When we arrived and found a shortage of Smith's on the ice we knew it could be a long evening.... in truth we were second best tonight, the ref was not a factor and we looked like we could do with a rest and a regroup.
We started off in defensive mode, leaving three back for long periods and even when we took the lead - Stu waltzing in from a face off with the Sheffield defensive completely asleep - we didn't really look like we were in control.
Sheffield are currently playing like we were a couple of months ago, they are full of confidence, Legue could afford to miss a couple of sitters and any mistake was pounced on.
A few general points:
1) I have been Symonds' biggest critic but tonight I thought he was superb, he will never be the most skillful D-man but he stepped up today and along with Kenton Smith would have been my choice for MOM
2) Weller chose a bad match to have his worst display of the season. It seems unfair to criticise a man who spent the best part of 60 minutes on the ice but, 2 of the Sheffield goals were down to major mistakes... he looked gutted at the end.
3) Not sure why Voth was being pilloried tonight, I thought he was one of our better players.
4) Great away support again and it was good to see a good attendance at the House of Rust
5) We looked shattered in the second period and amazingly (and to be honest rather annoyingly) we looked much better in the third period, why couldn't we have been like that in the first two periods?
6) We have lost our way but we are still not a bad team at all. At times we looked dangerous tonight but I really feel as though we need to take this week to re-find our mojo. Our PP was awful tonight, our forecheck missed Sir Tylor and too many people were trying to do it all themselves.
Oh and I had fogotten how much Simms talks...
