Welcome again to another edition of Frozen Steel Blog's Hockey Soapbox. It's not a happy soapbox this week as you can imagine after a laboured home win on Saturday and an horrendous away defeat on the Sunday. On the panel this week are your ever-present Editor, Steel Talk co-owner Jay Smith, Eric Green, Sarah Stephenson and making a return: Nathan and the man with the vuvuzela, Andy Roberts.
Time to get on those soapboxes people.
1. Five words on Saturday
Tentative
start better third period
Steelers In A Nut Shell (part 1)
Thank Goodness it's Tom Darnell!!
Lucky to get the win
Ferrara gives it PT...again
Unimpressive but two points secured
Steelers In A Nut Shell (part 2)
Dėja vu!!!! All over in 10mins.
Garbage, embarrassing,
clueless, inept, coach
No fight, passion or points :(
Another away day horror show
A
wake up call needed
3. Luke Ferrara has certainly started well for Coventry, have we made a mistake not keeping him?
Eric: Well
was it a mistake letting Ferrara go. Hmm? He has scored 5 or 6 against us so
far, pre-season and regular season and if I'm honest he looked twice the player
he was at the Steelers. (Thinks!! "Funny that. As soon as he leaves he
becomes a much better player.") why is that? I think it's because he got
stifled with Thompson's coaching style and how he wanted him to play. Now at
Coventry he has all the freedom that a young player needs to show his talent
and we have reaped the result.
Jay: Of course we
made a mistake, the 3 youngsters have tremendous potential, but it's clear
that they will not be played on a fourth line and of course its also just
as obvious that Ferrara would be..
Andy: I understood why we let Ferrara go but I felt it was a
mistake at the time as J Phillips is nearing the end of his career in the next
season or two. Luke would have been a natural replacement. I am sure we could
have had an import less and accommodated Luke for this season or gone with 2
import goalies (nothing against Brad Day - just a suggestion of how it could
work.) That said it all depends on wages for both and the 'Brit' wages are
inflated as I understand it.
Mark: I think we have to be honest. There is a player who could have been a fixture in the Steelers team for years on end but he never got the regular ice time. Then it comes to the decision that we want to develop the Kirk's and Shudra's with more ice time this season (still waiting for the latter to happen) and Ferrara gets frozen out so to speak. He goes to Blaze and is now flourishing as he's a mainstay of their plans. The import numbers don't help either. Like Cardiff missed out initially when they failed to see the potential, we're now seeing that happen to us. I hope that he does return in Steelers colours one day, but it's a distant pipe dream for now. A talent we've let slip through our fingers.
Sarah: He
had a point to prove against us and he accomplished it. It was the best thing
for him I feel as he just wouldn't have been given the ice time. It must have
been difficult for Thommo to make the decision but I understand why it had to
be done. I'm hoping it all works out for him in Coventry but not against us.
Nathan: Despite what the spin machine in the 'House of
Boredom' would have you think I consider releasing Like Ferrara a huge mistake.
He's certainly stepped up a gear or two since joining the Blaze and I'd take
him over any of our recent additions to our offensive lines currently. The
'Best Coach in the League' knows best though.
4. What’s the key in your opinion to winning the
league?
Jay: Swapping out the old boys
club once and for all, get rid of the 3 Amigos and bring back proper gritty in
yer face Steelers NA style Hockey...
Andy: Stating the obvious (and making it short and sweet) win more
games than everyone else.
Mark: Consistency at home and picking up points away from home especially in your own conference. Make your home rink a fortress, just like the Devils did so well last season (and we know how that ended up) whilst taking points on your travels. Compete for 60 minutes every game and if you can do these simple things you will win silverware. Miss one part out, you're snookered. We seem to have a mind-set problem again, and is the system to blame for it? Probably, we seem to have lost our identity again which made us so successful.
Sarah: Scoring goals? Having a defence that actually
defends? Seriously though it's probably a multitude of things. With the season
being so long fitness is key. You've gotta compete week in week out and the
last couple of months you start to see some teams slip and I think it's mainly
due to fitness.
Nathan: Confidence. My concern with the current coaching
set up is that, as with last season, we don't seem to have a plan B and are in
danger of being found out early on in the campaign. Huffing and puffing against
Coventry and MKL (great team btw) is all well and good as long as you get the
W but against the likes of Cardiff, Nottingham and Belfast could be our undoing
as they will have more in their locker to overturn us. It's early I know but
confidence seems low and that's a huge part of any team being successful in any
sport.
Eric: Key
to winning the league. I don't really think there is one particular
identifiable thing. No!
But there is a culmination of things that must fall in line, come together
and/or be gelled together, even then, if the club and coach get them all right
you still need a great big piece of Lady Luck.
My
overriding thought is, even when the team(s) are assembled pre-season the
biggest thing that strikes me is, as a TEAM are they able to play together.
After all it is a team game, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Good TEAMS have always been there or thereabouts.
The league has got a lot tougher over the past two
seasons, with new clubs joining this season, it is essential you have a TEAM of
players that pull together.
5. Nottingham made winning the Sandwich Tray
(Continental Cup) their priority last season as it guaranteed a spot in the CHL
if you won it, should we do the same?
Andy: Do I want us to win the 'dinner tray'...yes I do. I want us
to win everything we enter (who doesn't?) If it gets us a route to the CHL if we
don't win the league then bring it on. I really like the challenge of the CHL.
However to take foot off the gas for league to win the dinner tray is a no from
me!
Mark: Categorically not in the slightest. The aim every season has to be "Monty" and then you can plan for everything else afterwards. I'd like us to win it (that way it tells those lot down the road that they're not unique) but to put aside a league challenge at the expense of it then this computer says no.
Sarah: I
think we should compete for every cup available inc the conti cup. And I'm
going to Denmark so I hope we compete! (I'm watching panthers in CHL right now
and I'm not jealous....honest)
Nathan: In a word NO. It's nice to play these European
teams but I'd take an EIHL title any day of the week so the less distractions
the better. Less injuries/fatigue etc.
Eric: It
has to be said that winning the Continental Cup didn't do the league any harm
whatsoever. It put British ice hockey back on the European radar. But
I always think that until we can go into Europe on an equal footing,
financially, then we will always be seen as the whipping boys, the poor relations.
Until
such time as a very big cash injection is given to the sport, I only see it as
a distraction and a hindrance to pre season warm up plus every
possibility of your best players coming away from it injured, and for
what?
Jay: No, we need to
put our domestic game first and not try and spread ourselves too thin, PT seems obsessed with European hockey..
6. Are the ticket
prices for hockey right, and should we introduce tiered seating pricing
like some rinks do (e.g. Nottingham, Edinburgh)?
Mark: When you compare the price of a hockey game to what is supposedly the national game, it's value for money. Even at Level 5 football (Conference) there are clubs that charge £20 or thereabouts to stand for 90 plus watching it and the same in the middle of winter. I can understand why Caps and Panthers have this tiered system of prices but I don't think it would work here because each punter will have differing views on what they should pay on games. Nobody will ever agree.
Sarah: I don't like tiered seating prices but makes
good business sense. I think the price is probably right in the arena and if it
was tiered then the cost now would be the minimum. The price for children is
great though, makes it cheaper for families.
Nathan: Not sure about the tiered system but I think the
prices are about right. Some might think it's over priced but when you consider
how much it costs to put one of these games on we can't really grumble. Is the
current product on the ice value for money? Now that's a different
question!
Eric: I
like the ticketing system at Murrayfield and Nottingham, it makes lots of sense
to me. If you go to any gig there is always a sliding scale of ticket prices,
pay more, get better seats, pay less not so good seats.
But
the overriding factor to me is with a sliding scale you will get more bums on
seats! How? Why? I hear you ask. Well think about it, family sport, kids want
to go, parents cannot afford to take, Peter, Paul and Mary. Too expensive = 5
bums don't go, lost revenue and extras. But if the parents had an option of
price A, B & C then they may think, "well we cannot afford A or B but
we could afford C. Yes they may not be as good seats but the kids will still
get the same atmosphere, still get to see the hockey and still buy the coke,
hotdog and chips. Win, Win....
Jay: I was in all the meetings
years back when tiered seating was discussed and I still have the proposed
plans of the arena and pricing structure on how it would be done, it wouldn't
have worked then and it sure as hell would not work now either..
Andy: Generally around the league they are about right although I
see with a few teams the price has gone up a little. I feel at the HOS the
price with advance tickets is decent value. I am not a fan of the tiered price
seating. Never have been, never will be! It restricts people in their choice of
view of the game if they are on a budget and potentially they wont come to as
many games as they cant afford it and don't lime their budget view. Besides that
my idea of a perfect seat for the game differs to the next persons idea.
And that's this week's Soapbox, join us again next week for more opinions.
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