GAME THREAD: Panthers v Steelers: CUP: Sat 20th Sep

[ginger]

It's still very early doors, but before the games started there was one player from each of our main rivals who i would have loved on the Steelers team.

Yaremko in Cardiff - He's started very well for them and has arguably been their best forward.

Grasso in Belfast - I see he had a 5 point night for them yesterday.

Pearson in Nottingham - Oh dear! His signing was a real coup for them, with the numbers he was putting up he probably had good offers from some very good leagues. He should be the best of the lot, but I hardly noticed him last night. Has he come to Nottingham to play with his mates thinking this league is below him? One thing is for certain, unless he improves massively, he's not going to be close to my prediction of league top scorer.

Regards

Doom

Grasso definitely looks good, but has to be a caveat on that Belfast win last night - Fife started the game with 6 import forwards and lost another to injury during the game. They are really banged up. Belfast probably win anyway, but I suspect would have been closer with a full strength Fife.

Yaremko has been good, and Cardiff are definitely making a claim to be in the running this year. I do wonder if they're still taking advantage of the long pre-season though - e.g last night's game was Steelers 6th game including pre-season. Friday's was Cardiff's 12th. Usually takes 10 games or so to really get systems bedded in, so it'll be interesting to see how they look when we are in to November/December.

[mark]

A quick glance at the Cage forum shows a lot of very unhappy Panther fans this morning, no leadership, no effort from some big name players, dodgy call on their second non-goal... it was reviewed on video fgs !, steelers always there to make the hit when the panthers take possession, always seemed to have someone screening Grande, always clearing rebounds from around Greener and like a knife through butter when they got the chance to break. I'm sure these are all things that Fox will be very happy about especially as you could say this is around the end of pre-season for us, solid hockey basics that you have to have if you want to win games on a regular basis, our coach seems to have the ability to hammer in these non-negotiable basics and then recruit the players to do it at high speed. I like the buy in from the players listening to a proven coach and how he seems to be able to manage and motivate players as well as he knows systems, because one without the other doesn't work.

[ginger]

A lot on there seem to be annoyed about a lack of physical play - there may be some truth in it but not in the 'big hits/chippiness' way that a lot seem to imply. Where we did well was board battles - Tansey was particularly on it last night, and Harper and Pu are excellent in the offensive zone at this. Maybe Nottingham lacking a bit there, but they're also not getting the same performance level out of Fossier/Grande/Doherty as they were last year (at the moment).

Most sensible people would have expected Grande to not maintain 95%, but would still be at a solid 92-93%. Their D didn't do a particularly good job on rebounds which is another area we excelled in last night.

Think missing Alfaro is hurting them too as he provides a good level of dirty work in corners etc.

[mark]

Highlights https://youtu.be/AxzWWz-F2PU?si=CPhVTJavIUVI3iH_