Re: Devils v Panthers - 08/01 - 6:00pm - League - Chat/Updat
After truly awesome heroics in Nottingham, a very short-bench and obvious exhaustion took its toll on the Devils. Played with guts and deserved so much more than that result. :evil:
Clearly exhausted, they did very well to stay in touch with the Panthers all game, and, for large parts of p1 and p2, were clearly the better team. However, tiredness, a few mistakes and not converting early chances really sealed this game for the Devils. Panthers took 2 points but the Devils unfortunately beat themselves last night.
Defence were excellent, particularly Richie, Kenton and Stevie who were outstanding. Phil had a great all-round game again.
Observations:
1. 9 pp opportunities and could not convert. :evil: These were the optimium chances to get ahead. Got to say it but pp looked slow and disorganised. Plenty of time for Panthers to set up their pk and a few eventual shots were never going to challenge Kowalski. What has happened to last year's crisp, sharp, fast and organised pp - Devils ALWAYS looked dangerous then.
2. 3 or 4 players worked fantastic coast-to-coast moves to carry puck to Panthers goal area........only for it to be turned over or blocked at the last minute. Passing to another player might have set up another scoring chance?
3. Luke and Adam raring to go from the bench but not played? Other players working themselves into the ground. :?
4. Mystified why time-out was called with 43 secs left. Surely not enough time to change the game at a stage when the Devils were 2 goals down and on their knees. Suprised a time-out was not called straight after Panthers' 2nd goal.
In the last 4 games, Devils have lost 3 in the final minutes of each game. :evil:
Braehead also short benched but won 6/8 points in last 4 games. Battle for 5th/6th place has started.
