It always makes me laugh, reading the speculation about how the Devils get one when they play in Hull.
Hands up if you were one of the other 7 Devils fans who were sat with me
Anyway - my take on this evening. Came out strong, and looked good. Passing was a concern, and Hull seemed able to break up the plays a bit too easy. Also, we were giving far too much room at the back, and seemed slow to clear the zone.
That said, how dirty were Hull playing. I need someone to really do some damage to Knight, and Cloutier was doing some interesting things off the play. Same old story, sly stick here, tap on the knee there and the Devils called for retaliating.
There always seemed to be a Hull stick just poking or pushing at the wrong time. The worst part was the Devils looked scared to hit anything, presumably for fear of getting the penalty.
That said, the Hull team this season are in a different league (figuratively). Fast, flowing, passing hockey. Always looked dangerous on the transition, and then putting a sly stick on our guys to push us off our game.
I think if we hit them hard from the outset tomorrow, and then own them on our pad, we can take it too them. When we were attacking, we looked the better team - and generally looked dangerous. Some very good saves from their nettie.
Lyle performed well, and I'm not sure there was much he could have done about any of their goals. Some interesting rebounds, but I was more concerned with the way the defence played in front of him. The second goal should have been cleared - it was between a Devils skates, who seemed oblivious.
Not sure where we are with Smith. He took a nasty hit (nothing called) towards the end of the second. After the handbags, he walked around holding his side or shoulder. After the period break, he was seen with it all strapped up and covered in ice. Hopefully it isn't an actual dislocation, and he will be back soon.
Positives? Well, preparation is what we need - we are competitive having played more games than practices. I can see the potential for this team to really come to life. The Brits all performed really well, and even without Smith, we were still playing full three line hockey - and looking dangerous.
I still feel positive. I don't think there will be a 'top 4' this year, in the same way as previous years. Hull look more than capable, Vipers sound like they have put together a competitive side - this season could go to the wire.
Sorry for the Match Night Live glitches. We made some changes to try and fix the server load issues. I am guessing that people were having trouble after manually refreshing the page. Looks like there are some setting that require tweaking. I'm running MNL tomorrow, so should be able to see the problems for myself - and hopefully mitigate issues before they become a problem. At least the server didn't crash though?!?!
