Giants / Giants and Devils

[takina]

Didn't see tonight's game in any guise - just about managed to follow it on twitter so that's a bit of a health warning about these comments

Overall the weekend for me was a qualified success, 3 points more than I anticipated and Cardiff especially must have been a tough game - 3rd game in 3 nights and on the back of a pretty horrible (journey wise) Belfast away double header, I can only imagine how tired the players must have been tonight. Belfast missing some pretty influential players still looked pretty dominant in that second game and whilst a home win may not be surprising, once again I thought we lacked pazazz in front of goal and that still continues to concern me.

Impressed by the early energy we showed against Devils, disappointed that we couldn't close out the game and I think the players will be smarting from that loss - going into the game I'd say a point gained, exiting it, a point lost

On balance - more positive than negative but our restricted goal scoring is a concern for me and Blaze need to become more of a genuine threat in front of net. Good to see Bergman grab a couple, Robinson especially and Bombis need to start to show something more

[chunk]

Like most people I wasn't expecting any points from these games, but we've ended up with three and that has to be a good result.

Danny's made a personnel change and altered the lines (switching Marquardt to the right and Bombis to the left), so perhaps we'll be looking back in a few weeks and saying this was where we started to turn the season around.

Friday night Brian Stewart was in incredible form and barring a nightmarish 60 seconds on the Saturday, this was the case all weekend. With him playing like that, we could've taken even more points. I might be wrong, but from where I was sitting there seemed to be an issue with the ice, which kept the game slow and played into our hands. Bergman's goal was excellent and we held on well for the win.

Saturday, I was gutted for Stewie. It all seemed to go wrong for him in less than a minute. He almost saved the penalty shot, but unfortunately it bounced in, which sealed the win as we still don't look capable of scoring more than three times a game.

Sunday, I watched the webcast and was impressed with the team performance. We had far more energy than I was expecting and managed to frustrate Cardiff. So close, yet so far at the end. It will be tough to stay in the cup now, we'll have to take points out of Sheffield and/or Nottingham.

It's interesting that having brought in Carnevale for Zajac we seemed better defensively, although as I've alluded to I think our netminder had a lot to do with that. Going forward we're still struggling massively - seemingly more so now than at the start of the season. I think our average goals per game has pretty much halved. Hopefully, we'll be able to build some chemistry in the new look top six and get some offence going.

[IX2T311]

If you were to have told me we would have gotten 3 points this weekend it would've taken a lot of convincing, so I'm pleased we were able to get anything let alone 50% of the points. Though I can't help but feel disappointed about not getting two from the devils, watching the game I'd hardly say we deserved the win but to have it snatched from you so late on must be a killer for them.

Thinking back though, that's 3 more points than I was expecting so full credit to the team and Danny, hopefully a sign of what's to come.