Welcome once more to your Hockey Soapbox. On the panel this week offering their thoughts are your Editor Mark, Steel Talk co-owner Jay Smith, the wonderful Eric and the knowledgeable Sarah. Time to say what's on your minds everyone.
1. Five words on Saturday:
First ten minutes cost us
Slow,
tired, preparation, Away, Grit
Never
got off the plane
Game beyond reach in 10mins
2. Five words on Sunday:
Spineless,
Tactics, Hogarth, Teamwork, Fitness
I'm
not allowed to swear
Crap! Ice, officiating and team
It's the Stefan Hogarth Show!
3. Did we “sit” the wrong player on Saturday
at Belfast?
Sarah: I'm
not too sure, Ramsay's played ok in the last few games but I'd struggle to
pinpoint a player as not many players are stepping up to the mark for me and we
couldn't sit half the bench. I'm sure it's a difficult decision for Thommo
having to sit a player but there's fitness and injuries to think about, if a
player receives a knock in a game then surely it's best to rest them. Hoping it
will bring the best out in the players having to fight for a position.
Eric: With
his recruitment Thompson really does struggle, personally he's recruiting some
players that would have been ok in the Elite league 2 or 3 years ago, the
league is a lot better now.
In
his defence, however, he has been really unlucky with our early injury
problems. But then he dropped lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at
it, picking up Juha Koivisto, the only downside showed up on Saturday. We
now have the extra import and with Koivisto being, in my opinion better than
Westerling and Ramsey it put the coach in a dilemma. The lines would be upset
and not showing up for the first 10, really left us with an uphill climb.
Did
he sit the correct guy? The
short answer is NO.. he should have left the team and lines and just brought
Fitzgerald back.
Mark: I think so, I would have given Marquardt one more week's rest to be honest and just brought Zack back into the fold. It unbalanced the bottom two lines and it was like starting over again.
Jay: Not really, although a case could have been made for sitting Westerling (neither have impressed at all)
4. Would you give Brad Day more ice time in
the Challenge Cup games?
Eric: I
like Brad, I really do, the kid has gone the extra mile for the Steelers
on more than one occasion, but as I feel this is the only silverware we stand
any chance of winning, with this team, this season, Moose has to be between the
pipes.
Mark: Unless there's a league-wide rule saying the back-up must play a certain percentage of games all season, otherwise he's going to be opening doors all the time.
Jay: Not unless every team in the competition does the same...
Sarah: With
our D at the moment? Moose is being hung out to dry and it would do nothing for
Brad's confidence if the same happened to him. When we played Coventry in pre
season away, you could clearly see the players weren't interested and left Brad
wide open. He just isn't the same quality as Moose and we need to be playing
our top players whether it be the league or challenge cup. He needs to be given
ice time like when we played Dundee at Ice Sheffield, he played 13 minutes or so of
the last period and didn't concede so it would have boosted his confidence.
5. One big league or conferences as they
are? Which is better?
Mark: One big league, and ditch that damn Challenge Cup. Granted it might upset some, and I am talking your Dundee's/Fife's/Edinburgh's here with their whines about it reducing their income streams (find other ways gents), but if the majority want to happen then run with it.
Sarah: Personally
I'd like one big league, I don't like to see the same teams every week but with
my business head on (I know, slightly different to Dentistry) then it would be
conferences. Some Scottish teams said they would drop out of the league if it
wasn't what they wanted/needed due to cost implications but aren't we playing
more cross conference games more than before? I can't see one league working at
the moment but maybe if/when more teams come into the league then they'll have
no option.
Jay: One
big league by a country mile, I hate this conference crap! Playing the same
teams 12 times a season devalues all the games..
Eric: Easy
question for me to answer this one. I do understand that some of the teams may
struggle financially, but it has to be one big league for me. It maybe that the
conference system is better for all 12 clubs financially, and I for one will
live with that. But to win the league, which is still the biggest challenge in
the Elite league all teams must play a level playing (ice pad) field for me.
And finally...Should the league adopt four officials
for every game if they had the numbers?
Jay: Yes
without a doubt, it should be priority the whole officials crisis is an
embarrassment to the EIHL and a solution must be found..
Eric: Should
the league run four officials. YES! Every day and twice on Sunday, been saying
it for seasons now. The three man/woman (Liv Andersson) system is just too much
for the level of the officials and the quality of the league, it really is just
to much for them.
That
extra pair of eyes, may! And i say it again, may! Make all the difference. Just
looking at the fallout by the fans on the games this weekend. And I will
highlight Hogarth's (dear oh dear) abysmal performance on Sunday and Toms effort
Saturday that extra official is desperately needed in the Elite League.
Sarah: 4
officials would be great, surely they can't miss as much as they do now but
it's not going to happen anytime soon. Again it's down to money, 2 seasons ago
it was up to the home club whether to have 3 or 4 officials as it was a cost to
them. Only way to make it fair was for the ruling of only 3 officials and
introduce goal line technology. Might as well have no officials with Sunday's
farce though.
Mark: Always, but can the funding be found for it. Train them properly, make officials who receive low performance marks accountable, and develop. Use the experienced ones as mentors. Until these things happen, we're going to struggle and there will be more cases of performances like Sunday occurring far too often. The whole programme needs revamping and invested in.
And that's the Soapbox for this week. Want to take part next week?
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