Storm Vs Devils - 04 Jan 20 - League

ASHIPP

Well-Known Member
#61
I would hate to work for some of you. If someone is not performing a good manager finds out what is wrong and tries to see how he or she can help not just sacks everyone.
Fair enough if these guys were not not talented enough to play in this league but to talk about sacking Martin, Linglet and Bentivoglio is crazy. Something is clearly wrong for their point production to be so low but sacking talented players is not the answer.
But this situation has existed with certain players all season (injured players is a different matter). Underperforming hasn't just developed.

No sentiment at the the top level in any sport. It depends on what the Club's ambitions are. To qualify for CHL, a club has to win the league (or second entry team has to win the playoffs). Is our Club hoping for this? Or is the objective to provide competitive, entertaining hockey? Haven't seen that consistently enough this season.

Players not cutting it at NHL or AHL level in North America are sent down for reconditioning and/or find form again. This league does not have this facility. Options are to work with a player, remove them from a few games...... and think about bringing in someone else who can do the job/cover injuries.
 

Rich Best

Well-Known Member
#62
People can moan about the revolving door at Sheffield but they’re clear at the top and banging in the goals. We’re too noble to sack underperforming players so it seems. Other teams do it and that’s the life of a pro hockey player, but not if you’re playing for Cardiff though. Sign a deal and you’re set fair for the season, no matter how you play. The lack of goals/points from some of our supposed top end forwards is a bloody disgrace.
Didn't we win 11 in 12 before the last 2 games, with the one loss an OT loss? So we are now 11 wins in 14 with 1 OT loss. That is championship form. Let's keep it in perspective here.

We all want to get back to winning ways and I am sure we will tonight! With our games in hand against Sheffield, we are still looking good and we are top of the league in terms of points per game.
 

Mazzoak

Well-Known Member
#63
Actually it’s very surprising that we’re second in the league when you see stats like
Linglet 27 games 2 goals
Martin 25 games 5 goals
Bentivoglio 23 games 1 goal.
If somebody showed me those stats at the start of the season I’d assume we were sixth
Stats such as these certainly wouldn’t get Lordo that top coaching position, he’d struggle to get a place on a college team.
 

Kevin roog

Well-Known Member
#64
steelers have scored 40 odd more goals than us,blaze have scored about 15 more than us, if you watched last nights game not knowing any different you’d assume storms budget was twice ours,they had more skill, more speed ,more endeavour
 

Devilsatw

Well-Known Member
#65
I'm sorry but when your top 3 players have scored 9 goals in a combined 75 games you can't defend it?

if you defend that then your silly!

if you accept luke ferrara a British player scoring more goals than Riley Martin linglet and benti combined you got problems.

Luke ferrara has 20 goals Riley Martin benti and linglet have a total of 16\17 goals
it's not acceptable and something should change

Ross bloody venus has more goals than martin linglet and benti together

bloody taking the piss

we signed these players up to score goals and they ain't doing it.
No more excuses we are 30 plus games into the season now
 
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#66
Devilsatw: ‘this is my last little rant’. I severely doubt that.

In response to your question earlier ‘so what’s the answer?’, Slartibartfast gave you the answer in their post you were replying to...work with the team and find out what’s wrong. I’m sure Lordo ‘has the balls’ to speak to the team about this and already knows what the problem is.

Not sacking one player in his time as coach and winning what we have is amazing. It takes a lot of balls to stand by the decisions you have made in hiring these guys and making them play your way...especially when the (hopefully limited) fan base has a Steeler-like tendency to accept nothing but the number one spot.

I’m sorry, but the calls for changes and (if I’ve read it right) the calls for a change in coach are ‘silly’.

It sucks to lose the way we have these last two games but every team does this and we’ve done it the last few seasons when we’ve won titles or pushed for them until the last.

Enjoy the hockey. These are the good times, despite the recent dip in form. You know this team is capable. You know this coach wins trophies. Let’s just support the guys until it comes together again and not react to our emotions and bring everyone down with them.
 

kettdevil1

Well-Known Member
#67
Not sacking one player in his time as coach and winning what we have is amazing. It takes a lot of balls to stand by the decisions you have made in hiring these guys and making them play your way...especially when the (hopefully limited) fan base has a Steeler-like tendency to accept nothing but the number one spot.
Agreed.

After the horrors of the last era, we have developed a culture of support in Cardiff and it has paid off spectacularly. I do think that we will see a bit of a turnover of players at the end of this season but.... I would hate to go down the Sheffield/Belfast route of 'hire and sack'. The bond between players and supporters has always felt different in South Wales and my feeling is that one of the key reasons is that the coach and ownership have a bigger picture in mind than merely the last game.

Overreacting to the last loss (or indeed the last win) will not make us a better club.... off the top of my head we have won 11 out of the last 13, which is championship form. The last two have been poor but, the bigger picture is that we are where we need to be to give ourselves a shot at the prize.

Looking at Sheffield's recent form, they are outperforming themselves and are due a slump. No team can carry on grinding out results with the amount of injuries and lucky bounces they have had in the last month - we need to capitalize when that slump comes.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#68
Very often it’s not about losing, but about the way you lose, when we lose but have left everything out there, or played well but we’re second best on the day is one thing, but when you perform like the way we have in our last 2 games then that’s something else, when your snipers couldn’t his a cows arse with a banjo, and your team are playing with what looks like no direction then that’s something else. What I can’t get my head around is okay we ain’t playing well at the moment, shit happens, but then why the hell ain’t we hitting everything that moves, why ain’t we trying to get some momentum going, why ain’t we saying to our team mates, come on you lot follow my lead, why ain’t we showing our great fans, yes we ain’t playing well but we care, and care about you guys. You can teach players skill, speed, skating,but no bugger can give a player a bigger heart,he either has a big heart or he don’t, and if he don’t then he don’t belong here, surely when your playing teams that are lightin numbers then you hit them, and before anyone says yes but then we will be in the bin, we are already playing like we are shorthanded anyway, consistently is sometimes a hard thing to achieve, showing passion,guts, and caring should be second nature. If we don’t come out banging tonight it could be a long night.
 

Mazzoak

Well-Known Member
#69
I would hate to work for some of you. If someone is not performing a good manager finds out what is wrong and tries to see how he or she can help not just sacks everyone.
Fair enough if these guys were not not talented enough to play in this league but to talk about sacking Martin, Linglet and Bentivoglio is crazy. Something is clearly wrong for their point production to be so low but sacking talented players is not the answer.
It depends on the industry. Sport isn’t the same as working for say a primary school. The need to achieve is far greater, the rewards far higher, the punishment for underachieving far harder. We should mentor young talent, accept their weaknesses and nurture development. What is suspect is giving jobs to friends or friends of friends with a reluctance to remove those not carrying out their role. Then again what is the purpose of the Devils and their owners. Something is not right, that’s pretty obvious despite all the talk of hard hitting, entertaining game and wanting to win everything & do whatever it takes to achieve that.
 
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terry hunt

Well-Known Member
#70
I agree we have had a very good run our position in the various competitions proves that.
I dont have to see the Devils win every game or win trophies every season.
I like many others have seen years of struggling to hang in there and have admired our organisation for fighting to survive.
I dont like calling out individual players for poor performances although i may have an opinion on them.
My probably selfish concern is why are we in this situation where we are being beaten by weaker teams (nd no insult intended).
Is there illness in the team or do we have a lot of injuries players are dealing with.?
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#71
Didn't we win 11 in 12 before the last 2 games, with the one loss an OT loss? So we are now 11 wins in 14 with 1 OT loss. That is championship form. Let's keep it in perspective here.

We all want to get back to winning ways and I am sure we will tonight! With our games in hand against Sheffield, we are still looking good and we are top of the league in terms of points per game.
In our last 21 games we have won 13, and lost 8 games, 5 of those 13 wins was by 1 goal, we certainly need to get this thing going. Can we do it yes we can but unfortunately so can at least 3 others, let’s start this thing today please.
 

Kevin roog

Well-Known Member
#72
I think it could get miserable today in the rink if we lose to fife,Sheffield are gonna hit 7 or 8 probably later today, and we probably need a 4 point weekend next week before we play Sheffield the week later,as soon as Sheffield get a lead of 10 points it’s all over
 

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
#73
I once saw a talk by a coach from another elite sport (it was something like athletic, swimming or judo). The point that he made was that you effectively rank your competitors and your expectations of them. If each of them can provide a performance which matches or slightly exceeds those expectations, then you'll be successful. Those expectations will be arrived at by where a competitor is in their career. What we've been seeing is one group of players (ie the 4th line) hugely exceeding expectations and making a difference in close games. Meanwhile those who we expect to do the heavy lifting across the season and build the foundations of success simply haven't been producing. This is why we have the disparity between league position and goal scoring. Now if we're not going to make any changes to the team, and I completely see the validity of that, we have to change our approach to games. We can't have a game plan which relies on point production we don't have. We may have to accept playing a boring brand of hockey (in terms of traps and breakaways) as the price of getting things done this year.
 

august04

Well-Known Member
#74
I think it could get miserable today in the rink if we lose to fife,Sheffield are gonna hit 7 or 8 probably later today, and we probably need a 4 point weekend next week before we play Sheffield the week later,as soon as Sheffield get a lead of 10 points it’s all over
Fife are really struggling a the moment having lost their last 5 games, surely we cant lose tonight on home ice?
 

kettdevil1

Well-Known Member
#75
I think it could get miserable today in the rink if we lose to fife,Sheffield are gonna hit 7 or 8 probably later today, and we probably need a 4 point weekend next week before we play Sheffield the week later,as soon as Sheffield get a lead of 10 points it’s all over
Isn't that what we said last season ;)

I actually think this evening is a much bigger game than normal - there is an expectation that we will have a reaction, hopefully that will happen and we can go back on a run
 

Kevin roog

Well-Known Member
#76
yes but last season us devils fans were saying Belfast will tire with all the treble header weekends(wasn’t it about 4 with the Conti cup) but they never did and it was us who bottled it against Dundee and coventry
 

Gospel

Active Member
#77
Very often it’s not about losing, but about the way you lose, when we lose but have left everything out there, or played well but we’re second best on the day is one thing, but when you perform like the way we have in our last 2 games then that’s something else, when your snipers couldn’t his a cows arse with a banjo, and your team are playing with what looks like no direction then that’s something else. What I can’t get my head around is okay we ain’t playing well at the moment, shit happens, but then why the hell ain’t we hitting everything that moves, why ain’t we trying to get some momentum going, why ain’t we saying to our team mates, come on you lot follow my lead, why ain’t we showing our great fans, yes we ain’t playing well but we care, and care about you guys. You can teach players skill, speed, skating,but no bugger can give a player a bigger heart,he either has a big heart or he don’t, and if he don’t then he don’t belong here, surely when your playing teams that are lightin numbers then you hit them, and before anyone says yes but then we will be in the bin, we are already playing like we are shorthanded anyway, consistently is sometimes a hard thing to achieve, showing passion,guts, and caring should be second nature. If we don’t come out banging tonight it could be a long night.
This is what would have happened but this isnt Lords style of play/coaching sadly. We’ve been told that the players arent on a leash but if thats the case why arent the players (apart from Dixon) hitting? We have a line of Myers & Batch both of whom can hit & we know Batchy can take care of himself so lets just let him steamroller people & deal with matters afterwards.
 

Swarley

Well-Known Member
#78
Fife are really struggling a the moment having lost their last 5 games, surely we cant lose tonight on home ice?
We thought that about blaze at home and lost 5-0 unless the team comes out and hits everything that moves and takes shots from any and every angle we could come up short again.
 
#79
We have been winning recently our total form hasn’t been perfect but we have been playing with a lot more intensity.
Thursday and Saturday where a sudden sharp drop in form (we wernt great Wednesday either)
what if the rumours are true and the nasty flu is going through the team, and you guys are demanding there heads! When you or me would have a sick day/week they are still out there. The sudden drop in speed, focus and intensity definitely point that this rumour is true.
 

august04

Well-Known Member
#80
Agreed.

After the horrors of the last era, we have developed a culture of support in Cardiff and it has paid off spectacularly. I do think that we will see a bit of a turnover of players at the end of this season but.... I would hate to go down the Sheffield/Belfast route of 'hire and sack'. The bond between players and supporters has always felt different in South Wales and my feeling is that one of the key reasons is that the coach and ownership have a bigger picture in mind than merely the last game.

Overreacting to the last loss (or indeed the last win) will not make us a better club.... off the top of my head we have won 11 out of the last 13, which is championship form. The last two have been poor but, the bigger picture is that we are where we need to be to give ourselves a shot at the prize.

Looking at Sheffield's recent form, they are outperforming themselves and are due a slump. No team can carry on grinding out results with the amount of injuries and lucky bounces they have had in the last month - we need to capitalize when that slump comes.
I don’t see anything wrong with replacing players who are not performing. That happens in every sport and is part of the life of a professional sportsman. Saying that, I wouldn’t want to go down the route of Belfast/Sheffield this season, where there have been so many changes. In fairness to Sheffield though, they‘ve been so poor this past few years, that Aaron Fox had a daunting rebuild job on his hands, so there was always going to be a few that might not work out. I think he’s done a remarkable job (started by Barrasso) to get them from the shambles of recent years to where they are now, at the top of the league and firing on all cylinders - despite having a horrendous run of injuries of late to some key players too. They know where the back of the net is, that‘s for sure. It looked like they would get turned over tonight but then they go and score 4 goals in 4 minutes and win the game. They will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.
 
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