Vaxjo Lakers v Cardiff Devils - Wed 11 Oct 2017 - CHL - FO 6pm - Updates/Chat

jimmy snels

Well-Known Member
#42
We fought all night. I litrally couldnt ask for more. Batch farayna and moore led the way for me and worked their arses off. This was a loss to be proud of. I worry that we can bribg that today yet belfast out work and rough us up in our barn? Its weird!!
Bownsya starman for me. May want 2nd one back but christ all mighty that lad made some top top saves. I suspect this could be his last year with us. Make the most of it i say!
 

osh

Well-Known Member
#43
Well, the team emphasised tonight that they can up their game and compete at a higher level. Very proud of both the team and our great travelling fans who deserve huge praise. The CHL experience is now behind us for this season and the team now have to ensure they readjust back to the style of play needed to push on in the EIHL and be much more consistent. I am still of the opinion we neeed to replace at least 2 players ( highly unlikely if Lords past record is anything to go by ) both Guildford and Coventry games are massive for us and hoping to see much better results this weekend.
 

drainage

Well-Known Member
#44
Back in hotel after the game .....it was an amazing experience so many nice people so complimentary about our team and fans. The owners were fab I think we all had an absolute blast as Todd said "never seen a hockey team celebrate a loss like this " wouldn't have missed it for the world
 

ASHIPP

Well-Known Member
#45
Bownsy was sensational tonight. His level of confidence and fitness is sky high. Vaxjo fans at our home game were in disbelief over some of his saves. Davos players congratulating Ben on his performance in the team handshakes a few weeks back.

How long can we hang on to Bownsy? As Team GB #1 Goalie and with the European shop window, no question he will be getting noticed. Our MVP this season by a country mile.
 
#46
Just watched the post game interviews. Sam Hallam said the team were going at 50%, and it's a bit like the Portuguese/Dutch national football teams going to play the Swedish national team ...

Seems to be a theme - whenever a UK team does well, the coaches say they want to lose, or that they weren't trying too much!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Pondlife

Well-Known Member
#48
Well if his team are going at 50 per cent in front of their paying fans then that's an issue in itself ;-)

That's a cheap answer I'm sorry.
I agree. It's a disingenuous response in light of a somewhat disappointing result for lakers fans. To be only one goal up at home against a team that on paper you should be beating convincingly is not a good place for a coach/manager to be. Especially if you give up a penalty in the closing minutes. A draw in regular time would have been a humiliation in my opinion and so to say that you were just coasting is insulting to both the fans and your own players.
 
Last edited:
#49
I just don't buy the 'we weren't trying' mentality - if they were coasting, they would have scored 10 goals and then continued on a jolly!

Also, interestingly, their players come from no different stock than ours! Players signed straight from the AHL and ECHL. Youds, for example, wouldn't look out of place on a Cardiff, Nottingham, Sheffield Roster.

Reddox has 200ish AHL games (.65 points per game) and 100 NHL games (0.25) points a game, and is 31. He wouldn't even look that out of place on an EIHL roster!!

Shinnimin is the same 200+ AHL games, 12 NHL games....

And the list goes on. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of these guys on EIHL rosters.

The main difference is that hockey is massively popular in Sweden, more people attend, the teams can afford to pay their players wages a lot higher than the EIHL. But because they're on more money, people think they are far far superior - they're not!

The teams are younger, overall, and the coaching standard is higher, but the difference in standard of actual player ability is next to nothing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

drainage

Well-Known Member
#50
Well if his team are going at 50 per cent in front of their paying fans then that's an issue in itself ;-)

That's a cheap answer I'm sorry.
No one paid all tickets were free but those players were visibly getting frustrated we sat behind their bench and trust me his words don't match the body language of his team!!
 

Foxy

Well-Known Member
#51
Why cant these coaches give credit where its due.
At the end of the day they are in charge of team tactics if they got it wrong put their hands up and accept the blame not be disrespectful to the other team....... pure blinking arrogance.
 

Devil94

Well-Known Member
#52
I just don't buy the 'we weren't trying' mentality - if they were coasting, they would have scored 10 goals and then continued on a jolly!

Also, interestingly, their players come from no different stock than ours! Players signed straight from the AHL and ECHL. Youds, for example, wouldn't look out of place on a Cardiff, Nottingham, Sheffield Roster.

Reddox has 200ish AHL games (.65 points per game) and 100 NHL games (0.25) points a game, and is 31. He wouldn't even look that out of place on an EIHL roster!!

Shinnimin is the same 200+ AHL games, 12 NHL games....

And the list goes on. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of these guys on EIHL rosters.

The main difference is that hockey is massively popular in Sweden, more people attend, the teams can afford to pay their players wages a lot higher than the EIHL. But because they're on more money, people think they are far far superior - they're not!

The teams are younger, overall, and the coaching standard is higher, but the difference in standard of actual player ability is next to nothing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I disagree. You could see with the Davos away game just how good teams like than can be. They were so much quicker, the passing was flawless, the shots were harder, and everything else you can think of was better. To be honest I think if Vaxjo gave the same amount of energy and dedication to our games as they so for normal SHL games then the score would have similar.

The SHL is of similar quality to the AHL, and a player making a career of playing in the SHL could have also played 100s of games in the AHL. Same goes for Swiss league. When the whole squad is of at least that quality, add in a few players with over 100 games in the NHL then you have a quality team.

I think the gap is definitely closing between our leagues, but the difference in quality is still quite substantial.
 
#53
I agree. We have these types of players spotted about rosters across the league, whereas they have them throughout each team.

My point is that the difference in skill level isn't as great as most people think!

EDIT:
And of course the style of hockey they're coached in is completely different to ours and NA.

The major difference I noticed between us and them last night was their puck movement through the neutral zone, they were so quick and made great passes, and we were pretty slow and kept missing passes.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Slartibartfast

Well-Known Member
#54
Lots of positives to take from this game. Great to see Pope back, I think we have missed him recently. Naturally Bownsy played a blinder. But I think a special mention has to go to Josh Batch. He really is becoming our power forward. Not just is he hitting everything but he is showing a great hockey mind and played great defensively also. I am just loving that fourth line.
 

wildthing74

Well-Known Member
#55
Still proud how we competed as I must be honest when they scored an early second I thought we might be in for a whipping especially after all the talk about revenge for us stuffing them the week before.

We took a couple of soft pens and got punished with their second which we seemed to switch off and the line looked a bit shell shocked.

To our credit we got back into it and were super unlucky when Benti hit the pipes which would have been 2-2. He did everything right and the goalie was beaten all ends up but the post cruelly got in the way.

For our slow start we grew in confidence and Bowns shut the door and they simply could not beat him.They are full of crap if they are now saying they were at 50%. Our seats were directly behind the home bench and they were going all out every shift for sure.

If I'm being honest at times it was like a constant power play and the guys had to skate flat out to protect Bowns.One time the fourth line just couldn't get off and after we iced the puck Lordo sensibly called a time out to give them a breather but Vaxjo just kept coming back but they stood tall and probably had the longest shift of their season but didn't concede.

It was an incredible experience and to take the Swedish champions to the last minute on their ice is something I will never forget.The rink was incredible and the fans that spoke with us were very impressed by the standard of our play.

I will miss the CHL for now and hope we make it back soon.Would love us to win the league again and see if we can take it to the next round?

Our fans that travelled did the club proud and sang all game and well after the majority of home fans had left.

Proud of the team and they each gave everything for the badge that's for certain.
 
#56
Being an eternal cynic, I’m really glad he stated what he has. You never get an honest public statement in Sport, Business or Politics. He must have been really peeved off having to put that spin on it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

KaneDevils

Well-Known Member
#57
Cracking couple of results but I can't help but feel that vaxjo were not at it full throttle.
They are the Swedish champions and had already qualified. Different mindset.
 
#58
Cracking couple of results but I can't help but feel that vaxjo were not at it full throttle.
They are the Swedish champions and had already qualified. Different mindset.
Without being in the team there is no way of knowing, you could also argue the Devils played a similar tactic with this weekend coming up. They may have the luxury of being a much higher quality team and l guess some would simply conclude that loss and last nights result in that manner, but we put a lot of goals on them and that tells a different story. On paper they have the skill set to shut us down, in reality l believe we proved a tough nut to compete against.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Hedd Wyn John

Well-Known Member
#59
I disagree. You could see with the Davos away game just how good teams like than can be. They were so much quicker, the passing was flawless, the shots were harder, and everything else you can think of was better. To be honest I think if Vaxjo gave the same amount of energy and dedication to our games as they so for normal SHL games then the score would have similar.

The SHL is of similar quality to the AHL, and a player making a career of playing in the SHL could have also played 100s of games in the AHL. Same goes for Swiss league. When the whole squad is of at least that quality, add in a few players with over 100 games in the NHL then you have a quality team.

I think the gap is definitely closing between our leagues, but the difference in quality is still quite substantial.
To be honest I think the difference was Browns. Lakers were clearly faster, better skaters and more accurate passers - the sheer amount of shots they had says it all. Bowns outstanding goal tendering skills minimised the scoring which otherwise could have been 7,8,9 goals + etc
 

drainage

Well-Known Member
#60
Cracking couple of results but I can't help but feel that vaxjo were not at it full throttle.
They are the Swedish champions and had already qualified. Different mindset.
That team was gunning for us by all accounts they were fined after losing to us and speaking to their fans they said the team put "spin" on the loss and took a lot of flack in Swedish media. An ex coach said when they lost a game 10 nil it was the worst result in history but losing to us was now the worst result ! Trust me they wanted to kick our bums into next week !
 
Top