dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Oct 13, 2007 23:34:46 GMT
Had to leave after 10 minutes of the second with Panthers 1-0 up, and it sounds as though I was lucky.
One thing about Lehman though - people must remember the absolute domination Craighead had over him. Lehman looked almost scared to save his shots...and so ended up just letting them all in.
I remember Craighead scoring a couple of times against him and skating right up to him and literally roaring in his face. Lehman's obviously very easily flappable and intimidated - why are we not doing this every single game?? In fact, why aren't all teams?!!
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Oct 11, 2007 6:20:25 GMT
...for the next 3 years.
The Council helped with £50,000 worth of funding to support the bid and ensure we beat off Sheffield apparently.
Evening Post website has the story up.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Sept 28, 2007 8:28:33 GMT
Feel quite sorry for him actually. Not the best player, but always gave everything.
If only some of the more talented players had the same commitment.
There's a short article and comment from Shep (none from the club) on the Evening Post website.
He seems genuinely upset about being released, and ashamed of his spearing.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Sept 23, 2007 21:36:02 GMT
This is honestly in no way connected to Panthers start to the season, but I was wondering the other day what had happened to...
Shawn Skiehar Curtis Cruickshank Dion Darling
Not heard that they've retired - what are they up to? Sure somebody must be interested.
Any other decent players not signed up?
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Sept 23, 2007 7:08:44 GMT
Agree with Shaggy - Dutiame needed something, but not that.
This is when Shmyr needs to start stepping up more I think - he shouldn't be letting players act like that, especially at our arena. It should never have got to the stage where Shepherd had to do something.
It looked bad from where I was though - 5 games doesn't seem unreasonable. If Neickar had done that we'd be looking at 12 games!
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Sept 23, 2007 21:27:03 GMT
Drouin has always been a luxury player - but he's one which is worth keeping, you just need other players to balance him out...which we haven't got.
My view is:
Our d was our weakness last season.
We replaced Rees with Pelletier, which seems a decent move - I don't think Pelletier is "too good for this league" by any means, but he's a decent player, and probably better than Ress.
I never rated Stancok that highly when he was here before. We lost Krajicek who was the best d-man in the league, and replaced him with Stancok, who is average at this level.
So overall our defence is far worse than last season - and last season we were weak there.
Campbell's getting slated in Newcastle by the looks of things - now's our chance!!
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Aug 30, 2007 9:43:50 GMT
I might remember him wrong, but I think anybody expecting Stancok to keep people like Payette in order are being very optimistic!
From what I remember he doesn't really even check but just has the odd mardy when he loses his temper. I remember at the start of the season he dropped the gloves a couple of times, but this was in the first Elite League season, when the only proper enforcer in the league was Craighead. It's a very different league now, and people like Payette will eat him for breakfast.
Having stood next to Stancok at POFW he's very small too - smaller than I remembered him being - must be the pads.
New bloke looks a decent signing, but not sure about the fit with the rest. As lots have said, we're lacking size throughout the whole team, and very much so at the back.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Aug 29, 2007 16:07:28 GMT
There's nobody with those PIMs according to the AHL website.
Dale Purinton is the highest PIM taking d-man with 240, and he's nearly 31 as well.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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NHL 08
Sept 21, 2007 19:47:25 GMT
Post by dp on Sept 21, 2007 19:47:25 GMT
Anybody any idea how to win face offs?!
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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NHL 08
Sept 21, 2007 16:49:34 GMT
Post by dp on Sept 21, 2007 16:49:34 GMT
Yeah, count me in to a PS3 league!
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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NHL 08
Sept 15, 2007 14:37:20 GMT
Post by dp on Sept 15, 2007 14:37:20 GMT
No, it's a proper English version - it's just from an online place - I think a lot of them just let them go as soon as they get them in stock from the suppliers. It's from www.365games.co.ukI'd originally ordered from Play, which says 28th as the release date (and I think that is the official release date) but found this place saying 14th, so I thought I'd give it a go - and it's here already. I've done the same with Tiger Woods actually - got that last week.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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NHL 08
Sept 15, 2007 9:49:30 GMT
Post by dp on Sept 15, 2007 9:49:30 GMT
Got my copy on PS3 this morning.
Only played a couple of games but it seems good - much more realistic than previous versions.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on May 31, 2007 20:10:24 GMT
A bit disappointed to be honest - my type of hockey player and would have loved to have seen him with us. Him plus Shmyr was the toughness I was hoping for next season.
Now Campbell's gone, I'm sure there must be plenty of other high goalscoring, middle-weight, semi-goonish players our there - hope we can bag one.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on May 31, 2007 20:08:14 GMT
...and Edinburgh get their ice time for practically nothing, so nearly all their ticket money is straight into their coffers whereas we have to pay thousands of pounds for each game.
And Newcastle now seem to have a link up with their university, hence the Campbell signing.
It's all much of a muchness. As far as I'm concerned, as long as the games are competitive, and nobody goes bust, I really couldn't care less.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on May 10, 2007 20:06:39 GMT
Don't think it's quite sunk in that we've re-signed Drouin - without doubt my favourite ever Panthers player!!
My only worries are, a. has he still got it? and b. he had a tendency to look totally disinterested in some games, and in other games was ABSOLUTELY SHOCKINGLY BAD, and seemed to have had 10 pints before the game!! Hopefully with him being assistant coach he'll know he has to set an example though.
Neilson I'm a bit concerned about - I was never one to think he was that bad, but it worries me that as a unit our defence was generally pretty weak last year. We've now re-signed 3 of the 4, with the one we haven't re-signed yet being by far the best of them, and possibly the best in the league. So basically, the best we're going to do now is last season's defence, which I'm not convinced can win a title. To be honest, I'd have preferred to have replaced Rees than Neilson though.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Mar 30, 2007 19:02:13 GMT
Let's hope they don't all end up on a jessop jessop jessop.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Mar 29, 2007 22:02:40 GMT
Kim - the point I was making was that this season Newcastle have the best set of Brits - Longstaff and Weaver alone are enough to take them above the quality of any other team's Brits, before you even consider the rest - and they've only just scraped making the play offs.
And Belfast last season were already top before Fleury joined if I remember rightly - and the only reason they "limped" to the title was because they won it so quickly they started to relax.
EDIT...ah, Kim, I've just realised what you're saying! What I'd say to that is that Newcastle, if anything, have a better set of Brits this season than last, having added Tasker and kept all the rest - so therefore it must be the imports who have made the difference between last season's finish and this season's - which is exactly the point.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Mar 29, 2007 21:49:00 GMT
Belfast proved it last season. From what I remember Levers was the only Brit getting regular ice time, and they won the league at pretty much a canter.
The season before with the Coventry grand slam team - Tait (born in Canada anyway!) was a key player yes, but the quality of imports were what gave them the advantage above the rest.
Brits have a part to play, but I think Panthers have had one of, if not the, best set of Brits every single season in the Elite League...and look how we've done. Look at Newcastle this season for proof.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Mar 29, 2007 19:26:39 GMT
I'm not too sure.
Blaisdell got slated for last season, but we finished 3rd, and weren't far behind 2nd or 1st - and I've always thought that if we'd kept Tessier we would have won the league - we'd definitely have been very, very close.
As far as I'm concerned there have been far too many games this season where the players haven't looked bothered. For me that's the worst reflection of a coach there can be - it's nothing to do with recruitment or injuries, it's just plain, basic man-management problems, and reminds me of the Adey era - but, for me, the Adey teams played more entertaining hockey.
I also think Ellis has made some pretty major errors - not getting rid of Lindsay sooner, and ditching Simoes being the main two - sure, Gallant has come in and played a blinder, but we played for, what was it, six weeks? missing Simoes, which gave us absolutely no chance of catching the teams above us, and let Cardiff and Sheffield go past us.
I think the players who are saying they'll stay if ME does would probably stay if we got a different coach in who made it clear they wanted to keep them and paid them enough.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Apr 1, 2007 19:52:41 GMT
I just want to send my sincerest condolences to Dan Tessier and Dave Simms!!!
Hope you enjoy the extra week on the golf course!!
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Mar 31, 2007 23:00:59 GMT
I wouldn't worry about us getting intimidated if Shmyr doesn't play - even without him we've still got much, much more toughness and muscle than they have. Sacratini, Tessier, Sutter, Finnerty and Johnson are annoying, but hardly intimidating. We may actually be better without Shmyr because we'll just play, rather than getting drawn into anything.
It's better just to laugh at them than react - they're just a bunch of sad, cheating dwarves.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Mar 30, 2007 7:51:29 GMT
I'm expecting Shmyr to go looking for trouble in this game. I think he'll do what he can to try and coax a Steeler into dropping the gloves. Shmyr's a "spare" 5th defenceman now, so it's not going to cost us much if he's off for 5 minutes.
If he can take Finnerty or someone with him for 5 minutes, it'll benefit us more than them.
I just hope he does it sensibly - there's no reason why he wouldn't - apart from that one game he's kept his head pretty much all season.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Mar 4, 2007 20:04:23 GMT
But the problem with Cornish is...he's useless at playing ice hockey!
With only 10 imports you can't afford somebody who is purely a fighter. I'd be absolutely amazed if Newcastle re-signed him next season - he's effectively a waste of an import slot. Solely there as a fighter, and he loses at least as many as he wins, so he's not exactly intimidating for the opposition. Payette can't fight, but I'd be more intimidated by him, just because he's a loon - and he can actually score occasionally!
Cornish's only chance of playing here next season may be as an out and out fighter for a really skilfull team of Euros, such as Hull or Edinburgh.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Mar 4, 2007 18:53:01 GMT
Seriously I think we should be looking to get Campbell signed up. He's like a better all round version of Payette - he's racked up loads of points, winds the opposition up and isn't afraid to drop 'em with anybody. Him plus Shmyr would be a good combination I reckon.
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dp
Jim Keyes
Posts: 966
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Post by dp on Mar 2, 2007 23:13:25 GMT
I reckon there are a lot of Brits who are better than Ellis. We'd have been better saving his half pay from the wage cap and playing James Neil.
Obviously I don't KNOW that Newcastle will qualify - but neither do Panthers. They'd be the team I'd least want to play, that's for sure.
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