Devils Vs Stars - League - 12th Dec 21
- Thread starter James
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Reality wise has anyone gone away recently pumped up, full of passion and had a great time? Its all becoming passionless. The bar prices are now top end (£3 a pint not very long ago is now £5!). The cost of everything is now just high, yet i watch a team that appears to be of far less quality and of interest. I dont think anyone wants to watch euro hockey. People just want a good night out. Its simply not currently. Lots of people around me in block 4 consistently complain about how crap it is. How they miss the bbt, the banging and excitement. I do.
It's the fact that every interview he's done has been the same monotoned repeated statement, and the fact he doesn't hardly talk to the players on the bench that frustrates me, he spent one game just looking at his feet or looking up at the scoreboard majority of the time, if he wants passion and emotion from players he needs to lead by example which he isn't.
Maybe in a couple of months it will fade, but after 18 months without Hockey, I still leave any game full of passion for the team. I get so frustrated when we lose of course, any fan would be, but I try to put things into perspective. I really don’t think we will be in this slump for too long, but that’s just my opinion. Maybe I’m just a glass half full kind of guy
I agree that it’s difficult to gauge someone's “passion” in this way. However, you’d like to think that the way the team plays is a representation of the coach and his philosophy on how the game should be played. That's what he’s there for. And we're playing with no heart whatsoever and not much quality or work ethic either! So if Skalde is trying to impress upon that in the dressing room (we can only assume that he does as he says it in every interview), that begs the question, are the players listening to him anymore? If they’re not, replace them, with players who will. Or replace the coach (and that’s not going to happen mid season).
Personally the supposed lack of passion from Skalde doesn’t bother me so much. I know people will disagree with me and that’s fine, I get why it frustrates people. I rate Paul Dixon and Aaron Fox and I wouldn’t say there’s much passion from those two in their post match interviews. Dixon in particular always comes across well but I wouldn’t necessarily say he oozes passion on the bench or in interviews.
My biggest gripe with Skalde is nothing to do with passion or his personality, I actually think he seems like a good bloke. I just don’t think he put in the hard yards during those 12 months he had before this season started. I appreciate it’s a hunch more than fact but when I look at the team he’s recruited and his tactics/style of play I just think he’s read the league all wrong. When you look at the players individually there’s a lot to like overall but the balance is all wrong.
- I seriously question signing two import netminders unless they play 50/50 or 60/40. Particularly this season with 19 man rosters.
- I think most of us have questioned the O’Connor signing from day one (I appreciate that may have been more of a Kelman signing tho)
- I question getting rid of Myers.
- I question the signing of Lammon. I thought it looked like a strange signing when it was announced.
- I question how Skalde looked at our options at Centre and thought we were strong enough.
- Too many small forwards. As I said earlier there’s a lot to like about them individually but you can’t have too many of them on your roster. You’ll just get bullied in this league and defenceman are generally keeping our small forwards to the outside. Hence why we are struggling for goals.
My biggest gripe with Skalde is nothing to do with passion or his personality, I actually think he seems like a good bloke. I just don’t think he put in the hard yards during those 12 months he had before this season started. I appreciate it’s a hunch more than fact but when I look at the team he’s recruited and his tactics/style of play I just think he’s read the league all wrong. When you look at the players individually there’s a lot to like overall but the balance is all wrong.
- I seriously question signing two import netminders unless they play 50/50 or 60/40. Particularly this season with 19 man rosters.
- I think most of us have questioned the O’Connor signing from day one (I appreciate that may have been more of a Kelman signing tho)
- I question getting rid of Myers.
- I question the signing of Lammon. I thought it looked like a strange signing when it was announced.
- I question how Skalde looked at our options at Centre and thought we were strong enough.
- Too many small forwards. As I said earlier there’s a lot to like about them individually but you can’t have too many of them on your roster. You’ll just get bullied in this league and defenceman are generally keeping our small forwards to the outside. Hence why we are struggling for goals.
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I think it’s also worth pointing out that going to a game carries some very real risks for people too, especially with numpties not wearing masks. I understand that this is a personal decision and no-one forces anyone to go - but for God's sake, reward the fans - who have turned up in their droves for this club and shown amazing loyalty this year under difficult circumstances - by putting in at least a modicum of effort. That’s the bare minimum that we should expect, not this dross week in week out.
Next Wednesday’s CC game is a big ask . I think we may win it but to make up the deficit is something else. There is a big financial impact also for the semi final would bring in a full house of cash.(season ticket holders need to pay for semi final I think)
Time to produce A+ game. Dixon and Louis are a serious loss at this moment in time.
Time to produce A+ game. Dixon and Louis are a serious loss at this moment in time.
I agree with pretty much all of your bullet points there, but is it surprising that a new coach to the league made those 'mistakes'? To me its it's not, in fact it was expected that there would be teething problems in the first year, and probably second year, and our current league position is on the higher end of my expectations. There was no way we were going to be close to previous years teams with the loss of pretty much every player and the best coach we have ever had.
Paul Thompson recruited the worst Steelers team I've ever seen in his final year with them. And if someone who has coached and won in this league for 25 years can do that, it's inevitable a completely new coach to the league, country and players will do so too.
Paul Thompson recruited the worst Steelers team I've ever seen in his final year with them. And if someone who has coached and won in this league for 25 years can do that, it's inevitable a completely new coach to the league, country and players will do so too.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens with or without the result going our way.
We're not in a desperate situation and it's not all doom and gloom, we're in the top half of the table and still in the mix despite a string of bad results, however a win on Wednesday will be a huge sigh of relief for the management & hopefully it doesn't "paper over the cracks" so to speak.
We're not in a desperate situation and it's not all doom and gloom, we're in the top half of the table and still in the mix despite a string of bad results, however a win on Wednesday will be a huge sigh of relief for the management & hopefully it doesn't "paper over the cracks" so to speak.
We all have differing views on whether his recruitment was good or not. I’ve made mine clear on that front. At the moment though, I’m more concerned about his ability to get the best out of these players that he’s recruited, as we've seen glimpses of what they can do. That’s a far more worrying issue right now.