Devils and coach part ways
- Thread starter Rhyan48
- Start date
If Todd hasn’t got anybody lined up then Dupont has to win the play offs to be in the frame, at worst put up a hell of a fight in the final and lose out to Sheffield or Belfast. Even then I don’t think he gets the job.
Although Lordo was inexperienced the club are in a totally different position now. Expectations are far higher. Also Lordo was fairly well loved by the fans after his performances the previous season. Always gave 100% on the ice.
There’s no hatred or dislike for Dupont but there’s certainly not much love either. Let’s be honest his signing was a bit of a car crash
Although Lordo was inexperienced the club are in a totally different position now. Expectations are far higher. Also Lordo was fairly well loved by the fans after his performances the previous season. Always gave 100% on the ice.
There’s no hatred or dislike for Dupont but there’s certainly not much love either. Let’s be honest his signing was a bit of a car crash
Not convinced on that, we’ve finished 3rd in the league and we’ve had injury issues that Todd didn’t have a plan for, I’m not convinced our issues are all coaching issues. Todd brought in a new to the U.K. coach with a team Steve stated was a punt, so to expect results this year and to now blame it all on the coach is a bit nieve & pathetic in my armchair opinion. We’ve now got a person who has never coached, is new to the league and as a player was a liability, in both skill and game knowledge. So to expect him to go into the playoffs as a better option is a risk, hopefully I’m wrong and it isn’t going to be a car wreck.....
To be fair I think Steve called it a punt as he wasn’t convinced by Skalde’s signings. I’ve heard from more than one person closely associated with the club that maybe the owners/Todd had different ideas to Skalde when it came to recruitment. Have to back your coach though. They did and it didn’t work. Probably one of the reasons why he’s gone
The scenario you’ve put is bang on, in my opinion you’ve put the people in the wrong place. If Skalde did have complete control over recruitment as you say then they should allow him to complete the season. You can’t blame Skalde for not winning a competition you’ve not played. As a new coach to the EIHL it’s a bit nieve to give Skalde complete say on who to recruit, especially British players. From what l’ve heard of Todd there is no way he’d give anyone complete recruitment responsibilities, Lord wasn’t, so l don’t buy into Skalde recruits players that both Todd and Steve foreseen as a punt. The whole business is based on selling tickets and everyone knows the more successful a team is the more tickets you sell and we rely on CHL to generate much needed revenue, so risking that, no way, that makes no sense.
What l think has happened is next years season ticket sales are poor, Todd needs a final and a win in the playoffs, Skaldes become the blame scapegoat.
What l think has happened is next years season ticket sales are poor, Todd needs a final and a win in the playoffs, Skaldes become the blame scapegoat.
Why should they have allowed him to complete the season? Clearly Kelman was going to get rid of Skalde even if we won the play offs so I’m not sure it matters. I believe Kelman had a big say in the signing of O’Connor and clearly Mikkelson was signed by the owners. I genuinely think all the other new North Americans to the league were Skalde’s signings though.
Some of the posts on this thread are complete nonsense, talk about entitlement syndrome. We had a brand new team and coach, finished third in the league miles ahead of fourth, made a final that could have gone either way and still have a chance at the playoffs. For me that is not bad, no way is it a car crash or a bunch of mistakes. Yes Skalde left, but given the speed of departure, there was more to it than on ice performance. I'm just sad the season is coming to an end.
Maybe season ticket sales will be down next year, but that is more likely to be because of cost of living increases along with higher season ticket prices.
Maybe season ticket sales will be down next year, but that is more likely to be because of cost of living increases along with higher season ticket prices.
Also miles behind the champions! 14 point gap in a league where it’s 2 points for a win is huge. It’s been a very mediocre season and our coach ended up leaving. If you want to try and make out it wasn’t a bad season then fair enough, it’s your opinion. No need to call other peoples (more realistic) opinions nonsense tho…
Yes we were 14 point behind the Giants, but they had an exceptional team this year based on a returning core of players. Steelers looked like they might run away with it at one point, but in the end finished only 7 point ahead of us. Again not bad for a first year. I don't think it is realistic at all to call it a car crash.
The team was decimated by injuries with no facility for cover. They played with 4 defencemen for a month. How many of those lost games would the team have won with a full compliment of players? Surely the coach can't be blamed for that? The Devils took the CC Final into overtime with 4 defencemen...admirable battle which they might have won had they not been shortbenched and fatigued.
The disaster of BOC's ineffectiveness on the Team was not resolved earlier...was it the coach's original decision to recruit that player?
At the highest levels in this sport there is usually collective involvement by coaching and management staff in recruitment decisions.
What is not known, and will not be made public, is the nature of relationships and opinions between all parties, and the players.
Andrew Lord was such an intrinsic part of the success of our Club on so many levels, it was and is a mammoth task for an incumbent coach. Restrictions and regulations of all kinds have made it difficult. To finish 3rd is still an achievement when our team and coach were new and unknown quantities. Next season the reset will be better.
The disaster of BOC's ineffectiveness on the Team was not resolved earlier...was it the coach's original decision to recruit that player?
At the highest levels in this sport there is usually collective involvement by coaching and management staff in recruitment decisions.
What is not known, and will not be made public, is the nature of relationships and opinions between all parties, and the players.
Andrew Lord was such an intrinsic part of the success of our Club on so many levels, it was and is a mammoth task for an incumbent coach. Restrictions and regulations of all kinds have made it difficult. To finish 3rd is still an achievement when our team and coach were new and unknown quantities. Next season the reset will be better.
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I don’t think it has been a car crash season by the way, I just think overall our league form has been very disappointing. I think it was Mazzoak that described the season as car crash. I described DuPont’s on ice performances as car crash and I stand by that. I think people are being too generous though if they’re putting positive spins on this season. If and it’s a big IF we win the play offs then the season review will look a lot healthier, at the moment tho I still class it as a disappointing season
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But for people making excuses about our injuries etc what about the other teams? Sheffield lost Connolly, Oleksuk and Deluca very early on this season (for one reason or another) and what kind of impact would they have had?! Connolly was a huge loss for them. And look at Darcy Murphy at Belfast? Missed half the games through injury and ended up scoring just 8 points in an injury ravaged season. A healthy darcy Murphy would have caused damage in this league. We can make all the excuses in the world but bottom line we were comfortably the third best team in the league this season.
Re DuPont, I still think he carried an injury for most of his on ice time, but since then quite a few have been saying how professional he is as a coach and has a big future in that direction. I'm certainly seeing much better interviews.
also don't dispute at all that we were the third best team ( I did enjoy the shut outs in the house of rust though) that was where we had issues, consistency.
also don't dispute at all that we were the third best team ( I did enjoy the shut outs in the house of rust though) that was where we had issues, consistency.