Another week of league title chasing hockey gone, and another five things learnt as we enter the final month of EIHL 15/16.
Photo from @mickgta
1> One Down, Four to go – Last week we said that the final five games will define our league season, and one week on we’ve won the easiest one quite comfortably, whilst the Giants and Devils have both lost. Next it’s the toughest at the NIC, and hopefully they’re still high from the CC final, and then focus on the Blaze, and let’s replicate the Capitals performance by putting five past Stewart. This is why the league format rocks, as we’ve got another season defining week-end ahead.
2> 70 points to win it – Taking the last few games into account, my predicted table now has the Steelers top on 69 points, by half a point (!) from the Devils. If we win three from four and finish on 70, only the Devils can beat us (max 72) whilst the Panthers can equal us and it’d go to regulation wins.
3> Second line back in business – since Mosienko has been promoted, the ‘second’ line has been quite quiet, but on Saturday that changed as Nelson, Dowd and Vestberg all chipped in with goals. Nelson looked like he had found what he was missing for the last couple of months, and Dowd looked as good as ever. Also, three goals from six opportunities give us hope that the revised powerplay is clicking at just the right time too.
4> Congratulations to Gary Moran – Nice of him to share his cup raising with the club captain wasn’t it. I know we take heat from some of the stuff that Simmsey says, but GM the GM continues to take the biscuit. I know a few Panthers fans that thank their lucky stars that he doesn’t have access to social media, as Twitter doesn’t have the bandwidth to cope with the pelters they’d get.
5> Season tickets – to celebrate our tenth year as Steelers regulars again, back after a few years in the wilderness, me and the mrs are joining the ranks of season ticket holders next year, so we’re watching with interest to what Simmsey promised would be the ‘biggest signing news of the season’ later in the week. It’s not us by the way.
I’ll leave you with one more statistic blast – having run my final table predictions for the last 14 games now, and taking them as a whole, four teams have slightly improved (Blaze, Steelers, Giants and Panthers), two are much improved (Storm and Flyers) and four have dropped off (Devils, Clan, Capitals and Stars). The relevance of which is that the firm favourites from a couple of months ago, the Devils and Clan, seem to have failed to cope with the pressure, whilst all four previous EIHL league champions have all kept ‘steady ahead’ in the final run-in. You can’t buy experience, you have to earn it.
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