Devils Vs Blaze - Festive Double header - Chat / Updates

Sheincar

Well-Known Member
#61
Slartibartfast said:
Thought the Devils were very unlucky tonight.We were the better team but tried to be a bit too creative and got caught on the break for the third goal. Im not sure what happened on the 4th but was that Mark Smith injured on the ice? Whoever it was and whatever happened the ref let it go and I don't know if that led to the Blazes goal or not.
I don't rate Blaze as a team but they have one or two very talented individuals, particularly Tanaka
Unlucky!!! We were dreadful. Ben's forgotten how to pass & Quiney's having a mare at the moment.
 

DevilDom

Well-Known Member
#62
A strangely flat and often lacklustre performance from the Devils which was mirrored by the flat atmosphere in what must have been close to the largest crowd at the BBT this season. Smith was also pretty poor when he is normally pretty good - missing some blatant calls and calling some which only he saw.

Blaze outworked Devils for the most part with Tanaka, Guthrie and Ginand particularly hardworking and hitting everything that moved. Just goes to show the Devils are not good enough to let their work-rate drop if they want to continue on recent improvements. Maybe being slight favourites both they and the crowd expected to win easily and suffered for it or maybe they celebrated the win on Boxing Day a bit too heavily a bit like a lot of the fans!
 
#63
Attendance 1,869 by the game sheet. That would be the biggest I think.

From the webcast I don't know what went wrong. I think there were just a couple of howlers that we were punished for by the Blaze's core of outstanding players. They weren't great but Tanaka, Guthrie, Egener, Tait, Ginaud... you can't give them an inch. Plus as Wagstaff points out, Blaze have a point of their own to prove. They wanted that win. A lot.

Maybe the expectation was too much. At least it was exciting: hopefully any newbies there enjoyed it enough to come back. If you're boycotting City, try hockey!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
 

Wagstaff

Well-Known Member
#66
Have to be pleased with the result, and thanks again to your MNL for delivering the game, from both sides of the fence it sounds like it was no runaway, but you have to wonder how we can win games like Belfast away, Panthers away, Steelers at home, I think we were the first team to crack Bakala and Dundee but then show complete and utter incompetence and lose easily to fife, Braehead, yourselves then all of those already mentioned, I don't think we are the only ones suffering inconsistency, but the Blaze are doing my head in at the moment!
 
#69
Wannabe2 said:
Didnt see much that was exciting tonight myself.
A see-sawing scoreboard? If you're not looking at the technical stuff it was a tense kind of 'could go either way' game.

Granted it wasn't the most enthralling performance from the team, but it remained in the balance.
 
#70
Very disappointing performance, particularly on the back of a very good road win on Boxing Day.

Don't like having a go at officials as a rule - they have a tough job, but tonight, the Officials were woeful - I was disappointed, as I consider Dean Smith to be the best of the bunch. How it is possible to miss as much as Dean did without wearing eye patches over both eyes is difficult to fathom.

I counted at least 7 Cross Checks that completely flattened Devils players and effectively took them out of that particular play.

Smith wasn't alone - his linos were equally poor. Blaze were constantly allowed to arrive late at virtually every face off. How come a couple of weeks ago, we ended up having the puck dropped at a face off without a Devils centre man being present

Back to Smith's performance

Tanaka charged through a Devils players numbers by the Devils bench - nothing called against the Blaze player, to the Devils absolute bewilderment Smith calls the Devils for too many players.

The list goes on...

Without putting my blood pressure through the roof, one other SHOCKING decision was the blatent cross check on Mark Richardson, which completely floored him, and left him having to be helped off the ice - being "taken out of the play by such blatent thuggery" meant that he was unable defend the game winning goal shot from Tait, which can best be described as Dean's belated Christmas present to the Blaze.
 
#71
From what I say Richardson took a puck to his middle bits ???

I thought Cardiff were unlucky tonight. Didn't think either team were brilliant but Cardiff were the better side.

My god do Blaze have problems, they are absolutely dire apart from 1 or 2 players
 
#72
The devils should of won that game last night. If it wasnt for numerous individual errors then they would of done. Very frustrating to watch at times.

Apart from the 2nd period blaze managed to break down every play in the neutral zone. But the guys didn't exactly make that difficult with some poor passing.

Blight for me had a howler, making a lot of errors including one which gifted them a goal by strolling over to the bench as the blaze made a counter attack behind him. I dont understand why Max gets such a tough time, he had a goal and an assist and made a lot less errors than a lot of the rest of the team.

First time watching cook, looks to be a good netminder but boy does he give up rebounds.
 
#73
must say, i found the game quite boring tbh.was looking forward to a bit of a cracker seen as we won our away game against the chavs on thursday.just thought with a pretty good crowd,we would play well. saw it was smith and thought,great,we have a half decent ref aswell.we are well on our way.he was useless.at least 2 or 3 punches in the faces of our players and not a thing called.one on myers,cant remember who the other player was.cook was pushed about aswell and nothing called.smith saw the punch on myers.it was right under his nose and just ignored it,yet called every little thing on myers.crap!!!.no one really stood out for me yet the last 5 or so games,we could have picked ten or twelve for m.o.m.award. probably the most annoying player for me is ben.he is such a great talent and i absolutely love to watch him,but boy,he is so infuriating...wish he would learn to pass.he is the most selfish player that we have had in awhile.in the beginning, i put it down to inexperience,but now i can see he needs to be more of a team guy.know this will upset his fan club but its true.perfect player when he learns how to pass.i was talking to someone last night who as she rightly said,he needs to be told by his coach,this is a team. not a one man show.he is a great welsh talent and i like to watch him because i honestly think he could be one of the best players ever to come out of cardiff but i know alot of people are saying the same thing about him.still love him btw.anyway,we were bound to have a not so great game soon when we have had so much entertainment the last couple of weeks.bring on the next one.onwards and upwards.
 

Sheincar

Well-Known Member
#74
Thing is Ben had learned to pass after spending time with Mac & Blight in Canada in the off season & started well this season. However he has reverted to his bad old ways & seems to have no perception of team mates around him. Piggsy had limited ice time yesterday but has far more awareness than Ben.
 
#75
Though I can understand the comments about Ben, I feel no other player on the team has such a high workrate as him. He appears to me to want that puck in the net so badly that he loses focus around him. He's still young and learning so experience will help.
My first look at Cook last night, am happy he's a Devil, again will improve over time but really needs to cut down the rebounds.
Came away from the BBT with a totally gutted feeling, I thought we were the better team and threw the win away. Although it hurt to lose I feel the team is really gelling and we will have a MUCH improved second half to the season.
 
#76
And if Ben does pass it'll likely be to a player loitering behind the goal. I must be missing something but i think a key way to win games is to get players in front of either goal... Crazy I know!!

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
 

Sheincar

Well-Known Member
#77
Marty said:
Though I can understand the comments about Ben, I feel no other player on the team has such a high workrate as him. He appears to me to want that puck in the net so badly that he loses focus around him. He's still young and learning so experience will help.
My first look at Cook last night, am happy he's a Devil, again will improve over time but really needs to cut down the rebounds.
Came away from the BBT with a totally gutted feeling, I thought we were the better team and threw the win away. Although it hurt to lose I feel the team is really gelling and we will have a MUCH improved second half to the season.
Can't fault his work rate - if only others worked as hard - however that makes it even more frustrating when all that hard work comes to nothing because he won't pass. He only seems to see what's in front of him & is not spatially aware.
 
#78
Sheincar said:
Thing is Ben had learned to pass after spending time with Mac & Blight in Canada in the off season & started well this season. However he has reverted to his bad old ways & seems to have no perception of team mates around him. Piggsy had limited ice time yesterday but has far more awareness than Ben.
Piggsy and CJ had limited ice time yesterday and Adam has gone back to Swindon
 

Ocko

Well-Known Member
#79
Blaze just played a boring, trap, road game. All players permanently sat deep; we were the only team trying to play hockey IMO. Blaze are just playing to their strengths and you can't blame them for that but god they are boring. Now I know how teams have felt playing against us the past few years!

If we played that exact game again 10 times I'd expect us to win 9. It was just one of those days I guess. Injuries on the night disrupted us, poor refereeing and just the rub of the green.
 

Koop11

Well-Known Member
#80
That performance felt a bit one step forward, two steps back. No intensity, physicality or desire. - the traits we’ve been blessed to see in the last few home games. Just because we were playing an average team, doesn’t mean an average performance will win you the game. Credit to the Blaze, they wanted the win more than us, especially after losing at home to us Boxing Day. They were missing some big players but their key guys carried them over the finish line. Well done to them.

It’s typical, the biggest crowd of the year following the hype of recent performances and the team decide to play an exhibition game. I know of four old time Devils fans who have never been to the BBT who were at the game on the weekend. All of which commented along the lines that they would not be in a hurry to come back down.

Ah well, here’s to a better 2014 because the 2013 season thus far has been one to forget.
 
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