GDT: Blaze 2:4 Panthers (EL, 29/12)

[Yotes]

Game Notes 1-0, 1-2, 0-2. Spang, Lindhagen, Brown and Williams for Panthers. Jorgensen and Syner for Blaze. Panthers missing Waugh, Dimmen, Clarke and Wiikman. Game Sheet.

[thebestpanthers]

Good seats still available

[iginla]

I'm not liking the look of this game.
Straight after two big sell out games and going into a nasty smaller rink we don't like....it's got "oh no" written all over it.
All we need next is.......Dean Smith reffing it ! 😩

But we do have Williams though. 😉

[EMB]

After the Lord Mayors show and all that...

[Deleted]

Can't see Blazes defence keeping Williams quiet for 60 mins.. can u

[iginla]

Dec 27, 2016 22:34:05 GMT @pidge said:

Can't see Blazes defence keeping Williams quiet for 60 mins.. can u

Hopefully not Pidge nope.

[Shaggy]

Dec 27, 2016 22:34:05 GMT @pidge said:

Can't see Blazes defence keeping Williams quiet for 60 mins.. can u

Probably not, but I think we need to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that Williams will be The Messiah(TM) and will halfway defeat teams all by himself. Quite honestly, he's done far better than I expected since he got here (2+1, inc. 2 GWGs) but as much as I'd love to see him carry on that way, he is just one player. Looking like a damned important player, but still just one man. Now if he can put a hat-trick past Stewart and send the most volatile netminder in the Elite League into orbit, I might start to reconsider that one! - but it's a team game at the end of the day...

[Deleted]

Dec 27, 2016 23:11:46 GMT Shaggy said:

Dec 27, 2016 22:34:05 GMT @pidge said:

Can't see Blazes defence keeping Williams quiet for 60 mins.. can u

Probably not, but I think we need to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that Williams will be The Messiah(TM) and will halfway defeat teams all by himself. Quite honestly, he's done far better than I expected since he got here (2+1, inc. 2 GWGs) but as much as I'd love to see him carry on that way, he is just one player. Looking like a damned important player, but still just one man. Now if he can put a hat-trick past Stewart and send the most volatile netminder in the Elite League into orbit, I might start to reconsider that one! - but it's a team game at the end of the day...

Like I said before how Williams has started off hasn't surprised me one little bit. I know what he's capable of. As I've said before this wasn't a player who player minimum minutes on the 4th line back in the nhl!. He doesn't need many chances in front of net

[Deleted]

Going to this one, hoping we can keep this good run going. Been a while since I've seen a win in Coventry aswell so could say it's due

[shinobi]

Dec 27, 2016 21:59:36 GMT iginla said:

I'm not liking the look of this game.
Straight after two big sell out games and going into a nasty smaller rink we don't like....it's got "oh no" written all over it.
All we need next is.......Dean Smith reffing it ! 😩

But we do have Williams though. 😉

Never ever been a happy hunting ground since the inception of the EIHL; anyone know what the head to head record is at Skydome?

[iginla]

Dec 28, 2016 22:13:21 GMT shinobi said:

Dec 27, 2016 21:59:36 GMT iginla said:

I'm not liking the look of this game.
Straight after two big sell out games and going into a nasty smaller rink we don't like....it's got "oh no" written all over it.
All we need next is.......Dean Smith reffing it ! 😩

But we do have Williams though. 😉

Never ever been a happy hunting ground since the inception of the EIHL; anyone know what the head to head record is at Skydome?

I think TCW said last week we had lost 6 out of the last 8 games in Coventry. 😩

[Shaggy]

Dec 28, 2016 22:13:21 GMT shinobi said:

Never ever been a happy hunting ground since the inception of the EIHL; anyone know what the head to head record is at Skydome?

I've got partial stats...

2016-17 (so far) - 1 win, 2 losses (although 1 of the losses was only a pre-season challenge match...)
2015-16 - 2 wins, 4 losses (although 1 of the wins was a pre-season challenge match...)
2014-15 - 1 win, 5 losses
2013-14 - 3 wins, 2 losses
2012-13 - 3 wins, 2 losses
2011-12 - 1 win, 2 losses, 1 draw (the draw was in the Challenge Cup)

So overall, it's not really been much of a happy hunting ground for us...

[Shaggy]

Dec 28, 2016 23:22:06 GMT Shaggy said:

Dec 28, 2016 22:13:21 GMT shinobi said:

Never ever been a happy hunting ground since the inception of the EIHL; anyone know what the head to head record is at Skydome?

I've got partial stats...

2016-17 (so far) - 1 win, 2 losses (although 1 of the losses was only a pre-season challenge match...)
2015-16 - 2 wins, 4 losses (although 1 of the wins was a pre-season challenge match...)
2014-15 - 1 win, 5 losses
2013-14 - 3 wins, 2 losses
2012-13 - 3 wins, 2 losses
2011-12 - 1 win, 2 losses, 1 draw (the draw was in the Challenge Cup)

So overall, it's not really been much of a happy hunting ground for us...

Just to provide a contrast... here are the results from the same seasons when we've hosted the Blaze:-

2016-17 (so far) - 2 wins, no losses
2015-16 - 5 wins, 1 loss
2014-15 - 5 wins, no losses, 1 draw (the draw was the play-offs quarter-final home leg... we lost the away leg )
2013-14 - 3 wins, 2 losses
2012-13 - 4 wins, no losses
2011-12 - 2 wins, 2 losses

So we certainly appear to have their number at home, it's the Skydome itself that appears to be a problem for us... figure that one out and we're happy.

[iginla]

So 11 wins and 17 losses at the Skydome.
That away record though Shaggy is probably not that much different to our away record in Sheffield,Belfast or Cardiff ?

[Shaggy]

Dec 29, 2016 0:12:41 GMT iginla said:

So 11 wins and 17 losses at the Skydome.
That away record though Shaggy is probably not that much different to our away record in Sheffield,Belfast or Cardiff ?

What are you trying to do... keep me up all night working it out?

[iginla]

Dec 29, 2016 0:18:33 GMT Shaggy said:

Dec 29, 2016 0:12:41 GMT iginla said:

So 11 wins and 17 losses at the Skydome.
That away record though Shaggy is probably not that much different to our away record in Sheffield,Belfast or Cardiff ?

What are you trying to do... keep me up all night working it out?

Well I wasn't.....but good idea,it would be nice to compare. lol 👍

[Shaggy]

Dec 29, 2016 0:26:32 GMT iginla said:

Dec 29, 2016 0:18:33 GMT Shaggy said:

What are you trying to do... keep me up all night working it out?

Well I wasn't.....but good idea,it would be nice to compare. lol 👍

Oh, go on then...

Belfast:-
2016-17 (so far) - 1 loss
2015-16 - 3 wins, 2 losses
2014-15 - 3 wins, no losses
2013-14 - 0 wins, 5 losses
2012-13 - 3 wins, 2 losses
2011-12 - 3 wins, 3 losses (1 win, 1 loss were pre-season challenge matches...)
For a total of 12 wins, 13 losses

Cardiff:-
2016-17 (so far) - 2 wins, 1 loss
2015-16 - 1 win, 4 losses (plus the 'away' win in the Challenge Cup Final up at the Rusty Hut...)
2014-15 - 1 win, 4 losses
2013-14 - 1 win, 4 losses
2012-13 - 3 wins, 2 losses
2011-12 - 2 wins, 2 losses
For a total of 10 wins, 15 losses (not including the CC Final win)

Sheffield:-
2016-17 (so far) - 1 win, 3 losses
2015-16 - 2 wins, 4 losses
2014-15 - 3 wins, 3 losses
2013-14 - 3 wins, 3 losses
2012-13 - 3 wins, 3 losses
2011-12 - 2 wins, 2 losses
For a total of 14 wins, 18 losses

So yes... the Skydome appears to be our worst away location, proportionally speaking (Belfast not being quite as bad as I expected - bit surprised by that one!) although in 5 seasons (plus this one so far) we've not had a winning record at all up at The Tent Of Tin... honours being even for 4 of those seasons.

No, I have no idea what (if anything) all that means!

[shinobi]

Cheers Shaggy! Still remember the 4-0 away at Cov and while it countered for very little, it left a lot of very unhappy Blaze fans who generally got their own way on their ice.

[Caesar]

The best ever win in Coventry was the grand slam year. Just before Christmas, we absolutely hammered them, twas a joy to watch

[wagstaff]

Dec 29, 2016 9:22:19 GMT Caesar said:

The best ever win in Coventry was the grand slam year. Just before Christmas, we absolutely hammered them, twas a joy to watch

Ive only been a hockey fan for a few years and that was the worst game I've ever been to! We'd lost a few games of course, but that was the first real humiliation I'd seen in our own back yard.
I always prefer to reflect on KWall throwing a wobbly after the Ginand penalty shot.

I have to say I fully expect the game today to be far more like the one you refer to, we have nobody like Ginand this year, the cousins are a great pairing and the players like Jordan Pietrus, Liam Stewart and Ben Davies will give their all, but we have no size up front as Klotz won't get any ice time (I think he might as well take a Rubix cube to keep him occupied) and Brian Stewart will make some amazing saves and then several absolute howlers, I think the whole league has Sussed him out now and it will be time to move on from him next year.

Merry belated Christmas and Happy Early New Year to you all

[Caesar]

Dec 29, 2016 10:00:36 GMT wagstaff said:

Dec 29, 2016 9:22:19 GMT Caesar said:

The best ever win in Coventry was the grand slam year. Just before Christmas, we absolutely hammered them, twas a joy to watch

Ive only been a hockey fan for a few years and that was the worst game I've ever been to! We'd lost a few games of course, but that was the first real humiliation I'd seen in our own back yard.
I always prefer to reflect on KWall throwing a wobbly after the Ginand penalty shot.

I have to say I fully expect the game today to be far more like the one you refer to, we have nobody like Ginand this year, the cousins are a great pairing and the players like Jordan Pietrus, Liam Stewart and Ben Davies will give their all, but we have no size up front as Klotz won't get any ice time (I think he might as well take a Rubix cube to keep him occupied) and Brian Stewart will make some amazing saves and then several absolute howlers, I think the whole league has Sussed him out now and it will be time to move on from him next year.

Merry belated Christmas and Happy Early New Year to you all

I can imagine how you felt. If memory serves me right as well then this was the game where, I think it was Beckett and Warner spent about 30 seconds passing the puck to each other in our defensive zone because no Blaze players would come at them

[iginla]

Nice work Shaggy.
It's 17 losses in Cardiff though (not 15) so that's the toughest place to go.

I'm surprised by the Belfast record,thought we would be a lot worse than that there.
Guess what it shows overall,is that to win the league you've got to win more than 50% of your road games.

[DMS]

based on our current run and Blaze's inability to close games our recently i fancy us to buck the recent trend of us struggling in the sky dome and i hope this isnt a case of "after the lord mayors show".

we need to be better at clearing the zone first time to prevent blaze building pressure on us for prolonged periods like we allowed steelers to do. we have created plenty of chances recently so if we are clinical and can get an early goal to not allow Stewart to find his feet we should get a win here. it would be brilliant to get 6 from 6 over the festive period start back at the dundee game and hopefully we avoid this banana skin as i fancy us to win the next 2 home games.

[Shaggy]

Dec 29, 2016 10:12:15 GMT iginla said:

Nice work Shaggy.
It's 17 losses in Cardiff though (not 15) so that's the toughest place to go.

Oops! Yes, you're right... (hey, adding up in my head is never the easiest thing at 1am after quite a lot of alcohol... ).
It will be interesting over the next few years to see if there are any indications that this may change now that they aren't in the Big Blue Tent any more...

I'm surprised by the Belfast record,thought we would be a lot worse than that there.

That's what I thought...

Guess what it shows overall,is that to win the league you've got to win more than 50% of your road games.

I think the yardstick I saw a few years ago was over 50% of your away games and over 80% of your home games. It's not a hard-and-fast rule of course, as it also depends on what other contending teams do - if they're all taking points off each other, that makes it easier - but as a casual measurement I suppose it's usable.

[Shaggy]

Dec 29, 2016 9:22:19 GMT Caesar said:

The best ever win in Coventry was the grand slam year. Just before Christmas, we absolutely hammered them, twas a joy to watch

Sunday 23rd December 2012... an 8-0 clobbering*. Wish I'd been there...



* Did that break 'The Code'?