Five Things - Week Ending 22 November

Thank you to Tony for his contribution to FSB, All Credit for this piece goes to him so any queries you can contact Tony on Twitter @DISGU15ED

After only 2 points from 6 this week I learned more bad things than good in this week: 

1>     Escalating aggression against the Devils – We all love having a team to hate, and it’s not long since the Voth inspired Devils held that crown for me. A hard-nosed, hard-checking Devils game was, and is, something to look forward to. This week’s home game at Ice Sheffield started hard and continued that way, however the unpenalised cross-check from Batch that put Levi into the crossbar after scoring his goal seemed to me to be the first step towards the uncensored escalation that followed...

2>     … and on that subject – Are the stripes worse this year, and if that hit had been given would the charging / roughing / concussion have been avoided? Tough to say, but the zebras do seem to be getting more stick this year than most. Makes me pine after the good ol' Mike Hicks days!

3>     Goodbye to the BBT – Rarely a happy hunting ground for away teams, so we can be glad we’ve no need to go there again. Here’s hoping the new barn will have less advantage to the Homeys – which will save Thommo from blowing so many gaskets on the coach back to Sheffield! 

4>     Clan fans are noisy – Having a double header weekend in Lancs / Yorks certainly attracted many Clan fans to travel down, and they were both welcome and noisy throughout the game on Sunday. I wish you newbies well for the next 20 years – but only then when your fan-base average age is closer to ours, can you truly taunt us for not singing as loudly. I sang a lot more when I was 27 too.

5>     Duco out / Desbiens in – The hockey family boots out a gritty 5’10” family member with 267 AHL and 18 NHL games, chasing an upgrade for another with more size, 451 AHL and 23 NHL games, and some ‘A’s on his shirts. Certainly seems a Top Trumps upgrade, but time will tell, and as always we wish the departed well.

Final thought is to remind ourselves that we’ve never had it so good. Although the departure of Hull is still fresh in the memory - the league seems better funded than ever, with more parity across the teams, and investments being made in rinks and the officials. We have got used to 100% weeks in previous years, and get upset when we can’t do the same now, but I’d swap that for overall league competitiveness – provided someone stops the Panthers from Slamming! 

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