What a remarkable few days it has been. We have controversy and we have joy in abundance. It's certainly made for an interesting time to offer my opinions which of course are nothing officially to do with the Steelers.
So what are we waiting for?
Well then we start with Friday, the top two battle against the EIHL leaders Cardiff. For 45 minutes we had this one in the bag, playing well and making Cardiff look a beaten side. Enigma puzzle solved so you may think. Colton Fretter, who has been quite sensational this last couple of weeks, was imperious - scoring twice against Ben Bowns. His first, a superb one timer from an incredible assist from Guillaume Desbiens (yes Simmsey, ASSIST of the week!) which I actually missed as I was just getting off the tram to enter the HoS after a late finish at work. His second was a superb solo effort which saw him bamboozle the Devils single handedly, if it was in the NHL and scored by Patrick Kane or Sidney Crosby then commentators would be creaming themselves.
Then for some unknown reason, we switched off. Two goal leads are the most dangerous ones in hockey, you need to put the pedal down and keep going until your opponents can't take anymore. That's what we did so well against those down the road just 6 days before. Cardiff got a sniff and within eight crazy minutes, had hit us four times with what felt like sucker punches. They deflated our balloon and we had nothing left but to chase a game that was there for the taking. Coming out of the Arena was a horrible feeling, we missed a trick to reduce that deficit to just three points. The Devils have taken a huge step in the title race I feel, and we are only in the end of November. We're playing serious catch up, and now need to go to IAW and get wins there. No easy task. All because of a lack of concetration. We didn't get beaten by Cardiff, we actually beat ourselves.
Move forward to Sunday, and we got the perfect reply back by disposing of Belfast. Giants actually outshot us 40-32 but were denied by a Moose who was quite simply imperious all night. When they did get by him, they missed gilt edged Grade A chances with sheer profligacy that would have most hockey coaches tearing their hair out. When we had chances, we were a bit more ruthless. Both Levi Nelson and Jesse Schultz ended goal droughts and we just seemed more determined to put things right after Friday. That's pleasing.
What wasn't pleasing was the incident when Rutherford blindsided Yared Hagos. I'll say it again, it was callous and downright dirty. And before anyone from another club thinks I am wearing orange tinted spectacles, I am speaking as a hockey fan as well. No wonder Desbiens took umbrage to it and made the Giant accountable for his actions, Guillaume was sticking up for a stricken team-mate like he should do. It was just damn unfortunate Rutherford suffered in the pile on that followed. DoPS have today announced it will give the Giants #91 just a two game ban which is something I find a joke of a decision. Compared to the Fitzy-Stewart incident, this was worse by a long chalk. It should have been at least a 4-6 game ban for me. I bet Thommo is shaking his head in disbelief, and you can't blame him.
I'll close this with one final thought about Mr Fretter. Not content with being a scorer and dishmaster, this wee man can seriously handle himself. Just ask Jim Vandermeer! I mean when Frets dropped the mitts Sunday with this former NHLer and Vandermeer can handle himself, I had seen the latter one punch and destroy a DEL player in pre-season, I was like thinking "Woah Colton, what you doing man?. But Colton owned that fight, landed the punches and got the take down. Big props to you Colton. What a team player he is, and team players mean a harminous locker room.
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