Devils Vs Stars - 2 Dec 18 - League
- Thread starter James
- Start date
Well that was truly aweful tonight, just as it was last week, we win on the road and play for 20 mins at home, hate to say this but do we think we are better than we really are, because at the moment we are pretty average. We just got beat at home by the two bottom teams in the league, now we have no divine right to beat anyone but come on we are the present champions , at the moment that is. Belfast must be laughing all the way to the . pub, at least they lost away to one of the in form teams. Rant over well cheesed off we are blowing this.
Really frustrating game to watch. To lose to a team that has such poor offense. What was the SOG? 3 to 1?
Like last time Dundee just parked 5 players in front of the netminder blocking the shooting lanes and then scored a couple of scrappy goals.
I think Bowns gets cold because he has such little to do.
We really need to find a way to score past these pylon teams. We have so much offence.
Im not sure about the lines. They dominate play but don't score. The Linglet line is by far the best at the moment. Joeys line is also good but Pope seems to have lost his enthusiasm in recent months.
The other two just don't look the right combination for me. Im not sure what the answer is though.
Joey Haddad looks a bit wasted on that line.
There was some great intensity and physicality from the Devils but it dropped at times and that costs us. As Lord always says we have to play for 60 minutes. Once again we let a poor team back into the game
Like last time Dundee just parked 5 players in front of the netminder blocking the shooting lanes and then scored a couple of scrappy goals.
I think Bowns gets cold because he has such little to do.
We really need to find a way to score past these pylon teams. We have so much offence.
Im not sure about the lines. They dominate play but don't score. The Linglet line is by far the best at the moment. Joeys line is also good but Pope seems to have lost his enthusiasm in recent months.
The other two just don't look the right combination for me. Im not sure what the answer is though.
Joey Haddad looks a bit wasted on that line.
There was some great intensity and physicality from the Devils but it dropped at times and that costs us. As Lord always says we have to play for 60 minutes. Once again we let a poor team back into the game
no jump or desire at home again. really starting to get peeved with what im watching. i really thought the panthers game was a turning point in style but clearly we have reverted back to non physical, tic tac, fancy dan at all costs hockey.
im literally leaving games yawning. I dont enjoy our style of play and all the lines are playing in the same manner when clearly we need a decent mix to succeed imo.
morrisette i agree hasnt been performing as of late but others im finding more frustrating. Haddad needs to pass a simple pass to open team mates quickly far more than he does. he's extreemely greedy. there are times when holding a puck up are necessary but he has taken it upon himself to be a one man band as of late and his line is suffering with faryna driving to the net but the puck rarely getting anywhere near him or the goal.
ulmer needs to get stuck in more. same for pope. those guys are literally coasting imho. a simple lack of willing to get stuck in when it matters for the team.
bowns is not performing at his previous high levels on a regular basis. ive been reluctant to lay the blame at his door but regularly i find myself questioning "i think he should have saved that?" to the people i sit with.
in all im pretty disgruntled with what im watching at home now for weeks. we pay a lot of money to watch and im currently enjoying this season far less than i have any season previous.
im literally leaving games yawning. I dont enjoy our style of play and all the lines are playing in the same manner when clearly we need a decent mix to succeed imo.
morrisette i agree hasnt been performing as of late but others im finding more frustrating. Haddad needs to pass a simple pass to open team mates quickly far more than he does. he's extreemely greedy. there are times when holding a puck up are necessary but he has taken it upon himself to be a one man band as of late and his line is suffering with faryna driving to the net but the puck rarely getting anywhere near him or the goal.
ulmer needs to get stuck in more. same for pope. those guys are literally coasting imho. a simple lack of willing to get stuck in when it matters for the team.
bowns is not performing at his previous high levels on a regular basis. ive been reluctant to lay the blame at his door but regularly i find myself questioning "i think he should have saved that?" to the people i sit with.
in all im pretty disgruntled with what im watching at home now for weeks. we pay a lot of money to watch and im currently enjoying this season far less than i have any season previous.
Last night we got traffic in front of Owen and made it difficult for him. We didn’t do that at all tonight, a really awful performance all around. Yet again, we come up against better goaltending though having dominated possession (albeit not creating too many gilt egded chances) and end up losing the game. Credit to Dundee, they are extremely limited but very spirited and to come back from 2-0 down to take that game is one hell of a result for them. As has been said, we have no divine right to win, but we have to be better than that. That just was not good enough, particularly at home. There were many empty seats in the Viola Arena tonight and yet another shit performance at home is hardly going to bring the punters in. Desperately disappointing. I’m afraid this team has a soft underbelly, something you cant’t level at too many Devils teams over the years. I’m not talking about fighting, I’m talking about battling and doing whatever it takes to win. The talent is there, we’ve seen it - but the desire doesn’t seem to be.
It is a confidence or a mentality issue to be losing these games when seemingly in control. One of the main marks of a championship winning side is to control the game when you are ahead and see it out but this Devils side struggles to do that at present. It seems strange the inconsistency of performances. Thumping victories and some shoddy collapses?
Well, after the Lord Mayors parade........
1st period I thought we were really good and for a time I thought "here we go we're getting back to early season form here" then 2nd and 3rd period it was business as usual for our form in recent weeks, again just like the MK game I felt that Dundee didn't deserve anything out of that game and didn't pose any threat to us at all but have somehow taken the 2 points
1st period I thought we were really good and for a time I thought "here we go we're getting back to early season form here" then 2nd and 3rd period it was business as usual for our form in recent weeks, again just like the MK game I felt that Dundee didn't deserve anything out of that game and didn't pose any threat to us at all but have somehow taken the 2 points
VERY frustrating game. I thought we were coming back to form after the Flyers game and was encouraged by the 1st & 2nd periods Sunday... No idea what happened with the 3rd!!! The guys would of known the scoreline up in Sheffield and come out fired up knowing they have a chance to close the gap to Belfast... Still, believe in the team - we'll get there.
Positives:
Last 8 games (inc. CC) we are 14/16 points
Negatives:
Back to back home losses against the worst teams in the league.
We have multiple guys at the moment that do not look in the slightest bit game ready; i "hope" this is injury related and temporary at that, as the dip in form is not something I see through the whole roster, don't want to call any specific players out on this as that doesn't help anything.
Not a call out for poor/good play - merely an observation - but Haddad appears to completely have changed the way he plays the game recently, he has always been a big puck possession guy and protects a puck like nobody else I've ever seen, but he has always been a little bit of a crash and bang guy off the puck but is much more passive so far this year, as is Pope, and many others.
On paper he is playing brilliantly and on the ice looks a joy to watch though.
Last 8 games (inc. CC) we are 14/16 points
Negatives:
Back to back home losses against the worst teams in the league.
We have multiple guys at the moment that do not look in the slightest bit game ready; i "hope" this is injury related and temporary at that, as the dip in form is not something I see through the whole roster, don't want to call any specific players out on this as that doesn't help anything.
Not a call out for poor/good play - merely an observation - but Haddad appears to completely have changed the way he plays the game recently, he has always been a big puck possession guy and protects a puck like nobody else I've ever seen, but he has always been a little bit of a crash and bang guy off the puck but is much more passive so far this year, as is Pope, and many others.
On paper he is playing brilliantly and on the ice looks a joy to watch though.
We dominated puck possession for most of the game but we are putting very little quality on the oppositions net minders. This is becoming frustrating. In fact I have never seen Lord so frustrated even to the point he was going mental with the officials.
It doesn't help when we have 2 very solid D men on the sidelines. However we should still be breezing past Dundee with the players we have on our roster.
Lord I feel has been caught out this season so far with his recruitment. Bringing back a few guys who are past it and imo should have been upgraded. However I do know its not that simple due to financial implications.
As for the game we retain the puck well but do very little with it. Haddad needs to pass the puck and he's slowly becoming frustrating to watch. Its only when Linglet is on that we actually look dangerous and look like scoring. The guy is a wizard with the puck at his stick.
Pope had a much better game but why can't he play like that more often.......Dixon manages it as does Faryna and Reddick. Attitude is everything in sport!!!
We just look like we lack leadership and any spark on the ice. I know this will not happen but I would pass that captains armband to a player like Reddick or Dixon all day long.
I feel that something somewhere has happened that has unsettled the players and since we lost Blood (who was a character) the whole team looks deflated. We need a pick up but do we have a character player to do that......Im not too sure.
It doesn't help when we have 2 very solid D men on the sidelines. However we should still be breezing past Dundee with the players we have on our roster.
Lord I feel has been caught out this season so far with his recruitment. Bringing back a few guys who are past it and imo should have been upgraded. However I do know its not that simple due to financial implications.
As for the game we retain the puck well but do very little with it. Haddad needs to pass the puck and he's slowly becoming frustrating to watch. Its only when Linglet is on that we actually look dangerous and look like scoring. The guy is a wizard with the puck at his stick.
Pope had a much better game but why can't he play like that more often.......Dixon manages it as does Faryna and Reddick. Attitude is everything in sport!!!
We just look like we lack leadership and any spark on the ice. I know this will not happen but I would pass that captains armband to a player like Reddick or Dixon all day long.
I feel that something somewhere has happened that has unsettled the players and since we lost Blood (who was a character) the whole team looks deflated. We need a pick up but do we have a character player to do that......Im not too sure.