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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Apr 5, 2017 19:41:02 GMT
So it looks like we're keeping Lacho, Farmer, Lee, Clarke, Betteridge, Spang, Brown, McGrattan, Nikiforuk, Sertich, Lindhagen and potentially McMillan.
We'll have 2 netminders, presumably one of which will be a Brit.
That only leaves us space for 5 new skaters. Not exactly the complete overhaul most were hoping for!
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Apr 3, 2017 7:36:28 GMT
Having seen the highlights...
No goal for their first.
And the Wiikman thing doesn't look entirely innocent. Put it this way, there's definitely no attempt to avoid him, and you have to question what else he was hoping to achieve by skating in at that angle. That's putting it kindly.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Apr 2, 2017 19:52:01 GMT
The only way they were winning this was to get Green in net. + Thompson has proved time and again that he uses running the netty as a tactic. I'm sorry but I'll never believe Miika getting injured was a 100% accident. Gutted. Yeah, Thompson has done it for YEARS. I always remember when he was Coventry if Panthers went a few goals up it was the same every single time - call a time out, lo and behold, his team start lobbing soft efforts in on the Panthers netminder and then crashing the net and following through way after the puck is dead. Every single time. And the thing is, because his boss is also chairman of the league, he knows he can do what he wants. What's the point in a sport where fans are genuinely questioning if the refs are neutral?
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Apr 1, 2017 21:09:47 GMT
It's pretty impressive that up against some very stiff competition over the years, that was in the top 3 worst reffing performances I've ever seen.
The body language of #44 said it all - he looked massively tense and uncomfortable when he was making those dodgy calls. He knew he was cheating. You can try, but your body language will always give you away.
The game itself was pretty much pointless. We started brilliantly, but then spent the rest of the game on the PK.
Who goes through depends entirely on the refs (which in sport it should NEVER do). If the refs are like they were tonight, we don't stand a chance. If they're not cheats, then I'd say at half time it was about level.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Mar 23, 2017 22:11:11 GMT
I was wondering if I could be permitted to speak from a Devils perspective on where I see your issues. I view that Panthers as something of a sleeping giant, given your infrastructure. I genuinely believe that your issues stem from having Moran as your GM. I haven't seen enough of your games to comment on Corey Neilson's coaching ability, although I will say, of the teams that visited IAW this year, I felt on all but one occasion, that it was the Panthers who gave us the most problems. (Is that Neilson's coaching or Lord's inability to overcome your game play on those occasions?) In respect of Gary Moran - I feel as a league we are very lucky that he is your GM, in that if for instance Todd Kelman was in his position, I believe he would turn the Panthers organisation into a complete powerhouse (which arguably you should be given the resources and infrastructure at your disposal). We have been very fortunate in Cardiff (having experienced some pretty horrific owners), to have a consortium who provide decent backing to the team. We also have a GM who has experience in making very subtle but ultimately successful changes in the way the organisation operates, which leads the fans feeling like they are valued - a trait that is sharing by the coach and the players. If you haven't had the chance, I would recommend you have a look at Andrew Lord's chat with the travelling fans after the game in Sheffield. You are very fortunate as a club to have a very strong and extremely loyal fan base, who travel all over the country in large numbers, and personally I feel you are being short changed. It seems incredible for me as a Devils fan to say that about another team's fanbase in light of the issues we have been through, but likewise I don't like to see any team taking their fans for granted. I think Kelman would behave very differently if King etc were purely interested in money. Imagine if Kelman were tasked with making as much money as possible, regardless of success. Would he still sign what everybody said back last summer was by far the most expensive roster in the league? If Kelman were tasked solely with generating money and he knew he could fill the arena regardless of success, would he still push to win the league? Even if it meant he got sacked because he'd failed to meet his objectives of making money? I really don't like Kelman anyway. Imagine if Moran had come out with the "this is for those who believed" rubbish. Awful, self-important, arrogant rubbish. I'm certainly no fan of Moran, but if Moran had said that he'd be absolutely slated.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Mar 14, 2017 21:00:18 GMT
I know it's an easy thing to say in hindsight, but there were many of us when the team was signed last summer saying "we finished mid table last season, we've re-signed most of the team but seem to have downgraded on the ones we've changed (Kolo etc) whilst other teams have upgraded, even from positions of strength".
Some fans shouted down those who said that, but it proved to be completely accurate. Maybe we DO know more than Corey after all!
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Mar 8, 2017 21:33:43 GMT
I've always thought Simms, like Moran, knows way too much and therefore has a job for as long as he wants one.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 26, 2017 21:20:39 GMT
By my reckoning we've lost 11 out of 15 since the Continental Cup....
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 23, 2017 21:36:34 GMT
Regardless of what this news is, the manne in which David Simms is allowed to used his social media is a total farce. Things like this totally undemine the legitimacy of any organisation - and not just sports. The whole reason for holding board meetings and bringing people together is to allow decisions to be made by majority and to allow all voices to be equally heard in the security of a confidential environment. Simms totall undermines that with what he did on twitter. It doesn't really matter whether this news turns out to be serious or not, the fact he prevents the EIHL from bringing it to market without him getting people to pre-empt it is a disgrace. In my job, if I offered my opinion on stuff so publicly before the company had release its own information I would be sacked. I appreciate the nature of sport having fans makes it slightly different, but the manner in which he operates shows a total lack of respect for the other members of the board. If that is the way he operates, I wouldn't go near the estate agency he works for with a barge pole. If the league wants to build any form of professional credibility and increase activity from sponsors etc then he needs to be clamped down on. I completely agree, but this is the same league where Kelman (or, at best, an employee of his) is tweeting from the official Devils account to announce a DOPS suspension, and get plenty of digs in at the decision, before an official announcement has been made by DOPS. Given the influence Kelman seems to have on the EIHL, they can hardly complain about Simms being unprofessional can they? In fact, I think what Kelman did was far worse, for loads of reasons, not least that it was sent from the official club account.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 21, 2017 21:07:26 GMT
Well I managed to listen to about half of that, and I have to say it terrifies me that we're in his hands.
So, in summary:
- Corey is the most successful coach in Panthers history - But the league performances the last few years have been completely unacceptable - And the league is by far the most important thing to Panthers - And Corey is left entirely to his own devices with regards to recruitment and on-ice matters - And the recruitment the last couple of seasons hasn't been good enough - And Panthers have the biggest playing budget - But we've had terrible luck with injuries - But we've made bad decisions with regards to recruiting players who have a history of injuries - And in the current market if you lose a player to injury it's incredibly hard to replace them so you need to make sure you don't sign anybody who has a history of being injury prone - So we're looking to get a strength and conditioning coach in addition to the current strength coach to try and cut down on injuries - But he's not sure getting a strength and conditioning coach will make any difference to the number of injuries we pick up
Confused?? No wonder nobody seems to know what's going on.
You'd also be forgiven for thinking that Panthers are uniquely crippled by a massively challenging player market (apparently partly due to the collapse of the CHL??) and a weak pound, which obviously doesn't affect any other Elite League teams.
It came across to me that he is very remote from the running of the club and league.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 17, 2017 20:41:59 GMT
Depends how you define "doing well" though. Our home record of 16-6-2 is only 0.7 hockey and that's the home record. If your home record is only 0.7 you have got no chance of winning the league whatsoever. Unless of course your away record is unbelievably good, which it isn't and is never likely to be. To the casual fan 16-6-2 & an entertaining night is good enough.
Panthers have it made fan base wise. An ideal location, a cheap enough Evening, decent entertainment that can't really be matched sports wise locally elsewhere & a mildly successful product.
Doesn't matter if a selection of 'the hardcore' or knowledgeable fan base don't attend. There's always enough hangers on or part timers who are there for the occasional match experience.
Look how Steelers games always sell out, those in charge know they are on to a winner.
Exactly - the entire franchise is just a golden goose. Even if we spent less than Edinburgh and finished bottom every year, we'd still get 4,000 a game. Basically whatever they do, they can't fail to make money. We're pretty much a consistently lower/mid table club in the league, the crowds are still going up and we don't exactly have the best marketing in the league do we? The day Black got hold of the franchise, his entire family, probably for generations to come, will be rich. Even if we had an absolutely appalling few seasons and crowds plummeted, you could still get top whack for the franchise on the basis that "it's a city centre rink with a hardcore following - spend a bit of money and market it properly and you'll fill the arena every week".
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 16, 2017 22:15:27 GMT
There's no doubt on that is there Texpef? Even the most ardent management sympathiser surely admits that this is a business rather than a sports club. In fact, I'm pretty sure even Black would admit it.
I'm not even sure I blame GM. Given he's employed by Black, I imagine he's given objectives. If the objectives given by Black were to win the league, I've no doubt we'd see a very different approach. But I'm almost certain the objectives he's given are around profit....which then sets the budget, which dictates who and how many Corey can sign, which dictates the terms set to players which means that many top players allegedly won't sign for us etc etc.
Moran's a puppet. An irritating one, but a puppet nonetheless. He's not the one making a fortune out of this...
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Feb 15, 2017 21:07:41 GMT
The fact he's set to debut in front of a full house in a total dead rubber of a game tells you everything. Why the hell should Panthers care about success if they've got so much evidence that success (and therefore their outlay) has absolutely no relationship with revenue?
It's a business. What would you do in their shoes? Would you start to spend more on ingredients if your restaurant was already the busiest and most profitable restaurant in the country?? Would you suddenly start to increase the size of the portions?
The fact is, unless people stop going, it's going to be like this forever. And unfortunately the "proper fans" who come on the Cage and talk about boycotts are massively outnumbered by the people who "like" even the tweets about embarrassing defeats (and they're Panthers fans) and pay their money on a Saturday night without really caring who wins.
Sheffield is different - the amount of money they generate is related to success, so they have to speculate to accumulate - it's a completely different business model.
I'm afraid Panthers fans just have to accept this is the way it is and like it or lump it. Which is the main reason I don't go anymore...
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Jim Keyes
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DOPS
Feb 10, 2017 18:27:33 GMT
Post by dp on Feb 10, 2017 18:27:33 GMT
Pretty clear Kelman is running the league. The amount of stuff Cardiff have got away with this season is crazy. Can't believe they got away with announcing the Hotham ban (and getting in a classless and childish little dig) before the official announcement. And even this one, he's been given the minimum ban possible under the rules - surprise, surprise.
The way Cardiff are run is really starting to grind with me. They have the arrogance of the Steelers in their heyday, but without the success to back it up.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 16, 2016 19:48:33 GMT
Well this is also why we got an injury update out of the blue isn't it? "Don't worry everyone, we don't need to sign anyone because all our injured players are nearly back. Everything's perfect".
They specifically talked about "changeS" (plural). In hindsight, maybe that just meant they were going to switch the lines around.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 13, 2016 18:09:23 GMT
I don't think that's what Dill was saying at all. He was saying that we're three d men short. Nobody can fault Kudroc for leaving, but it should have left us one d man short rather than three.
You can suck up being one down, being three down is crazy. What if another one of them gets injured tomorrow night? What does that leave us going into the weekend? Green on d?? Corey out of retirement??
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 10, 2016 22:39:00 GMT
Lots of ways to read this, but nothing that can mean much unless they kept it up until about mid-Jan. A few things that could've happened tonight: - Cardiff just played dreadfully/took the victory for granted - Panthers players don't like Corey and decided to prove that they can actually play, but just don't usually want to - Panthers players did what England apparently did at Italia 90 and got so fed up with the coach's tactics they decided to just ignore him and play their natural game - Bowns had a nightmare, Wiikman had a hot game - Corey's worked Cardiff out - Corey's realised that settled lines are the best option - The players are playing for their future so gave it their all against a team who weren't I wasn't there so I don't know which of these it is, but I won't be reading too much into this. For a start, it's too late anyway - if we get this result every weekend we'll still come up short. Just take it for what it is, a great win from a team very much struggling at the moment, nothing more. As others have said, one swallow doesn't make a summer, but if the team are going to get criticised when they play poorly, it's only right to give them some credit when they win well. Well normally I'd say yes, but with this team I don't think they do deserve any credit. They've been so awful that if they really are good enough to beat a table topping Cardiff team 8-0 away then they've been conning the fans all season.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 10, 2016 22:22:04 GMT
Lots of ways to read this, but nothing that can mean much unless they kept it up until about mid-Jan.
A few things that could've happened tonight:
- Cardiff just played dreadfully/took the victory for granted - Panthers players don't like Corey and decided to prove that they can actually play, but just don't usually want to - Panthers players did what England apparently did at Italia 90 and got so fed up with the coach's tactics they decided to just ignore him and play their natural game - Bowns had a nightmare, Wiikman had a hot game - Corey's worked Cardiff out - Corey's realised that settled lines are the best option - The players are playing for their future so gave it their all against a team who weren't
I wasn't there so I don't know which of these it is, but I won't be reading too much into this. For a start, it's too late anyway - if we get this result every weekend we'll still come up short.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 9, 2016 9:05:25 GMT
You just have to squeeze as many excuses as possible into the opening paragraph and your away... Good to see Corey was happy with a draw too... positive isn't it?! He thinks 'there is a little light for the future'... which has won round my optimism again. Well he seemed over the moon with the losses at Cardiff and at home to Sheffield so it seems like he's raising his expectations.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 6, 2016 20:58:19 GMT
Obviously looks a quality signing, but it's made me more angry than anything else.
Firstly, why do we wait until we're out the running until we sign players of this quality? Secondly, it's a completely pointless signing because we're already out of the league race. How bothered should he be about busting a gut in what are effectively 30 odd dead rubber games? Surely save himself for the play offs, which last, what, a couple of weeks?
Just completely frustrating, pointless and just so typically Panthers.
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Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 5, 2016 20:00:23 GMT
I'm starting to think that the only way Panthers are ever going to move forward and achieve their potential is if Black sells up. I've defended him in the past, but we're no more than a very profitable business to him now. I agree with EMB on GM - I have a feeling that he knows something (same as Simms at Steelers, which is why he's still around) meaning they can't sack him.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 1, 2016 20:39:32 GMT
When we normally choke at Christmas time I always sit in my seat sing,'Its starting to look a lot like Christmas' Panthers have even took that way this year by choking earlier Don't think you can call it "choking" when it's this early. Think it's called just not being very good.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Dec 1, 2016 19:32:12 GMT
All the excuses in the world, but we only scored one goal. That's very rarely going to be enough to win a game of hockey, particularly away.
I always say this, but it was very apparent in the grand slam season that excuses were never offered. Fox (or even Corey) would come out and take the blame on the (rare) occasions we lost. Taking the blame means players don't have a get out. As soon as you start making excuses for them their mentality changes because they know they'll be defended - it's such basic psychology.
This season was over as soon as our squad was signed unfortunately, but we pretty much had to win out for the rest of the season after our 6 game losing streak to even make things interesting. Which was never going to happen.
I'm just so bored of this club now - which is why i hardly ever go anymore. It's nothing to do with winning - we hardly ever used to win when I first started watching - it's all just so boring, repetitive and predictable.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Nov 25, 2016 18:04:49 GMT
To me it looks like Rutherford wasn't even looking at the player when it happened - it looked much more like a collision than a hit. Yes I know the rules are that you're responsible for hits to the head regardless of whether they're intentional, but there are unintentional hits to the head and unintentional hits to the head.
The Venus one looked far worse to me.
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dp
Jim Keyes
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Post by dp on Nov 12, 2016 21:49:10 GMT
The reality is, there's probably no point changing anything this season now. We more or less have to win out from here to stand a chance - which no team has ever done from mid-November, and probably never will.
Just write the season off.
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