Devils Vs Giants - League - 16th Oct 2021
- Thread starter James
- Start date
Mark Louis…. stand out man of the match for me.
Don’t agree with Mr Kings assessment of 40 minutes. I see a team struggling with territory and puck possession. Plenty of talk on here about needing a front line centre man but I don’t think we create enough chances for any centre man to flourish. The lack of recycling the puck bothers me. We didn’t do it in the CHL which I kind of understood because they were a cut above but I don’t see it in the EIHL. We don’t have that kind of size of a Myers or a Haddad to help retain the puck, tire the opposition, draw penalties and create chances. We enter their zone try a shot or a play and the giants come straight back at us. May be it’s the style we want to play but it looks bloody hard work and knackering - the forwards are skating zone to zone, relentlessly. When they do enter the offensive zone they look shattered.
In spite of all of the above I take nothing away from this team tonight - Carruth, Mikkelson and Dixon had blinders.
I’ve not seen a Devils team in a long time look so good on the powerplay.
Waller… seem to mention him every time…. Superb!
Don’t agree with Mr Kings assessment of 40 minutes. I see a team struggling with territory and puck possession. Plenty of talk on here about needing a front line centre man but I don’t think we create enough chances for any centre man to flourish. The lack of recycling the puck bothers me. We didn’t do it in the CHL which I kind of understood because they were a cut above but I don’t see it in the EIHL. We don’t have that kind of size of a Myers or a Haddad to help retain the puck, tire the opposition, draw penalties and create chances. We enter their zone try a shot or a play and the giants come straight back at us. May be it’s the style we want to play but it looks bloody hard work and knackering - the forwards are skating zone to zone, relentlessly. When they do enter the offensive zone they look shattered.
In spite of all of the above I take nothing away from this team tonight - Carruth, Mikkelson and Dixon had blinders.
I’ve not seen a Devils team in a long time look so good on the powerplay.
Waller… seem to mention him every time…. Superb!
Great win but hand on heart what is everybody’s opinion on us as possible league winners? I thought Belfast dominated for most of the first period and we couldn’t have complained if we went in a couple of goals down. Carruth was great.
There are plenty of things to like about us. Carruth, Register, Mikkelson, Richardson are brilliant. Reid will score plenty and Crandall has great vision. Sanford and Cox have a great understanding and create moments of magic.
But I always think the teams that challenge for the league apply pressure for large periods and are a bit suffocating with their pressure. Have we shown signs of that? Can we really win the league with moments of magic? I don’t think we put teams under enough pressure for long periods. We don’t camp teams in their own zone. Early days but I still think we are missing another goalscorer
There are plenty of things to like about us. Carruth, Register, Mikkelson, Richardson are brilliant. Reid will score plenty and Crandall has great vision. Sanford and Cox have a great understanding and create moments of magic.
But I always think the teams that challenge for the league apply pressure for large periods and are a bit suffocating with their pressure. Have we shown signs of that? Can we really win the league with moments of magic? I don’t think we put teams under enough pressure for long periods. We don’t camp teams in their own zone. Early days but I still think we are missing another goalscorer
Now I've had a chance to sleep on it some random thoughts.
Webcast camera work was awful, and they could really do with a penalty clock.
Some of the giants players are huge. There was a shot of Sanford next to one and it was like John lawless standing next to Mike ware.
Waller is superb. He plays in all situations and looks dangerous with it.
I think McNally would make a real nuisance of himself around besky.
Our defensive cover looked much better. The next think on the list to deal with has to be game management though.
Webcast camera work was awful, and they could really do with a penalty clock.
Some of the giants players are huge. There was a shot of Sanford next to one and it was like John lawless standing next to Mike ware.
Waller is superb. He plays in all situations and looks dangerous with it.
I think McNally would make a real nuisance of himself around besky.
Our defensive cover looked much better. The next think on the list to deal with has to be game management though.
Agree going from watching a Lordo team to a Skalde team is like chalk and cheese. Lordo had a puck possession pressure style of play that while wasn’t always great on the eye was hugely effective. Skalde currently is just all run and gun and as others have said everything seems to be created on the rush as opposed to sustained O zone pressure. It’s a style that will score goals but will also leak them. I do think there are unnecessary turnovers happening also as Devils seem to want to break really fast at the first attempt when the opposition are scrambling to organise and force passes that aren’t on when they should reset and go back to the D for another try. Will it prove a successful strategy. Who knows but it beat Belfast.
Am a bit shocked at the Belfast love in though. For Devils to come up with that result after the recent schedule and travel with CHL included is a great result. Belfast we’re nicely rested with a perfect weeks prep so whilst they might be good they also missed a trick there. Devils had a job to do and got it done in regulation also so big up to them. The fact Belfast blitzed the P1 shouldn’t be a shock but the fact Carruth did his job and gave the guys a chance to win and then Devils capitalised on their chances better means they executed a winning formula. Glass half full but a lot more positives than negatives to take from that.
Giants might have controlled the puck well but if you can’t get it in the net you don’t got dinky do.
Am a bit shocked at the Belfast love in though. For Devils to come up with that result after the recent schedule and travel with CHL included is a great result. Belfast we’re nicely rested with a perfect weeks prep so whilst they might be good they also missed a trick there. Devils had a job to do and got it done in regulation also so big up to them. The fact Belfast blitzed the P1 shouldn’t be a shock but the fact Carruth did his job and gave the guys a chance to win and then Devils capitalised on their chances better means they executed a winning formula. Glass half full but a lot more positives than negatives to take from that.
Giants might have controlled the puck well but if you can’t get it in the net you don’t got dinky do.
Sanford's official height is 5'8" so among the shortest players on the ice.l
Yeah I think game management was also an issue when we lost to Sheffield away. We gave away a penalty late in P3, leaving a player unmarked in a dangerous position. Came back to haunt us in Sheffield, nearly did again last night. Giants came ever so close to drawing level, at times we were great at clearing the puck from our zone or other times we were struggling & it's that consistency that's needed to win championships. That said clearly Giants are a quality outfit, they will put the pressure on & force mistakes. Its a part of the game. Skalde knows what needs to be done. When everything is running on all cylinders this Devils team is a strong outfit but it's getting that well oiled machine running consistently. I am worried about player fatigue & injuries with the short roster but everyone is in the same boat on that front.
Yeah I think game management was also an issue when we lost to Sheffield away. We gave away a penalty late in P3, leaving a player unmarked in a dangerous position. Came back to haunt us in Sheffield, nearly did again last night. Giants came ever so close to drawing level, at times we were great at clearing the puck from our zone or other times we were struggling & it's that consistency that's needed to win championships. That said clearly Giants are a quality outfit, they will put the pressure on & force mistakes. Its a part of the game. Skalde knows what needs to be done. When everything is running on all cylinders this Devils team is a strong outfit but it's getting that well oiled machine running consistently. I am worried about player fatigue & injuries with the short roster but everyone is in the same boat on that front.
In terms of point production maybe, but in terms of overall input needed to our respective teams I wouldn't say necessarily. It has been mentioned several times we are lacking the ability to retain the puck in the zone, and from what I've seen of him so far that is a huge strength of McNally who seems very difficult to shift off the puck. He has scored at least 2 goals so far where I've noticed physically on the puck he's very imposing and difficult to knock off his stride.
Agree. The lack of puck possession and o zone time will be our downfall. Especially when O'Connonr and Register are looking to play their naturally offensive game, you see them very often pinching in and joining the offensive play when we in the O Zone but aren't set up. This happened a couple of times last night and it left space where the left D should be allowing Boucher to cheat a bit and stay out there - because we weren't set up and recycling the puck, Giants inevitably got the puck back and Boucher was the natural exit pass stood where the left D would normally be. Not only did it create an easy exit but in turn it instantly became a dangerous counter attack. The kind of attack that suits a team playing that kind of road game where's a quick counter attack strategy.
I thought Boucher was superb last night as was the Giants 88 (missed his name).
Not sure what's gotten in to Louis but he's skating better than I've ever seen, looks fitter and is really looking like a leader of this team - not just because he's big but his behaviours, he's leading by example out there. He's been spot on for all the games I've seen this season. The amount of times the Giants would cut in across the D man and head straight for Carruth, not once did they make any contact with him. Season's gone past Bownsy would be left sprawling after being hit but they managed that play really well - both Mikkleson and Louis look great so far.
I thought Boucher was superb last night as was the Giants 88 (missed his name).
Not sure what's gotten in to Louis but he's skating better than I've ever seen, looks fitter and is really looking like a leader of this team - not just because he's big but his behaviours, he's leading by example out there. He's been spot on for all the games I've seen this season. The amount of times the Giants would cut in across the D man and head straight for Carruth, not once did they make any contact with him. Season's gone past Bownsy would be left sprawling after being hit but they managed that play really well - both Mikkleson and Louis look great so far.
One thing that took me a while to get my head round was the complete change in approach that this team adopt compared to Lordo's teams and I think we saw this last night very clearly. I take the point about game management (and Sheffield away was frustrating and arguably shouldn't have happened) but we are never going to keep recycling the puck in the oppositions zone - we haven't got the players for that so game management requires a different approach in these situations. What we have got is blistering speed and this is going to be key to our success so absorbing then springing must be the plan in these situations. I was a little worried before the Belfast game that a tough physical side like the Giants could knock us off our stride and dominate us but after a tough first period, we seemed to be as comfortable as you can be against a team like Belfast.
I still think that if you finish above Belfast this year you will be champions, and we were the better team for two thirds of that game.
I still think that if you finish above Belfast this year you will be champions, and we were the better team for two thirds of that game.