Panthers v Devils - 11/09 - League & CC - 7:00pm

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scottydoesntknow

Member
#81
#81
At the start of the season I was filled with hope and excitement. I believed G had put together a team with a winning mentality, which was full of leadership and tough enough to outmuscle any other team in the league. I thought we would be one of the top teams in the league. I even thought we had a good chance of winning the league.

Forgive me for not being as optimistic about the season as I was 2 weeks ago...

Although there are some positives to be taken out of our recent performances, they are heavily outweighed by the negatives in my opinion.

At the end of the day, it's about winning games, it doesn't matter if we show some promise during the second period or whatever, cause if at the end of the game we're on the wrong end of the scoreboard, everything else counts for nothing.

We need to learn how to grind out wins, and at 3 - 1 up with only 1 period remaining, I would expect us to do exactly that. Shut down the other team and play trap hockey, something is clearly going wrong if that's the aim and we concede 3 goals in 3 minutes.

As I've just said... 3 goals conceded in around 3 minutes, what a disgrace.
Also why do we always give an early goal up in the first period?
The way things are going, we may as well just give opposing teams an automatic 1 - 0 lead before puck drop.

I realise it's still early days, but we need to get our act together and fast before we fall even further behind the pack!

Defence wins championships as they say, and with the way ours is currently playing, I think it’s safe to say that we are definitely not going to be title contenders come christmas!

As you can probably tell, I am quite disillusioned with the way everything has been going lately.

I'm not usually this negative.

RANT OVER!
 
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philuk20

New Member
#82
#82
I was smiling when I seen the scoreline sitting at 3-1 for the Devils, its a shame the Panthers came back and eventually took the win. But surely this shows considerable improvement over last weekend, scoring 4 goals in Nottingham and taking them to the wire should be confidence boost.
It will be interesting to see game against the Steelers and I hope you can take them down a peg.
 
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Sliput

Active Member
#83
#83
Sheincar said:
El Supremo said:
Clare said:
Such negativity!

Time to think positive

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I'd rather that us fans and the team don't bury our heads in the sand.
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For goodness sake get a grip!! The season's 2 weeks old & you're full of gloom as usual!!
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Totally agree with you. I know we lost, but to go into Nottingham,a rink we dont have a good history in (V Panthers) to lose by one goal is an improvement.
Its seems a minute or so of madness cost us the game,it happens and is something our D need to improve on. The same Panthers team beat Coventry last week 7-4 so i think tonight isnt as doom and gloom as it seems IMO.
 
kettdevil1

kettdevil1

Well-Known Member
#84
#84
Firstly, this was a tremendous game of hockey that we really should have got something out of. We matched the Panthers and the game swung one way and then the other. Three goals in as many minutes was not good but completely dominating the second period was superb.

A few points:

1) Yet again individual errors cost us. G must be tearing his hair out (if there is any left?) The first was caused by Stevie going walkabouts again and preenting the puck to the Panthers. Late on both Sawyer and Tyler took soft penalties to allow Panthers back into the game. We must stop these errors!!!!!

2) MOM went to Pelle which was a reasonable call but Ryan Finnerty played the best game I have seen him play for ages. He was aggressive, precise and led by example. Ritchie also was a stand out whilst Tyler put his body on the line again and again.

3) Penner is hysterical. His "fight" with Sawyer was a hugging non-event and he skated off as if he was the world heavyweight champion of the world. He then preceeded to take penalty after penalty before he was benched, much to the disappointment of all Devils fans present.

4) Nottingham as superb going forward and pretty ordinary at the back. They can't win the league with this defence but their fans will see some great games.

5) How good is Phil Hill? Yet again he gave 100%

6) Ben Davies did not look out of place on the second line.

7) At the moment we are a 5th place team but, we are frustratingly close to the top sides. I say again, we should have got something out of this game....

Another defeat but a far, far better performance than last weeks game in Sheffield. Great match as well.
 
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Clare

New Member
#86
#86
Re: Panthers v Devils - 11/09 - League & CC - 7:00pm

Excellently put ketdevil. Whilst watching the giants v panthers game earlier today I noticed that Pellers 'fight' with Hoffman was also a big bear hug. He must like cuddles.

Bear in mind the D have never played together so theyre still gelling. Give it time.
 
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dmd

Member
#87
#87
kettdevil1 said:
Firstly, this was a tremendous game of hockey that we really should have got something out of. We matched the Panthers and the game swung one way and then the other. Three goals in as many minutes was not good but completely dominating the second period was superb.

A few points:

1) Yet again individual errors cost us. G must be tearing his hair out (if there is any left?) The first was caused by Stevie going walkabouts again and preenting the puck to the Panthers. Late on both Sawyer and Tyler took soft penalties to allow Panthers back into the game. We must stop these errors!!!!!

2) MOM went to Pelle which was a reasonable call but Ryan Finnerty played the best game I have seen him play for ages. He was aggressive, precise and led by example. Ritchie also was a stand out whilst Tyler put his body on the line again and again.

3) Penner is hysterical. His "fight" with Sawyer was a hugging non-event and he skated off as if he was the world heavyweight champion of the world. He then preceeded to take penalty after penalty before he was benched, much to the disappointment of all Devils fans present.

4) Nottingham as superb going forward and pretty ordinary at the back. They can't win the league with this defence but their fans will see some great games.

5) How good is Phil Hill? Yet again he gave 100%

6) Ben Davies did not look out of place on the second line.

7) At the moment we are a 5th place team but, we are frustratingly close to the top sides. I say again, we should have got something out of this game....

Another defeat but a far, far better performance than last weeks game in Sheffield. Great match as well.
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What a great post , i fully believe in this team and hope the small percentage of fans that post on here will give them a chance
 
Finny

Finny

Well-Known Member
#88
#88
Disappointing, frustrating but not the end of the world some are suggesting on here.

The Sheffield away game sounded a disaster, and the scoreline suggested we didn't compete. However, we then competed the following night against Belfast and lost by a single goal to possibly the best (and most expensive) EIHL side ever put together.
We then lose by a goal in the NIC, where the Panthers had an even better home record than us last season.

We all want to see an improvement and our first competitive win of the season, but to suggest chances this early in the season is too much too soon IMO.
 
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philuk20

New Member
#89
#89
Belfast and lost by a single goal to possibly the best (and most expensive) EIHL side ever put together
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Really? I doubt we are the top spenders in the EIHL. Doug made it clear he didnt want to bust the bank but maximise the budget. Plently of the players came cheaper thanks to extensive uni deals and a few with injuries.
 
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Scott

New Member
#90
#90
After going to Sheffield last week I decided against going to this. :lol:

So I can't say too much really.

It sounds as if we played much better on the whole, but a loss is still a loss and we're 6 points behind the leaders already. I don't really see how you can concede 3 goals so rapidly when you're trying to hold onto a 2 goal advantage. And I would of thought our PP would have managed something by now. But I didn't see anything so I'll let those who went explain.

Gotta beat Sheffield now or it's gunna be tough to progress in the CC too.
 
Finny

Finny

Well-Known Member
#92
#92
Both teams have it down as League and CC on their website fixture lists. However, there was no mention of it on the official EIHL results PR so am awaiting confirmation.
 
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Gazza272

Well-Known Member
#93
#93
Finny said:
Disappointing, frustrating but not the end of the world some are suggesting on here.

The Sheffield away game sounded a disaster, and the scoreline suggested we didn't compete. However, we then competed the following night against Belfast and lost by a single goal to possibly the best (and most expensive) EIHL side ever put together.
We then lose by a goal in the NIC, where the Panthers had an even better home record than us last season.

We all want to see an improvement and our first competitive win of the season, but to suggest chances this early in the season is too much too soon IMO.
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I'll take your point about us being almost there Finny, what worries me is how long are we giong to be 'almost there' now I know we cant compete with the way Nottingham and Belfast have sorted out their roster but I'm just really concerned that we seem to making the same mistakes this year as we did last, yet with new players.


The only comfort I am taking is that Notts.Cov,Belfast and sheffield all have to play each other more times so will be taking points off of each other, but we really have to hit the ground running against the Vipers,Caps,Clan etc and have near perfect records against these teams.


Tongiht is a really interesting barometer of how close we will be, Sheffield are flying and we desperately need a win. Sheffield havent yet been to a rink like ours and I think thats our advantage tongiht as Ben Simon will hopefully be subject to a steep learning curve. But please lets stay out of the box as a Sheffield Powerplay in Cardiff is like putting a goal on the scoreboard for Jeff Legue.


Also what was Stuart Maccrae like last night? he's been mentioned very very rarely on this forum since the start of the season.
 
Finny

Finny

Well-Known Member
#94
#94
I think part of the problem is that we have been given an opening fixture list that is pretty much as tough as it comes. I was hoping we might be able to catch a couple of the teams cold but I've been proved very wrong.

If we had beaten Dundee, Hull, Edinburgh and then lost to Nottingham by a goal in the NIC it wouldn't look too bad. But because all 6 of our opening fixtures are against the top 3 teams, it's looking worse than it hopefully is.
 
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samidevils

New Member
#95
#95
Ok. Here goes. Panthers have the worst fans in the league. There I said it.
Onto the game. Panthers very very good passing and going forward. Their transition from d to forward was very good. Panthers very indisciplined. Panthers score early on and then penner and Sawyer fought. Sawyer gettin the harder punches but penner getting more in. One from Sawyer was smack on the nose which looked to stun 'weapon x'.
Devils then were all over panthers for a bit, lovely pass from Finnerty to hill one time goal. End 1.
2nd for me was the best period for devils. They seemed to realise what they needed to do, shoot at every opportunity and keep men back. Missed 2 goals as I went to get drink!
Will explain what I mean by panthers fans, puck is fired to the benches, hits our player on his way off back of skate as he's takin the last step off the ice. Panthers fans going mental booing as they wanted too many men... Isn't the rule if its hit purposely to the bench its no call? Anyway. Every call panthers fans booing. All right calls. Penner imo did nothing but took silly pen's and looked very silly after michel hits him legally, massive hit, then he goes after ben davies.... Dunno what max did but a panthers player went after him dropped the gloves, both get a for roughing. Panthers player should have had 2 plus 10 for dropping.
3rd period, was awful from a devils point. We took silly pen's and were punished. Panthers very good on pk and pp... For devils nobody had 2 bad game, michel was amazing, blocked 2 slapshots and looked to limp. G look a shot too and don't think I saw him after... Lyle looked very shaky again, leaving his net even if d are there. Nearly was caught out too. For panthers, clarke had 2 very good game and his gwg was a beaut. Their goalie looks the weakest link really. Doesn't catch anything, the boarding was awful, as richie was skating to boards, sprout hit him as he lost his edge and sent him flying into boards. Panthers fan in the away block shouts boring.... Classy. Devils should have scored on the pp. They looked very tired so sheffield tomorrow should be fun....
Meyers also lost his edge and went feet first into boards. Had to be helped off ice, hope he's ok. Again plenty of positives for devils, but panthers look to be up there with belfast as expected with the quality in the roster.

Want to add that carson called a good game bar one or 2 calls. Lots of Panthers fans boo him all game..... The only things that may stop panthers winning it, is keeping their cool and goalie.
 
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E.D.S.

Well-Known Member
#96
#96
Finny said:
I think part of the problem is that we have been given an opening fixture list that is pretty much as tough as it comes. I was hoping we might be able to catch a couple of the teams cold but I've been proved very wrong.

If we had beaten Dundee, Hull, Edinburgh and then lost to Nottingham by a goal in the NIC it wouldn't look too bad. But because all 6 of our opening fixtures are against the top 3 teams, it's looking worse than it hopefully is.
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I understand what you're saying Finny but I don't want to be looking at my fixture list this early and preying to get Dundee or Edinburgh just so we can get off to a good start. It shouldn't matter who we play. I bet the likes of Nottingham, Belfast and Coventry don't look at the likes of DUndee to secure their first points. Bottom line for me is that we aren't good enough (yes, I know it's week 2 but we aren't good enough) If my season is going to be made up of waiting for Dundee, Edinburgh and Hull to turn up before we can get a victory then something is seriously wrong.
Where I think we're stuggling is our slow D and netminding. Lyle looks slow, shakey and their isn't any urgnecy about his game. I saw it a few times last season (Nottingham away springs to mind) where he's come out of his crease plays the puck and show little urgency in skating back to the net - even more apparent when he's behind the net. I personally don't feel we have a netminder that will allow us to challenge. This is just my opinion based on all of the games so far. I do believe our forwards will click and I also believe that losing Voth isn't a disaster for us but what I don't believe in is our ability to change thigs. This isn't a 'G must be saked thread' but I do wonder what is going to change betweeen now and our next win and the answer is the opposition. We'll take points off the whipping boys and take very little from the rest. That's not good enough for me. It's another season of mediocrity if things don't change but do guys think it can actually change? I'd be interested to know what you think will happen to actually change It?
 
Finny

Finny

Well-Known Member
#97
#97
My opinion is that our D need a couple more games to get used to each other. We've had a big change in our D this summer with Jarvis,Hartwick and Romfo leaving and the Smith's and Sayer coming in - and I think it will take some time for them get used to each other. I haven't noticed our D being particualrly slow - just out of position.

It would have probably been better to have a couple of 'easier' games in the first couple of weeks for them to have a better chance to get used to each other.

When you look at the other teams in the league the two unbeaten teams are Sheffield and Nottingham who made very few changes in their defence. Can that be a coincidence?
 
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Clare

New Member
#99
#99
I wouldnt worry about the outcome of the games at this stage. Personally, I'm more worried that the home games wont actually go ahead due to the swimming pool - sorry, ice - not being in good enough condition.

I wonder how much poor ice quality affects the speed, agility and general performance of the players? I know it would affect both teams equally, but it would be interesting to know what their points of view are considering that this season they will be skating on at least 9 other pads.
 
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