Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 25, 2016 22:15:39 GMT
What is this Panthers lark lately.....is it a serious job or bloody play school ! We might as well not bother with contracts etc,may as well just tell guys to do as they please,just play for us til something better comes along and hey don't worry about leaving us short,we will wish you well whatever you do. What can the Panthers do about it? It's the nature of the game over here... it happens to us, it happens to other teams. Changing that would be a mammoth task - possibly even an impossible one. Not happy about it, but hey - stuff happens. Ex Cardiff and Braehead Ben Davies? Swindon Wildcats... and anyway, he's a forward not a D-man.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 25, 2016 21:57:56 GMT
Damn... that's bad news for the Panthers (wonder if he'll want to play for the Lions? ). This makes the return of Steve Lee from injury all the more important - even with Lee, that's us down to 5 D-men. Getting a replacement is going to be very hard, but could be crucial...
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 25, 2016 21:38:02 GMT
Onwards and upwards to two tricky games next weekend,Sunday should be a cracker in Cardiff. That game is going to be a massive test. Thankfully it's 'only' a Challenge Cup game... still want to win it, of course, would still help us to win it... but less important than a league game. Even so... how we fare against Cardiff on their home ice is going to be an interesting indicator. Even if we lose, the manner in which we play, how we match up, is going to be interesting. Hopefully not. It's not Miika's first rodeo, he'll be used to playing back-to-back nights by now... so unless he's injured, I would expect to see him starting both.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 25, 2016 20:02:18 GMT
Whats is MacMillan doing 1 assist in 9 games Jeff Brown 3 points in 9 game, Carter 4 pts 9 games Come on you experts give me your assessments? You are aware it's a team game? Exactly. How many times have we seen a player make space for team-mates to go & create a scoring play, but he doesn't get a point? Stats aren't everything...
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 25, 2016 19:57:23 GMT
OK... let's keep it on topic, shall we?
Good win in a tricky rink. Another game with fewer shots on goal but more shots IN goal. Precision offence... not the easiest trick to pull off, but it makes for an entertaining experience.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 25, 2016 8:36:36 GMT
The music was extremely loud for the intro in block 6 IMO it was deafening. I understand loud for the entrance but it awful. Could just be me whining. I noticed that too in block 4. The music sounded really distorted too. Seemed fine for the rest of the night though. Ditto in Block 15.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 24, 2016 22:25:22 GMT
I had to laugh after the game... coming out, I heard one bloke moaning quite grumpily that this is the second home game where the opposition has had more shots on goal than us. Yes, very true - however, we've had more shots IN goal than the opposition both times... and I know which of the two stats I'd prefer!
It's still early days, but this team shows the potential of possibly being something quite formidable. Overall, the defensive unit has been excellent so far at home (I've not seen them away as yet) and there's starting to be some creativity up front. Schultz is most certainly a welcome returnee... he made his mark tonight, no question. Putting him on the same line as Nikiforuk is starting to look like one of Corey's better ideas. Thought Lawrence, Clarke and Lindhagen especially looked dangerous.
Thought Sheffield looked very schizophrenic tonight... one minute they were slick, skilful and very, very dangerous... the next minute it was Keystone Kops On Ice! Very strange... defensively vulnerable, and I don't care what the Sheffield fans say... I didn't rate Muskrat as a netminder the first time around, and tonight didn't change that opinion one bit.
Hope we've got enough left in the tank for tomorrow night... don't want to drop league points to Coventry.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 24, 2016 22:01:49 GMT
There's a possibility that Coventry might be short a player or two for this game... apparently it got somewhat fruity down in Cardiff this evening - allegedly someone sticked Bordeleaux in the face from the Coventry bench, Bordy-boy went absolutely ape... no doubt he'll get a suspension, but there's always the chance that a review might mean the same for a Blaze player or two...
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 20, 2016 20:17:42 GMT
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 18, 2016 15:21:03 GMT
Thanks for the communication and the offer of help, Ken...
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 18, 2016 15:20:05 GMT
Where was the inflatable panther head BTW? I was most disappointed. There was something in GM's column in last night's programme, something about an item arriving "on a slow boat from China" (whether literally from China, I have no idea)... something about not knowing when it's going to get here (I only had a quick read as it was a friend's programme). Perhaps that could be it...?
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 18, 2016 10:09:25 GMT
Perhaps we should be giving Cardiff credit for forcing us to be so defensive, especially in the 2nd period when I thought they were absolutely fantastic. I doubt we were that defensive on purpose, we had no choice. They were all over us. Now that is a fair point. It's all too easy to fall into the trap of just thinking "if we play well enough, we will win... so if we don't win, we didn't play well enough". It sounds all very well, but it misses out one very crucial factor. There's another team out there - a team of players, not cardboard cut-outs - and they want to win just as much as we do. They will have good players as well, and they can get as lucky or as unlucky as we do. It seems that all too often, many of us forget that. Cardiff look like a dangerous team, and they put us under a lot of pressure. We soaked up that pressure and took our chances when we could... hence the win. Whether that's good playing, good coaching or a mixture of the two... we won. That's the most important fact of the lot - we won. I wouldn't like to see that kind of performance, those tactics, every game... but I don't expect to do so - I don't believe that they'll be needed every game. Looks to me like Plan B worked... I'm sure we'll see Plan A plenty of times this season.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 18, 2016 6:19:30 GMT
Panthers fans complaining after a win, who would have thought it. People complaining about Corey changing the lines around, should have listened to his post game interview, explaining why he had to do this, before slagging him off. He said certain players were not playing well enough so the players seeing more ice time, were too tired in the end to do their job properly. Also, 'conceited, arrogant Corey', openly said it was his bad leadership, that didn't change his systems early enough in the game. As for the game, although Cardiff dominated territorially, Wiikmaan did not have to make too many outstanding saves, and the defence as a unit looked impressive to me. As for the win being 'daylight robbery', it is my opinion that if you have so much possession and territorial advantage, and still cannot score, then you don't deserve to win. Surely we warrant a lot of credit for scoring from so few chances. Well he couldn't use "bus legs" or tiredness as an excuse could he ? And did you see the game plan change,I didn't,we played complete defence all game long. Why on earth would you play that defensive in a home game,especially the season opener. It says to me either....he's worried about Cardiffs offence,or he's realised he's messed up and in some players he hasn't got what he thought he was getting. Why would Corey need an excuse? - we won! We played largely a defensive game throughout, but less so in the first period I thought. And if any coach doesn't have concerns about the opposition offence, then he's not doing his job properly - it was obvious that Cardiff weren't going to be pushovers, so he put the appropriate measures into place. And it worked... 2-0 win, 2 points, job done, no problem.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 17, 2016 22:03:46 GMT
Not the kind of game I was expecting, but what the hell... a win is a win is a win.
Cardiff look like a very dangerous team this season - although I agree with what others have said, Bordeleau looked like a totally pointless waste of a roster slot - so shutting them out is no mean feat. The defensive unit as a whole played very well... Wiikman on his own wouldn't have won it, the blueliners on their own wouldn't have won it... the two working well together - that's the ticket. Up the other end wasn't quite so exciting, but Cardiff are always strong defensively so I very rarely expect us to rack up much of a score against them. We are definitely missing Schultz... but for a tough early-season game, that was enough. Thought Farmer and Nikiforuk looked like the best forward performances, but there wasn't anyone that I would have said was definitely 'bad'.
Did anyone else think Clarke looked somewhat surprised to be gifted with a breakaway on the empty net like that? For a second I thought he was so surprised that he would hesitate and fluff it, but... no, he's too good a player for that. Would have done my heartrate a bit of good if we'd got the insurance goal earlier than that, but hey ho - that's life!
Bit of class from the Panthers to welcome Matt Myers back like that... nice one.
I wouldn't like to see us rack up that kind of shot count very often, but shots ON goal are far less important than shots IN goal... and we won out on the latter, so no harm no foul.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 14, 2016 20:07:58 GMT
For those wondering about a Chuck-a-Puck too, Arena Health and Safety won't allow it.. Despite the pucks thrown being made of sponge. I detect the odour of bovine excrement here... seeing as there have been plenty of 'chuck-a-<whatever>' contests at the NIC in the past. So why not now?
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 11, 2016 10:06:12 GMT
They say you can't win the League at this stage but results like this certainly helps. As long as we are not thrashed tomorrow, I'll still be happy with the weekend. One question, do other teams have triple headers in Scotland or is it just the Panthers? Storm have a triple header in January. Braehead, Fife and Edinburgh. Cardiff have a triple-header up in Scotland at the beginning of November, and Coventry have one mid-November. It's pretty much a league-wide thing...
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 10, 2016 21:24:45 GMT
Cracking result - arguably the toughest game of the weekend, but a solid victory - well done Panthers!
4 points makes this weekend a success in my book... if we can get more tomorrow, that would be a fantastic bonus.
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 9, 2016 22:04:22 GMT
What happened in the 3rd period 4 shots Panther's to Dundee's 13? ? Dundee's shot count 5-8-13 shots =26 to Panther's 24, according to Elite league game sheet Looks like the EIHL stats were screwed up (now there's a surprise!) because the 'boxscore' on the EIHL website definitely had Miika facing 17 shots. What the hell... the defence may not have been as tight as we first thought, but it's still a solid win.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 9, 2016 21:26:15 GMT
If it was only 17 shots allowed, then you can see the style of game we are going to play - limit chances and Nick a couple of goals. You only allow 17 shots on Wiikman a game and he'll win you over 90% of them. Exactly. Now granted - Dundee are probably (because you never know for sure...) not going to be one of the top teams this season. Limiting a few of the other teams to that number of shots is likely to be harder. But even so... it indicates a strong team-wide ethos towards defence, and that can only be a good thing. As they say... offence wins games, defence wins championships.
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 9, 2016 21:21:57 GMT
Looks like we only allowed 17 shots on Wiikman, tremendous stuff. A crucial stat, that one... the harder we can make it for the opposition to even get to Wiikman/Pacl, the better. And up the other end we had twice the number of shots - 34. Top stuff.
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 9, 2016 20:50:13 GMT
I'm not sure that we really have the setup in this country to do a 'proper' All-Star game, much less a weekend (although it's usually fun to have hardest shot, fastest skater, etc competitions)... and there really doesn't seem to be the interest in the fanbase either. If there was going to be an All-Stars event... I'd rather they did one or more games of the GB squad against imports, and preferably not just in the same rink every time. Give the GB squad some valuable preparation, and also let the fans see them (which very rarely happens). That might constitute as the EIHL aiding British development.... What a ridiculous idea Yeah, I know... what was I thinking?
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 9, 2016 20:47:28 GMT
In the NHL & IIHF rules, you either name 1 captain and 2 alternates, or no captain and 3 alternates. I'm guessing we don't bother with that rule, and presumably not the rule that only they may discuss the officiating with the ref either. Has that latter rule EVER been enforced in this country? Quite frankly, it's a joke that it's even part of the rules... (assuming the EIHL haven't lost the fag packet that they wrote that particular rule on, of course).
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 8, 2016 22:14:04 GMT
I'm not sure that we really have the setup in this country to do a 'proper' All-Star game, much less a weekend (although it's usually fun to have hardest shot, fastest skater, etc competitions)... and there really doesn't seem to be the interest in the fanbase either.
If there was going to be an All-Stars event... I'd rather they did one or more games of the GB squad against imports, and preferably not just in the same rink every time. Give the GB squad some valuable preparation, and also let the fans see them (which very rarely happens).
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 3, 2016 12:02:46 GMT
Whether that's true or not - and let's be honest, we haven't got a clue either way as yet - I remember the same things being said in the season when we won the lot. And every season since and an awful lot before...who is right the most if you want to play that game... Nope... not playing that game. Simply pointing out that we hear the same old criticisms being said by the same people at the same time every year... regardless of what happened the previous year and how good or not the team is looking. It's just as ridiculous to constantly denigrate the team as it is to constantly praise them... any hint of the latter gets slammed as being 'happy clappy' (or some other derogatory term) so why should the former be tolerated any more? A bit of balance is what is required IMO... that and actually giving them a chance to show us what they can do before they get tried, convicted and executed!
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Shaggy
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Post by Shaggy on Sept 2, 2016 20:07:35 GMT
Nothing like a bit of new season optimism. And that's nothing like... Never been less enthused at the start of a season. Club continually repeat the same mistakes again and again. Same regime, nothing changes. Whether that's true or not - and let's be honest, we haven't got a clue either way as yet - I remember the same things being said in the season when we won the lot.
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