Devils vs Panthers - 19 + 20 Oct 19 - League

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
Good result tonight but it kinda shows what the boys could have done last night had they bothered to turn up! We know how tight the season was at the end last year.
 

kettdevil1

Well-Known Member
I didn't see yesterday's game so I won't comment on that but the good news is that today we were much better than Nottingham and if it hadn't have been for a couple of individual errors the game would have been far more comfortable. The bad news is that Nottingham looked a bang average outfit who were there for the taking.

There were a number of standout performances tonight - Myers and Martin played well and Riley was outstanding throughout but I still worry about our D. There are at least two players who are not yet fully up to speed and that is putting pressure on the other members of the D. It looks as though there are at least a couple of players carrying injuries as well and so the overall feel is a team that has potential but isn't quite where it needs to be.

Great to go into Nottingham's barn and cruise to a win mind.... I remember going there for what felt like a lifetime and losing every game
 

Rempel16

Well-Known Member
I’m fully expecting a win in Nottingham tonight and a totally different team ice.

Having said that for me there are issues and have been for a number of years. This is a repeat of previous years, players turn up, fresh from there previous teams & hit the first few games well. Fans comment how stoked the team is on the Inferno, how great the team is stacked. Then boom, forward a month or two, fans are scratching their heads as too how we’ve lost that initial impact.
As the league moves forward, as teams improve, these issues become more and more obvious. The club is so, so lucky it has the fan base it does. It tolerates issues other sports & clubs wouldn’t. Mega Monday’s, crap rink facilities, poor parking, shirt issues, fan shop issues. l see the same in the way players are managed and coached. I see a club who recruit on the back of player recommendation, lack of player recruitment knowledge & team needs. Lack of development, lack of strategic thinking, dynamic reaction & severe lack of player management. Add that to a policy of retaining under performing players. What you get is a club who’s performance has as much to do with the oppositions than their own.

Controversial l know, that’s how l see it.
Wow. I know there’s fault but you know what I see? I see a club that is 5 wins away from having won the league 5 years in a row.

Show me a fan of another team in the league that wouldn’t swap our team with theirs and I’ll show you a liar.

The hockey is pretty bang average entertainment wise, I completely believe that. But to slate other aspects of what’s going on, particularly recruitment... just wow.
 

Ocko

Well-Known Member
To add to the gripes about the entertainment side of things. It isn’t a Devils thing, every team is the same. Hockey is more bland than ever, especially in the UK.
 

Diablo3

Well-Known Member
It hit the post. Riley’s reaction said it all. We had the option to ask for review and didn’t take it.
Nope, I saw it hit the bar at the back of the net and come straight back out. It was travelling so maybe that was a factor on the review call, but if most definitely went in.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
It hit the post. Riley’s reaction said it all. We had the option to ask for review and didn’t take it.
It most certainly didn’t hit the post, there was no ring and thats what we all agreed on, we all also agreed that we watched it go in hit the back padding and come back out.
 

Rempel16

Well-Known Member
Nope, I saw it hit the bar at the back of the net and come straight back out. It was travelling so maybe that was a factor on the review call, but if most definitely went in.
The factor on the review was Riley going back to the bench and saying it hit the post, which it did from my angle hence no player celebrating.
Devils would have shown it by now if it was in, despite how much you state it definitively.

Wannabe, the cross bar didn’t ping either so you need to discount that.
 

Finny

Well-Known Member
I'll admit I had a terrible angle for the no-goal/goal but the sound it made and the angle it came out at suggested to me it was a goal. Although none of the players seemed to think it was and they would have had the best angle.

With regards the game, Saturday night was very disappointing and not the quality of performance we expected. We dominated possession but kept turning the puck over time and time again.

I noticed there has been some discussion on the D and whilst there are still improvement to be made I'm more concerned with the forwards at the moment. We only scored 1 goal Sat night which (excluding CHL) is the 7th time we've failed to score 4 or more goals this season already. You can't be scoring 1 or 2 goals and expect to wins games.

However, I don't think it is time to panic yet. We started the season without Martin. Then we lost Riley. Then we lost McNamee and now we are without Benti. As a result the lines have been changing almost every game and on Sat you could see there was a lack of chemistry out there.
Sunday it looks like we switched the lines around again and are now much nearer what I was expecting to see at the start. Scoring 5 goals in the NIC where we traditionally struggle is a good sign. I know someone said we had enough time to recover from Tues but midweek games mess up training schedules too.

No midweek game this week so hopefully with a full week of training behind us these new lines will start to click.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
What incident are you referring to?

If it’s the one that hit the post on the left hand side of the net as you look at it - then to me definite no goal.
It definately hit no metalwork, and didn’t ring out, it was a separate shot from that. What’s your thoughts James.
 
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