The lack of consistency myth

Rich Best

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #1
"At the time I had that chat with King during January he had worked out that Devils had the highest winning percentage of any major professional hockey team in the World."

I have never got this lack of consistency argument. Our consistency was lacking 'perfection', that is it. We won more points per game this season than last year with 4 more games in the regular season, and under a lot more pressure (pressure from giants, pressure from the magnitude of what we were playing for and pressure from circumstances with players leaving etc...).

Last year we won the league by 10 points, this year Giants closed the gap and matched our consistency (or should I say very slightly bettered it).

Yes we had games where we went from trouncing opponents to winning in overtime or losing a tight game in overtime. But the raw data shows that we weren't 'inconsistent', quite the opposite in fact.

We are 5 points (at the right time) from winning the EIHL 5 years in a row. We are the most consistent team in hockey in the world, if you take the short to medium term into account.
 

Rich Best

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #3
Might be from January onwards? I think In terms of consistency meaning we can beat Belfast one week then lose to MK the next.
Ok, but I still think we need to see the bigger picture. A small number of up and down results may be a better way to describe it than lack of consistency.

I would take this years win percentage next year, and the year after and every year. We will 'usually' win the league comfortably if we keep this level of consistency.
 

Temme

Well-Known Member
#4
The same thing will happen in all professional sports.
Team loses 1 game they shouldn't & social media culture goes to work.

I think you summed it up well - Perfection & consistency are 2 different things.

There were patches of the season where we struggled massively in my opinion but were still winning most of our games.

You don't finish joint top of the EIHL without being consistent over a 60 game season. Just ask Fife this year, or the year we rattled off 22 straight & still lost.
 

voth26

Well-Known Member
#5
Ok, but I still think we need to see the bigger picture. A small number of up and down results may be a better way to describe it than lack of consistency.

I would take this years win percentage next year, and the year after and every year. We will 'usually' win the league comfortably if we keep this level of consistency.
To be honest I think that's a big part of the problem, some people don't look at the big picture only little snippets ie losing a game or winning a game, hope that makes sense. Good read by the way
 
#6
I wouldn't say inconsistency has been a key issue, the majority of teams have ups and downs throughout the season in professional sport and realistically the quality of the league has improved somewhat this year. Coventry have only just scrapped into the play offs and evidently from watching our games against them the past few seasons and hearing opinions from their fans on THF they are much improved this season (is this an opinion you would agree with Wagstaff)?

I would say our main issue has been a slightly lacking mentality to really close out these "must win" games...even if we aren't performing overly poorly or are on some occasions dominant we haven't been able to quite get over the line in these fixtures. Where as in previous seasons we'd be closing these out, I.e the Belfast away double headers, this season weve come up just short. Other "must wins" we have struggled In include the 2nd leg of the challenge cup, dundee and Coventry final week of the season and various fixtures Vs Nottingham earlier in the season. What I can't seem to grasp is where we have stumbled compared to previous seasons.

It's strange because offensively this year at times we've been unplayable, however in certain games we haven't been near clinical enough, which looking at our roster and players stats is surprising. The CHL I would say has been the obvious example of this, along with he number of times it's been reported the opposition netminder has had a Stormer against us. Defensively at times we've been more than solid, then other times extremely flimsy....I guess this is possibly where inconsistency claims lay. Strangely I wouldn't label any of our D-corps weak...intact they are all fantastic eihl players. However I think they have missed the experienced cool head we have had in previous seasons, most notably Strachan. Would Blood have been the guy down the stretch this season? We will never know...however with his pedigree it's very possible! I also feel this could singularly be the biggest factor in us narrowingly missing out!

Another factor I think has been our lack of change of tactic / imbalance in the forward lines. When things werent quite firing and the puck wasn't hitting the back of the twine we didn't have the personnel to throw the big hit etc to swing momentum. I'd like our recruitment in the off season to focus on developing a 3rd / 4th line with players who are capable of this doing this and can also chip in with a few points, no goons, but a few mobile physical grinders in the Tylor Michel mode would hugely compliment our aggressive forecheck and offer this opportunity to grab the game by the scruff of its neck. As disappointing as the season has been thus far results wise we haven't been hideously off the mark, no need to panic and change our whole roster. I do feel there may be more in the range of 6/7 changes this off-season however, some enforced some not, so think recruitment could be key for next year.
 

mweller

Active Member
#7
Another factor I think has been our lack of change of tactic / imbalance in the forward lines. When things werent quite firing and the puck wasn't hitting the back of the twine we didn't have the personnel to throw the big hit etc to swing momentum. I'd like our recruitment in the off season to focus on developing a 3rd / 4th line with players who are capable of this doing this and can also chip in with a few points, no goons, but a few mobile physical grinders in the Tylor Michel mode would hugely compliment our aggressive forecheck and offer this opportunity to grab the game by the scruff of its neck. As disappointing as the season has been thus far results wise we haven't been hideously off the mark, no need to panic and change our whole roster. I do feel there may be more in the range of 6/7 changes this off-season however, some enforced some not, so think recruitment could be key for next year.
Excellent summary, thanks. I'd agree with all of this. I'm no fan of the 'toughness' argument that emerges on here, but I have felt in several games when we've got bogged down, we just need someone who causes a bit of chaos for others to feed off (arguably that would have been Faryna). And agree about the D corps, Strachan gave so much last year just in attitude and calm reassurance. That's a difficult factor to recruit for, but merely by being in the team, he made all the others 10% better.
 

jimmy snels

Well-Known Member
#8
ok we were consistent then in wins, but to be honest losing 2 of the last 3 against those teams kinda showed for me our consistency was missing within what type of performance we saw each night. some were unbelievable skilled hockey early in the season prompting more exuberant posters to start wonder if we were too good! then we went on a pretty dismal period of home losses. we recovered form but im not sure we ever rediscovered that skill from the early season. we lost our only character players (louis is the best at his job by the way, to be clear this isnt about fighting) in my view which was already a preseason squad balance topic where people thought we were potentially a little light, and more over the product we regularly then saw on home ice (what i paid my 450+ extra games for) was imho less entertaining than the previous season or any since we were taken over.

im hoping we roll with a 3rd line next year with more aggressive forecheck, drive the net, not afraid to drop the mits, horrible to play against and chip in with a share of gosls. faryna was doing this role for me.
i feel as well our D needs a big, tough, steady D back there, to swap with one of the smaller players. Strachan was Brilliant. weller better. if either of those guys played on this team all year id bet we would have not needed to go to that last game.


my two pence worth. hope i dont get banned for it (reference other thread)
 

Meridian

Active Member
#9
ok we were consistent then in wins, but to be honest losing 2 of the last 3 against those teams kinda showed for me our consistency was missing within what type of performance we saw each night. some were unbelievable skilled hockey early in the season prompting more exuberant posters to start wonder if we were too good! then we went on a pretty dismal period of home losses. we recovered form but im not sure we ever rediscovered that skill from the early season. we lost our only character players (louis is the best at his job by the way, to be clear this isnt about fighting) in my view which was already a preseason squad balance topic where people thought we were potentially a little light, and more over the product we regularly then saw on home ice (what i paid my 450+ extra games for) was imho less entertaining than the previous season or any since we were taken over.

im hoping we roll with a 3rd line next year with more aggressive forecheck, drive the net, not afraid to drop the mits, horrible to play against and chip in with a share of gosls. faryna was doing this role for me.
i feel as well our D needs a big, tough, steady D back there, to swap with one of the smaller players. Strachan was Brilliant. weller better. if either of those guys played on this team all year id bet we would have not needed to go to that last game.


my two pence worth. hope i dont get banned for it (reference other thread)
Out of curiosity what do you think would be the right amount of players like that? The reason I ask is earlier in the season we obviously had blood and faryna, if you throw in Louis is that enough?

I like the idea of the third line as you described though, no reason Myers couldn't centre that line with a faryna one side and another the other side.
 

Samael

Well-Known Member
#10
I agree with Jimmy. We need/needed more big solid stay at home dmen from the Mark Louis school of hockey. I'm not for one second being critical of offensive defenders like Hotham and Fournier, but as I and many others have said in the past Forwards win games, Defence wins championships. Blood was a character player who I'm sure was a fantastic influence in the locker room in terms of morale and his on ice capability would have put those playing around him at ease much like Strachan did. Nothing flashy but did what was required game in game out. That is my understanding of consistency anyway. If people think that's boring hockey so be it, but I'd rather support a boring team that wins over an exciting team that loses any day of the week and at the end of the season it's the amount of cups in the cupboard that matters and not statistics.
 

jimmy snels

Well-Known Member
#11
Out of curiosity what do you think would be the right amount of players like that? The reason I ask is earlier in the season we obviously had blood and faryna, if you throw in Louis is that enough?

I like the idea of the third line as you described though, no reason Myers couldn't centre that line with a faryna one side and another the other side.
id like a 3rd line with (as an example of players we know) faryna mychan michel. not one of those is an enforcer, but all could score plus bring a real physical element. its an actual line with a role and crucially DIFFERENT entirely to the top two which is for me a key area we got wrong. too many players who try to play a similar game. this could be crucial in games that arent going your way.

those guys could also play pk as well giving those such as martin an actual break to play more on pp snd 5 on 5.

with the extra big D man id then be happy i think.
 

Meridian

Active Member
#12
id like a 3rd line with (as an example of players we know) faryna mychan michel. not one of those is an enforcer, but all could score plus bring a real physical element. its an actual line with a role and crucially DIFFERENT entirely to the top two which is for me a key area we got wrong. too many players who try to play a similar game. this could be crucial in games that arent going your way.

those guys could also play pk as well giving those such as martin an actual break to play more on pp snd 5 on 5.

with the extra big D man id then be happy i think.
Yeah I know what you mean about something different, I think our top 3 lines this year were outstanding players but as you say all in a similar mould. Almost a plan B to raise the tempo for a few minutes.

Will be interesting to see how teams shape up for next year, Nottingham went for the big bodied approach this year but with a new coach could change again. I can see a lot of teams bringing over younger quicker players.
 

Mazzoak

Well-Known Member
#13
“The highest winning percentage of any profesional hockey team in the World”. That’s a great statement, that accolade sits nicely with the most consecutive wins by a team we got in 2011 listed on the Guinness World Records site.
I think most teams this yr have been consistently inconsistent to some extent, we see this most yrs. l simply place this on the type of sport, it’s physically demanding, dips in performance are to be expected and frankly unavoidable.
Had we retained Pairisi and Blood, we’d have walked this season, that I’m convinced. This season unfortunately is going to be one to forget. I’m sure next year recruitment will not result in loosing two huge talents.
 

Meridian

Active Member
#14
“The highest winning percentage of any profesional hockey team in the World”. That’s a great statement, that accolade sits nicely with the most consecutive wins by a team we got in 2011 listed on the Guinness World Records site.
I think most teams this yr have been consistently inconsistent to some extent, we see this most yrs. l simply place this on the type of sport, it’s physically demanding, dips in performance are to be expected and frankly unavoidable.
Had we retained Pairisi and Blood, we’d have walked this season, that I’m convinced. This season unfortunately is going to be one to forget. I’m sure next year recruitment will not result in loosing two huge talents.
The losing talents I think will always be a risk. Parisi hopefully is a freak one off, with blood though if we're looking to bring in players of that calibre higher leagues could always come in for them. I dont think we are in a position to turn down the money or deny the player the chance of the move. I think we're safer with guys like linglet who come with a family etc as it's more hassle for them to move around.
 

Samael

Well-Known Member
#15
The season isn't over yet so I think it's a bit premature saying this year is one to forget. If we can stop Belfast getting the grand slam at the playoffs, like Sheffield did to us in 2016/17 then it won't be a total loss, yes I am THAT petty lol
 
#18
Its not the team consistency that has caused problems, more often it's the consistency of individual players performance, world beaters one game and invisible the next. This has applied to a minority not the majority
 
#19
I'd still say serious questions need to asked by Andrew lord and the team as to how you let slip an 11 point lead going into the second half of the season, really is very sloppy and the playoff win barely papers over the cracks as to a side on paper were good bets for a grand slam this season. The reason the Devils didn't win the title was the consistency WITHIN the fane rather than individual games on their own. belfast won games by playing more consistently over 60 mins where we had 2nd periods where we'd ship 3 sloppy goals and lose 2-3
 

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
#20
I’d just like to point out that while the Devils did have a 11 point lead over the Giants let’s not forget that the statement is slightly misleading as it omits the fact that the Giants had two games in hand at that time. Yes, should the Devils have closed the season out. The Giants slipped up a couple of times and the Devils failed to capitalise. Looking back we can criticise the result against Coventry but the Devils shouldn’t have been going to the last game needing points. Overall I think Lordo will be looking closely at the team & what happened over the season. There were so many games were the Devils appeared to play 20-40 mins of hockey or only brought their A-game when they were chasing. Giants brought in a couple of players late in the season which really raised their game where as last year they dropped off towards the end.
 
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