Devils Vs Giants - 19+20 Jan 19 - League

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
Was it you who wanted the coach to 'grow a pair' and gas Mo a couple of months ago? On a serious note, what are your thoughts about Mo now?

I personally think Mo has played a fantastic role this year, has grown into the season and was key this weekend.
Ah, my Forum Stalker - how are you this evening ? During our earlier slump whereby we were losing to all and sundry which included numerous home losses to teams at the foot of the table with loads of players out of form, I did ask the coach to 'grow a pair'. Growing a pair could be related to laying it on the line to underperforming players and absolutely demanding more ! Wasn't Lordo "absolutely disgusted" after one of our performances ?

I can't quite recall if it was to gas Mo, but I'm sure you've already got the thread at hand?

Coaches/teams/players normally get royally praised when doing well but can come in for some criticism when underperforming - by fans and their coaches!
 

Gazza272

Well-Known Member
You dont just critique teams when they play well. Kind of defeats the object of debate
forgive me in my excitement to post, I dont think I made my point quite clear.

I think criticism of the performances as a collective or indeed as individuals. It was the hysterical 'let's sack this guy, and this guy and this guy' never believing they were able to turn it around, that i think would be handy to be mindful of in the future. Form is Temporary but Class is permanent.
 

E.D.S.

Well-Known Member
It’s the same every year without exception. A dip in form = shouts for sackings. The coaching staff know what they are doing. We as fans, largely don’t but this forum allows us to pretend that we do. It’s all good fun. Players will be used to it. As long as there’s no silliness and offensive behaviour then it’s fair game as I’m concerned.
I know everything about Ice hockey. I wanted Lord sacked in 2016, 2017 and at the start of 2018. I believed that Hotham added nothing to the game and was lazy and Strachan was past his best and a desperation signing.
Don’t question me. I know everything about ice hockey.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
i think the team were rightly criticised early this year, but why bring this "i told you so" nonsense to the table after watching a weekend like that! i think thats my favourite weekend of hockey in quite a while to watch our team.

great shout highlighting duggan, he really puts the work in the kid and makes some good plays as well.
my mom for the game was richie but reddick, Joey and mo stood out as well. I felt a tad sorry for rutkis as i didnt see him ice (might have missed this?). Thought officials did a good job this weekend.

on a final note Im off up to Nottingham on sat to watch the game, its been a while for an away one. anyone recommend a good quality hotel up there?
Crown Plaza, city centre got it booked for play offs.
 

Finny

Well-Known Member
Quite a few were saying that before the weekend. Believe me, you only settle for a split weekend if you’ve lost the first game - not before the first game.
Firstly I want to point out that I'm sure that the team were going into the weekend believing they were going to win each game.

However, as a fan I admit that I was looking at it beforehand and decided what would be good/bad/acceptable. And I'm sure Belfast fans were doing the same. 5 points behind with only one game in hand they would seen this as an ideal chance to close that gap.

At this point in the season you just want to keep yourselves ahead of the chasing pack. We knew we couldn't end the weekend in second spot but had we lost both game in regulation we would effectively have. Had we come out the weekend with an overall loss but of 2 points or less it wouldn't have been hugely disappointing but not the end of the world as we'd have still had that lead.

That's why for me a split weekend would have been acceptable. I expected Belfast to throw everything at us knowing they had to come away with an advantage over the weekend. Increasing out lead by 1 or 2 points would have been brilliant.

I have to be honest and say I never really entertained the idea of a 4 points to zero weekend. It ended up being as close to a perfect weekend as possible.
 

Finny

Well-Known Member
With regards to the games, arguably our best two performances of the season. Yes we hammered some teams at the start of the season but none of them were as good as this Belfast team. We really had to work hard every shift and there were superb performances throughout the line-up.

Saturday Belfast came out hard as I expected and I thought they were excellent for 15 minutes. We were struggling to hang on in there, but unlike last time that was exactly what we did. Belfast deservedly took the lead (through a soft goal) but the PP for us came at just the right time. Although it was a pretty poor PP it broke their momentum and allowed us to get back into the game. When we got another PP chance we took it and somehow ended the 1st on level matters.
Belfast must have been wondering the same as they just didn't come out for the 2nd period. I thought we dominated for long periods, yet bizarrely Belfast actually had the more clear-cut chances. But a combination of great saves by Bowns and awful misses by them meant they couldn't level the game.
An early PP goal in the third gave us the two goal lead we deserved and although Belfast rallied I never really felt they would score 5-on-5. They did get a PP goal to get them back within one but when Keefe gambled on pulling the netminder early it backfired and Benti's ENG allowed us to see out the game without too much drama.

Onto Sunday and with Belfast desperate for a different result having been outplayed for much of the previous night they changed their lines around completely. For me though there was no great start for them as there had been the previous night and I thought we shaded the opening exchanges. Then we hit that purple-patch we had seen earlier in the season and they just couldn't live with us. Belfast actually did well to stay in the game as it could easily have been 4-0 at the period break.
It probably should have been 4-0 in the opening moments of the second but this time it was Belfast who survived it and got back into the game thanks to some soft penalty calls and two PP goals. The momentum swung back to them and I was pleased we managed to sort how discipline and get back into the period break with the lead just about intact.

Third we came out playing like we had for much of the weekend. Mosey's breakaway goal calmed the nerves ( mine at least) and again I never really felt that Belfast were a threat 5-on-5. Martin's PP goal restored the 3 goal lead which allowed us to cruise to another victory and the hugest of huge 4 point weekends.

We could go through every player and point out how good they were but a couple who really stood out:
Joey Martin. Has almost been in Linglet's shadow this season but on Saturday especially he showed why he is the best player in the league and the Giants just couldn't get near him.
Ben Bowns. Let in a strange soft one in the first game but was then outstanding. Made some huge saves at important times to keep our lead intact and when you go onto win those moments are often quickly forgotten.
Matthew Myers. If we can keep everyone fit he gets to play on a settled 4th line and show how important a player he is for us. Forechecking like a raging bull not just on the PK but 5-on-5 too I lost count of how many turnovers he created and just when Belfast thought the momentum might be back with them he would swing it back in our favour.

I know today is supposed to be Blue Monday but I'm still buzzing on what was an excellent weekend of hockey
 
Great team performance to a man typifying "Devils Hockey"
Myers was my standout this weekend, never stopped hitting and skating, played havoc on the PK.
The guy just loves play-off style hockey, IIRC most decorated post season player (?)
 

Ocko

Well-Known Member
2 great games and probably up there with the highest standard I've seen in the EIHL, credit to Belfast for putting on a show too. I actually thought before the game player for player they maybe had the edge on us, but we are such a well organised and coached team right now. It is hard to single out players who are excellent or bad - which proves how efficient we are. Lord really has everyone going at the moment where the sum of our parts is better than the individuals.
 
without doubt the two top teams in the league. Both games were played at such a high intensity and pace it was a privilege to watch.

But as Lordo said it's just two more wins....now we have to move onto the next game....sequealers........ a team that are quite frankly crap but we can't be complacent
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
Actually I think it was more than 4 points, as they took nothing from those games, 4 pointer each game I reckon. Plus they now know how good we are.
 
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