GAME THREAD: Clan v Steelers : Sun 20th : LEAGUE

[steeler pete]

From EIHL:- “92 Mitchell Balmas called for Goaltender Delay of Game - Freezing the Puck along the boards.”

What does that mean?

Good result though after a long game last night and a long drive.

I’ve got a vague memory of this before. I think an attacking player may not freeze the puck against the boards inside the netminders trapezoid if the netminder is contesting it. Might be wrong though. Not certain of that. I missed it as I took my eye off play at that moment. Camera showed Balmas smiling happily in the pen box.

It seems you’re right Bryan there may be such a rule. It’s not one we commonly see though is it. I didn’t see the incident just that it was reported on the game events section of the EIHL game page and I thought it strange. You learn every day.

[ginger]

Faceoffs were certainly an issue last season and I think Fox realised that when he put this team together.

It's still very early doors, but alarm bells are ringing a little bit for me, because this is the one area we do still seem to be struggling.

My expectations before the start of the season would have been something like:

Dowd 50% - He's usually fairly solid and reliable.

Whistle a little under 50% - Past seasons he's usually mid 40's, so I'd expect that again.

Gettinger around 50% - No reason for this other than assuming a guy who took faceoffs in the AHL will be decent.

Rockwood low 40's - Based on the stats I could find in his previous leagues, he doesn't look very good at faceoffs.

Collins mid to high 50's - Fox made a point of discussing his faceoff skills and I suspect that's one of the main reasons for signing him.

Based on the first 4 games, the figures to date are:

Dowd 55%
Whistle 52%
Gettinger 43%
Rockwood 38%
Collins 38%

The guys familiar to our league are doing well, the new guys who were expected to improve us are struggling.

I'm no expert on this, but is there a bedding in period with players getting use to how the officials deal with faceoffs in our league?

It's something to keep an eye on, but I would hope Collins in particular sees a big improvement. I'd expect a top 5 faceoff player in ICEHL to be dominant in our league.

It's only a small sample, but if we don't improve, it will start costing us points at some stage.

Regards

Doom

Almost certainly some adapting to linos and how they conduct the face offs. Also learning different opponents tendancies etc can take some time. Both could easily contribute to those experienced in the league might fare better early season. Collins was over 50% in ICEHL last year so I don't believe for a second he's forgot how to win draws. My guess is just a bit of adaptation needed - possibly as well from our wingers too.

[DiscoRay]

By far our worst showing of the season to date. Wouldn't know our team played 11 games together prior, more looked like this was the first time they'd met on the ice!

Made things far too easy for a team that didn't need any help, more worryingly was our lack of reaction or fight after that 0-3 1st period. Hoping that's our one-off disasterclass performance out of our system early, expect a big response in Manchester on Wednesday night.

[Bryan]

From EIHL:- “92 Mitchell Balmas called for Goaltender Delay of Game - Freezing the Puck along the boards.”

What does that mean?

Good result though after a long game last night and a long drive.

I’ve got a vague memory of this before. I think an attacking player may not freeze the puck against the boards inside the netminders trapezoid if the netminder is contesting it. Might be wrong though. Not certain of that. I missed it as I took my eye off play at that moment. Camera showed Balmas smiling happily in the pen box.

It seems you’re right Bryan there may be such a rule. It’s not one we commonly see though is it. I didn’t see the incident just that it was reported on the game events section of the EIHL game page and I thought it strange. You learn every day.

It’s one of the joys perhaps perversely of our sport. It’s full of obscure rules that I’m often amazed how stripeys work out what they should do. Having said that, I really think we should demand the ref explains each penalty as you get in the NHL. The game needs to become more transparent. Nothing to lose! It will help draw newbies into the game which must seem hard to understand as a novice.