Devils Vs Blaze - CC - 6th Nov 21

osh

Well-Known Member
#41
Absolute shambles….can’t see me spending too much more money watching performances like tonight. We have the reputation of never gassing players, may I make the suggestion we change that as soon as possible. We are carrying far too many players who don’t seem to get the idea how important the league is compared to play offs abroad. I think Skalde has got huge problems on his hands.
 

jenks33

Well-Known Member
#42
We've heard it a few times of late in Skalde's post game interviews that he feels the team are not showing the work ethic or desire to win these games. That is very worrying, never mind not scoring enough goals. If players are not up to the demands of doing what it takes to compete week in week out, then get them out and replace them with players who are prepared to put a shift in.
You can tell from his recent post match interviews that he’s not happy with this team. Skalde’s not stupid, he’s coached for years now and he knows that this team needs one or two changes/additions. We’ll see though
 

jenks33

Well-Known Member
#43
So we have scored 1 goal in 2hrs of hockey at home, that’s 1 goal in 120 mins or 1 goal in 6 periods, and at the moment I wouldn’t put any money on us beating Fife tomorrow in fact I wouldn’t put money on us scoring either. It’s a sad fact but a true one that we are carrying too many players for a club with big ambitions, what happened to the speedy direct skilful team we started out with, because they don’t exist now. At this moment in time that other outfit from up the motorway that play in shitty Orange are in a different league from us, their still scoring, and we’re still boring, and by god that situation sucks. So where do we go from here because when you get shown up by 12 skaters that’s a pretty crummy place to be, I took the view that last weeks lousy game was a bad day at the office, but it’s more than that now, and when the team only show a bit of physical passion in the latter parts of the game it’s a real poor show.
The word that stands out for me there Wannabe is boring. We are a boring team at the moment and that’s not acceptable. As I said earlier I’d rather lose 6-5 and entertain the crowd in a meaningless CC game but we’re just a bit boring. Opposition teams have worked out that if they sit back and keep Reid quiet then they should be ok
 

august04 2.0

Well-Known Member
#44
You can tell from his recent post match interviews that he’s not happy with this team. Skalde’s not stupid, he’s coached for years now and he knows that this team needs one or two changes/additions. We’ll see though
It’s pretty disappointing that we just seem to settle for maintaining the status quo. We may not like the team in orange, but if they need a change, they do it. Ruthless perhaps, but sometimes it needs to be done. We’ve just used one or our changes on retaining Valdix, a player I very much rated in the past, but who is clearly now way past his best and getting virtually no ice time. What’s the point of that?
 

Ejercito Rojas

Well-Known Member
#47
However, there have been a few huge positives.
Waller, for me the best signing we made this season.
Reid, our only natural goal scorer.
Dixon, ageless!
Carruth, our best nteminder since Herlofsky
 

jenks33

Well-Known Member
#48
However, there have been a few huge positives.
Waller, for me the best signing we made this season.
Reid, our only natural goal scorer.
Dixon, ageless!
Carruth, our best nteminder since Herlofsky
Carruth’s form is the reason I can’t see us finishing outside the top 4. Let’s hope that continues. Excellent goalie
 

Devils86

Well-Known Member
#51
So....again having taken a breath - plus waiting an age in the car park before getting home.

That was periods 4, 5 and 6 of the Panthers game from last week. Devoid of ideas although this time a few more hits were completed. Nothing against the guy but a bit worrying when Sam Duggan is getting PIMs for being the one sticking up for his mates.

PP had the same problems and it's no good the Devils social media putting out "until recently we had the best PP in the league" when we can't score for toffee.

I'm not sure the answer is Mikkelson joining the play when we have BOC continually getting done on the blue line game after game.

Blaze ridiculously short benched and even with the game misconduct we did zero, barely troubled Motte who didn't have to have a great game to stop us.

Again we are caught on the rush when we lose it in the O-zone. The team tonight screamed out for someone like Haddad who would protect that puck behind the net. When you don't commit their D behind the net there's no space in front of net.

Blaze deserved their win and I was relieved when I checked the other scores that it was only a CC game. Not good enough tonight.

Worrying how impressive the Or*nge are looking at the moment. That Devils team on the last few home performances doesn't look anywhere near good enough for the league.

Maybe it needs the lines changing up completely? And the D-pairings....maybe stick a proper stay-at-home like Louis with BOC or stick Ben on the wing given thats where he wants to play!

I could forgive Ben for the defensive frailty he brings if he wasn't getting done exactly the same way every week and if he produced a bit more offensively....needs to buck his ideas up for me as someone who so wanted to be a Devil this season.

Anyway, breathe. Thankfully it was only CC. But I'm worried for Fife away now - and who would have said that a few weeks back!
 

jenks33

Well-Known Member
#53
Steelers, Giants and Panthers to finish above us. I think we’ll finish 4th unless we add a goalscorer and even then I think the Steelers have got more firepower than us.
Danny Stewart compared tonight’s Blaze win to the Newcastle Vipers win in Belfast all those years ago. Shows how shortanded they were. Bloody depressing
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#57
Well no one really played Terry, we were abysmal just like the week before, you didn’t miss anything, wish I didn’t too be honest, watching our lads at the moment unfortunately is like having teeth extracted, but a little bit more painful.
 

BostonBart22

Well-Known Member
#58
Well thats 2 home games i missed due to other commitments, so glad i did by the sounds of it, I will be back next week for yet another dead rubber game, are the players fed up of playing these games , dont know, is the coach pumping the players up for these games, dont know, few on here concerned we played depleted teams last 2 games , lets not forget we been depleted in lots of games in the past and the players play as as if their lives depend on it..The boarding call , was it bad ? will it be reviewed, and it seems Duggs is our new enforcer..lets just hope we get the win tonight gonna be hard up there, no excuses either with the long road trip, pretty sure they are flying, another point do fans think players joined us just for the ride in the CHL and are ready to move on, seems like to me..
 

ASHIPP

Well-Known Member
#60
Still early enough to make performance improvements and even player changes if they feel it necessary.

Think we need to be realistic about expectations this year. Every successful club will have poor years (look at the Leigh Salters year with the Devils. Did they win anything that year?) It's part of the painful rebuilding process after a few years of doing well.

Fans were told that the style and content of this team is a gamble this season. It's certainly erratic at the moment. It's hard for fans (and local press) not to remember our recent glory days.

If the Club are accepting that current performance is part of the rebuild and that they don't anticipate getting to the final stages of competitions, then fans need to adjust expectations too.

However, if there are flaws in the team that are ruining their ambitions., those will need to be addressed now.

My money is on Steelers. Giants, Panthers top 3 this year. Devils could be mid table on current performance. Steelers come into this season with a big core of players from last two seasons. Giants are a bit of a rebuild but finding stability. Wallace is performing miracles at a very shortbenched Panthers. And that's the galling thing... finding ways to play when shortbenched or playing poorly.
 
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