Devils v Steelers - 24/10 - 6:00pm - League - chat/updates

[ASHIPP]

Two very welcome and well deserved wins from the Devils. Really great job. Could be argued that last night was against a very compromised Steelers with their injury and short bench problems. Give them credit too - they are still winning games despite all that, and are 2nd in the league. They still managed to defend well twice on 5 on 3 pp for the Devils, and scored 2 goals in 39 secs when some of our players went to sleep. Jeff Legue, as usual, was utter class, displaying his strong defensive skills as well. Muskatovs still pulled off some fantastic moves when constantly bombarded by our guys.

Great game though with some of our players simply showing their growing confidence and skill, playing as a team.
G and Ritchie had mistake-free performances, Stevie at his most confident this season. Jon, Stuart and Tylor standout forwards and all 3 lines working hard for 60 mins. Loving it that so many of them are prepared to stand up for eachother versus Campbell, Dowd etc. And G sending a 'message' to Ben Simon that he will not have his players 'interfered with'

If anyone ever doubted what an asset the Vother is to the Devils, please refer to last night's game. The sheer colossuss of the guy on the ice means he is extremely difficult to mark or play against. he did an excellent job of creating space for the others and distributing the puck quickly and efficiently. What a joy to see his huge shadow cast over Muskatovs goal! Once he's camped in the opposition crease, nobody can move him! His goal was a delight.....and an obvious personal pleasure for him. What a comeback.!

 

[devil99]

"My main concern is what happened to Richardson, he didn't ice for the last 10 minutes of the game and we were playing Tylor on D to cover him. If he is injured we are going to have problems as we will only have 3 D plus Symonds if he is iced."

This annoyed me last night, even though we had a great win in the end, shuff came close at one stage to tieing the score, it's ok to keep the D tight, but against a team like sheffield rotating the 5th man gives the main d a longer break between shifts, hence them not getting tired in latter 2nd and 3rd periods, can also help prevent injuries to tired players as we've now found out to our detriment. if your playing only 4 D, they are also the special teams players, hence no restbite, a very dangerous route to take.
after the excellent game he had in Newcastle, cant for the life of me understand why G wont play symonds in every game, he's hardly likely to stand aside and say "go ahead, score past me!"
G needs to start showing some confidence in this young man, I've watched him play against all the top teams for years and he has been fine, playing a forward player in D before him, must be terrible for him.
My other moan is that Ben was also benched, his line over the last few weeks has been phenominal and I hope he isnt being used and now dropped because voth is back, he's earned his place in my opinion, he could walk out of here tomorrow into another team, I hope G is talking to both guys to explain why this is happening to them, would hate to see them both playing against us,

Moan over otherwise, great game, nice to see the place full last night.

 

[mp43]

On a side note, glad to see that the idiot that was shouting and spitting at hicksy the week before, wasn't at the game last night. Even though Hicksy was shocking last week, somebody spitting at him ,and in front of many children, is an absolute disgrace. The club should take a stance and ban this idiot!!!! Rant over!

Where did this happen?Thats not on if true.

It happened at last weeks game, several people complained to stewards and one steward even had to warn him and sit on the steps next to him to make sure it didnt happen again.

 

[BBW]

I loved the game last night - stand out moment was Tylor scoring on his backside, followed closely by Campbell being put on his.

I'm hoping that keeping out Davies and Symonds was G keeping gas in the tank for midweek in a long week.

 

[Block 2 Noise Boys]

ASHIPP - "Jeff Legue, as usual, was utter class"

I am guessing you must have had your eyes averted when Legue tried to throw Smith's stick out over the plexi?

Really classy that is.

If the guy has got so much class then he doesn't need to resort to such tactics - it pathetically petty - that's for U10s hockey, who don't have the experience to know better.

 

[Wannabe2]

The real class act was get your shoes off chant, that was pure class so so funny, never a dull moment in block 2 keep it going boys.

 

[ASHIPP]

"My main concern is what happened to Richardson, he didn't ice for the last 10 minutes of the game and we were playing Tylor on D to cover him. If he is injured we are going to have problems as we will only have 3 D plus Symonds if he is iced."
This annoyed me last night, even though we had a great win in the end, shuff came close at one stage to tieing the score, it's ok to keep the D tight, but against a team like sheffield rotating the 5th man gives the main d a longer break between shifts, hence them not getting tired in latter 2nd and 3rd periods, can also help prevent injuries to tired players as we've now found out to our detriment. if your playing only 4 D, they are also the special teams players, hence no restbite, a very dangerous route to take.
after the excellent game he had in Newcastle, cant for the life of me understand why G wont play symonds in every game, he's hardly likely to stand aside and say "go ahead, score past me!"
G needs to start showing some confidence in this young man, I've watched him play against all the top teams for years and he has been fine, playing a forward player in D before him, must be terrible for him.
My other moan is that Ben was also benched, his line over the last few weeks has been phenominal and I hope he isnt being used and now dropped because voth is back, he's earned his place in my opinion, he could walk out of here tomorrow into another team, I hope G is talking to both guys to explain why this is happening to them, would hate to see them both playing against us,

I have to say, I asked myself the same question last night. Symonds warmed up but didn't appear after that. Operating with 4 dmen is going to be gruelling this week and despite playing well, they all looked like they needed a break in p3. G no doubt had his reasons for not rotating Alex this time - hopefully he'll be contributing later this week.
Ben has been incredible during the last few weeks, in Vother's absence. Rest assured, G will ensure Ben still plays his important role - but not neccessarily on the 2nd line.

 

[ASHIPP]

ASHIPP - "Jeff Legue, as usual, was utter class"

I am guessing you must have had your eyes averted when Legue tried to throw Smith's stick out over the plexi?

Really classy that is.

If the guy has got so much class then he doesn't need to resort to such tactics - it pathetically petty - that's for U10s hockey, who don't have the experience to know better.

You guessed right - genuinely didn't see that happen. But let's be honest, classless and bizarre though that incident may have been, that is not a reflection of Legue's usual on-ice performance.

 

[wildthing74]

On a side note, glad to see that the idiot that was shouting and spitting at hicksy the week before, wasn't at the game last night. Even though Hicksy was shocking last week, somebody spitting at him ,and in front of many children, is an absolute disgrace. The club should take a stance and ban this idiot!!!! Rant over!

Where did this happen?Thats not on if true.

It happened at last weeks game, several people complained to stewards and one steward even had to warn him and sit on the steps next to him to make sure it didnt happen again.

I sit at the back of block 3 and if you're talking about the incident with the guy in the front row then I don't think he did spit.He is a regular and well known poster on here(I don't know him personally so not sticking up for a mate or anything).He did go up to the barrier and give some verbals to Hicks but I did not see him spit at any time I have to be honest.
I guess you're refering to this incident as a steward came and sat by us and then first chance went and had a word with him.
I know I may be totally wrong in my assumption but from what I saw there was only a bit of frustration coming from him and I got to admit I and about a 1000 others felt equally annoyed with Mr Hicks at that point.

 

[Soundwave1]

Legue is class player no doubt (so much so he's in my fantasy league team)

However, he is prone to the odd temper tantrum and should probably recieve a couple of games for what he did last night (not that it will happen)

I'm sure he wasn't intending to hit any fans, but he'd lost it and did propel the stick in that direction. Throwing a stick in the direction of the fans should really be dealt with to set bar for that kind of incident. Totally unacceptable from Legue.

 

[Holl_5]

However, he is prone to the odd temper tantrum and should probably recieve a couple of games for what he did last night (not that it will happen)

I'm sure he wasn't intending to hit any fans, but he'd lost it and did propel the stick in that direction. Throwing a stick in the direction of the fans should really be dealt with to set bar for that kind of incident. Totally unacceptable from Legue.

Not going to happen - Penner did the same last week and got nothing...

As for the game, I'm more than happy with that result to say the tent is never an easy place to go in to, and even worse with 1 fit Dman. To have our most threatening offensive player playing on D as cover is never going to be on to a winner. I'm just proud they managed to keep it close as a contest and show the Ben Simon fighting spirit.

Let's hope we can play one game soon with a full bench. I'm glad Tom Squires is off the mark. He's going to be a brilliant player!

 

[ASHIPP]

I'm glad Tom Squires is off the mark. He's going to be a brilliant player!

Found myself talking to his Dad in the queue for a coffee last night! He'll be very proud of Tom's performance. Squires knows Ben Davies well from junior Team GB.

 

[ASHIPP]

Great game last night and a great win. Not going to go over the game to much as everyone else seems to have covered it.

My main concern is what happened to Richardson, he didn't ice for the last 10 minutes of the game and we were playing Tylor on D to cover him. If he is injured we are going to have problems as we will only have 3 D plus Symonds if he is iced.

Mark Richardsons's injury now confirmed in Walesonline article today - let's hope Mark recovers soon. Looks like he may be rested for midweek games - Alex now sure to play. Can't be helped but not the best timing.

 

[bluedevil]

That is bad news, while Symo is now probably gonna get ice time, he might struggle to ice every other shift (only as he's never done it at this level before). So the chances of Tylor dropping back to D must be pretty high.

If that happened I'd like to see Ben back on the Finner/Hill line and have a third line of Voth/Macrae/Smith. Ben has proven his worth on that line and I can imagine the third line being a nightmare to play against with Voth's presence (it already is, of course!)

What are everyones thoughts on how G will deal with this?

 

[James]

Maxi can play on D too as he does for the Israeli team. I wouldn't want to break up the first line though.

 

[Soundwave1]

However, he is prone to the odd temper tantrum and should probably recieve a couple of games for what he did last night (not that it will happen)

I'm sure he wasn't intending to hit any fans, but he'd lost it and did propel the stick in that direction. Throwing a stick in the direction of the fans should really be dealt with to set bar for that kind of incident. Totally unacceptable from Legue.

Not going to happen - Penner did the same last week and got nothing...

As I said (it won't happen)

Not quite the same - The stick Legue threw hit the steps outside of the playing area.

 

[Merthyr Devil]

Not going to happen - Penner did the same last week and got nothing...

Didn't Penner throw his across the ice though at the Steelers bench (if its the clip I've seen anyway) not above the plexi. I think thats the first time our badly designed ice rink has come in handy. It hit the steps in front of the fans above the plexi glass to bounce back onto the ice, any other rink and it would have been in the crowd.

To be fair to Darnell he couldn't have called anything because he wasn't looking, he looked round when the crowd shouted and saw Smith going back to collect his stick and probably just assumed Legue had grabbed it away from him rather than thrown it. And I'm pretty sure the camera's wouldn't have picked it up as the play was down the opposite end of the ice at the time.

Also was it just me or was the ice really bad last night? There was a puddle forming in the middle of the ice towards the end of each period and alot of the players and even Darnell fell over a few times and looked to the ice as if to blame it!

 

[James]

The ice was terrible last night. They were dry cutting it and it was still melting in minutes. I went for a skate after the match and it was shockingly soft. Needed an aqualung more than ice skates

 

[devil99]

"That is bad news, while Symo is now probably gonna get ice time, he might struggle to ice every other shift (only as he's never done it at this level before). So the chances of Tylor dropping back to D must be pretty high."

Symo has iced for more than 5 years at this level on a regular shift, and at 22 will have more stamina than quite a few in the team. so I dont think this is bad news. It will hopefully give him the chance to prove again to G that he is more than capable to move to the "next level" as G stated at the beginning of the season.

 

[bluedevil]

What team has he played for where he's iced 30 minutes a night in the Elite League? I'm not doubting Symo at all, I'd love to see him ice more often, but every other shift is a big ask for anyone not doing it regularly.