Nottingham Away (CC) (11.11) and Braehead Home (L) (13.11)

[IX2T311]

So thoughts on this weekend? Personally very excited to get to see Braehead and hopeful to get a (regulation) win in Nottingham. With the addition to the team I imagine everyone's eager to prove themselves and Nottingham's points are a must-take.

I'd like to see some individuals step up, Bergman was a pleasure to watch last weekend so it'd be great to see him maintain form, hopefully Bombis and Robinson will step up too, though that's more hope than it is expectation...

If I had to make a prediction, my heart would be saying four, but my brain is saying two, and hopefully the two from the Friday's game.

[takina]

Nottingham away is a tough call - clearly Panthers are going through a lean streak and Blaze should have Davies in the squad in a genuine must win game but the NIC is always a tough venue. Hopefully, with an in form Stewie we could nab the points but it's a close call I think.

I must admit that I think Robinson looks to be turning the corner - clearly he needs a few goals but some of his passing is quite sublime and I feel more confident about his on ice presence than I do with Bombis, whether it's the more physical nature of EIHL I don't know but sadly that pre season wow just doesn't seem to have carried through for me.

I am also looking forward to seeing Braehead, play like last week and we should be in the points. That said, win or lose it will be good to see a different opposition. God but I hate the conference system

[Joe12]

Thinking of driving to the game tomorrow, any recommendations on where to park?

[Joe12]

Thinking of driving to the game tomorrow, any recommendations on where to park?

[Joe12]

Thinking of driving to the game tomorrow, any recommendations on where to park?

[scott]

Joe there's the rather expensive NCP close to the arena on Stoney Street or a short walk away nearer the station is a cheaper car park.

[Stuart Coles]

I tend to park in the Lace Market car park when I go - but there's a big map here

[takina]

Looks as tho' Nottingham are missing Waugh, Lawrence and Schultz with their new D, Kudroc making his debut.

A non ST game, Panthers already through, team stuttering and short benched. Maybe feisty on ice but I reckon the rink will have plenty of empty seats tonight

[takina]

Ah well. Who wants to win the CC anyway, clearly not us as we manage to exit at the first opportunity yet again. And that against a team missing 3 key imports .... At least it saves me some money for round 2 I guess. Wondering if we're a team that chokes? We knew what we had to do, we had a full bench and we managed a risible 23 SOG with our only goal coming with just 5 mins left.

We got what we deserved.Rhetoric aside, this team is so far below my minimum expectations

[jen]

Normal service has resumed.

[takina]

So we're now bottom of the league and locker room confidence probably back to where it was prior to last weekend, Braehead play on the back of a decent 5-2 away win at Manchester. Coming into the weekend I was hoping for 4 anticipating 2, that 2 could now be something of a stretch.

Looking forward to watching a new team in the Skydome but it'll be a bit like when I was a child watching the cybermen on Dr. Who - I really want to watch but I'm a bit scared too. If I was watching on the webcast, I'd be behind the sofa .....

[jen]

Classy touch with the piper at the start of the game a real emotional moment. The game itself was better than I thought it would be but who the hell was that ref? Useless doesn't even come close.

[takina]

Well I'd rather win ugly than lose ugly and that was certainly ugly. Fair play to the team for playing through sickness, takes real character to play through when you're sick as a dog, genuine respect to them.

Ugly though it was it was no where near as ugly as the refereeing, one of the most inept displays I've seen for a quite a while

[IX2T311]

Lordie Lordie Lordie, what a poor team we are. Well done for getting the win and it puts us firmly out of 10th, and sympathies go out to Braehead, losing so close to the end of the game must've been hard on them.

But we don't look at all competitive, they were missing plenty of chances left right and centre, and if they could've put away their chances then we wouldn't be looking at a close win, but more like the Nottingham to their Sheffield.

At least we got two points, just a shame we were so painful to watch.

[chunk]

I didn't go to the game on Friday so as I didn't watch it, I won't comment on the performance, but needless to say, being out of the cup at this stage of the season is pretty appalling.

On Sunday it looked like we were lucky to get the result. It was a gutsy performance with a few players missing and some illness in the camp, but the Clan had a lot of gilt edged opportunities to take the game away from us and they failed to score every time.

We were outshot both nights, which shows we're struggling to create chances, but also that we're heavily reliant on Stewey in nets as defensively, I don't think we're where we need to be.

[Stuart Coles]

The shots for the Braehead game were dramatically altered by the long stretch of Braehead powerplay in the 2nd period. Overall it was 38-33 in Braehead's favour, but the 2nd period was 21-9 to Braehead. That means the Blaze in the 1st & 3rd outshot Braehead 29-12. However, the shots that we are creating though are either a) from the outside, low percentage chances or b) placed in the middle of the netminder's body. Good NM positioning will account for some of that, but the choice of shot selection needs to be better.