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Post by allingtonskates on Sept 16, 2022 21:41:40 GMT
in all honesty I think we could have done with 2 physical forwards. Could do with someone of the same style as Jeff Brown and one more like Salters/Wilson. It’s blatantly obvious when you watch the team rather than looking at stats. As I’ve stated many times now we are too one dimensional and when it doesn’t work it’s awful to watch. This feels like a Wallace/Doucet team (if they were better at recruiting/ had more budget, whatever the issue was). I think if we had our 2 missing forwards in that game it wouldn’t have changed much. Once again pushed around way too much. Not too bothered about the game as it was a CC game but it wasn’t fun to watch. I think we outshot them but can’t say we deserved to win that at all.
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Post by Bagheera on Sept 16, 2022 21:46:59 GMT
Pretty poor tonight in all honesty, we’re lucky it was only the cup. Looking at the 2 forwards we’ve got to come back in to the side I think we’re going to struggle in the smaller rinks this season. I do now agree that we need to sign a true power forward, a player that is willing to lay a meaningful hit to try and separate a player from the puck and create turnovers. I don’t think I’ve seen a single forward lay a hit yet this season. This is where my concerns come from. I remember when GG did that interview and led us all to believe we'd have a crash bang, entertaining team. I said at the time I didn't expect us to compete for the title in year one but at least we'd be entertained. It's early doors but we couldn't be further from that idea he set out. My biggest fear is another season of average hockey, delivering average, at best results in the most boring way possible. I will stand by my statement that this team needs 2 changes/additions in the forward lines if it doesn't want to repeat last years output.
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Post by Bagheera on Sept 16, 2022 21:49:56 GMT
in all honesty I think we could have done with 2 physical forwards. Could do with someone of the same style as Jeff Brown and one more like Salters/Wilson. It’s blatantly obvious when you watch the team rather than looking at stats. As I’ve stated many times now we are too one dimensional and when it doesn’t work it’s awful to watch. This feels like a Wallace/Doucet team (if they were better at recruiting/ had more budget, whatever the issue was). I think if we had our 2 missing forwards in that game it wouldn’t have changed much. Once again pushed around way too much. Not too bothered about the game as it was a CC game but it wasn’t fun to watch. I think we outshot them but can’t say we deserved to win that at all. I'm truely staggered so much can change yet the team can look so much the same.
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Post by allingtonskates on Sept 16, 2022 21:55:13 GMT
in all honesty I think we could have done with 2 physical forwards. Could do with someone of the same style as Jeff Brown and one more like Salters/Wilson. It’s blatantly obvious when you watch the team rather than looking at stats. As I’ve stated many times now we are too one dimensional and when it doesn’t work it’s awful to watch. This feels like a Wallace/Doucet team (if they were better at recruiting/ had more budget, whatever the issue was). I think if we had our 2 missing forwards in that game it wouldn’t have changed much. Once again pushed around way too much. Not too bothered about the game as it was a CC game but it wasn’t fun to watch. I think we outshot them but can’t say we deserved to win that at all. I'm truely staggered so much can change yet the team can look so much the same. just disappointed really. We were sold a physical team by Graham and as much as Hunt would have brought physicality that would’ve still only been one player out of all our forwards. I can’t remember ever seeing a team work well without balance. Wallace and Doucet made this same mistake and even after figuring out we needed physicality in the first season (signing Tousi and Horvat), then went on the make the mistake again. I hope Graham doesn’t make the same mistake twice.
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Post by The Flying Shirt on Sept 16, 2022 22:18:59 GMT
Pretty poor tonight in all honesty, we’re lucky it was only the cup. Looking at the 2 forwards we’ve got to come back in to the side I think we’re going to struggle in the smaller rinks this season. I do now agree that we need to sign a true power forward, a player that is willing to lay a meaningful hit to try and separate a player from the puck and create turnovers. I don’t think I’ve seen a single forward lay a hit yet this season. This is where my concerns come from. I remember when GG did that interview and led us all to believe we'd have a crash bang, entertaining team. I said at the time I didn't expect us to compete for the title in year one but at least we'd be entertained. It's early doors but we couldn't be further from that idea he set out. My biggest fear is another season of average hockey, delivering average, at best results in the most boring way possible. I will stand by my statement that this team needs 2 changes/additions in the forward lines if it doesn't want to repeat last years output. Another season of boring frustrating loses will see the home crowds empty. Anyone notice the crowd in Manchester tonight? Looked like Edinburgh 2015.
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Post by wgray on Sept 17, 2022 2:32:42 GMT
I know this forum gets a bad rap from some hockey fans but my god some of the posts and comments across social media are quite bizarre.
There are many factors that contribute to a club being successful. Off-ice it feels like we’ve had a revolution, it’s been brilliant the way the club have acted with fans and they’ve re-engaged a lot of people. As a result of this I think people may have set their expectations very high. To the point where it seems there is no logical thought or balance in people’s comments.
I agree on the face of it 2 wins and 6 losses isn’t a great start, but I think a lot of our fans need to look at the big picture and have some perspective. We’ve got a coach who’s brand new to the league, we’ve had a huge turnover of players, in tonight’s game we’ve had 3 imports out injured and supposedly other players have been suffering with sickness.
There does appear to be flaws in the team but as it stands we’ve only played two league games, there is time for the squad to be altered. But I do think some fans need to be a bit more patient and a lot less drastic in their opinions.
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Post by paddywack41 on Sept 17, 2022 7:22:00 GMT
In terms of how your team is shaping up it is much to early to tell. You faced Storm for the first time in the drizzle dome, a rink were lets be honest, the storm really know how to use their size, the rink size and the quirks of the rink to their advantage. Every team is going to suffer their when they come to it for the first time. While in Salford last weekend I took advantage of going to watch Storm play Blaze who were lucky to sneak out with an OT win. After the game Stewart in his interview said that no matter how many times you tell the players what they are going to experience in this rink they never seem to believe you.
Give yourselves another 4 or 5 games before wearing the sackcloth and ashes. A lot can change and as many said this is only the Challenge Cup were it is harder to get knocked out than to win it.
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Post by Bagheera on Sept 17, 2022 7:56:32 GMT
I know this forum gets a bad rap from some hockey fans but my god some of the posts and comments across social media are quite bizarre. There are many factors that contribute to a club being successful. Off-ice it feels like we’ve had a revolution, it’s been brilliant the way the club have acted with fans and they’ve re-engaged a lot of people. As a result of this I think people may have set their expectations very high. To the point where it seems there is no logical thought or balance in people’s comments. I agree on the face of it 2 wins and 6 losses isn’t a great start, but I think a lot of our fans need to look at the big picture and have some perspective. We’ve got a coach who’s brand new to the league, we’ve had a huge turnover of players, in tonight’s game we’ve had 3 imports out injured and supposedly other players have been suffering with sickness. There does appear to be flaws in the team but as it stands we’ve only played two league games, there is time for the squad to be altered. But I do think some fans need to be a bit more patient and a lot less drastic in their opinions. It's the brand of hockey that concerns me. I'm not even close to writing off individual players or questioning GGs ability in this league. It'll be a learning curve for sure. One where GG derseves time to get it right. Twitter in particular has some very strange, over the top negative reactions for sure. The off ice stuff has improved off the charts which is fantastic to see, but they do need the on ice product to deliver sooner rather than later or it'll be in danger of ruining what the off ice stuff has achieved. Ultimately it will come down to what really matters. Those off season comments from GG may well become a regret because they set a picture of something many people really got excited about. If you want to deliver a brand of hockey then that would be evident from game one. Results may go either way but the first thing you'd set out to do is deliver the brand of hockey you set out to achieve.
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float
Pat Casey
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Post by float on Sept 17, 2022 8:12:02 GMT
I know this forum gets a bad rap from some hockey fans but my god some of the posts and comments across social media are quite bizarre. There are many factors that contribute to a club being successful. Off-ice it feels like we’ve had a revolution, it’s been brilliant the way the club have acted with fans and they’ve re-engaged a lot of people. As a result of this I think people may have set their expectations very high. To the point where it seems there is no logical thought or balance in people’s comments. I agree on the face of it 2 wins and 6 losses isn’t a great start, but I think a lot of our fans need to look at the big picture and have some perspective. We’ve got a coach who’s brand new to the league, we’ve had a huge turnover of players, in tonight’s game we’ve had 3 imports out injured and supposedly other players have been suffering with sickness. There does appear to be flaws in the team but as it stands we’ve only played two league games, there is time for the squad to be altered. But I do think some fans need to be a bit more patient and a lot less drastic in their opinions. Yep I think this is where I’m at too. There are some positive signs so far, and as a fairly optimistic fan, I know that teams won’t be perfect at this stage, but even I can admit there’s too many negatives at the moment. Falling behind too early and chasing the games is a concern. I do agree there is a small lack of physicality at the back end. I’m not counting on that one interview that got everyone excited, Gary will be judged on the season overall, I do appreciate some will have been banking on those words but Hunt dropping late on probably changed things dramatically (and I’m not saying he wasn’t replaced well because Welychka is probably my favourite signing). Special teams seem ok at the moment from the few chances we’ve seen in the 3 games so far. The powerplay last night looked dominating albeit with no end product but we still were able to control the play which is more than was happening in pre-season. My main concern personally is the 1-dynamic approach from the forward lines at the moment. We’ve scored 1 goal in both away games, that isn’t good enough for this group of forwards. I have no doubts about their talent, but it needs to be shown sooner rather than later. We seem very heavily reliant upon the Hammond-Brady-Welychka line, Sorensen adding a couple of goals so far but that’s it. Think we’ll see some tweaks soon to the lines. I’m not anywhere near pressing the panic button, as I said on another thread I’m happy to see where we are by the end of October to judge properly, but there are certainly some obvious things to address at this stage.
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Post by The Flying Shirt on Sept 17, 2022 8:18:50 GMT
I know this forum gets a bad rap from some hockey fans but my god some of the posts and comments across social media are quite bizarre. There are many factors that contribute to a club being successful. Off-ice it feels like we’ve had a revolution, it’s been brilliant the way the club have acted with fans and they’ve re-engaged a lot of people. As a result of this I think people may have set their expectations very high. To the point where it seems there is no logical thought or balance in people’s comments. I agree on the face of it 2 wins and 6 losses isn’t a great start, but I think a lot of our fans need to look at the big picture and have some perspective. We’ve got a coach who’s brand new to the league, we’ve had a huge turnover of players, in tonight’s game we’ve had 3 imports out injured and supposedly other players have been suffering with sickness. There does appear to be flaws in the team but as it stands we’ve only played two league games, there is time for the squad to be altered. But I do think some fans need to be a bit more patient and a lot less drastic in their opinions. It's the brand of hockey that concerns me. I'm not even close to writing off individual players or questioning GGs ability in this league. It'll be a learning curve for sure. One where GG derseves time to get it right. Twitter in particular has some very strange, over the top negative reactions for sure. The off ice stuff has improved off the charts which is fantastic to see, but they do need the on ice product to deliver sooner rather than later or it'll be in danger of ruining what the off ice stuff has achieved. Ultimately it will come down to what really matters. Those off season comments from GG may well become a regret because they set a picture of something many people really got excited about. If you want to deliver a brand of hockey then that would be evident from game one. Results may go either way but the first thing you'd set out to do is deliver the brand of hockey you set out to achieve. Not too worried about results in this first year (if GG is going to be given a second) but bearing in mind that the team has been re-built more times than my dad's old 1952 Speed Twin in recent years I am a bit more worried about the balance and style which although is very skillful is looking a lot like the Ducet nightmare years at this point. Promised physical exciting hockey to put bums back on seats and making the NIC a bad place for teams to visit is the polar opposite to what we have at the moment. No hard-hitting forwards to create space and not even an agitator to wind up opposing teams and on top of that our D is miles behind any teams we have played so far. We are so easy to shut down. We will carve out some good wins here and there undoubtedly with the skill we have available but EIHL fans come to see North American style hockey and trying to out skill better coaches in this league is going to make for a very long season again.
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Post by Bagheera on Sept 17, 2022 8:59:49 GMT
I've just listened to GGs interview from after the game. It's going to go very much one way or the other very quickly for him here. There will be no middle of the road.
I appreciate his honesty and openess. It's a breath of fresh air compared to all the BS we used to get, however he will run the risk of losing the locker room.
He said some fair stuff around playing short, needing to find chemistry etc but he then went on to say that over half the team were passengers so far.
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Post by allingtonskates on Sept 17, 2022 9:04:57 GMT
I've just listened to GGs interview from after the game. It's going to go very much one way or the other very quickly for him here. There will be no middle of the road. I appreciate his honesty and openess. It's a breath of fresh air compared to all the BS we used to get, however he will run the risk of losing the locker room. He said some fair stuff around playing short, needing to find chemistry etc but he then went on to say that over half the team were passengers so far. from looking at his old interviews in America he always seemed to be hard on the players (which I like personally) so I kinda expected this to happen if we started poor (which we have). Just going to repeat my self again because people don’t seem to be liking the criticism the team is getting, the team is a upgrade on last season and we have some very good players but in my opinion it just looks like he built it wrong, no balance in the team at all and certainly not what he told us we would be watching in his interviews when he joined.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2022 9:59:11 GMT
Perhaps recruitment didn't go as he hoped and he missed out on certain players he wanted (apart from hunt) and got other players as he didn't want to go into the season short ?
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Post by The Flying Shirt on Sept 17, 2022 10:56:42 GMT
Perhaps recruitment didn't go as he hoped and he missed out on certain players he wanted (apart from hunt) and got other players as he didn't want to go into the season short ? Quite possible but a couple more home loses in the next couple of weeks would undo a lot of very good work so far
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