Panthers vs Devils

#61
The devil's have been so inconsistent all season and I don't understand why we have piggot as assistant coach all he does is make excuses about the teams performance in interviews after the game this squad needs to be changed for next season and 1st player out has to be benti.
Have I missed something here? The last post-game interview that I recall Piggott doing was the first game of the Belfast double header at home in November? Defensively tonight is poor, but as I understand Piggott helps coach the defence who have had poor performances at times, but are on a team that have conceded the third fewest goals in the league
 

august04

Well-Known Member
#62
Piggott is the least of our problems. Give him a break, the guy is part time and helps out with the coaching. If we can’t get in a more experienced defensive coach for whatever reason, that’s not his fault. I certainly wouldn’t put any of our defensive frailties at his door step - that was down to recruiting an unbalanced D unit in the off season. The problems have been clear from the start of the season, rectified somewhat when Morrisonn arrived but we seem to have gone gung ho again instead of playing a more solid defensive game. Some of the goals tonight were a bloody shambles.
 

ASHIPP

Well-Known Member
#63
Struggling to understand why Louis would travel to Nottingham, take part in the warm up and then not play. Unless he has a niggling injury.

Nottingham is always a difficult place to get a good result but that was a whitewash. Devils have a cluster of home games coming up which they will have to take advantage of. Perhaps they are saving their best performances for then.

They will certainly have to produce something very special in those two games against Steelers. One game is a cup final, the other will be the most important league game of the season.
 
#64
Struggling to understand why Louis would travel to Nottingham, take part in the warm up and then not play. Unless he has a niggling injury.

Nottingham is always a difficult place to get a good result but that was a whitewash. Devils have a cluster of home games coming up which they will have to take advantage of. Perhaps they are saving their best performances for then.

They will certainly have to produce something very special in those two games against Steelers. One game is a cup final, the other will be the most important league game of the season.
We player really well in the first tonight. After that, and the shorty, we fell apart. Messing about in our zone and turning it over. PP was poor. It was pretty embarrassing. We need a leader. Herr was in the ref’s ear all game, as always. Didn’t see that from our leadership group. We looked inept.

Very disappointing performance. Why Louis is being benched is beyond me. We looked tame without him.

Very poor performance all round.
 

Gospel

Active Member
#65
Poor poor result at this time of the season but even worse was the defensive display. Shocker by all. Bowns was hung out to dry.

I dont understand how we can be this far into the season & defend worse than we did in pre season! There was no fight/spirit/heart in most of that defensive effort tonight & we got what we deserved. Nothing.

How many shorties have we given up this season? Seems to be more than usual & definitely more than what we've scored.
 

Mazzoak

Well-Known Member
#66
Lords a pedantic child who’s struggling to do his job properly. Simple as that.

He punishes complainants of his incompetency & continues too. The coach is meant to keep control whilst retaining respect and showing strength in adversity. Lord just looses control & respect whilst retaining an iron fist, it’s his way, he has that luxury as he’s irreplaceable.
 

Devilsatw

Well-Known Member
#67
Everything I have said over the past 3/4mths people are saying now.

When I was saying
benti needs to go,
Lord is stubborn and needs to be more ruthless.
Bowns needs a rest.
Etc etc people were cursing me telling me to shut up I know nothing.

If we win the league this season then it proves how poor the EIHL really is because we have been bang average and don't deserve it.
 

kettdevil1

Well-Known Member
#69
Lords a pedantic child who’s struggling to do his job properly. Simple as that.

He punishes complainants of his incompetency & continues too. The coach is meant to keep control whilst retaining respect and showing strength in adversity. Lord just looses control & respect whilst retaining an iron fist, it’s his way, he has that luxury as he’s irreplaceable.
I am sure you will tell him this when you see him later , maybe he will tell you our record under him compared to every other team in the league.

I rarely respond to such detailed analysis but whilst I assume you are either having a laugh, a supporter of another team or have been mortally offended by AL, there is the vague chance that you might be serious..... if that is the case, would you like to critique Belfast’s season? Or maybe Nottingham’s ability to fall apart when they play us up there.... or Sheffield’s last weekend performance?

Midlands Devil has summed up last night, a poor match all round, but might I suggest that there is a bigger picture
 

kristian

Well-Known Member
#74
Got a feeling Murdy may start tonight. I think after the last goal . Bowns was on his knee looking at the bench as if to say pull me and murdy looked at the clock and seemed to say that they is no point with only 2or mins to go
 

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
#76
Everything I have said over the past 3/4mths people are saying now.

When I was saying
benti needs to go,
Lord is stubborn and needs to be more ruthless.
Bowns needs a rest.
Etc etc people were cursing me telling me to shut up I know nothing.

If we win the league this season then it proves how poor the EIHL really is because we have been bang average and don't deserve it.
The Devils won't be winning the league with a defense as frail as it currently is. The only reason we're in contention is because Sheffield had a mare & threw away a bunch of games on the trot. Looks like they're back on high scoring form so our upcoming league/Cup final games vs them could end up being brutal.
As for the blame game, I wouldn't blame Bowns. Does he need a rest? Heck yes but with a D as vulnerable as it is any goalie would let a lot through.

Are there Devils players in the team not performing as we need them too? Yes. I'm not going to name individuals. It's way too late to replace them so it's down to the coaches to try & make the best of what weve got.

The Devils D has been problematic all season, we were never able to properly replace Strachan & Hotham 2 years ago and this struggling D was a key reason why we lost the league last season. Last season however we had more players performing in the offense, scoring lots of goals. This year we've lost that with several key players scoring stats falling off a cliff. In short we're not as good as last year. Our only saving grace was Belfast being weaker than last year,the panthers appeared not to have made any strides forward until the last couple of months where they've really improved - however Sheffield have been leaps & bounds ahead of last year. Lordo ls priority should be to patch up our D again and hopefully we might win 1 piece of silverware.
 

Slartibartfast

Well-Known Member
#77
I have been trying to understand this team all season. Just when you think everything has finally clicked we get a performance like this.
For me the only explanation I can see is the constantly changing lines. This is partly due to injuries and bans and partly due to Lord shuffling lines to try and find the right chemistry through the season..
Last night 3 of our four forward lines had changed and one D pairing.( Forward lines are not just about scoring goals they are also about defensive assignments.)
Its tough for Lord. Dickson is banned, Linglet returned. Im assuming Louis has an injury. Don't know what the score is with Bentivoglio. Thats a lot of changes to deal with.
As for the performance of the team and the chances of winning the title Im on the fence. We are third in scoring, third in goals against and top of the league in points percentage (by 0.01%). So I don't agree with the doom and gloom from the usual glass half empty few.
However there is still some stuff to fix which I think are:-
1. poor finishing (sound like we could have won that game in the first if we buried our chances)
2. defensive communication to stop getting caught on breakaways
3. Individual performances (Don't know what the problem is with Benti (heard illness) but he clearly needs to be the (un)healthy scratch. Linglet has returned but took only one shot on goal. Charles, please have confidence in yourself. We know you can score some beauties.

If we fix these we can take the title from the Steelers who are 5th in goals against and lost four games in a row recently. If we don't fix them Steelers offense (which is incredible) will win them the title.
 

august04

Well-Known Member
#79
I have to say, I dislike the way Lord has discarded Louis and is now regularly starting two defenders who simply just cannot defend (and even pairing them together!). I know McMonagle and Reddick both have offensive upside but their main job is to defend first and foremost. Why does he keep doing it? They must have had a falling out as I can see no other explanation, as Louis doesn’t look injured to me at all (has played a full part in warm up for weeks and been scratched). I hear criticism of Louis’ plus/minus stats this year (we never get to see them though) but I’m betting that would be the case for anyone who has been partnered with McMonagle for any length of time! Given the way Lord played, I’m not sure what his problem is with “character” players but we’ve seen fall-outs with Mychan, Faryna, Hendo (edit - forgot Bordy!) and to a lesser extent I think even Hotham indicated they had some problems. He was our stand-out player though and too good to leave out. Bowns has had some justified criticism this season but in all honestly, it must be an absolute bloody nightmare playing in front of some of that lot. We keep hearing how strong the league is this year but to me that’s false. While there’s more depth in teams, the standard has been mediocre, which is why we’re still up there with a chance to win it all despite our netminding being the poorest it’s been for some time, our defensive play being shocking for much of the season and carrying several forwards who can’t score to save their lives (bar Joey Haddad of course!). Many of the players who come here after careers in very good leagues, are getting on a bit and like the average player already in this league, can't play the fast, physical game that the better leagues are now employing. Average players, playing slow, non-aggressive hockey is not good to watch and that’s the story of the season for me, not just in Cardiff either (perhaps Guildford being the one exception who at least try to play a faster and more entertaining game). For me, this is the poorest Devils team for a few years and bar a few games here and there, have been bloody awful to watch. I’m not holding my breath but I hope we have a complete re-set in the summer and that includes Lord taking a long hard look at himself also and adopting a brand of hockey that gives the paying public in Cardiff more bang for their buck - and not more of the dirge we’ve seen this season where fear of losing dictates the way we play. Note to Kelman - instead of gimmicks like kids night, can we just have real Cardiff Devils hockey back next year, win or lose?
 
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kristian

Well-Known Member
#80
Why did we have Rutkis on the bench last night if we had no intention of playing him. I get its experience of match day. Just throught he would get experience by coming on even if it was when the game was lost.
May be missing something but he seems to give us a bit engery and speed when he is on ice.
 
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