Going into last night’s game, I wasn’t expecting that performance by the Devils or the result. With the bulk of the heavy lifting done by last night, I went to tonight’s game looking for more of the feisty hit anything that moves, hit and run hockey, but credit Blaze tonight they outplayed us for 58 minutes, and the only reason we scored was due to an empty net. We could have been still out there now and would have struggled to score with the Blaze half way up the M50.
OK, the boys managed to limp across the line, but our tactics are woeful. When you have a healthy lead in a two leg match, why in the name of all that is holy, would you constantly dump the puck when under zero pressure, with zero chase - All it does, and did repeatedly tonight, was simply inviting the Blaze to send up defence splitting passes to bisect our defence - thankfully Bowns was on form, but Bowns was really sold down the river for the second Blaze goal. I have no idea what Batch was trying to do, and I don’t think I’m the only one. I thought Batch deserved being benched for the rest of the second period, but when I didn’t see him play during the third, I think BD was being naive as a team coach and simply labouring a poor piece of play by Batch. Make your point by all means, but Batch wasn’t the only player to make mistakes, and that was poor coaching imo.
To be honest, I haven’t been impressed with BD this season, I know he’s a rookie coach, but even so, the tactics are wore fully inept, and he doesn’t seem to have worked out what is wrong with the Powerplay even though he’s had months to look at improving it - it’s been awful for several months. The buck stops somewhere in a results business. I have genuine fears for what the Devils can hope to achieve next season, if the powers that be decide to stick with BD as head coach. I also don’t see what Horn brings to the table. Two coaches salaries with a somewhat poor return on investment.
Really hopeful the Devils can come together for next Saturday evening against the Steelers, but if tonight’s team/effort levels are duplicated then I can’t see the Devils making it to the Playoff final on Sunday.