I dont know how we are going to turn this around. I'm not sure we have a plan B. We could do with having a crash/bang line but we don't have any of those sort of players.
When the going is good we do ok. We just don't have the bottle to battle in the trenches when the going is tough. Its so un-Steelers like that we didn't throw a decent hit, let alone a punch or even a face wash when we were struggling.
It was a case of oh we are getting a hiding at home, whatever, let's meekly surrender and not be angry or upset about it.
Glad I didn’t see the game Paul, I’d have been fuming that we don’t have any sore losers
Fox usually speaks really well post games. I’m really looking forward to his thoughts from this one.
We have to make sure this is one off or we will certainly quickly fall away from the remaining competitions.
Jay mentioned in another post that the team perhaps wasn’t getting enough credit. I’d certainly agree for most of 2021, but since the New Year we’ve been riding our luck.
The team dont deserve any credit for that game bud, I would be the first to agree, the writing was on the wall from the first 10 mins, and I called it with the Smith Clan sat watching, and I got glared at, I said if we play the rest of the game like we have played the first half of the first period, we are going to get our ass handed to us..
it was truly awful to watch.. i am a big fan of Aaron Fox, but he didn't get anything out the guys tonight and was completely out coached...
I've got to add this also, (and I await the heckles) I am sick to death of the massive build up to big games and the horse crap that comes from our social media making out that we are about to undertake the next best thing that comes close to The New York Rangers v The Islanders in a best of 7 series in MSG New York only to limp out of the dam game with our tails between our likes like a scalded Yorkshire whippet!
Embarassing, yes, a very poor performance, yes, lack of ideas , yes but one defeat even a heavy one does not a season make. Sport has a habit of throwing up games like this, We beat Belfast 7-1 at home, they didn't throw in the towel and are now title contenders if not favourites.
We played well against the devils on Sunday, in my opinion we were unlucky to lose .
We will know more when this team goes to meet an improving Panthers bunch on Saturday in Nottingham and of course in the games against Belfast.
It is only the one game but we saw on Sunday how hard it was to break them down and we had no answer.
I agree with Jay, the writing was on the wall in the first period and we had to change and we didn’t.
Jared Skalde has worked out how to beat us and we have no plan B to fall back on. The lines did change in the third but the game was all but lost by then.
Wow don't think anyone saw that coming! Especially after a good performance and very tight game on Sunday. I thought we started ok to be honest but once their first went in we seemed to lose all composure and structure, some absolute howlers in terms of turnovers and giveaways.
Passing and breakouts were awful and Cardiff seemed to have identified exactly how to stop us from exiting our zone at all never mind with the puck and with momentum. Thought Todd (he wasn't the only one just he seemed to be the worst IMO) was destined to give up an odd man rush from the start, I like his stick handling and composure to carry the puck out of the zone with ease but so many times he skated into traffic and refused to adjust, don't get me wrong he's been stellar this season and everyone has poor games, just seemed to Cardiff targeted that and were able to capitalize. They often seemed to double on our d side that had the puck and were easily able to intercept or block passes and attack from those positions leaving us defending 2 on 1's and breakaways all night.
Obviously the individual errors (all 5 of them) cost us but again we didn't produce nearly enough threatening chances going forward, we played a lot around the perimeter and we seemed reluctant to drive the net and get in front of Carruth (who we know was already in good form after Sunday's performance). We obviously are going to miss Vallerand but there is easily enough talent in that team to produce goals but for some reason we couldn't string 2 passes together to get a decent shot on goal. Think we could see another huge shake up in lines on Saturday - wouldn't be surprised to see Whistle promoted as I thought he was easily our MOTM.
I would also say that Cardiff were clinical in the chances they had but besides our errors they didn't create that much (not that they have to when you give up that many grade A chances), they seemed to have a game plan of breaking up play in the neutral zone and our zone and score from those chances, which is what they did and very successfully. I would say I thought their game plan was brilliant and they executed it to a T.
As Fox said in his interview though obviously it's embarrassing but it is one game (albeit a semi-final, which we would have loved to have won) this can't define our season which has been excellent up till now especially considering the injuries we've had. Hopefully we can regroup quickly get behind the boys on the weekend and sharply fix the rut we're in with a 4 point weekend!
A result like this has been a long time coming. It's been some time since we played a team of any real substance and we've been able to get away with upping our game for 10 minutes and squeezing out a result. Too many of the team have been cruising, and it seems they are unable to up their game when the going gets tough. It would be unfair to name individuals as the whole team should share the blame. Unless there are some real changes in attitude, I can't see us giving the trophy engravers any work.
