Panthers Vs Devils - League - 19th Mar 25 - FO 19:30

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BigFan

Well-Known Member
#101
#101
If we do have a big bounce back on Friday night, that’ll help Nottingham greatly, especially as they have the double header against Belfast in the last weekend. And if we do manage a maiden win against the Giants this season it might look from the outside that we’ve decided to help Nottingham bring it home :)
 
Diablo3

Diablo3

Well-Known Member
#102
#102
BigFan said:
I miss Reid Duke. At the beginning of the season Shinkaruk looked like he’d be a game changer and a real force to be reckoned with in this league and in fact, regardless of what happens with the team from here on in, one of the main points of sadness I’ll probably feel looking back on this season was the fact that the injury list has prevented me from watching Reid Duke and Hunter Shinkaruk play all or most of the games, win or lose. I just hope we can have a healthy remainder of the season, and new season where, success or no success, we can actually get to watch the team we were supposed to watch play most of the games.
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Agree with you there, it's kinda petered out with all the injuries
 
Diafol

Diafol

Well-Known Member
#103
#103
Swarley said:
What defence lol, we have a group of forwards who don't shoot they dump and chase and a group of guys who either turn over the puck way too easy or just don't get what their job actually is.
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Dump and chase does my head in.
I don't think it's ever been effective, certainly not with any Devils teams I've watched over the years.
 
Wwatson343

Wwatson343

Member
#104
#104
I feel like the lines mixing is a big cause in this, no?

Like how are you meant to build up rapport with line mates when you're playing with different people in your line every single game. We had one line that was on absolute fire early season (can't recall who was on it), and then we switched it around.

I guess people constantly going out and back in from injuries creates that problem...
 
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BigFan

Well-Known Member
#105
#105
You can’t bank on history repeating itself, and only the more optimistic people would think this might actually happen again, but three years ago we were locked into 3rd position with a good chunk of games left to play in the league, and our end of season league form was quite indifferent, home losses to Sheffield and Guildford, away losses to Guildford and Fife - meandering through the remaining league season. Then came the play-off quarter finals against Glasgow where we lost the home leg but towards the end of that home game we ignited from a losing position and sneaked a goal to close the deficit to one goal, then next night got two late goals in Glasgow to win the tie, and next thing we’ve won the play-offs with fairly commanding performances in Nottingham. If this team finds its mojo, and maybe gets another player back from injury, we might have a more exciting end of season than we seem destined to right now.

Let me dream….:)
 
Wannabe2

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#106
#106
Looks set now that we will finish 4th, and I can see us playing Clan for the final 4 in Nottingham and that won’t be good. I won’t be going but I hope the Devils do for the fans and the clubs sake, the rest of the season for me now is watching the sport that I love, seeing friends that I may not except at games, and looking forward to the off season, regretfully I haven’t been entertained much this season and for me personally it can’t come quick enough. I have never said that before but unfortunately it’s the truth, Happy Hockey Days to me seems like a distant memory now.
 
Hedd Wyn John

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
#107
#107
Armchair Coach said:
Someone far wiser than me once said, if you want to be successful, you have to do what successful people do. It is fairly obvious that whilst the Devils managed to get points on the board early in the season, that the Giants, Steelers and Panthers have all upped their game, but in each of the H2H since the Continental Cup, the Devils don’t appear to have learned anything.

Frequent changes of lines - Does anyone know what PR’s go to lines are?

Zero physicality, low Hockey IQ plays, giving the impression that the players have given up on the season already - TK may well be having kittens as this current form may materially affect ST for next season.

Can’t recall feeling this bad as a Devils fan since Brodie DuPont was appointed coach.
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Hard to see how this poor run of form doesn't affect ST sales. I've been a ST holder for 8 years. I will renew but this is the first time I've thought twice about it.
 
Diafol

Diafol

Well-Known Member
#108
#108
Hedd Wyn John said:
Hard to see how this poor run of form doesn't affect ST sales. I've been a ST holder for 8 years. I will renew but this is the first time I've thought twice about it.
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I'm not sure it matters too much.
Match tickets tend to sell out these days regardless of how the team is performing.
If even a few hundred ST holders decide to pack it in, they'll just be replaced by the Saturday night out crowd.
 
Diablo3

Diablo3

Well-Known Member
#109
#109
BigFan said:
You can’t bank on history repeating itself, and only the more optimistic people would think this might actually happen again, but three years ago we were locked into 3rd position with a good chunk of games left to play in the league, and our end of season league form was quite indifferent, home losses to Sheffield and Guildford, away losses to Guildford and Fife - meandering through the remaining league season. Then came the play-off quarter finals against Glasgow where we lost the home leg but towards the end of that home game we ignited from a losing position and sneaked a goal to close the deficit to one goal, then next night got two late goals in Glasgow to win the tie, and next thing we’ve won the play-offs with fairly commanding performances in Nottingham. If this team finds its mojo, and maybe gets another player back from injury, we might have a more exciting end of season than we seem destined to right now.

Let me dream….:)
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You go for it... Nothing wrong with dreaming
 
M

Martynwo

Well-Known Member
#111
#111
Diafol said:
I'm not sure it matters too much.
Match tickets tend to sell out these days regardless of how the team is performing.
If even a few hundred ST holders decide to pack it in, they'll just be replaced by the Saturday night out crowd.
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ST's need to be sold to finance through the summer and for budgeting for the nest season.
I would hope to know what is going to change for next season to encourage ST sales, as normally the previous
seasons' performance is the best marketing tool. I for one will be considering, especially as my "season" always starts
mid October as I'm in France for the 3 months up to that point.

I'm sure we will hear something to encourage sales as something has to change
 
ASHIPP

ASHIPP

Well-Known Member
#112
#112
Let's not delude ourselves that this team is good, or competitive. Early season schedule was heavily weighted towards playing teams who historically are usually in bottom half of the league...and in reality are there at the moment.
Racking up easy wins there saw our team top of the league for a while.
But they struggled against the top teams, long before the injury crisis and Continental Cup.
It would suggest that there is something deeper going on with the team when their success rate in key games is so poor, regardless of injuries.
Coaching decisions, tactics, player ability to execute plans, motivation.....all factors for debate and consideration. They can ice a full team now, injuries are no longer a legitimate reason or excuse.
There are as many walk up fans purchasing tickets as season ticket holders. The Club has no hardship selling out games (although many in the crowd these days unfortunately comprise casuals who know nothing about the sport, or 2 blocks of the local brownie packs!).
The problem for the Club is encouraging fans to commit early to an expensive season ticket so that the finance is there in the off season.
Always nice to meet up with your mates, enjoy pizza or Chuck a Puck,, but most money is invested by fans to watch their team battle and entertain. There will be a lot of hardwork involved to convince more people to do this after delivering such a poor on ice product this year.
 
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Ejercito Rojas

Well-Known Member
#113
#113
ASHIPP said:
Let's not flatter ourselves that this team is good, or competitive. Early season schedule was heavily weighted towards playing teams who historically are usually in bottom half of the league...and in reality are there at the moment.
Racking up easy wins there saw our team top of the league for a while.
But they struggled against the top teams, even before the injury crisis and Continental Cup.
It would suggest that there is something else going on with the team when their success rate in key games is poor, regardless of injuries.
Coaching decisions, tactics, player ability to execute plans, motivation.....all factors for debate and consideration. We can ice a full team now, injuries are no longer a reason or excuse.
There are as many walk up fans purchasing tickets as season ticket holders. The Club has no hardship selling out games (although many in the crowd these days unfortunately comprise casuals who know nothing about the sport, or 2 blocks of the local brownie packs!).
The problem for the Club is encouraging fans to commit early to an expensive season ticket so that the finance is there in the off season.
Always nice to meet up with your mates, enjoy pizza or Chuck a Puck,, but most money is invested by fans to watch their team battle and entertain. There will be a lot of hardwork to do to convince people to do this after delivering such a poor on ice product this year.
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Absolutely agree , it’s all about one word……..entertainment.
After all it’s the word that I used to write on all my cheque book stubs!!
 
D

Dappy50

Member
#118
#118
E.D.S. said:
Careful. You’ll get accused of having a “meltdown”. Just out of curiosity what’s the opposite of a “meltdown” that also has negative connotations. You know, those people that come on here, scold you for having an opinion, accuse you having a meltdown whilst posting blind optimism?

Another disappointing display. We left with 10 mins to go. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. I even stayed to the end of the Wales V England game recently.
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The opposite of a meltdown is saying, we would have walked this league if all our players had been fit
 
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Pembo

Well-Known Member
#120
#120
I’ve held off posting as didn’t want to be reactionary. It’s really interesting to read Nottingham Panthers fans in the EIHL subreddit talking about the game saying they don’t know what is wrong with the Devils and how poor they were on and off the ice. They’re not coming on and waxing lyrical about their performance particularly just talking about how poor Cardiff was. We effectively have a full team now, but tactically we don’t seem to have anything new in our locker. The big teams find us easier to play because of how predictable our approach is. We are flat track bullies this season. I sense we win those games more because of the quality difference in personnel’s than because of a tactical masterclass. When the technical skill advantage is neutralised we don’t seem to have the plan B of turning to out-coaching our biggest rivals. Injuries have absolutely sucked this season but there is a danger if every bad performance gets attributed to the injury issues in the winter (when we are now icing more skaters than many of the teams we are playing), it loses it’s power as a get out of jail card type excuse and actually becomes detrimental to building a winning mentality. I’d really like to see signs like some line continuity suggesting that there is some thought to gaining stability and cohesion in the run up to playoffs.
 
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