GAME THREAD: Flames v Steelers: WED 23rd: League

[Clear The Zone]

Result
Flames 7-4 Steelers

Does going empty net EVER work? I've not been around very long yet but I have yet to see it result in anything other than an ENG.

There's a deep dive on this based on NHL data from pre-covid years if you're interested.

https://hockey-graphs.com/2020/05/18/th ... n-the-nhl/

Any volunteers to do a similar job on EIHL stats? Anyone?....Anyone?... Bueller?

[paul johnston]

A very poor performance from a very vanilla team. Most players were well below the pace/anonymous and some of those who weren't so anonymous weren't for good reasons.

I liked most of Jasper, Archambault and Whistles game, the rest? Nah.
I won't mention coach and coaching decisions. It's like a stuck record.....i get bored moaning, Ginger gets bored defending him !

A very lacklustre effort and one we can't afford too many of.

[Bryan]

A very poor performance from a very vanilla team. Most players were well below the pace/anonymous and some of those who weren't so anonymous weren't for good reasons.

I liked most of Jasper, Archambault and Whistles game, the rest? Nah.
I won't mention coach and coaching decisions. It's like a stuck record.....i get bored moaning, Ginger gets bored defending him !

A very lacklustre effort and one we can't afford too many of.

I agree with this assessment of Jasper, Archambault, Whistle. I might add Tait to the list if I was being generous. Unusually even 92 was largely invisible. We seem to have been well coached into the PK but the rest of our play tonight looked poor and unstructured and was mostly ineffective.. 75 made a ridiculous cross check on the back of a flame when miles away from the play. Even Greenfield wasn’t entirely blameless. How silly can it be to put the puck out over the side glass from you trapezoid when not under pressure. Result 5 on 3. Which we managed to kill. To have the lead 3 times and get beaten by 3 goals suggests something is wrong.

[MLL79]

Didn’t catch the webcast this time so can’t comment on the game, I was worried going into this after seeing they’d beaten Cardiff and Nottingham by some margin. 5-1 and 4-1 I think it was. Looks like the Flames will be a tricky one this year.

[Doom]

In his post match interview Fox blamed turn overs and puck management for the defeat.

This worries me, because this is mostly a veteran team and the majority of the players should have enough experience to make good decisions.

I'd get it with a much younger raw team, because they'd probably have enthusiasm and speed, but be more prone to bad decisions which they should improve with experience.

Considering where the majority of our team are in their career paths, I wouldn't have thought they need to learn good puck management - Is there much room for improvement?

Regards

Doom

[Brian]

This game was a world away from our last visit to Guildford a week or so ago. We went 3 down there and came back to win. That spirit was sadly lacking last night. No idea where our defence was for the breakaways, they had a 2 on 0 at one point. Could have let more in but for Greenfield who saved a few clear cut 1 on 1s.
Maybe Flames have very quick forwards ( I note Neumann is one of them ) or maybe our defenders are slow and pass poorly, I don't know.
It is true that they have beaten 3 good teams easily in one week.
If we are to win the league we need to get points in Guildford as it is very hard to do so in Belfast and Cardiff.

[Al Murrays Hairbrush]

We lost the game, we never had a real grip on. All be it with a result that flatter Guildford.
Giving the puck away numerous times, as if it was a testimonial game. Cross ice passes, constantly cut out. Defence either static or caught up ice, giving breakaways on a buy one get 2 or 3 more minutes later.
Normally a big fan of Diffley & Cormier, but both were bypassed with ease on numerous occasions last night & last Saturday.
When I say we never had a grip on it, I refer to consistent possession & pressure. We didn't have that all night, just as against the Panthers.
I said on social media we were lucky to get anything on Saturday in the poorest quality Derby Game in recent recall.
We got away with it in Glasgow, as we were allowed time & space, plus they had very little to offer offensively.
Last night we were again found out, by a fast forechecking team, who themselves made mistakes, but defended far better than we did.
Major improvements needed, in many performances if we're going to challenge, or at least have a Plan B in games. Dropping Steele & IBN every time we go behind, when they're not the weakest links isn't the answer.
Stucker is poor, and others aren't living up to their CV's / hype:
If Whistle is our 1st line centre, I think we're in for a long season.

[ginger]

A very poor performance from a very vanilla team. Most players were well below the pace/anonymous and some of those who weren't so anonymous weren't for good reasons.

I liked most of Jasper, Archambault and Whistles game, the rest? Nah.
I won't mention coach and coaching decisions. It's like a stuck record.....i get bored moaning, Ginger gets bored defending him !

A very lacklustre effort and one we can't afford too many of.

I didn't watch as out of the country but by the sound of it, just defensively poor all over the ice. Guildford no mugs mind, that's a good team Dixon has built as the last few results have shown.

In regards to Brits, specifically IBN and Steele, I would always ask the question - if they play a regular shift in tight games, and we lose, then you could easily flip the argument round - why isn't Balmas etc getting more TOI when proven they are difference makers?

Development of young guys isn't easy, knowing when to put them in pressure situations is always a combination of luck and judgement from a coaching perspective. In addition, this is the first competitive loss this year - now if we were in a 18/19 season situation I'd be fully expecting to give them more ice time since the trophy pressure wouldn't be as great. But this early, it's tough. To borrow an example from the NHL, we're not talking about Celebrini type players who come in and are instantly in the top 3 talented guys on the roster.

Unfortunately I think this is becoming a stick to beat Fox with when we lose. But Keefe does exactly the same and is widely considered the best coach in the league. Difference is he's had exceptionally consistent performance from Conway/Piccinich/Goodwin etc. the majority of the time.

I also don't necessarily disagree that Fox needs a trophy this year if he is to stay beyond this year, but development of Brits given how B Whistle has progressed and how Sam Jones progressed pre his major injury issues suggests that isn't a huge hole in his coaching.

If established pros consistently perform poorly then fair, give the young ones more of an opportunity and sit the under performers. But in first poor competitive showing I think that's a massive overreaction