Blaze Vs Devils - PO 1/4 Final - 8th April 23 - 19:00 FO
- Thread starter James
- Start date
I think a combination of the poor performance at Blaze a week ago, along with a real deliberate increase in intensity caught Coventry by surprise, and the Devils were very good.
A bit concerning when they fell behind without facing much pressure, but the Devils clearly responded. Every player playing with a bit more aggression, Joey Martin notably in Play-Off mode. Bowns stepping up once again when it matters most and the Devils have every chance now of going to the Play-Off weekend - something which before tonight was far from granted. If they get to Nottingham and are able to maintain the performance level shown tonight, they'll fancy themselves to win it again.
If we're looking for negatives, then I would say that we didn't punish Coventry on the power play, but despite not scoring with the advantage, it's certainly looked a lot worse and Holsa also pulled off a couple of good saves to keep the puck out.
All in all, really pleasantly surprised by tonight's performance. Well done Devils, get the job done tomorrow now with minimal fuss!
A bit concerning when they fell behind without facing much pressure, but the Devils clearly responded. Every player playing with a bit more aggression, Joey Martin notably in Play-Off mode. Bowns stepping up once again when it matters most and the Devils have every chance now of going to the Play-Off weekend - something which before tonight was far from granted. If they get to Nottingham and are able to maintain the performance level shown tonight, they'll fancy themselves to win it again.
If we're looking for negatives, then I would say that we didn't punish Coventry on the power play, but despite not scoring with the advantage, it's certainly looked a lot worse and Holsa also pulled off a couple of good saves to keep the puck out.
All in all, really pleasantly surprised by tonight's performance. Well done Devils, get the job done tomorrow now with minimal fuss!
I have a certain sense of deja vu. If the club were to win the shortest tournament of the year (because they decided to actually play for a fortnight) it'd be held up as a massive achievement and reason to keep our underperforming coaching staff and players. Then they'd be back in August to rinse and repeat, with the complete lack of clues. I dare say that franny and Todd would be quite happy - they'd get to avoid admitting their mistakes and they'd sell a few commemorative t shirts too.
Enjoyed that, well worth the 8 hour round trip! All lines showing some grit and cohesion. We need to keep Chad and Riley as line mates together next season as always show so much heart and physicality and teams visibly don’t enjoy playing a line they’re both on. Seem to be starting to get points from multiple lines now. Power play has to be priority to get sorted for next season. 2 minutes of 5 on 3 followed immediately with a 5 on 4 in the third and didn’t seem to be able to create anything really clear cut which is emblematic of the season.
In fairness, Holsa did make two or three good saves on the 5-on-3 to deny us a PPG and if they had capitalised on that, then it would've looked a bit better. I felt that the important thing was to get that fifth goal and put that distance between us and Coventry, and they still found a way to do that. In general though, yeah, the PP has definitely got to be a lot better next season, I agree.
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I think people should just take this game in isolation and enjoy it for what it was.
They played very well in a pressure situation and given the fact it was pretty unexpected let’s rejoice it.
The job is only half done so not to get ahead of ourselves either. I’d love to get the first goal tonight to settle things down
They played very well in a pressure situation and given the fact it was pretty unexpected let’s rejoice it.
The job is only half done so not to get ahead of ourselves either. I’d love to get the first goal tonight to settle things down
