Season Wrap Up

jenks33

Well-Known Member
#21
I clearly pointed out the obvious reasons why, new coach, rebuild year, COVID Issues, impact of Brexit. Im not sorry l complicate matters by involving the business side of clubs success, but there is more to running a club than winning a cup or two. That’s not criticising the owners ambitions. More importantly Steve mentioned me personally, so there, I’m a marked girl.
Most of us know you’re a middle aged bloke Mazzoak. You can stop playing that game now.
 

Chris

Administrator
#22
Going to jump on this one now, but any further posts that aren't on topic i'm just going to delete.

Getting fed up of seeing almost every topic getting derailed by posts from/to Mazzoak.

For anyone that doesn't like Mazzoaks posts, either ignore them or put them on ignore, I don't care much which.

One of the club owners has just posted a welcome, and detailed post on here to talk about the season gone and what we should be focusing on for next. Lets maybe stick to things that are relevant?
 

drainage

Well-Known Member
#23
Ive not questioned the owners or Todds ambition for the club, success is in every bodies interest, even mine. Every clubs owner wants to succeed, past and present.
I was asking for your insight into Skalde as you seem to have some comments to make? Simple ask really. My comment re Steve was simply he does what he does with best interests of club in mind.
 
#24
Well that was an interesting season!! First of all, I want to thank all of you for your support of the team over the last couple of years - through the shut down and during this season. This hasn't been easy on anybody so your support is more appreciated now than it ever has been. As we all knew, the challenge put in front of us after the shut down was enormous. Building an all-new team on the ice and off of it with a very small staff was a big task and despite not getting the results we wanted in the regular season, I'm incredibly proud of the job Todd and his team did.

Obviously the most disappointing part was the fact that the coach that we were so excited about and that came with such glowing recommendations did not work out the way we wanted. Jarrod is a very nice person but the three things that are non negotiable with us are sharing our passion for the Devils, work ethic and culture. Winning championships requires all of those things and ultimately we felt that we needed to go in a different direction. On the player front, I think most would agree that we were able to find some outstanding pieces that we hope to build around as a core, much like we did with our first team in 2014. Not all of our choices worked out the way we wanted but that's the nature of the industry. Needing far fewer new players next year reduces the risk considerably.

It's now time to prepare for the next season. I'm not sure I've ever been this excited about an off season. The player market will be significantly better this year for three big reasons. The first is that North American playoffs will finish earlier than last year. We had numerous players that would have come to Cardiff decide that they couldn't come when we needed them to. Playoffs in North America last year lasted until mid-July and because of the CHL, we needed players in Cardiff in early August. Players just couldn't do that tight of a turnaround. This year, North America will be done in June and with not being in the CHL, we won't need players in as early. The second factor is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I think there's a very good chance that there won't be any imports playing in the KHL this year and that will have a trickle-down effect on all leagues. The final advantage this year is that because of Covid, NCAA players were given an extra year of eligibility last year so very few players turned pro out of the NCAA last year. This year there should be a sizeable crop of players graduating and going into all levels of pro.

At the end of the day, we were pretty lucky as fans to have hockey back, sellout crowds, a close overtime loss in the Challenge Cup finals and a spectacular win in the playoff championships to make it three in a row. While anything short of a league title can't be called a complete success, I feel just so lucky as a fan to have people like Todd and Franny allowing us to have so much to cheer about every single season. No team in the league can match our success over the last eight years. So thank you all again for your support. Keep giving your opinions on players, coaches...even owners. It's all good and means you care...except for you, Mazzoak!!

Have a great summer, everybody.

Steve
The season had many great moments but the one that really stands out was the play off victory and seeing Brodie Dupont with tears of joy in his eyes really sums up the kinda of passion that Steve talks about in his post. Also listening to Macs post on two ales ref Brodie coaching I believe he deserves credit, thank you Brodie.
 
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