Physical poll

[Wannabe2]

I don’t know how to do this, but could some kind clever person do a voting poll on whether there missing the physical aspects of the game. It doesn’t have to be a lack of fighting, but a complete lack of hitting, take the physicality out of the game, and to me you lose 50% of the product. Skill, speed, skating are all huge in the enjoyment of the game, but the way it’s going, it’s going to be soccer on ice. What I would give for a Faryna, Campbell, Birbraer, McIntyre, etc etc etc. Hockey to me has to contain everything that’s special to the game, and lose the physical side and the product nose dives big time.

 

[Legin]

I don’t know how to do this, but could some kind clever person do a voting poll on whether there missing the physical aspects of the game. It doesn’t have to be a lack of fighting, but a complete lack of hitting, take the physicality out of the game, and to me you lose 50% of the product. Skill, speed, skating are all huge in the enjoyment of the game, but the way it’s going, it’s going to be soccer on ice. What I would give for a Faryna, Campbell, Birbraer, McIntyre, etc etc etc. Hockey to me has to contain everything that’s special to the game, and lose the physical side and the product nose dives big time.

And Voth

 

[Sniper88]

I don’t know how to do this, but could some kind clever person do a voting poll on whether there missing the physical aspects of the game. It doesn’t have to be a lack of fighting, but a complete lack of hitting, take the physicality out of the game, and to me you lose 50% of the product. Skill, speed, skating are all huge in the enjoyment of the game, but the way it’s going, it’s going to be soccer on ice. What I would give for a Faryna, Campbell, Birbraer, McIntyre, etc etc etc. Hockey to me has to contain everything that’s special to the game, and lose the physical side and the product nose dives big time.

Glynne this is the most bored I have been in 30 years, I know all the happy clappers will have a go but irrelevant of all the trophy’s we have won myself and numerous others are totally bored with the style of hockey we play, every player we get who is marketed as physical before he comes here turns out to be more Disney on Ice than deadly eg Heddon, Jardine all marketed as tough no nonsense players arrive here and don’t do a goddamn thing

 

[august04]

Glynne this is the most bored I have been in 30 years, I know all the happy clappers will have a go but irrelevant of all the trophy’s we have won myself and numerous others are totally bored with the style of hockey we play, every player we get who is marketed as physical before he comes here turns out to be more Disney on Ice than deadly eg Heddon, Jardine all marketed as tough no nonsense players arrive here and don’t do a goddamn thing

I must agree with everything here and in wannabe2’s post. Despite promising a younger, faster, more physical team - I’ve been bored stiff watching recent games. We play a sterile brand of hockey, which seems to be the way Lord wants to play, despite him being the polar opposite of that in his playing days. Bizarre really but not much fun to watch I’m afraid to say.

 

[Kevlar68]

I think the spectacle of a enforcer on the ice and less hits is making the game boring, the game as a whole not just the Devils.
Skill and speed is taking over the game but its making the game very sterile to watch and with the added factor of players welfare in mind and health and safety within the game those big hitting games are gone..
The physical aspect is what gets the cheers and fans adrenaline pumping.
Watching rivalry grudges between 2 players every time the teams met.
Mike Macwilliam v Matt Hoffman
Mike Ware v Doug Sinclair
List goes on but that aspect is missing big time from the big.
You would go to watch certain games knowing there was a grudge between 2 certain players and something was going to happen.

 

[Rempel16]

Can't agree more. I'm finding it a struggle at most games these days, it's just very bland. Winning is great, but when you don't win the entertainment (or lack thereof) becomes even more obvious. Our style is so boring to watch, there's little to no physicality and post-whistle scrums are simply gone.

Unfortunately it looks like we've sacrificed the entertainment for results.

 

[Earnie]

Looks like we already have a poll!

 

[bb1]

The lack of physicality imo is shocking. Only the Batch, Duggan and Dixon seem to be throwing the body and Myers always puts in 110% effort every shift.

I have just struggled to understand our lack of reaction to not only going 2 goals down in a game but sometimes 3/4 goals down in a game.
Not only that when you have rats like Pitt running around and putting Riley out for a few weeks where was the reaction to that hit???
Mark Louis just squeezed his hand in the handshakes.....I'm sorry but i'm old school. When you go behind by a couple of goals or see a team mate taken out by a bad hit then......STEP UP. Hotham could change a game and took no crap from anybody....just ask Rutherford!!!

Lordo was the same every time Noble was on the ice. He targeted him constantly and if we ever went 2 goals down the Andrew Lord would come out all guns blazing...........Shame we are not seeing that type of passion among our guys who have the ability to do that.

For anybody who is going to say...'what about the instigator'.......I couldn't care. Mark Louis could sit for 10 mins any day of the week if he sorted a rat like Pitt out after that hit.

 

[Devilsatw]

I agree with what has been said. I have watched devils for 17 years roughly and have had the privilege to see some nasty buggers in our team. I loved them days and even when we lost I felt I had value for money, you could guarantee someone would step up for us when we was losing or when a player gets hit late,

These days they don’t and it’s annoying to see,

Yes we win majority of our games but sometimes I’m falling asleep in my seat.
Boring as hell

 

[ASHIPP]

It's the European style of hockey.... no need for huge hits and fights in the CHL which is all about speed and skill.
Add to that the ever changing reffing standards and interpretations of play in this league and soon you get watered down aggression to reduce the number of likely visits to the bin. Think a couple of our players are already on reffs radar. Riley's shoulder injury and Louis's leg injury don't help things. Until they are fully recovered they are not going to risk themselves

 

[moggy#9]

I think the one thing that nobody has mentioned is the average age of our roster. If you play a physical game it will take a toll on players bodies - particularly if you have a busy schedule. If you have a young team they can handle it and recover from injury more easily. Players in their 30s will take time to heal. I think that reduced physicality is a price lordo has decided to pay in order to keep the squad as fit as possible. Given the injury problems we've already had, I guess I can understand the caution.

 

[Devilsatw]

That’s just excuses! Look at bobby farnham and Brendan Connolly. There 30 plus and hit every shift. It’s either in your game or it’s not. Unfortunately for devils we have no one like them

 

[Finny]

That’s just excuses! Look at bobby farnham and Brendan Connolly. There 30 plus and hit every shift. It’s either in your game or it’s not. Unfortunately for devils we have no one like them

Every shift???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[Devilsatw]

Every shift???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Well not every shift. But I bet you Farnham or Connolly throw more hits alone than our full roster.

 

[The_Crimson_Pirate]

Personally, I'd prefer to see a skill game. I like speed and crisp passing. What I miss most in our team is the ability to one-time the puck. Some guys with a hefty slap shot would please me.

 

[Earnie]

Pope is doing well in that area and scoring goals!

 

[august04]

Personally, I'd prefer to see a skill game. I like speed and crisp passing. What I miss most in our team is the ability to one-time the puck. Some guys with a hefty slap shot would please me.

Unfortunately the players in the UK are not quite good enough to make a "skill game" that exciting, which is why we've always attracted players who play a more physical style of hockey over here and crowds have been brought up on that and most love it! Now we're seeing a trend away from that in general across the world, but the skill levels of the players we attract to the UK game aren't at the level yet where a skilled game is better/more exciting than what we're used to seeing (or they are at an age where their skills have diminished). If we were watching Frolunda every week, then I'd prefer to watch their skill/speed/passing levels too! But we're not - and when we try to play that way, we're not quite good enough to pull it off and it's resulting in boring, sterile games.

 

[kingmo19.1]

My favourite season was the one in the BBT where we had Mychan, Hotham, Clarkson and Marsh in the team.

I’d rather watch that style of hockey and maybe pick up the league title once every 3 or 4 seasons than the sterile non-entertaining version we have at present.

 

[Devilsatw]

Bloody hell even Wes Jarvis was more physical than this team and he was a hell of a player too.

 

[Sniper88]

What frustrates me is if we have an opinion the happy clappers shut you down, I never post on here but I’m so pissed off right now I need to vent, I saw Shannon at the game the other day and we had a chat and I said there isn’t 10% of the character of any team he played in or even Trevor Hendrix team. I take customers to games regularly and they expect at least some physicality and when I ask them if they want to return it’s always a solid “No Thanks”