GAME THREAD: Steelers v Flyers: Sun 1st Feb

[smbmetal]

Great to get a convincing win.

Hopefully we’ve rested both Richie & Tremblay.

I’m afraid I struggle to see why Fife are even in the EIHL. They are uncompetitive every season and frankly, drag down the overall quality of the league each year. Surely they’d be better off playing in a lower tier?

Their off ice activities aren’t doing them any favours either. As for Lucic, I’d send him on the next flight home. Must be the worst ex NHL’er play over here I’ve ever seen in my 25 years of watching hockey.

[steeler pete]

I thought McAdam deserved mom for his shutout. He made some good saves.

[greeny]

Great to get a convincing win.

Hopefully we’ve rested both Richie & Tremblay.

I’m afraid I struggle to see why Fife are even in the EIHL. They are uncompetitive every season and frankly, drag down the overall quality of the league each year. Surely they’d be better off playing in a lower tier?

Their off ice activities aren’t doing them any favours either. As for Lucic, I’d send him on the next flight home. Must be the worst ex NHL’er play over here I’ve ever seen in my 25 years of watching hockey.

Agree about fife, as much as i like the history etc about the club i think the time has come for them to drop down a league,, no good for anybody if each season you are just there to make the numbers up, shame but cant justify being in this league

[greeny]

An expected victory but positive aspects obviously keeping a clean sheet and putting 8 away,,,,

[Bryan]

The original penalty against Dowd was another missed call as he was clearly having his stick held by the Fife player so that bit of stupidity by them cost them 2 goals
[/quote]

Seems absurd that 7 or 8 K fans saw that but four stripeys missed it. Second serious mistake of the weekend.

[MLL79]

Great to see the guys playing with confidence, awesome first 2 periods and seeing guys instinctively finding each other with passes.

Granted the opposition wasn’t great, and faded quickly after some first period chances, but it’s been a while since we’ve looked like we’re on the powerplay for stretches when it’s actually 5 on 5.

A lot of really good performances here. Harper looks like he’s found his rhythm, I thought Ritchie (for what little he iced) seems to have found another gear and looked a lot more mobile on top of the already great touches and positioning - keeps getting better. And nice to see IBN net one and McAdam with the S/O.

Southorn and Diffley looked great on D and pinching forward.

The third all got a bit “game-manage-y”, but the lines were then becoming fragmented/tangled as Tremblay and Ritchie left the game. Hopefully this is precautionary as those missing would effectively derail all the positives we just experienced!!

Watling I felt looks like he’s firing on all cylinders now, or at least nearly there - which is a real plus.

Great to see us blow out a team like that - that’ll be a welcome boost to the morale.

[MLL79]

The original penalty against Dowd was another missed call as he was clearly having his stick held by the Fife player so that bit of stupidity by them cost them 2 goals

Seems absurd that 7 or 8 K fans saw that but four stripeys missed it. Second serious mistake of the weekend.
[/quote]

It was comically obvious on the replays on the webcast - sounds like it was obvious live too lol

Dowds reactions to the officials was pretty amusing tho lol

[DiscoRay]

I’m afraid I struggle to see why Fife are even in the EIHL. They are uncompetitive every season and frankly, drag down the overall quality of the league each year. Surely they’d be better off playing in a lower tier?

Far be it from me to defend Fife, but on this particular thing at least, this is a rather baffling statement to make. They've qualified for Play-Offs 8 out their 12 seasons in the EIHL, made 4 finals weekends, and a Challenge Cup Final. That's light-years off being "uncompetitive every season".

Last season they took a huge gamble on a Kazak trio that went spectacularly wrong, which no team can afford under the new signing limit rules. One of their best imports Curran gets injured for the season almost from the get-go, they sustain other injuries to boot, and they fell apart from there. This season they only started building a roster from late June due to the time taken for their takeover to happen. Provided they don't make themselves a place to avoid via their numerous PR blunders, they should be decently better with a full off-season to build a roster.

[Keith Sheppard]

I’m afraid I struggle to see why Fife are even in the EIHL. They are uncompetitive every season and frankly, drag down the overall quality of the league each year. Surely they’d be better off playing in a lower tier?

Far be it from me to defend Fife, but on this particular thing at least, this is a rather baffling statement to make. They've qualified for Play-Offs 8 out their 12 seasons in the EIHL, made 4 finals weekends, and a Challenge Cup Final. That's light-years off being "uncompetitive every season".

Plus who do you replace them with in the league? Edinburgh? Hull? Baisingstoke et al? They all stepped down at some point, would they want to come back up?

[Brian]

Losing Fife costs the rest of the team owners money via less fixtures. Tony for instance would be 7,000 tickets fees down just last night.
As for being uncompetitive, 3 weeks ago I watched them beat the pants off us in Fife.
There are no teams good enough to take their place and none wish to do so, preferring to be big fish in smaller ponds.