Blaze Vs Devils - League - 3rd Dec 23 - FO 17:30
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
One thing to remember is that the Steelers and Giants have coaches who have been there for many years. They have had time to build, learn, add missing pieces to improve year on year. Keefe's Giants finished 5th in his first year in charge after finishing 2nd the year before.
We haven't had that stability for the few years. We have been in a transition year since Lord left. I think PR is a good coach, a long term appointment, but we're still in the first half of his first season. Hot and cold performances are to be expected. They're expected always in a league like ours, but especially with a new coach, and this time especially with the schedule we have just had.
We take the one point and move on to the next. Could be a very valuable point come April
We haven't had that stability for the few years. We have been in a transition year since Lord left. I think PR is a good coach, a long term appointment, but we're still in the first half of his first season. Hot and cold performances are to be expected. They're expected always in a league like ours, but especially with a new coach, and this time especially with the schedule we have just had.
We take the one point and move on to the next. Could be a very valuable point come April
I am, I admit, somewhat concerned about some of our frailties throughout the ice.
We can be quite goal shy in some games, or at least easily kept to the outside which allows the opposition keeper a nice easy save.
The way around this is either laser passing or speed. I am not sure we are top in the league for either of these aspects.
But the biggest concerns I have are our powerplay (which is lower mid table in terms of percentage at 20.93%) and our defence. It's not that the stats are necessarily terrible on defence, but our turnovers are horrendous and we face a lot of shots.
We are then relying on our goalies (who have generally been good) to dig us out of holes we keep putting ourselves in.
Not quite at the calling for changes stage just yet, but certainly with an eye on things to make sure we don't slide.
On the comments some others have made, we definitely don't have the same calibre of player as we did in 2018 when we last won the league, where we had 187 more NHL games, 51 more Liiga games, 1105 more AHL games, and 177 more DEL games in terms of experience. This has been replaced with higher experience levels in Allsvenskan and Czechia.
I am of the view that we are missing both a Strachan/Morrisonn and a Fournier/Blood (not a comparison in terms of type of player, more on their maverick abilities to win games) type.
Beyond that, it does feel a bit odd to be essentially having a moan when we are second at the start of December.
We can be quite goal shy in some games, or at least easily kept to the outside which allows the opposition keeper a nice easy save.
The way around this is either laser passing or speed. I am not sure we are top in the league for either of these aspects.
But the biggest concerns I have are our powerplay (which is lower mid table in terms of percentage at 20.93%) and our defence. It's not that the stats are necessarily terrible on defence, but our turnovers are horrendous and we face a lot of shots.
We are then relying on our goalies (who have generally been good) to dig us out of holes we keep putting ourselves in.
Not quite at the calling for changes stage just yet, but certainly with an eye on things to make sure we don't slide.
On the comments some others have made, we definitely don't have the same calibre of player as we did in 2018 when we last won the league, where we had 187 more NHL games, 51 more Liiga games, 1105 more AHL games, and 177 more DEL games in terms of experience. This has been replaced with higher experience levels in Allsvenskan and Czechia.
I am of the view that we are missing both a Strachan/Morrisonn and a Fournier/Blood (not a comparison in terms of type of player, more on their maverick abilities to win games) type.
Beyond that, it does feel a bit odd to be essentially having a moan when we are second at the start of December.
Enjoyed the trip despite the result. Multiple Blaze fans seemed genuinely surprised how bad we looked compared to their expectation. We’ve played a lot of games and people look a bit banged up. Cox and Barrow being out has disrupted lines that were building excellent chemistry. Could be due a bit of a slump with as many away games as we have coming up/fixture pile up.
Devil94 does have a great point, we do need a bedding in season with a coach.
We've had 3 coaches in 3 seasons with no continuity of style, tactics or team.
At some point we need to stabilize the coaching set up and roster, no point in swapping and changing every season when results don't go our way.
Our coach is one of the most experienced European coaches out there, if we can't get it right with PR who can get it right?
We've had 3 coaches in 3 seasons with no continuity of style, tactics or team.
At some point we need to stabilize the coaching set up and roster, no point in swapping and changing every season when results don't go our way.
Our coach is one of the most experienced European coaches out there, if we can't get it right with PR who can get it right?