Cardiff away (08.10) Fife home (09.10) League

[IX2T311]

Personally not going to get my hopes up, think we did wonderful last weekend to take points of Dundee and would say that's the best we've been since day 1, but Cardiff are a hard team and Fife had a comfortable victory over us just last week too.
Though by no means would I bet against us, we were well disciplined at home against Dundee and if we could draw as many penalties against Cardiff as we did on Sunday then I wouldn't write us out of it, our powerplay seems to be finding form right now and that can be instrumental in winning us games.

If nothing else then I wish for an entertaining game against Fife on Sunday, I feel although the crowd responded well last week and it'd be a shame to lose that vibe already.

[dudestar]

The Cardiff game has the potential to become distracted by other goings on, following on from the last game there. Fife did beat us quite convincingly, but then gave up a 4-1 lead and lost to the caps 6-4 the next night, so I don't think anything is a given. I'm hoping we can get Cantin back soon. Anyone know anymore about him?

[IX2T311]

Rumour has it that he's got a concussion and will likely be out till end of October early November
I can agree nothing is a given, last week Fife were down two imports on us (three overall), so hopefully we've learnt from our mistakes on Saturday and won't take daft penalties all night long

[Stuart Coles]

I think if we come away with 2 points from 4 again, that will be acceptable. 4/4 is better of course, but away in Cardiff this week will be a tough ask.

[IX2T311]

Oct 6, 2016 11:21:45 GMT Stuart Coles said:

I think if we come away with 2 points from 4 again, that will be acceptable. 4/4 is better of course, but away in Cardiff this week will be a tough ask.

I think anything from Cardiff will be point gained really, if we can get an overtime loss then it's an extra point opposed to a point lost, and on Sunday I'm hopeful that we'll put out an entertaining game, and hopefully 2 points to make up for last week's atrocious display, but by no means will it be an easy or certain two points to take

[kerry]

Just a quickie.

Tomorrow at Cardiff is a sell out so please don't travel if you do not have a ticket.

[IX2T311]

Oct 7, 2016 20:52:17 GMT kerry said:

Just a quickie.

Tomorrow at Cardiff is a sell out so please don't travel if you do not have a ticket.

A sell out is always good! Hopefully the right Coventry team will turn up tomorrow..

[IX2T311]

The bookies clearly don't think much of us, they're saying 7/2 for a Coventry win and a 2/5 for a Cardiff win, take from that what you will...

[takina]

Ouch.

Actually I'm exactly of the same opinion as Stuart Coles - a 2pt weekend is what I'm expecting. So long as we play well well tonight and don't take silly penalties, I'll be happy. Play Fife like we played in their barn last week and it'll be a zero point weekend, play like we did against Dundee with discipline and we should get the points.

[IX2T311]

I think expecting a 2 point weekend is a mistake, Fife are no pushovers, they've got four points from three opposed to our three points from four
However, saying that, we're far from out of it too, providing we don't take pointless penos and can keep it tight at the back then we'll be plenty competitive

[takina]

Well - who saw that on the cards then? Not me for one, nor the bookies either it would seem .... Fantastic performance by the Blaze. Not many teams will get 2 points in Cardiff I think. Danny and the team should be very, very pleased with that.

Fife demolished Manchester tonight so the stage is set for a really intriguing match tomorrow.I agree with IX2T311 that if we take them too lightly we're in for a shock. Play with discipline and we may well be in for a 4 point weekend. Now wouldn't that feel good

[IX2T311]

Oct 8, 2016 21:02:15 GMT takina said:

Well - who saw that on the cards then? Not me for one, nor the bookies either it would seem .... Fantastic performance by the Blaze. Not many teams will get 2 points in Cardiff I think. Danny and the team should be very, very pleased with that.

Fife demolished Manchester tonight so the stage is set for a really intriguing match tomorrow.I agree with IX2T311 that if we take them too lightly we're in for a shock. Play with discipline and we may well be in for a 4 point weekend. Now wouldn't that feel good

You can say that again, wish I put a little something on us now! Maybe I should have a little more faith next weekend.
And definitely, I can't imagine many teams will be taking two points from Cardiff at Cardiff this season, they should be very happy with that result.

Hopefully we have used the full tank tonight and we still have some in reserves for tomorrow, but we've got the 2 points yourself and Stu were expecting, anything more is a bonus as far as I see it. (Though I'm secretly expecting another 2)

I'll post the odds on Coventry to win tomorrow when they're released, if they're released, it's unusual for them to be put up as early as they were for tonight's game.

[dudestar]

Great win, good performances from many, not least Stewart (both). We seemed comfortable letting Cardiff come at us, but we did an amazing job keeping pucks to the outside. Very pleased to get a result tonight. Not what I was expecting at all, but I'll take it. Tomorrow could be very interesting, I don't think we'll take Fife lightly after last week and their result tonight, hopefully this will give them some confidence.

[IX2T311]

Well hopefully we can do the same again tonight, keep their shots wide when they're applying pressure and try to avoid the daft penos.

Odds for tonight are actually pretty even, Coventry to win being 4/5, and Fife to win being 10/11, so Blaze are (only just) the favourites tonight, can only hope they live up to it now.

[IX2T311]

We'll be down Cantin again tonight, whereas Fife will be down Jackman and Turon, maybe we'll see a little more of Klotz throwing his weight around again tonight.

[takina]

I rate Cantin highly, but if there has been an upside it's that Klotz has had more ice time and he hasn't disappointed. Stood up well with Bordeleau last night and scored a goal last week. Hopefully, even when Cantin returns, we'll see Klotz getting regular minutes

[IX2T311]

I think Cantin has played really well from what I've seen, but I've seen so little of it I'm concerned he might be injury prone, hopefully it's a one off and come November he'll be back to stay.

Also happy to see more of Klotz, he's a hard guy with a head, which is always a good thing. Much as I think his goal will be one of a handful all season I'd still be happy for him to get on the ice and push some weight around.

EDIT: Now I think about it, put him in front of the netminder on a powerplay with the right pairings and I'm sure that could lead to a few goals in the season, it seems although it'd take quite a force to shift him.

[IX2T311]

Probably the single most infuriating performance from the Blaze yet, we worked our socks off the whole game and just couldn't find the back of the net, think we quite desperately need someone to step up and start scoring, else we'll be having to replace one or two of our forwards.

Once again our game plan was give the puck to Godfrey, which is mighty fine and all, I'm glad he's actually getting us some points this season, but he's not scoring enough for us to rely on him for every goal.
For me, in the firing lines for replacement would be Bergman, Bombis, Zajac and Marquardt, in that order, we're carrying too many playmakers, swapping one of them for a natural goal scorer would be enough, even someone who's just more confident in taking a shot would be a good change. As a team we seem too concerned with trying to make a beautiful pass into a goal rather than scoring a scrappy goal, we're a gritty hardworking team and we need to score gritty and hardworking goals, not artistic screamers.

Fair play to Fife though, they got a nice powerplay goal and were able to completely shut us out, they played well, Owen especially, and deserve the win as far as I see it.


On an another note, was anyone else as confused by the shots on goal as I was?
Another note, I'm a big fan of Perring (excuse the spelling), that's two weeks in a row I think he's called an excellent game, nice to see for a change.

[takina]

Can't help but think a natural goal scorer a la Ryan Ginand would have made a difference out there tonight. Game seemed to revolve around giving the puck to Pietrus or Godfrey and letting him shoot and that's just not good enough. Early days I know but even so, when your leading goal scorer is a D man, it does point to some frailties up front I think. From the 5 minute mark, Blaze knew what they needed to do and they looked plain toothless - Fife down (I think) 3 imports and we singularly failed to break through. Stewart's (Danny) disappointment was palpable on the post game interview

We may well have had 41 SOG (I agree with IX2T311, shot count seemed odd to say the least) but too many of them were not high quality and any elite league NM, let alone a NM on top of his game, would have snaffled them up
Think I agree with IX2T311 in that our forward balance doesn't seem quite right, I too think that we may need to swap a playmaker for a trigger man

On a positive note I thought Stewart, Stewart and Noble all played well, Noble just doesn't take a shift off

[IX2T311]

Ahhh what I wouldn't do to have Ginand back, he was something special, wonder if he has any children who happen to be wanting to learn ice hockey in Coventry...
Not just any old D-man, it's bloody Godfrey, probably the single most useless defenseman of last season and he's our top scorer (don't get me wrong I'm dead chuffed, but he really shouldn't be our go to guy). It's not even although we've got someone special like Schutte from 4/5 seasons ago who's our #1.
If our forwards were actually forming a decent baseline then I'd be happy with giving it to Godfrey, he's clearly on form, but the way we're relying on him so much is just frustrating to watch.

Shots on goal isn't a great statistic really, could do with a way to measure it. One absolute screamer of a shot from slot will be better than any amount of shots taken from the red line, Fife may have had drastically less shots than we did, but they made the better chances, think we owe Stewie a thank you for keeping us in it as well as he did.

A recurring issue we seem to be having is that the majority of players can be happy with their individual performance, everyone's playing for the full 60, backchecking and working the boards, there aren't any lightweights with us this season, but the fact that as a team we're not bonding, passes are going astray and each forward is hoping that another will shoot. Individually (most) players can be pleased with themselves, but we need more than the players to be decent, we need the team to be good.
In summary of that gibberish (which I assume it is); most players are perfectly capable to do well on their own, but units we're struggling, meaning the team will falter too


Oh well, here's looking to next week, home to Belfast then away to Edinburgh, I'll make a thread for it shortly.