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

Wannabe2

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#121
#121
Pembo said:
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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It’s a great shame that all those points are spot on, at the end of the day most of us thought this team was far superior than it actually is, early wins against less talented teams took us on a fairy tale trip and boosted our confidence after a few pretty lousy seasons, we believed what we wanted to believe until the bubble burst and hasn’t it burst. The biggest crime is not losing anyone can lose, that’s sport but leaving the rink feeling well pissed off, or watching the webcasts feeling well pissed off ain’t clever, myself being the dick I am have watched practically all devils games this season home and away, either live or thru the webcasts and watched so much boring unentertaining uninteresting performances it’s untrue, yes that’s my fault sticking by a sinking ship I understand that, but I don’t need to win I just need to be entertained like most people, and unfortunately that appears to be a pipe dream. We ain’t a Arena team, we ain’t entitled to win anything, but we should be entitled to leave our gaff having been entertained, and sadly that just ain’t happening, people In high positions are watching the same crap as us, more knowledgeable hockey people than us, and so we live in hope this will all change, we don’t necessarily have to win trophies, but let’s please be in them with a shout, that’s not too much to ask surely.
 
M

Martynwo

Well-Known Member
#123
#123
and would you know it, on social media.....rather than posting any comments or an interview after the game, Puck sponsorship is available..... not what I was hoping for
 
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devils1990

Active Member
#124
#124
i don't buy that we won't win because we are not an arena club and we are where we should be.this is not a cheap squad by any means and i think the devils are spending a lot more than people think and the owners have backed russell with everything he needs to be successful.we have as many imports as every team and more quality brits than most teams too.the problem we have is the coaching and its a big problem,i actually think that dupont did better than what we've seen this season,we've struggled against the big teams from the start and because of our inconsistency we dropped points at home to teams we should never be losing to at home.i said early that the second half of the season would be a disaster when we play the bigger teams more.to me there doesn't even seem to be a plan except dump and chase and the players are only doing what they are told.we could have crosby on the team and still not score enough because the problem is not the players.
 
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Bigphilbaby

Well-Known Member
#126
#126
devils1990 said:
i don't buy that we won't win because we are not an arena club and we are where we should be.this is not a cheap squad by any means and i think the devils are spending a lot more than people think and the owners have backed russell with everything he needs to be successful.we have as many imports as every team and more quality brits than most teams too.the problem we have is the coaching and its a big problem,i actually think that dupont did better than what we've seen this season,we've struggled against the big teams from the start and because of our inconsistency we dropped points at home to teams we should never be losing to at home.i said early that the second half of the season would be a disaster when we play the bigger teams more.to me there doesn't even seem to be a plan except dump and chase and the players are only doing what they are told.we could have crosby on the team and still not score enough because the problem is not the players.
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I agree, the biggest business mistake devils ever done was give Russell a 3 year contract. Performances have been below par and dupont and sklade were sacked for less! I don't think players are the issue. Coaching for me is the issue. Euro style does not work. Stanford line does not work! None of the players looked like they were up for the game on practice, again that on the coach. It going to get to the point when we are not selling out and the happy clappers will go elsewhere and the club will need the hard-core supports once again.

What summed it up for me last night, hardest working player in that team was Joey, never gave up
 
Wannabe2

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#127
#127
Joey is always the hardest worker, it’s because he cares, he cares about the club, he cares about the fans, he cares about his team mates, and he loves Cardiff. He has the biggest heart out of them all, 3/4 Joeys in your team and you’re looking very good.Not one player in this team comes close to caring more and showing it. 88 will be in the rafters at some time, in the future obviously
 
K

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#128
#128
Wannabe2 said:
It’s a great shame that all those points are spot on, at the end of the day most of us thought this team was far superior than it actually is, early wins against less talented teams took us on a fairy tale trip and boosted our confidence after a few pretty lousy seasons, we believed what we wanted to believe until the bubble burst and hasn’t it burst. The biggest crime is not losing anyone can lose, that’s sport but leaving the rink feeling well pissed off, or watching the webcasts feeling well pissed off ain’t clever, myself being the dick I am have watched practically all devils games this season home and away, either live or thru the webcasts and watched so much boring unentertaining uninteresting performances it’s untrue, yes that’s my fault sticking by a sinking ship I understand that, but I don’t need to win I just need to be entertained like most people, and unfortunately that appears to be a pipe dream. We ain’t a Arena team, we ain’t entitled to win anything, but we should be entitled to leave our gaff having been entertained, and sadly that just ain’t happening, people In high positions are watching the same crap as us, more knowledgeable hockey people than us, and so we live in hope this will all change, we don’t necessarily have to win trophies, but let’s please be in them with a shout, that’s not too much to ask surely.
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Good post and to add - we certainly weren’t an arena team in 14-15 in the BBT, but my god, we battled every game to grind out a result and that team to a man stood up for each other. That mentality is coached into people and can’t be bought (lesson to be learned there!).

That team fought for results like their lives depended on it - and now we have this 24-25 team which is the total polar opposite - stale, boring, dump and chase nonsense with no passion or grit - a team with no backbone.
 
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BigFan

Well-Known Member
#129
#129
Ejercito Rojas said:
I take your point Doron and when you factor in the chronic injury problems, (usually missing 6or 7 players)
and the resulting increase in the 'time on ice' (TOI) of the remaining players it’s little wonder that our 'aging' roster fell away badly late in games and in the season in general.
Unfortunately I don’t have the relevant information to call upon but it would be very interesting to see the TOI for our remaining fit players over the matches when we were struggling for bodies (most of the season) and clearly 'overplaying' certain key individuals.

However like you intimate, could the effect of the injury crisis been mitigated somewhat with a more favourable balance of younger players??
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To give you the figures you mentioned, below are the time-on-ice percentage changes comparing all games played outside the main injury crisis with those played when short-benched through the crisis (for this I have taken the games from 15th December away to Dundee until 16th Feb away to Fife as the time we were really short-benched returning to 20 players iced on 21.2.25 against Belfast).

Players current ages in brackets.

Defence:

Evan Mosey (36): +13.5%
Cody Donaghey (28): +5.8%
Jarrod Gourley (25): +2.0%
Andrew MacWilliam (34): -3.9%
Gleason Fournier (33): -4.2%
Mark Richardson (38): -5.1%
Josh Batch (34): -14.8% (he played several games as the 7th D with limited ice time)

Forwards:

Sam Duggan (26): +26.6%
Tyler Busch (29): +23.0%
Josh MacDonald (30): +21.6%
Brett Perlini (34): +21.2%
Joey Martin (36): +14.8%
Kohen Olischefski (27): +13.1%
Cole Sanford (29): +12.4%
Zach O'Brien (32): +12.3%
Reid Duke (29): +10.4%
Ryan Barrow (28): -3.4%

So to compensate for missing players, Sam Duggan had 26.6% more time on ice than when we've not been not short-benched, and so on through the others.
 
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