DON'T PANIC!!

[Shaggy]

It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride already this season, and I keep hearing (online and in person) various doom and gloom comments about the Panthers' chances this year - just based on the past couple of weeks.

Time to take a deep breath, I think....

Truth is - we're not used to being up near the top, are we? That doesn't sound good, but it's true, let's face it. So maybe we've had (to varying degrees) a bit of a rush of blood to the head... and now a couple of bad weekends (thankfully only one of which makes any difference) has caused us to come back down to earth with a bit of a bump.

Don't panic.

It's a 54 game season... and we've only played 10 games.
We've still got 15 points out of a possible 20... that's a 75% return, which is the best in the league.
We still have the league's top goalscorer (Clarkie) and one of the three joint second place goalscorers (McAslan).
We're still right up near the top of the most-goals-scored-per-game and fewest-goals-conceded-per-game chart.
We still have Evan Lindsay who is joint 2nd on GAA and 3rd on Save%
And we were still the team to have a nice fat zero in the Regulation Loss column the longest...

And there is still an awful lot of season to go.

This weekend wasn't good - not by any stretch of the imagination. But hey - no team gets through a season without a bad patch... maybe this is ours. And I for one very much doubt that Mike Ellis will have the team getting all complacent.

Roll on the next match...

[Deleted]

On this forum we are currently running a thread giving fans a chance to celebrate great moments from our history, which is crawling down its second page.

We have game threads from a couple of narrow defeats which have already mustered sixteen pages of moaning.

I find it all a bit disillusioning, I'm afraid.

[Rich]

Saturday was shocking, simply awful but we werent bad last night so we need to build on that.
Wednesday is a big game, 2points needed to get back on track. Good post tho, the bigger picture still looks rosie

[belak]

stef said:

On this forum we are currently running a thread giving fans a chance to celebrate great moments from our history, which is crawling down its second page.

We have game threads from a couple of narrow defeats which have already mustered sixteen pages of moaning.

I find it all a bit disillusioning, I'm afraid.

While I agree with you sentiments Stef, the thing regarding the "great moments from our history" might not be applicable to a large percentage of fans, ie before their time.

I don't have any experience of Panthers prior to 1993, and it may well be the case with other fans.

[Shorty]

Choosing only three of your best moments is not an easy job. Posting after a game when emotions are running high is too easy to do. I am sure that the sticky at the top of the forum will build nicely in the timeframe

[hitman69]

pantherrich said:

Saturday was shocking, simply awful but we werent bad last night so we need to build on that.
Wednesday is a big game, 2points needed to get back on track. Good post tho, the bigger picture still looks rosie

I found this word in the dictionary:


FICKLE


Does that ring any bells with some people, or am i being a bit harsh.

Spot on Shaggy, there really is no need to panic!!!!


Cheer up guys its not like we are bottom of the table.

Happy days

H

[LUFC]

Yeah i have to agree 100% with you there shaggy, teams hit and miss and every now and then slip up, so long as we get back to being a pressure oriented team i'll be happy.

I was abit pee'd off though at comments i overheard while in the lav (mens lav is always full of juicy goss on players) anyways i was abit shocked at the way fans at Ice Shefield where putting down cory and others as being so called super stars but not performing. I really dont get how easily people turn on their team after afew tough and bad performances. Sure our team hasnt performed but dont take anything away from the teams that beat us, they all played hard fast and tight making it hard either way to play them.

Stop the moaning and start the cheering again! Urge them onward and upward!

[smart6]

stef said:

On this forum we are currently running a thread giving fans a chance to celebrate great moments from our history, which is crawling down its second page.

We have game threads from a couple of narrow defeats which have already mustered sixteen pages of moaning.

I find it all a bit disillusioning, I'm afraid.

Don't be disillusioned. All the great moments I've seen have been posted so didn't think loads of repetition was required. Others probably thought the same.

[Rich]

hitman69 said:

pantherrich said:

Saturday was shocking, simply awful but we werent bad last night so we need to build on that.
Wednesday is a big game, 2points needed to get back on track. Good post tho, the bigger picture still looks rosie

I found this word in the dictionary:


FICKLE


Does that ring any bells with some people, or am i being a bit harsh.

Spot on Shaggy, there really is no need to panic!!!!


Cheer up guys its not like we are bottom of the table.

Happy days

H

In what way was saying we were shocking sat night fickle?We are shambolic at times and purely frustrating to watch, that is my view on the game of hockey nothing to do with me as a panthers fan but an observation as a hockey fan

[Heanor Lair]

Shaggy - you are spot on mate!!

We lost a game at home - well lets all pack up and call it a day eh

Belfast have surrended points to Us, Shuff, Coventry, and Cardiff at the Odyssey this season - they should be in meltdown by now

Of course the loss and the 'dropping' of a point away from home is all the fault of the Continental Cup. What a load of .......

Panthers played against 3 teams who were of a much higher standard in Rouen. You only better yourself by watching, competing, and learning, from more experienced organisations. Panthers are establishing a good reputuation on the Continent, I suspect no-one on the Continent gives a fig about Belfast, Sheffield, Newcastle....

I noticed Elliott from Belfast sticking his oar in. I think he should crawl back under his bridge. Fact is Belfast despite big injections of $$ from across the water, didnt have the balls or ambition to compete -end of story.

Keep smiling peeps, theres a long way to go yet!

HL

[Shaggy]

And just to put a bit more perspective on it....

We had a 1-point weekend... 1 point out of a possible 4.

EVERY team in the EIHL has had at least one weekend where they've got 1 point or less... several have had more than one such weekend, and several have had zero point weekends... unlike us.

It could be an awful lot worse....

(BTW - one other interesting stat that I stumbled across whilst checking stuff... despite Bonifarce's best efforts, we are still one of the best-disciplined teams in the league. I've not added up all of the team PIMs, but just looking at the PIMs 'leader board', our top penalty-taker so far is Ryan Shmyr with 39 PIMs... which puts him in joint 27th in the league. Every other team in the league apart from Hull has at least 2 players above us in that score... and Hull have Gomenyuk just above on 42 PIMs. Now this might not seem like an important stat, but I think it could have a gradually-increasing effect as the season goes on. Notables above us are Andre "Drop The Dead Donkey" Payette heading the league with 125 PIMs and Dan "Don't Check Me, I'm Special" Tessier with 79 PIMs! ;D)

[Heanor Lair]

shaggy said:

And just to put a bit more perspective on it....

We had a 1-point weekend... 1 point out of a possible 4.

EVERY team in the EIHL has had at least one weekend where they've got 1 point or less... several have had more than one such weekend, and several have had zero point weekends... unlike us.

It could be an awful lot worse....

(BTW - one other interesting stat that I stumbled across whilst checking stuff... despite Bonifarce's best efforts, we are still one of the best-disciplined teams in the league. I've not added up all of the team PIMs, but just looking at the PIMs 'leader board', our top penalty-taker so far is Ryan Shmyr with 39 PIMs... which puts him in joint 27th in the league. Every other team in the league apart from Hull has at least 2 players above us in that score... and Hull have Gomenyuk just above on 42 PIMs. Now this might not seem like an important stat, but I think it could have a gradually-increasing effect as the season goes on. Notables above us are Andre "Drop The Dead Donkey" Payette heading the league with 125 PIMs and Dan "Don't Check Me, I'm Special" Tessier with 79 PIMs! ;D)

Shaggy stop it with the stats ;D

a. Thats my job

b. How can people moan about how awful we are as a team when the stats clearly show thats not the case

HL

[Lucy]

I'm certainly not going to panic.

Who can prove the Continental Cup has anything to do with our last two results?

How do you know that wouldn't have happened anyway?

Defeats are bound to happen and with 44 games to go, it's way to early to panic.

(See where Runnerbean gets her optimism from! ;D)

[heja]

WE HAVE LOST ONE GAME IN REGULATION THIS SEASON!!

that is all. thank you

[Deleted]

belak said:

stef said:

On this forum we are currently running a thread giving fans a chance to celebrate great moments from our history, which is crawling down its second page.

We have game threads from a couple of narrow defeats which have already mustered sixteen pages of moaning.

I find it all a bit disillusioning, I'm afraid.

While I agree with you sentiments Stef, the thing regarding the "great moments from our history" might not be applicable to a large percentage of fans, ie before their time.

I don't have any experience of Panthers prior to 1993, and it may well be the case with other fans.

Fair comment Shin.

[Rich]

Another point, Id rather we flopped on a weekend when weve got Caps and Phoenix, id take a 4point weekend next weekend instead thanks!

[andyd]

Thank you Shaggy...

...at last I feel like I'm not the only one beating this drum!

[darrenw]

Shaggy's & Stef's points are both good ones.

Surely, everyone here is looking for the same thing: a succesful Panthers team. Some people take the view that after a set-back, what is needed to spur things on is to get behind the team more and that is to be applauded.

Others, and I will include myself in this, feel frustrated at what appears to be a defeat caused at least partly by a lack of effort and say so. I don't consider this as being fickle, as has been suggested, more a symptom of seeing more than my fair share of such defeats in seasons gone by.

Yes, we have lost just 1 game in regulation so far this term - would I have taken that if it were offered at the beginning of the season? Of course I would. Would I rather lose to a team at the bottom of the league as opposed to a title rival? Again, yes. It's not the defeat that bothered me on Saturday (didn't see last nights match), it was the manner of the defeat and the fact that we seem to drop (historically) far too many points in this way.

Of course the losses over the weekend shouldn't be blown up out of all proportion, however, neither should they be swept under the carpet and ignored. The test of any side is how they react to a run of bad results and, like it or not, at the moment we are at the beginning of just such a run.

Let's hope that this poor run of form is over, and we can get back the side that did so well pre-Europe.

[cc77]

andyd said:

Thank you Shaggy...

...at last I feel like I'm not the only one beating this drum!

Andy, i agreed with you on the Edinburgh thread, and i agree with Shaggy on this too.

Three words;

KEEP THE FAITH.

[hitman69]

pantherrich said:

hitman69 said:

I found this word in the dictionary:


FICKLE


Does that ring any bells with some people, or am i being a bit


harsh.

Spot on Shaggy, there really is no need to panic!!!!


Cheer up guys its not like we are bottom of the table.

Happy days

H

In what way was saying we were shocking sat night fickle?We are shambolic at times and purely frustrating to watch, that is my view on the game of hockey nothing to do with me as a panthers fan but an observation as a hockey fan

Rich

Sorry mate no offence to what you wrote, i agree with what you say, i meant to answer Stef's quote not yours.

I see it like Steff, what's wrong with people sometimes? all is rosie and a couple of defeats and the critics are back on their band wagons.

So again sorry Rich, and Shaggy once again, spot on.

I still say some of our "so called fans" are a bit Fickle.

I didn't see or hear any fickle fans in Rouen, what does it matter win lose or draw.

H

[123]

As an 'outsider' looking at the Panthers, the start to the season has been very impressive - that can't be denied. So far the team are hard to take points from, especially both points. The recent results will be cause for a little concern for Ellis & co, but no more than that.

One thing I did notice though, is despite the Panthers IMO having the most strength in depth of all sides, there are only 2 players regularly hitting the back of the net - Clarke and McAslan. Aren't these 2 now on the same line? The defence has been ok so far, but scoring has been problematic of late. Perhaps teams are realising that at the moment if they can shut these 2 down the Panthers will struggle? Guys like Shmyr, Simoes and Emersic are not going to be top scorers, but they need to contribute more as import forwards.

At the moment I think Ellis has the balance of the lines wrong and isn't getting the maximum out of the team, but he has the necessary players at his disposal to to turns things around. There really isn't any reason why Panthers shouldn't stay near the top all season and I think they will. This team will be hard to beat in any competition.

It will be a very interesting game when Panthers meet Blaze for the first time this weekend.

[Rich]

Thanks for clearing that up Hitman

6points out of the next 3games and I think these boards will be empty because people will only have positive things to talk about

[Shaggy]

123 said:

One thing I did notice though, is despite the Panthers IMO having the most strength in depth of all sides, there are only 2 players regularly hitting the back of the net - Clarke and McAslan. Aren't these 2 now on the same line?

To be fair, that's probably because we were missing both Petricko and Neil all weekend (and Matt Myers for most of Saturday) - the lines had to be shifted around.

The defence has been ok so far, but scoring has been problematic of late. Perhaps teams are realising that at the moment if they can shut these 2 down the Panthers will struggle? Guys like Shmyr, Simoes and Emersic are not going to be top scorers, but they need to contribute more as import forwards.

Fair point to an extent, I think - certainly I'd like to see some of the others hitting the back of the net more. I would make 2 points here though:-

- we're only 10 games in, and have had a rash of injuries (nothing to do with the CC, neither) - Moran, Meyers, Cooke, Petricko, Stevens, Emersic... they've all missed games (as has James Neil, but through commitments to U19s not injuries)... and Matt Myers has missed most of 2. That has to have had a disrupting effect on the lines and teamwork. It's also more than any other team in the league (at least I think it is - hard to tell with Newcastle's changing roster...)

- you name 3 players who you think should be scoring more. Perhaps... but all three are players whose main contribution is other than goalscoring:-
- Blaz Emersic. Of the three you named, he's the one you'd think would be intended to score more. Yet he's been forced into defensive duties again, which severely limits the scoring opportunities.
- Steve Simoes. A checker, line-breaker and aggressive playmaker... and he does it brilliantly. And 3+3 in 10 games isn't too shabby for such a player, is it?
- Ryan Shmyr. The harsh would say goon... some would say enforcer. I think he combines the two roles above... he's very good defensively (blocking shots, poke-checks, etc) and isn't too shabby at making space and smashing through the opposition lines. Maybe not a natural scorer... but one hell of a team player.

Personally, I'm looking to Stevens (hopefully now recovered from the groin injury) and Petricko (when HE is back off injury!) to light the lamp more.

At the moment I think Ellis has the balance of the lines wrong and isn't getting the maximum out of the team, but he has the necessary players at his disposal to to turns things around. There really isn't any reason why Panthers shouldn't stay near the top all season and I think they will. This team will be hard to beat in any competition.

Here's hoping so! ;D
And as I said above... the lines have been messed up for various reasons. We'll have to wait and see what Ellis can do when he has a full roster again.

It will be a very interesting game when Panthers meet Blaze for the first time this weekend.

Ageed - the two teams with possibly the greatest depth and flexibility in depth... could be very interesting!

[MP]

123 said:

The defence has been ok so far, but scoring has been problematic of late. Perhaps teams are realising that at the moment if they can shut these 2 down the Panthers will struggle?

I tend to agree - our defence will always have a tendency to leak goals, so free scoring offence is required if we are to be in the hunt for honours this season. To score freely, we will have to skate fast and find that slick, intuitive tic-tac-toe passing that unlocks packed defences and hot keepers. Easily said of course...

[Rich]

mountainpanther said:

123 said:

The defence has been ok so far, but scoring has been problematic of late. Perhaps teams are realising that at the moment if they can shut these 2 down the Panthers will struggle?

I tend to agree - our defence will always have a tendency to leak goals, so free scoring offence is required if we are to be in the hunt for honours this season. To score freely, we will have to skate fast and find that slick, intuitive tic-tac-toe passing that unlocks packed defences and hot keepers. Easily said of course...

Top point, and how many passes did we make saturday? Corey Neilson didnt make a single pass to the tape of anyones stick for the last 15mins, literally not one so when your "quarterback" on the play bringing the puck out cant make the first pass what hope have we got!
Its difficult when your not playing the same lines all the time but if you work hard, keep it basic and communicate it shudnt matter, I dont swallow that excuse at all