Giants v Devils - Playoff Final! - Sunday 16th April @ 1700

[E.D.S.]

I think we are…ish. Although not sure about a team full of finesse either to be honest!

Batch and Lou finesse? Brittain? No chance.

 

[RedDevil17]

Batch and Lou finesse? Brittain? No chance.

Little Brittain*

 

[august04 2.0]

Batch and Lou finesse? Brittain? No chance.

Exactly…and you can add a few others that I wouldn’t describe as having much finesse!

 

[august04 2.0]

I wonder to what extent the team has been limited by the tactical outlook of Dupont and only signing North Americans for imports. I would love to see us with a team that actually values holding onto the puck rather than dump it, and who can skate and pass effectively. We would do well to think about looking to places like Scandinavia and Czechia/Slovakia for a few players. Also, let's try to avoid players who are past their sell-by dates - no matter how how good their CVs.

Couldn’t agree more. As a club, we've done nowhere near enough business in Scandinavia in our history. Probably one of our best D man ever hailed from Sweden, Martin Lindman, but it’s a country that we’ve by and large ignored, except in recent times by signing Andreas Valdix (and the less said about that, the better!).

 

[Mooney#16]

More factual than cods wallop.
The alternative to Lou or Batch having a word was Sanford petulantly slashing in front of the ref and sitting for 2 mins. Belfast got no penalties in that play and our best player sits for 2. Roughing Conway up (not necessarily a fight) with Batch sitting in the box with Conway is a good trade in my book. Not sure who mentioned 'no choicing him'. The guy got under our skin and no one did anything about it. Pretty certain even a stern word from Lou would have been more effective than a petulant slash or a little cross check. There's still room in this game for physical players. Goons and knuckle draggers, no, but big boys who can play and keep order, absolutely.

You said in your post sitting for 5 mins so I drew the conclusion that means fight him or take a major penalty. Or was that factually incorrect?

 

[Mooney#16]

So they’re not a bad team, they’re a bad team, sometimes they didn’t turn, they turned up most games. Utter codswallop is sitting on a fence made of contradictions.

Oh jeez. What to do with you? Engage or don’t engage? This must be what it feels like to play against Conway.

 

[E.D.S.]

You said in your post sitting for 5 mins so I drew the conclusion that means fight him or take a major penalty. Or was that factually incorrect?

Yes, incorrect. 5 mins for a fight doesn’t mean you’ve “no choiced him” and drawn an instigator. Point being, there is still a place for a strong word and roughing from our tougher, bigger and less finessed guys than our marquee forward or a 5”8 inch 3rd/4th line player that isn’t really going to intimidate and isn’t a good trade for Giants. The alternative was a petulant hack and a whack that served no purpose by the likes of Sanford, Cox and Crawford, especially when we are the ones picking up the penalty - as we did.

The clearer evidence of a lack of bite/fight was against Guildford at home. Batch was nailed into the boards by Ferguson - Guildford’s marquee player. Arguable the hit of the season. It was huge. Our response was nothing. Not even a face wash or some handbags. Zero. It’s been like this all season - add in Bown’s and Kozun being levelled as well - so to point to us having the most fights doesn’t paint a picture at all. I feel teams have had a free ride against us when we should have been making it harder. Conway had a free ride at the weekend. Nothing credible was done about it.

 

[Mooney#16]

I completely agree with the sentiment but I’m struggling with what it is you actually think they can effectively do without giving a power play away. You can give it to him verbally and threaten him but if he calls your bluff and keeps going then what’s left. Give him a slap = power play. Spear him in the sack = major and power play. Your only hope is if he puts his head down then you bury him but Conway is also a very good player and good at not making himself vulnerable. I fully agree it’s frustrating to see a player running about playing the rat but put yourself in Lou or Batch’s skates for a second. You don’t want to be selfish, you don’t want to hurt the team so just what is it you think you can do to Conway. The old cliche unfortunately is take the number and wait your opportunity but if it never comes you’re cooked. I expect Lou would want nothing more than to un cork one right in Conway’s hooter but he’s being a responsible pro and not soft. Lou is anything but soft of that we can all agree.

However where Devils would be at fault is not agitating back. They desperately lack that in their game. Fournier proved that when he turned up. That level of character is an essential signing this summer but also something I’d like Brandt to add to his game. Bit more sandpaper to go with his undoubted talent for hitting. Just make it your mission to piss the other team off in every way you can. The second coming of Andy Bezaeu.

 

[lloyd_jeff]

Simple to deal with Conway, do it back to him, wind him up to the point he snaps. You can easily irritate people, it’s not difficult, without drawing a penalty, rats like him love giving it, tend to really get more wound up when it’s done to them.

 

[kingmo19.1]

"family sport"

Just look at the soft play climbing walls next door, all that's missing is a nap area up in the gantry.

It’s in Sector 4, level 6, floor 12A.

Panoramic windows directly overlook the main pad. Was tested this year with a number of fans and the feedback I received was each and every fan successfully nodded off, especially when focusing on PP specifics! Not even 300ml of caffeine injected directly into the temple kept them awake !!!!!!!