out on the roster as opposed to having a tough fourth liner who plays limited minutes per game and is a policing presence. As another poster has used the Ryan Reeves example with the Penguins to protect Crosby, Kessel and Malkin etc, The Calgary Flames have also signed a tough guy in Luke Gazdic to a contract this year which possibly suggests that role is still very much needed though.

Anyway, onto Dundee on Wednesday night where I hope that we can pick up a more than valuable two points on the road and build on that rather than go the opposite direction with Braehead in town on Saturday. I hope Pope is fit to go soon as he's been a great find so far this year and I hope Moore and Faryna take the game to their old team. One final thought is that I hope that the Linesman Sam Motton who left the game after the first period yesterday due to injury is okay and is back on the ice soon!

Sorry about the long read, especially for a first post but I hope this is valued!
 

Johnnybravo1927

Well-Known Member
#99
After taking a while reflecting on the game last night, reading through some of the unbelievable posts on here and re-watching the highlights, I thought that I would make an account and post my thoughts on the night.

Firstly, a great road game played by the Storm who stuck to their game plan well and caused us trouble all night. They're going to be a tough team to beat again this year and look like they are stacked whilst being built for their own rink where games against them are going to be real wars this year. Clemente played a blinder stopping 37 shots including one that sticks in my mind at the beginning of the third period from Myers from the top of the crease, a well deserved MOM and was excellently supported by his D. Auger took his three goals well, the first one with a great read of the rebound off of the boards, the second coming from a great pass by Stanisz moving the puck well on the powerplay and of course Auger's third being the empty netter. The Storm used big bodies to screen (Byers/Rosehill) leading to two of their goals which lead Bowns to be unsighted, especially so for Ehrhardt's slapshot where Rosehill and Hotham were battling in front effectively creating a double screen. Again, Storm looked excellent and thoroughly deserved the points.

For the Devils, the players that stood out for me more than others were Moore (excellent), Fournier, Louis, Haddad, Bentivoglio, Batch and Murdy who once again showed us he's more than capable of coming into games and doing a good job. Bowns would obviously like a couple of goals back especially Auger's second (3-0) when he fanned on his initial shot but got enough of it to get a second chance. I thought that the shift at the end of the first period by Moore's line with Batch and Myers was excellent throwing their bodies around and like what has been previously mentioned, got the crowd back engaged with the game and could have been the start of a shift of momentum. Louis did a great job of sticking up for Richie after that hit and I applaud him for doing so. After his goal tonight, Haddad proved to me why he could potentially be a good candidate to wear the C, where just before the face off at centre ice he got all of the players who were on the ice together, was doing all of the talking which looked like he was taking a leadership role and just trying to make things happen.
There were a few long shifts tonight where we looked to struggle breaking out of our zone and were being caught by Manchester. I can imagine the turnover rate being high. Lord talked about the need to block shots in his post game interview and lead by example tonight by getting in the way of a couple, unfortunately after one massive block from him the puck fell straight back to Stanisz who took the same shot again and capitalised. It was interesting to see Todd go straight around to the locker room immediately after the post game lap from the team, I wouldn't bet against him speaking exactly how he saw it tonight as he did last year when the owners were over for a game.

It's not all doom and gloom as people are seeming to suggest and looking positively at our league record (as that's the big trophy that requires 9 months of madness and not just 9 days) we're still 2-1-0 in 3 games. I know there have been 3 disappointing domestic defeats so far this season but there's no need to panic at all. I don't see the logic in calling out players at this point of the year and overlooking simple things such as Crowder's and Ulmer's face off win percentage. For CHL games alone they are at 56% and 65% respectively and I have no doubt that these are higher in the regular season so far. Also to the point made about Reddick being on the ice for a few goals tonight is correct, however, he was on the ice for two special team goals and one in open play which makes him a -1 for the night. Team toughness is a funny thing this year, we have players that are more than capable of dropping the gloves and are spread out on the roster as opposed to having a tough fourth liner who plays limited minutes per game and is a policing presence. As another poster has used the Ryan Reeves example with the Penguins to protect Crosby, Kessel and Malkin etc, The Calgary Flames have also signed a tough guy in Luke Gazdic to a contract this year which possibly suggests that role is still very much needed though.

Anyway, onto Dundee on Wednesday night where I hope that we can pick up a more than valuable two points on the road and build on that rather than go the opposite direction with Braehead in town on Saturday. I hope Pope is fit to go soon as he's been a great find so far this year and I hope Moore and Faryna take the game to their old team. One final thought is that I hope that the Linesman Sam Motton who left the game after the first period yesterday due to injury is okay and is back on the ice soon!

Sorry about the long read, especially for a first post but I hope this is valued!

an excellent post. well written and intelligent
 
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