dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Mar 13, 2008 19:24:15 GMT
Totally agree Shaggy - what annoys me though is that Panthers switch us about like this. Us switching from Friday to Saturday is not the NIC's choice. All they did was make the ice available on the Saturday - we didn't have to switch.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Mar 7, 2008 20:46:12 GMT
[/quote] I would say it was a battering. Lewis got 4 or 5 good punches to Shmyrs head. He is very strong and I think he's only about 6'1 compared to Shmyrs 6'5.[/quote]
Yeah but having seen him in the flesh, he's a massive unit! Shmyr is quite skinny, but Lewis is built like an American Wrestler!
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Mar 7, 2008 20:16:50 GMT
1-1 Richardson
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Mar 7, 2008 20:14:00 GMT
Wouldn't say BATTERED. I counted one punch to nil to Lewis! Again a dull fight. Definitely a win for Lewis though.
Lewis to me just looks so much physically stronger than the rest - he looks like he can over-power them all.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Mar 4, 2008 22:13:18 GMT
Didn't think it was THAT bad. If Meyers was worried about getting battered he could have easily turtled, but instead he gave it a good shot.
Think it just went to prove how Payette has completely lost any intimidation factor he once had though. He's just so overweight now nobody seems to take any notice of him. Pelletier's check on him in the first period wouldn't have happened 3 years ago.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 22, 2008 22:44:43 GMT
Watching it again, 2 things struck me:
Firstly, we weren't as bad as I thought we were. Steelers deserved to win, but only just. On the night I thought they were all over us.
Secondly, I can't believe they were moaning about the ref! They got away with murder - Tessier and Lehman in particular! For every time they were called for a debatable one, we were called for 2! I mean, at the end when Legue got what Simms thought was harsh - if he'd have connected he'd have taken Myers head off! And then 3 minutes later Corey gets 2 mins just for a hard check. Don't think they'd have been moaning if we hadn't have scored from our PP and they had!
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 16, 2008 23:19:17 GMT
Think Shmyr was a bit slow on the uptake there to be honest. As soon as Finnerty went after Wally he should have been off and swapped himself with Shmyr...
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 16, 2008 22:17:54 GMT
Cracking performance from Panthers - and so good to see us mixing it up a bit, and showing we can change our style of play.
Looks like they've finally realised that if you get in Lehman's face and intimidate him he totally bottles it.
Men against boys for most of the night. We played it hard and they had absolutely no plan B. I feel they're missing a Bergin-type player.
Strange thing to say but they looked a better team with Cornish in than Tessier - they're just too one dimensional now.
Just hope we can keep it going on Wednesday!
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 14, 2008 17:33:10 GMT
The point I was trying to make about scrapping the 10 imports limit is that if each team were allowed 12-13 imports we wouldn't (or shouldn't) get completely pointless, boring games like last night, when a team turn up with 11 skaters and just defend all night. It was SO dull - wish I'd not bothered going, and that's with having already paid for it on my season ticket. It was just a waste of 4 hours of my life, which I'll never get back.
I'm inclined to agree with Zukiwskyfan on this - even down to 5 teams the ISL still had good, entertaining games.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 13, 2008 22:32:49 GMT
That and Saturday = probably the 2 most boring consecutive games I've ever seen.
We need to increase the number of imports because if that's being served up as "entertainment" worth £15 too often again the game is just going to die. If that was my first ever game there's no way I'd come back - same after Saturday.
Couldn't wait for it to finish.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Jan 26, 2008 22:05:04 GMT
Tonight made me think Wednesday was nothing to do with Lawrence being in goal - just everything to do with Bergin being clinical and un-save-able!
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Jan 19, 2008 18:34:37 GMT
I've always liked the idea of a "luxury tax". Didn't there used to be something similar in the BNL, or have I imagined that?
The luxury tax idea works for everyone - if Neil Black wants to spend double the wage cap, he's welcome to, but will have to pay, say, half as much again for the priviledge. This makes the weaker teams better, which would hopefully increase their crowds, and bring them more revenue...but also probably make the Panthers home games against them more interesting, so increase the Panthers crowds, and therefore line Neil Black's pockets - probably to the point of cancelling out the "tax" he's had to pay.
It's the sort of idea which could really kick the league off.
I don't want to go way off topic and bring it onto fighting but....(granted it may have been just because they had a load of fighters) in the year London went under, the home crowds against them shot up - I seem to remember the last time we played them at home there were around 5,000 there, only a handful of which were away fans.
Imagine if we could get that every single week against Edinburgh, Hull and Manchester, because everybody knew it would be a good game. Similar with Coventry now - "fair weather" fans turn up for those games, because they know it'll be close, hard fought and intense.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Jan 19, 2008 11:45:53 GMT
One solution I've always wondered about - what about we scrap the import limit, but each team has two separate wage caps - one for imports and one for Brits?
So in theory a team could go with as many imports as they like, but it'd be in their interests to also get some Brits in - otherwise they're just "wasting" wage cap money.
Policing of the wage cap CAN be very easy - every club is a member of the league, and it would be easy for the league to demand to see all finances. Let's face it, the only reason clubs are allowed to break the wage cap is because the league (i.e. the CLUBS!) allow it.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 30, 2007 14:00:06 GMT
All the videos seem to be from the players bench side. From where I was sat in Block 5, Ryan pretty clearly caught Cornish with a big puch to the side of the face (presumably the one which caused the big mark on his face) and you could visibly see his head rock back with the force. As his head was still rocking Shmyr got him with another and he went down - not sure he was knocked down, but I think he went down because he'd lost control and would have just taken a pounding from there.
He had some serious damage to his face though, Ryan didn't even have a scratch. You could tell by Nielson's reaction when he came over to congratulate Shmyr in the box that the players thought it was a pretty comprehensive victory.
More worrying about Cornish from a Steelers point of view though - I didn't notice him on the ice for about the last 10-15 minutes of the game, plus the whole OT period. Either he was injured, or he wasn't deemed worthy of putting on the ice at such a vital stage...and he didn't look injured!
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 28, 2007 22:49:54 GMT
I can't believe how different that is to the descriptions I've read!!
5-6 seconds after Tait played it I read - in reality probably less than one second.
Obviously not at all good that Tait got injured, but I think a match penalty (and one game ban) is about right. That sort of hit happens all the time - probably 5 times a game - I think Tait just got very unlucky, and got caught wrong.
I can see why the Steelers players reacted like they did, but that's often because of a player being injured, rather than the intent of the check.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 30, 2007 18:24:30 GMT
Good to see Shmyr racking up a few points as well now - albeit only assists.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 9, 2007 20:16:50 GMT
Sorry if I've missed it in another thread, but does anybody know who it is running the bench whilst Ellis is playing? I didn't recognise him.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Nov 30, 2007 17:42:27 GMT
Unless I've imagined it I'm sure Ellis said when we signed Askey that he wasn't desperately looking for a keeper, but Askey became available and he thought he'd improve the team so he went in for him. So how does that fit with today's goings on???
I'm pretty angry with Ellis on this to be honest. He's not that good a player - barely Elite League standard, and certainly no Drouin - so is a complete waste of an ITC as far as I'm concerned. What if McAslan gets injured later in the season and we desperately need another goalscorer? What if Neilson gets injured?
As has been said, we've won the last 3 games an import down...so why bother registering Ellis now?? Particularly given that, according to the Evening Post on only Tuesday of this week, Ellis was "closing in on the guy he wants" - are we to assume that's fallen through? (or is Tessier who won't play until after Christmas?).
Imagine what a laugh we'd be having if Sheffield had done this - release their "top" import, leave it 4 weeks without replacing him, and then Matsos decides to play again.
I find Panthers SO frustrating!!
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Nov 29, 2007 21:40:21 GMT
I'm no expert but...
Just have a read of some of the readers comments on The Evening Post news stories - there's absolutely no way that some of them aren't libelous! But NEP won't be held responsible for them - and rightly so.
This is both the beauty and the problem with the internet - free speech!
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Nov 30, 2007 20:23:28 GMT
The other side to Tessier...don't people remember how he still put everything in during his two weeks notice? Everybody was worried he'd just coast, but he didn't at all.
With his leaving mid-season - I have to say, I'd have done exactly the same if offered that opportunity.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Nov 22, 2007 22:16:04 GMT
I find it weird that a lot of people slate the MWB season a couple of years ago. I wouldn't have been surprised, if not confident, that if Tessier hadn't gone, we'd have won the league. We only finished 3rd - and it wasn't a distant 3rd by any means, we were very close - and that was with Ceman, plus a LOAD of bad injuries (for example, how long were Darling and Cote missing for?).
For me, Blaisdell's season was far better than Ellis's season last season, despite the play off win (which we could have very easily not even have made finals weekend if it wasn't for Rasto's penalty saves, which are down to a lot of luck).
At least in the MWB season, everyone looked like they were trying, pretty much every single game - plus, Blaisdell knows how to build a balanced team (recruiting centres, for example!).
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Post by dp on Nov 20, 2007 22:47:52 GMT
Can't fault the effort tonight from just about everybody.
A few players are still a bit worrying, but that's not for this thread. Neilson is looking a class above at the moment though - probably starting to live up to his "too good for this league" billing.
Only other concern is that we only beat a very poor Newcastle side (not a poor team in general, just poor tonight - didn't show any ambition...but why should they in a 2 leg game?) by only one goal - but then we are missing our "impact player".
The scrap was rubbish. Payette's just not worth fighting against. He doesn't commit anything to it - his only intention seems to be not to get hurt, so it's a waste of 5 minutes. He's always been like that, but definitely doesn't fancy his chances in a proper punch up with Shmyr - just get in tight and spoil the fight. I have to say, he fights like a coward.
Still, got the crowd going again in the 3rd, and probably contributed to our winner.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Oct 20, 2007 23:20:41 GMT
Tonight shows exactly why we'll never win the league with Ellis as coach.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Oct 14, 2007 20:44:57 GMT
He needs to be on a better line. Against Coventry in the Charity Shield he looked better than ever - and that's from me who rates him as the best player I've seen - for any side.
There's only so much one player can do on a line on his own - he's completely wasted on a grinding line.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Oct 14, 2007 18:53:02 GMT
Totally agree carnell - so who's fault is it we're not winning?? We've got the players...
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