You must be choking!

DevilDom

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #1
With the way are playing and other teams have picked up there game I can see us finishing at best 3rd but more likely 4th. Either way that would mean a play-off eliminator against Clan or Blaze. The way we are playing at the moment and our limited resources with have, I can't see us getting through to the play-off weekend (gutted as i've already bought 2 weekend passes).

Looks like a season that promised so much is going to end up in spectactular failure. I bet G and Franny are glad they have their contracts signed up for next year already!
 

Finny

Well-Known Member
#2
Oh come on DevilsDom, you didn't see the game. Braehead had 12 imports didn't they? We finished the game with 9 imports, plus two in the bin leaving us effectively 7.

A bit harsh?
 

kettdevil1

Well-Known Member
#4
Why is it that when we are winning we are the greatest team in the world yet when we have a poor month it is classed as a "spectacular failure"?

In 8 games this month we have won 3, got points in 2 others and lost 3 in normal time. Whilst disappointing this hardly constitutes a complete meltdown. To extrapolate this into saying that we will not reach Nottingham is just as misguided as saying that the fact that we won x games in a row means that we will inevitably win the league.

Facing facts, we are shortbenched at the moment, our chances of winning the league are slim at best and we are not playing particularly well. That does not mean we have turned into a poor team, it means that we are going through the dip that all teams go through in any given season. think back to when Belfast were losing to Newcastle (and everybody else) and Murphy had turned into a teabag....

Have faith everybody. This is not The Cage and over reactions are not helpful...

For me, this has been one of the best seasons for some years and with the talent on this team there is no reason at all why we should not be optimistic about March (and April...)
 

Gospel

Active Member
#5
I agree with DevilDom.

Wrong time to show poor form and picking up injuries. Bearing in mind we play Nottingham twice and Coventry twice plus a home game against the Clan i dont think its harsh to say we'll finish 4th. That then would set up games against either the Clan or Coventry which have caused us problems this season already.

Tough period for us being so short benched.
 

DevilDom

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #6
Finny said:
Oh come on DevilsDom, you didn't see the game. Braehead had 12 imports didn't they? We finished the game with 9 imports, plus two in the bin leaving us effectively 7.

A bit harsh?
My title should have read "play-offs - you must be choking".

No, I didn't see the game, but i'm referrring more to the way we are finishing the season rather than this particular game. We can't help the injuries but there is no doubt we haven't played as well as we can in the last month or so and we've lost games we should have won. I guess it's just more frustrating tonight when the Steelers lose surprsingly at home.
 

kettdevil1

Well-Known Member
#7
DevilDom said:
We can't help the injuries but there is no doubt we haven't played as well as we can in the last mont or so and we've lost games we should have won. I guess it's just more frustrating tonight when the Steelers lose surprsingly at home.
Certainly agree with this part of your post, although given that there is a fair chance we will be playing Clan in the quarter finals, and that (I believe) there is no OT, we would be returning to the BBT for the 2nd leg with a 2-2 draw in the bag, not a disaster at all for me.
 

DevilDom

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #8
kettdevil1 said:
Why is it that when we are winning we are the greatest team in the world yet when we have a poor month it is classed as a "spectacular failure"?

For me, this has been one of the best seasons for some years and with the talent on this team there is no reason at all why we should not be optimistic about March (and April...)
I never said we were the greatest team in the world when we were winning. I was always quite cautious as i'm a glass half empty type of guy (some would say negative :lol: ) and actually caused quite a furoe when I questioned whether it was a good idea to sign up G and Franny for next year in January when we had won nothing.

With regards the "spectacular failure" quote - again I was referring to how we finish the season. 4th place and not qualifying for the play-off weekend would for me be the worse season we have experienced for quite some time. Especially so when you consider how well placed we were in the league and CC only a few weeks ago.

I look forward to being proved massively wrong, but for me this season is spiralling into a huge failure.
 

kettdevil1

Well-Known Member
#9
Hmmmm we will see I suppose. Last season we ended up in 4th place in the league yet still managed to get to the last game of the season, so even the "worst case" scenario in the league has an interesting precedent.

A season where we have only lost 9 games in regulation time (Belfast and Sheffield have lost 8) is pretty acceptable to me.

I think what we can agree on is that February has been a bad month, hopefully we will finish on a high and move on to March in a positive mood.
 

TheStub

Active Member
#10
This season has seen us play some of the most entertaining hockey I've seen in the Elite League era, and played consistently. Even in the last "poor" month (that was a form that most season we would kill for) they have been good games.

Personally, I pay my money to be entertained on the night. So this season has been a success. Silverware is just icing. There may be questions about depth, bringing up young Brits blah blah blah - but injured and short benched we are still a 500 hockey club.

I said in a post a few weeks back, the team that win the league will have a single digit loss column. That is exceptional, and even being in the running at this late stage is an exceptional feat.

Bring on the beer, bring on the games and lets just enjoy some hockey.
 
#11
I'm not an optimist at the best of times..........

Spoilt by the winning streak, yes we were good, but towards the end of the streak we were having some really lucky results. Coventry home and away wins in OT and PS's, the 3-3 draw in the last minute.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#12
TheStub said:
This season has seen us play some of the most entertaining hockey I've seen in the Elite League era, and played consistently. Even in the last "poor" month (that was a form that most season we would kill for) they have been good games.

Personally, I pay my money to be entertained on the night. So this season has been a success. Silverware is just icing. There may be questions about depth, bringing up young Brits blah blah blah - but injured and short benched we are still a 500 hockey club.

I said in a post a few weeks back, the team that win the league will have a single digit loss column. That is exceptional, and even being in the running at this late stage is an exceptional feat.

Bring on the beer, bring on the games and lets just enjoy some hockey.
God i love this post, welcome brother,my faith in humanity has been restored. Come on Devils lets give the best fans in the UK something to shout about.
HAPPY HOCKEY DAYS. ;)
 
#13
I think we've had a great season. We've made two big mistakes though,

a) not replacing Ben (still can't believe he bunked - he would have had loads of ice time)
b) not drawing in ENL regularly as deeper cover for injuries/bans.

If we can have the same quality team and do these things too next season, who knows what we can do :)
 

E.D.S.

Well-Known Member
#14
Agree with Devil Dom. If there's no league title, no challenge cup and if we don't make the playoffs, then in my opinion this season should be classed as a failure - regardless of record breaking runs or not. Our progress up the league table has been down to a combination of other teams injuries and a decent bit of form shown by us. I didn't think we had the depth or players to win the league at the start of the season and the last few weeks has confirmed that - shame though, as it was great whilst it lasted. Good effort lads.
 

DevilDom

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #15
TheStub said:
This season has seen us play some of the most entertaining hockey I've seen in the Elite League era, and played consistently.
I agree to a certain extent - we have played some great hockey for a large part of the season but that is what makes it all the more frustrating. We know we can beat all the others and we know how well we can play, but for me in an important part of the season and in some of our most important games we have choked.
 

Chris

Administrator
#16
Agree with Devil Dom. If there's no league title, no challenge cup and if we don't make the playoffs, then in my opinion this season should be classed as a failure - regardless of record breaking runs or not.
Agreed.

The winning streak was good whilst we were on it, but as far as i'm concerned it means absolutely nothing if we fail to win anything this season. We've not reached the CC finals this season, we're almost back in 4th, and it's probably not unreasonable to suggest we could finish there.

If we fail to win the playoffs, we'll have actually done worse than last season, unless we finish 3rd in the league, but that's hardly something to be bragging about. It will be interesting to see which players have already signed contracts for next season after the press releases saying we wanted the majority of them signed early...

Chris.
 

TheStub

Active Member
#18
I struggle to see failure in such black and white terms. We are still in the chase (if damaged by recent events) coming into the vinegar strokes of the season. That is actually an improvement over most seasons.

Normally we would have been talking about the playoffs for a good few weeks by now as the league would already be well out of grasp.

I guess I'm rare in caring more about the hockey than the competitions. The league and all the competitions it runs are so Mickey Mouse that they are almost worthless anyway.

But, a few bad checks, Shuff picking up a couple of serious knocks and even at this stage it would season over.
 
#19
have really enjoyed this season and excited about the rest, but then again we go to enjoy watching ice hockey, whether they win or loose. As for "we only got where we were because of other teams injuries blah blah!!!" absolute rubbish, thats a hockey season, if you watch any sport from start of a season to finish, injuries will be a general thing, alongside, players leaving(for whatever reason). By the end of any season, it will have generally balanced out.
I think this team has been one of the best we've had for a number of years and if we could keep them together for a few years to come, will get better and better.
As for them having to travel by bus up and down, yes I think it's a nightmare, but again this will be either a monetary decision (or simply not enough seats available, at a particular time), which will have been decided at the top and I have no doubt the players would have much preferred to have flown in early to allow them time to relax and get into game mode, but this would have meant a hotel overnight, so I think the purse strings probably have been affected by the purchase of another team.
As for the ENL guys, if any of them did want to be on the bench, if they were allowed on the ice and were scored upon, there would be an uproar on here and it would then have been G's fault for allowing them on. The guy can't win, basically.There isn't one player out there who wants to loose and they are fighting as best they can to win, so personally win or loose, I love the guys and will be shouting my bits off at every game from tonight until the end of the season, and hopefully the play offs too!!
cmon you devils!!!!!! :D :D
 
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