My first game this season and was expecting a lot but was left very disappointed by the Devils tonight. I thought they were lucky to get that win after dominating the first period against a poor Blaze team. Why is it that every time we are on the powerplay we insist that we try and walk the puck into the net and don't shoot from the blue line. Only time we did was in the third period and we scored from that. Passing was poor and the defence was caught out a few times with them making passing errors or charging out only to lose the puck and get caught with one d man against 3 Blaze forwards. I also couldn't understand why Lord didn't play and drop Culli into d as Fournier obviously ain't 100% yet.on the good side I see Hicks still hates Cardiff and makes some baffling calls, incident at the Blaze bench where Bordeleau gets a game or match penalty for blood on the ice and the Blaze guy gets a high stick penalty for using his stick to hit an opposing player from his bench. Brought 2 friends to see their first hockey game and thankfully they loved it but I was left very disappointed by an average Devils display against a poor Blaze team
If you were disappointed by this game then perhaps Ice Hockey isn't the game for you.
Tonight had pretty much everything. But then Devils-Blaze games usually do. It's very rare to beat Stewart from distance as he comes out so far to cut down the angle. Yes we scored with one in the 3rd period but that was more to do with him having lost his head and he was instantly removed from the game. Earlier in the game we did pass it around and Joey Martin scored. Plus the number of shots from the blueline that get to the netminder without being blocked by a defenceman is very low.
I know it is a favourite for all hockey fans to criticise their team's powerplay, but surely after a couple of seasons of watching the sport you realise that even the best teams don't score on every powerplay. In fact most only score on 20% of powerplays and 25% is deemed good.
Last season we led the powerplay average for the league and after the first couple of games this season we do again. In fact the stats the league sent out last week had us on an incredible 40% success rate.
As far as the game itself, I thought it was brilliant. We dominated the first period but as is so often against Brian Stewart we only led by one. Blaze's goal in the second period just after our second gave them a renewed belief and they started to cause us more troubles, but we hit the post twice and missed one or two great chances that could have seen us go clear.
The early powerplay to the Blaze early in the third could have swung the game back in their favour but it did the exact opposite. Two short-handed goals gave us a 3 goal lead, Stewart lost his head and when he put his team on the PK we made it 5-1. Klotz then attacks Bordeleau from the bench, and as it was behind the play the officials don't see what actually happened. Because of the way the penalties worked though another penalty against us straight after puts us on on the PK for almost four minutes and Blaze score twice to make the game interesting again. But as soon as they pull the NM we break and score a 6th to put the result beyond doubt.