After a rather bizarre set of results from our back-to-back series against the Devils, we’re left scratching our heads again and wondering what went right, and what went wrong. Here’s the top five things I learnt this weekend.
1> Five outa Six ain’t bad – To kinda quote Thommo & Meatloaf, and they’re not wrong. We won the last two leagues with 34 and 35 wins from 52, and if we keep up the 5 out of 6 ratio then we’ll end up with 43 wins this term – and that’ll be plenty.
2> It’s the manner of the defeat that hurts – The five wins in a row were great, but despite the home fans doing their best on Sunday, the team were flat, appeared disinterested, and were outplayed all night. Cardiff managed to close us down with their forechecking but also could then box us out and block almost every shot. If we had more than 15 SOG I'd be amazed. It was one of those nights where Elvis left the building after the second period – but he was sneaking off to Cardiff taking all the points unchallenged. Not good enough.
3> Fitzy was a bright spot – Great highlight moments for Fitzy this week-end, protecting Cole, a nice ‘in-close’ goal on Saturday, and doing all he could to raise the team and fans with his centre ice brawl. I’m not enough of a coach to know if he’s playing well or not, but those three things left me nodding with approval.
4> Good riddance to the BBT – Let’s hope the good performance and win on Saturday was the start of a new era of results down in Cardiff, as the BBT was a nightmare even when the Devils were plagued with the Prat in the Hat and their odious owner. We won 18 of our 42 games in Cardiff during those years, and that’s one stat we need to bury alongside the remnants of the tent.
5> The impact of Ben Bowns – Cardiff have been very lucky that Ben has played 62 games in each of the last two seasons, only missing two games each year, so they were due a reverse. I’ve no idea how long Ben will be out, nor how good Murdy will be when he’s pressured from the start of a game, but is this potential for an import replacement a chink of light for the rest of the league?
So here’s looking forward to the start of another five game winning sequence, and here’s one final thing to leave you with – look out for this week’s Hockey Soapbox on Frozen Steel blog, as we should have a number of new recruits sharing their thoughts on Thursday. Welcome on board ladies, and hope you’ve got plenty to say – and if you want to get involved then just get in touch.
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