Krefeld are a good team, not the best and certainly not a team Devils should be predicting to beat them. Roster is compromised of some real big, tough guys along with some shorter but very aggressive guys. Playing the hitting game with them was quite effective though. They didn't handle it too well and there were handbags quite often tonight.
They're quick too and pretty solid at the back. We had very few opportunities to break through the defence at the centre, pushed us to the wings probably 90% of the time.
They will be playing a slightly different roster against you guys than they did tonight against us, if the Krefeld PR is anything to go by. However, that won't mean they will be taking it easy. They're a good team, deserve to be treated as such but shouldn't be seen as a mountain of a task to get a result against.
Panthers played very well, dominated on the forecheck and punished most of their forwards when trying to break through our defence, which they didn't like. We had several periods of play which they failed to handle well, out passed them a fair few times and outshot them by a fairly good margin I believe.
Their fans, similar to their players. Aggressive and a bit sore. Both times Panthers scored, around 20-30 of their large group of fans would aim abusive gestures at both our fans and player, then when they scored they would take their tops off and essentially show their muscle. Post game, the arena had to have about 6-10 stewards to keep them from starting anything with our fans, a lot of 'come on then' and abuse thrown. The Police did turn up in a riot van to see what was going on and left after about 15 minutes. They're good for chanting and singing but the majority are not the friendly fans we're used to seeing so I just thought I'd let you guys know. There are, thankfully, another group of their fans who are as polite and friendly as you'd expect, which is promising!