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Post by martinski83 on Sept 8, 2007 12:49:26 GMT
Having read this thread and the charity shield thread I'd like to post the following observation:
Weds was a typical pre-season gung-ho style of hockey. I think its likely that our defencemen will only form part of the attacking unit on the powerplay whereas on weds I felt Corey was playing the role of an extra attacker for most of the game (he did that very well too) and Stevie P and Stancok were also well forward.
Rasto didn't have a great game but he did make a few big save and on 3 of the goals he had pretty much zero coverage. Again ina competitive match you expect both defencemen to protect their goalie whilst drawing the forwards back to equal the play.
Manchester had a 6-5 defeat against Sheffield in a preseason game and the game was focused on getting the puck on net rather than defending. We all know Stancok and Corey can cut it. we know Danny Meyers has a big future and Steve P looks a quality acquisition. Rasto isnt the stand out goalie on ability when compared to other netminders in the EIHL though he does possess game winning qualities where others fall short. he is also a crowd pleaser and knows how to kill penalities. his experience and tactics are a key reason we won the playoffs.
Dont be too quick to jump on him.
On Manchester.... well they look like a typical Tony Hand side and they've made a lot of noise about their Frankenstein between the pipes. Their D leaves me scratching my head and I'm not convinced they've replaced the HUGE voids by the losses of Molin and Campbell.
Our attack looks sublime and we all saw wednesday the difference between established EIHL players like Cloutier and Calder and established ISL players like PC Drouin. Drouin was in a differnt league and stood head and shoulders above anyone else with his stick work. If he hadnt have scored, he'd have still been the best player on the night. If he bangs 3 in tonight I won't be the least bit surprised.
With that in mind... have a good game.... and see you there
martinski83
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glen
Pat Casey
haie 2008/2009
Posts: 228
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Post by glen on Sept 8, 2007 12:52:38 GMT
5-1 panthers captin mac hatrick!
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Post by Carnell on Sept 8, 2007 15:23:41 GMT
I havnt seen the new look panthers, but from what ive heard from my brother im going to go for 6-2 win
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5+game
Terry Kurtenbach
Posts: 2,974
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Post by 5+game on Sept 8, 2007 18:54:08 GMT
3-1 panthers
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Post by psylence on Sept 8, 2007 20:45:34 GMT
a good game! definatelhy been working on the defence since wed.
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Post by heja on Sept 8, 2007 20:52:56 GMT
definitly still need a centre though
we would of won extremly easily tonight if we had on just because of the amount of possesion we would gain from it
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Post by Daddio on Sept 8, 2007 20:56:51 GMT
Good game i thought and good to see that we can win a gritty game where we cant quite get gong.
We seemed tired in the second mind you we were a man down for most of the period.
Stand out players for me were levers again and thought Wally had much better game than wednesday.
Rasto answered anyones concerns from wednesday he looked really solid tonight which isnt really his style??
PS have found way round them not doing 1/2 pints buy a pint and ask for 2 1/2 pint glasses,
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Optic
Corey Neilson
Posts: 2,384
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Post by Optic on Sept 8, 2007 20:58:51 GMT
good game tonight, manchester really tested out our defence and we did a damn good job.. Pelletier is outstanding! a good find in him, takes no messing when the keeper is attacked when gone down to save! rasto was on good form again
attacking was good, put on the pressure at times with some good passing
im happy
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Post by heja on Sept 8, 2007 21:00:52 GMT
ps still can't see manchester finishing above 8th
there will be much much bigger tests than tonight
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Post by psylence on Sept 8, 2007 21:07:10 GMT
i thought manchester looked quite decent, their net minder is very good.
they stopped our offence from getting going quite often.. there will be tougher tests, but still a good grinding result for us.
pelletier is by far my fave of the new players he's great, got some good touches and very tough! wallenberg was definately better tonight, still feel we've not seen the real molin yet.
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Post by heja on Sept 8, 2007 21:13:31 GMT
manchester came here to defend, the goalie imo didn't look that good, average at best
didn't have much going forward ad really oly 2 good d'men
we will come unstuck against better teams if we don't get a face off winning centre man
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andyd
Ken Westman
THE logo!
Posts: 2,719
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Post by andyd on Sept 8, 2007 21:16:33 GMT
Ok, heja, are you seriously suggesting we need to gas someone and bring in a new "face off winning centre man" after our first league game? We have played 5 games and won every single one yet we need to replace a guy already? Unbelievable.
Well done guys, looking forward to seeing some good performances in the coming weeks when I get back from the States in the morning.
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Post by psylence on Sept 8, 2007 21:18:42 GMT
i don't think a new person in the team would make that much difference, ok we might win a few face offs, but the guys we had won their share tonight, and we always won the puck back from the ones we lost not an issue so far i think, as andyd says, so far played 5 won 5..... keep that going.
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Post by Rob #12 on Sept 8, 2007 21:25:41 GMT
I am feeling strange after that. I feel underwhelmed because I was expecting a brace of goals, but what I got was a steady performance overall and more importantly a win.
Pelletier was MOM for me, thought Rasto was near perfect tonight.
Looks like both Ryan and Cloots thought they won the fight, when in reality it was very even.
Am happy with tonights show. Well done boys.
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Post by Daddio on Sept 8, 2007 21:33:04 GMT
Tonight was quite comforting for me in one way, one of my fears was that we will no doubt overwhelm some teams when we click, but can we grid out a win when we not at our best and yes we did.
Also with a few exceptions we kept Manc to long range efforts that Rasto made look easy. So im happy
lets see what we can do on the road tomoz and weds
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Post by Peacock on Sept 8, 2007 21:34:54 GMT
Pelletier was immense.
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Post by Daddio on Sept 8, 2007 21:46:07 GMT
Did anyone else see the unusual trio we put out for the 5 on 3 penalty kill?
Wally, moline and nielson? whats that all about hoping for a break away i suppose
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johnB
Jade Galbraith
Posts: 198
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Post by johnB on Sept 8, 2007 21:46:28 GMT
Good all around effort, i think we will get better with a few more games under our belt, nice one rasto, tho wally was close to my mom. well done keep it up. ;D
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Post by Heanor Lair on Sept 8, 2007 21:46:44 GMT
Hmm, some less than unethusastic posts on this thread.
My own take:
1. A good win, with the team remaining positive even being a man down for what seemed most of the 2nd period.
2. Powerplay goals - 2 from 6 - I'll take that. We couldnt buy a powerplay goal at times last season. Also Manchester had 8 powerplays and failed to score.
3. The 3rd line played extremely well against a hard working Manchester side.
4. It was a hard fought, gritty win. I have to say Im not one of these people expecting a hatful of goals each game. A win like this is as good as a 8-0 bells and whistles win to me.
5. In a game like we saw tonight, last saesons Panthers could have well have lost the game, This team didnt look like losing and thats a good sign.
HL
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Post by pantherslass on Sept 8, 2007 21:46:50 GMT
Good game. Pelletier stood out for me and so did rasto.
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Post by KimThePanther on Sept 8, 2007 21:52:54 GMT
So much for us having a formidable attack and a leaky defense eh? ;D
Enjoyed tonight's game. I thought Manchester contained us quite well and it was a very reassuring display from a defensive point of view. I like a lot of others have worried about the defensive attributes of our team and tonight showed that they can knuckle down and get the job done. We were superb on the penalty kill in particular. Let's hope they can keep it up.
It was also pleasing to see a lot of players prepared to get down and do the gritty work. That's another department where we looked a bit poor but again tonight showed that we perhaps don't have so much to worry about.
Going forward I thought some of our transitional play was really good.
All in all it was a reasonably good game to watch. Terrific fight at the end there too!
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Gilly
Ashley Tait
Posts: 1,870
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Post by Gilly on Sept 8, 2007 21:53:47 GMT
a good solid performance tonight. And each and every player put their body on the line for the team tonight which i thought was great. Throwing themselves in front of the puck and taking hits for the team. I was particularly impressed with Levers. The amount of energy he put in was immense, throwing himself around everywhere and getting in some cracking checks. I thort Wally was better tonight and although not his best hes getting up to speed, as is molin who showed some nice stickwork and got an assist. PC was fairly quiet tonight but nevertheless didnt stop working. I think we have 3 gems for lines
MAC, PC, Richo - always look like creating plays and scoring SAS (swedes and Shep) - again nice plays work very hard Myers, LEvers, Ferrara - more than matched their first line and kept them fairly quiet all game.
Shmyr vs Clouts = draw, both gettin a few decent punches in but no-one overwhelming the other.
Rasto, brilliant, back to last seasons form and made numerous saves i nthe second period , notable the 1 on 1 which kept it at 1-0 rather than 1-1.
a good solid start to the season, but i do feel 2morrow will be a much tougher test.
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Helen
Ross Lambert
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Post by Helen on Sept 8, 2007 21:54:50 GMT
Just back from the game, a bit underwhelmed after the excitement of Wednesday's game but of course v v chuffed with the win! And settling down and playing good solid games is whats going to get us silverware.
Some thoughts:
- defence. Much, much better. Not jumping into the play as much, staying back and doing their job well. Some fantastic work by Ryan and Pele especially.
- Pele. Still very impressed, was more solid at the back but when given the chance pulled some fancy moves in the offensive zone and set up a couple of close ones.
- Rasto. Phew!! Looking a lot more like his old self.
- Molin. Somehow I noticed him even less than on Wednesday. The couple of times he did stand out it was by getting muscled off the puck very easily. Not passing judgement yet though - last season wasn't a fluke, and I'm sure he'll come good soon.
- Richardson/ Levers. Both worked v hard, some great work along the boards.
- Wallenberg. If Rasto hadn't got the shut out he'd have been my MOM. Looked ten times better than on Wednesday, came very close to scoring a few, and pulled some fantastic moves to get past the D. Also got stuck in to some defensive work, and worked hard behind the net on the PP.
- the PP. Looking good! McAslan's goal was the result of the perfect powerplay set up.
- the PK. Looking even better! Both on Weds and tonight I felt we did fantastically when shorthanded.
- the ref. Not as bad as Hicks, but then that would be hard! Seriously though, thought he missed a couple of calls and made a couple of mistaken ones, but did well. Got a bit penalty happy in the second, but let the rest of the game flow well.
Looking forward to tomorrow now!
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Post by martinski83 on Sept 8, 2007 21:58:19 GMT
Having read this thread and the charity shield thread I'd like to post the following observation: Rasto isnt the stand out goalie on ability when compared to other netminders in the EIHL though he does possess game winning qualities where others fall short. he is also a crowd pleaser and knows how to kill penalities. his experience and tactics are a key reason we won the playoffs. I'm not an arrogant person but I'm going to quote myself here... Didn't I tell you all Rasto would have a good game. When we were 5 on 5 we looked good. I can't really say anyone had a bad game for us though and we did well on the penalty kill. I thought Stevie P, Wallenberg and Rasto were all outstanding and perhaps the only player that didnt get 9/10 or 10/10 for me was Shepherd, but given time I think he'll be a quality asset. Manchester... as I stated earlier, imho they haven't replaced Molin and Campbell and I think that if they lose either Basiuk or Hand to injury they'll struggle. Yet agaion they've signed a good netminder and despite letting in 2 goals tonight, I thought he was their MOM. I'm not sure what Clouthier or McWilliams bring to their team and I think both players will be expecte to do a lot more for the Phoenix over thoe course of the season. That said, Phoenix will be a different team on the road to at home. Their small rink will be a big benefit to them and if they must look to make their home rink a fortress if they are serious about silverware. First game and maybe theyve not gelled, maybe I'm too harsh on Manchester.... but I just can't see any quality import ba the netminder who will win games for the Phoenix.
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Post by ollie44 on Sept 8, 2007 21:59:09 GMT
Did any one else notice the hip check in front of our bench. Im pretty sure it was 'Pele' on Cloots. As for the fight, very entertaining and no-clear winner. D looked substantially better than weds and Rsto, well, what a GOD !!
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