Devils v Storm - 23/12 @ 19:00 - League - Chat/Updates

[DevilDom]

We are not scoring enough goals - that is not down to Hotham and Fournier. Yes they sometimes get caught jumping into the play but that is because they are trying to create something which the many underperforming forwards should be.

Awful performance by Devils but credit to Storm for having a game plan and executing it.

 

[Russky]

Again, I wasn't at the game tonight so I cant be blamed for the performance of the Devils tonight! This is directed to all those who think I am a curse or a Jinx on the devils: so there!!!!! . I don't want to single out and criticise any one player for their performance tonight but Try numbers 4-88 excluding 33 and 30, who need to be brought in from the washing line as they have been hung out to dry for far too long.

 

[kingmo19.1]

Message for A Hotham & G Fournier ....

If you want to be a Forward, go and play elsewhere please!

Just do the basics and do what you are employed to do!

For the removal of any doubt, you are employed as a DEFENSEMAN !

 

[bb1]

It's easy to blame the players but we have to look at the way they are being told to play. These guys are talented and seasoned enough to know how to get the job done. They need to be allowed (within reason) to play the way they feel they need to in order to change a game and get job done.

Lordo without doubt is superb in what he has done in a short space of time in his role as coach. His recruitment is second to none, he obviously works his socks off behind the scenes and described himself as "geeky" in his approach.

However this can work against him as sometimes geniuses can often over analyse things and overlook the most simplistic of solutions. Hence why I think we overplay things and are not direct enough. I'm sure we will get back to winning ways but hope we have the power reserve to the end of the season.

 

[jenks33]

We are not scoring enough goals - that is not down to Hotham and Fournier. Yes they sometimes get caught jumping into the play but that is because they are trying to create something which the many underperforming forwards should be.

Awful performance by Devils but credit to Storm for having a game plan and executing it.

Fair point. I agree that sometimes Hotham and Fournier probably feel that they have to take extra risks because we aren't creating enough. That's where I come back to Ulmer and Bentivoglio. For me martin and asselin have produced when it really matters where as the other two are nowhere to be seen. Again I'm not doubting their effort, I'm just doubting their class

 

[Devil down under]

A poor display by the Devils tonight. Too many mistakes and a lack of directness to the net proved our downfall. Thought that would be the scoreline tonight - but just the other way around. Surely playing a short benched team we should have come out banging and crashing and rotated all lines to wear them down.
At the moment we seem to have lost hockey instinct and tend to look for the perfect pass or shot. Let the players be themselves, take shots, jump on rebounds, even take penalties but mostly play a hard, physical, intense game that'll bring wins. What better team to do this against than Coventry - bring on the blaze

 

[Devsince89]

If your playing against a team that ices 2 lines then lordo you should of been dressed and bordy needed to have much more ice time. The pair of them should of hit every storm player that moved. Tire them out, rough them up. Then go for the jugular. We need much more passion if you are to wear a Devils jersey and we are to be "contenders" . It's quite simple to win the league; teams like storm at home should be maximum points. Us loyal Devils fans have waited too long and been through too much for a league title, this should be the season with the players we've got. Kick up the ass to some of the "superstar" players is needed. You've got a Devils badge on your shirt you need to do it justice guys win lose or draw.

 

[robbo2306]

You guys are clear at the top of the league and are favourites to go on and win it. Reading through some of the comments tonight you'd think you were struggling. Even with our games in hand we could only draw level and still be behind on the head to head.

The only issue I can see is your record against anybody else but us. It's not as good as ours, that could possibly be your downfall. We've lost 7 games this year, 5 of them to you. That means we've won 15 of the other 17 games. If that carries on then we could be whitewashed by you but still finish above you.

But, even with the above statement, you have the points on the board. I'd rather be in your position than ours.

 

[backrow]

Ironically, the Devils got off to a pretty good start tonight, getting the first goal, by Culli again, and were on their 3rd Power Play of the period before things turned around. Two quick penalties by the Devils led to a Storm 5 on 3 and they scored just as the 1st penalty expired. However, with that goal the momentum in the game seemed to change dramatically.

 

[DevilDom]

Message for A Hotham & G Fournier ....

If you want to be a Forward, go and play elsewhere please!

Just do the basics and do what you are employed to do!

For the removal of any doubt, you are employed as a DEFENSEMAN !

Sorry, but they are not the primary problem. We don't score enough goals. If Fournier and Hotham were not trying to create our home games would be even duller than most (with the exception of Steelers games) already are. We are struggling to break teams down that sit back and hit us on the break.

Perhaps that is one reason why we have such a good record against Steelers this year as they actually come onto us more.

 

[Rabbitohs4]

The players know lord will do nothing about it. I been saying for ages now he is to nice a guy and puts the blame solely on himself and it's not right.

If he tells players to do a job and they ain't doing it tell them sack them drop them do whatever it is that needs to be done.

Don't have a interview and give us fans all the crap we have heard fifty times already, change it up somehow or hopefully u will be changed.

 

[Ocko]

Message for A Hotham & G Fournier ....

If you want to be a Forward, go and play elsewhere please!

Just do the basics and do what you are employed to do!

For the removal of any doubt, you are employed as a DEFENSEMAN !

Oh come on. You must know better than to take the simplistic view of defence men defend and forwards score goals. This isn't peewee hockey, they are allowed past the blue line.

Strange how 2 players who weren't at fault for any goal, created the most (despite being D men and not being allowed to have an attacking game), are taking the most flak. I'd take those two guys every day over some of the veteran/leader guys who go missing when we're struggling to get going.

If your problem with our play is Hotham and Fournier being the focal point of attack then that is a system failure rather than individuals. It's obvious. It's how they're coached and the system in which we play and start every attack - the forwards know what they're doing and one automatically covers before there is often a need to so they are all well aware of the plan. The problem is them getting sucked into the play and when they're challenged on the blue line. Or on the PP we play a 1-3-1; it's dangerous and brings plenty of risks but again it's a system the coaching staff have chosen to play. It's not Hotham deciding he's running his own thing out there.

 

[Wannabe2]

You guys are clear at the top of the league and are favourites to go on and win it. Reading through some of the comments tonight you'd think you were struggling. Even with our games in hand we could only draw level and still be behind on the head to head.

The only issue I can see is your record against anybody else but us. It's not as good as ours, that could possibly be your downfall. We've lost 7 games this year, 5 of them to you. That means we've won 15 of the other 17 games. If that carries on then we could be whitewashed by you but still finish above you.

But, even with the above statement, you have the points on the board. I'd rather be in your position than ours.

The difference at the moment though is that you guys are playing really well, and we are playing really poor, also another worry is that we seem to have your number, but a number of teams have ours. Will last night serve to be the kick up the rump we so obviously need, I certainly hope so, because we are on a slippery slope at the moment, and there's a pack of wolves out there baying for blood.

 

[Tyke Devil]

That was brutal last night. Our forecheck was so poor. Transition plays truly awful. Did I really see the Doc on the powerplay? Even if late on the PP the guy has scored maybe 3 goals in 2 seasons. Use him where and when it is most effective for the team.

I know PB has been brought in for a specific role but using him on the PK when he has a turning circle of an oil tanker does not do it for me it all. Once you get past him it is effectively 5 on 3 as he raises his arm and skates to the bench for a change.

I'm not going to call this a positive but the only guys I could really see put in the effort out there were Culli and Haddad

 

[bb1]

Yes some players are under performing. Ulmer, Mo, Fournier and Myers all need a giant kick up the A.

But as I keep saying it all lands with Lordo. He's the one who pulls the strings on how we play. That 1st period against Steelers (SO win game) showed how he can get us playing. We are a superb team when allowed to play a certain way!

Must go back to basics and keep things simple.

 

[Rob Batch]

When we came out for the 3rd I was covinced the plan would be to use our physicality and hit everything, thus completely changing the pattern of the game. Maybe the PP and resulting goal caused confusion. Lack of passion.

 

[youngbob]

Based on points per game, extrapolated to a season of 52 games, I had this less than 2 weeks ago

1 CARDIFF DEVILS 84
2 SHEFFIELD STEELERS 72
3 BELFAST GIANTS 67
4 NOTTINGHAM PANTHERS 55
5 FIFE FLYERS 52
6 BRAEHEAD CLAN 47
7 MANCHESTER STORM 47
8 COVENTRY BLAZE 45
9 DUNDEE STARS 44
10 EDINBURGH CAPITALS 43

And now

1 CARDIFF DEVILS 78
2 BELFAST GIANTS 73
3 SHEFFIELD STEELERS 73
4 NOTTINGHAM PANTHERS 57
5 MANCHESTER STORM 52
6 BRAEHEAD CLAN 50
7 FIFE FLYERS 47
8 DUNDEE STARS 43
9 COVENTRY BLAZE 42
10 EDINBURGH CAPITALS 40

We have points in the bag, while others have games in hand, but the margin is rapidly dwindling, we can't afford many more games like last night

Outplayed by a better team is one thing, outplayed by a harder working team isn't something we should see from a Devils team

 

[august04]

We've seen this team physically dominate opponents this season (albeit not very often), so we know they're capable of it. If Lord is choosing to play so passively as we've seen all too often of late, then I suggest he gets back to playing Devils hockey sharpish. He always mentions lack of jump, physicality in his interviews when things go wrong - so if he is preaching a fast, physical game to the players and they aren't taking any notice, then we potentially have a much bigger problem.

 

[DevilDom]

Outplayed by a better team is one thing, outplayed by a harder working team isn't something we should see from a Devils team

This 100%.

Watching the Devils at times this year, especially for a lot of games at home (excluding the steelers games) has been dull. Lots of puck possession against teams that want to sit back and hit us on the break but too slow in transition and moving the puck around to create enough clear cut opportunities and no change up or spark when things aren't going our way.

One thing that really puts how bad last nights performance was into perspective and one that I hadn't realised at the time is that Storm were missing 3 of their better imports! I really can't see Steelers losing games like that and with Belfast putting a run together, we really need to learn we can't take anyone lightly.

Hopefully this will serve as a wake up call and Lord will make the tough decision I believe he has to make with some players to either bench them or at the very least move them down the lines.

 

[august04]

This 100%.

Watching the Devils at times this year, especially for a lot of games at home (excluding the steelers games) has been dull. Lots of puck possession against teams that want to sit back and hit us on the break but too slow in transition and moving the puck around to create enough clear cut opportunities and no change up or spark when things aren't going out way.

One thing that really puts how bad last nights performance was into perspective and one that I hadn't realised at the time is that Storm were missing 3 of their better imports! I really can't see Steelers losing games like that and with Belfast putting a run together than we really need to learn we can't take anyone lightly.

Hopefully this will serve as a wake up call and Lord will make the tough decision I believe he has to make with some players to either bench them or at the very least move them down the lines.

As well as missing 3 imports, I think they also had 2 Cardiff Fire players playing for them last night!