Devils hockey?

[kettdevil1]

If the Devils could find a way to play like the 3rd period tonight in the remaining games of this season, that would be okay

Would be good but..... I think what we are seeing this season is a change in mentality rather than just style. The focus appears to be TOTALLY on winning the league and what that means is that everything else is secondary. In the past we have seen more 'crash, bang, wallop' but at the cost of suspensions, injuries and fatigue, this season we are seeing us always aim to do 'just enough'. This means that at times we appear to be coasting, other times we are playing percentage hockey and just occasionally (normally against Nottingham) we fail to switch gears when confronted with a very good team or a different style.

This might be an unpopular thing to say but we are taking a Sheffield approach to the league, grind out results, roll on day in day out with a similar style that is effective but not always pretty (although I still maintain that away from home we have played some of the best hockey I have ever seen).

The frustration is that in patches we have played sublime, hard hitting hockey and whilst I would prefer to see this, I can see why we are not and after twenty years in the wilderness I am quite happy to accept this as a price worth paying....as long as we keep on being in pole position in the league.

 

[Red Mist]

In the past we have seen more 'crash, bang, wallop' but at the cost of suspensions, injuries and fatigue, this season we are seeing us always aim to do 'just enough'. This means that at times we appear to be coasting, other times we are playing percentage hockey and just occasionally (normally against Nottingham) we fail to switch gears when confronted with a very good team or a different style.

The problem is that I'm paying to be entertained, not to watch my team do "just enough". After all that's why everyone goes to the games isn't it? I don't pay to watch boring, drab, non contact hockey. I pay to watch something that will get me excited, otherwise what's the point in going? Thank god for zorb football because watching them show up for less than a period a game (if we're lucky) just isn't doing it for me at the moment...

 

[Tyke Devil]

It is (IMHO) more often than not still pretty entertaining as a night out....even if not in our favour.

Right now....I just want a Championship banner.

 

[Devil94]

Back in Lord's first season as coach, there was no pressure on him or the team, it was about entertainment, winning back old fans and creating new ones.

Now though times have changed, and winning the league is everything. As Kett said, we can and we have played periods of very 'devils' hockey as some would call it. We have turned it on when it was needed. But t would be impossible to play every game like that, especially on the big ice surface of IAW where we play half our games.

Personally, I would take a boring 3-1 win every week for the rest of the season if it meant we finished on top spot.

 

[kettdevil1]

The problem is that I'm paying to be entertained, not to watch my team do "just enough". After all that's why everyone goes to the games isn't it? I don't pay to watch boring, drab, non contact hockey. I pay to watch something that will get me excited, otherwise what's the point in going? Thank god for zorb football because watching them show up for less than a period a game (if we're lucky) just isn't doing it for me at the moment...

So in that case if the choice was:

Win the league playing the current style of hockey
Or
Don't win the league but play in a more entertaining manner

Which would you choose? For me, the league is the be-all and end-all this year.

 

[Ocko]

Crash, bang, wallop hockey doesn't win championships. What EIHL team has won the title playing that way in recent years?

The 'Devils hockey' everyone wants didn't deliver.

It might be frustrating for fans who are used to a team of grinders banging the opposition around and having a few scraps but the new brand of hockey we play is bringing in our biggest crowds. I know we were handicapped by the BBT in terms of crowd numbers before that is brought up, but this 'Devils hockey' people seem to want didn't regularly pack out the WNIR either or win trophies. For those of us who were around when we were successful will remember we didn't get sell out crowds because we played physical, it was because we were very successful. A number of teams were way more physical than us in the 90s.

What actually is 'Devils hockey'? It's so cliché. For the majority of people on here 'Devils hockey' is actually winning nothing but having the most fights. And we want to go back to that? Brilliant.

 

[Wannabe2]

There's more than one reason we are getting big crowds, obviously winning and being top is a huge help, but not playing out of a dump is a massive help, being able to see the play is also huge, having a four sided video screen with awesome opening footage gets the punters pumped. The whole match night experience is now better than ever, however I still think we can be better and some games we have sucked, physical play had a huge effect against the Blaze, pity it wasn't there against the Storm, we may just have seen a different outcome. If we could combine our skill with a bit more physicality we could be the real deal.