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#1
Apologies for the tardiness of getting this out. I obviously wanted to have the news on Brodie out first and I've been on a road a fair bit with work.
Obviously not the season that we had hoped for. Safe to say that there were disappointments in almost every facet of our team at various times of the season. For periods of the season, our offense was very good but our defense and goaltending were too inconsistent. Other times it was the exact opposite. Special teams were not good enough really through the whole piece. All that said, I sometimes do have to take a step back and remind myself that we've set some extremely high standards here and we had some very positive things to build on. With all of the hand wringing of the season, it's interesting to think that there was a total of one team in the NHL that had a higher winning percentage than the Cardiff Devils had this year. Ours should be higher because there is a bigger gap in the standard of teams in our league compared to the NHL but the season certainly wasn't a disaster. Inconsistency is in fact a part of our beloved sport, far more than any other. No team in any league didn't have fans complaining of inconsistency. But having four of the top scorers in the league is something to be proud of and a spirited run at our fourth straight playoff title were high points.
Needless to say, it was a very hard decision to let Brodie and Christian go. Both of them are just amazing human beings and put their heart into their job on our behalf. We also knew full well that there could and would be growing pains with a rookie coach and we were prepared to work through those pains just as we did with Lordo nine years ago. But in our final analysis and based on extensive interviews with all of our players, we felt that there were some things that were just going to be too hard to fix and presented too big of a risk to our club...especially because our expectations and desires for this club are so high.
Moving forward, we have re-doubled our efforts to get back to where we were before Covid. There's no question that the stoppage in our league hurt us the most and we need to find our footing to get back to being the dominant team in the league as we were for the four years leading up to the pandemic. It's not easy. If it was, everyone would do it! But no team is going to outwork us in the offseason. We need talent upgrades in the lineup and in the coaching staff. I firmly believe that the best sports clubs have continuity and stability to go along with a very high standard of care. We need to have a coaching staff that will be a long-term solution. Given our reputation in our league and within the global hockey community, I believe we can attract that kind of staff. We are already talking to potential Devils players and I couldn't be more excited. There are more players out there looking for a winning team to come to than in the last couple of years so I really believe that we're going to have a team that everyone will be exctied about. We still have to work within the salary cap that the league has imposed but we're in good spot to do that and we'll continue to invest in this team with the only goal of bringing home the championship next year.
Thanks all for your support and I look forward to confirming or debunking your signing rumours throughout the summer!
Cheers,
Steve
Obviously not the season that we had hoped for. Safe to say that there were disappointments in almost every facet of our team at various times of the season. For periods of the season, our offense was very good but our defense and goaltending were too inconsistent. Other times it was the exact opposite. Special teams were not good enough really through the whole piece. All that said, I sometimes do have to take a step back and remind myself that we've set some extremely high standards here and we had some very positive things to build on. With all of the hand wringing of the season, it's interesting to think that there was a total of one team in the NHL that had a higher winning percentage than the Cardiff Devils had this year. Ours should be higher because there is a bigger gap in the standard of teams in our league compared to the NHL but the season certainly wasn't a disaster. Inconsistency is in fact a part of our beloved sport, far more than any other. No team in any league didn't have fans complaining of inconsistency. But having four of the top scorers in the league is something to be proud of and a spirited run at our fourth straight playoff title were high points.
Needless to say, it was a very hard decision to let Brodie and Christian go. Both of them are just amazing human beings and put their heart into their job on our behalf. We also knew full well that there could and would be growing pains with a rookie coach and we were prepared to work through those pains just as we did with Lordo nine years ago. But in our final analysis and based on extensive interviews with all of our players, we felt that there were some things that were just going to be too hard to fix and presented too big of a risk to our club...especially because our expectations and desires for this club are so high.
Moving forward, we have re-doubled our efforts to get back to where we were before Covid. There's no question that the stoppage in our league hurt us the most and we need to find our footing to get back to being the dominant team in the league as we were for the four years leading up to the pandemic. It's not easy. If it was, everyone would do it! But no team is going to outwork us in the offseason. We need talent upgrades in the lineup and in the coaching staff. I firmly believe that the best sports clubs have continuity and stability to go along with a very high standard of care. We need to have a coaching staff that will be a long-term solution. Given our reputation in our league and within the global hockey community, I believe we can attract that kind of staff. We are already talking to potential Devils players and I couldn't be more excited. There are more players out there looking for a winning team to come to than in the last couple of years so I really believe that we're going to have a team that everyone will be exctied about. We still have to work within the salary cap that the league has imposed but we're in good spot to do that and we'll continue to invest in this team with the only goal of bringing home the championship next year.
Thanks all for your support and I look forward to confirming or debunking your signing rumours throughout the summer!
Cheers,
Steve
