Half Term report - your thoughts

[smbmetal]

So we’re halfway through the regular season. 14 point lead in the league!

What are people’s thoughts?

I’ve already created a humble pie thread and have to say I got my prediction of this team completely wrong.

It’s a very long time since I’ve seen a Steelers side as dominant as we are at the moment. Best attack and best defence in the league by some margin!

My highlights would be watching Watling play and I’ve enjoying seeing Tansey play. Greenfield has once again been excellent and I didn’t think Valley would provide the numbers he has either.

Still a lot of hockey to play but the title is ours to throw away I think.

Just for a bit of fun I’ve added marks out of 10 for the squad.

Forwards

10 Josh Nicholls - 8
12 Daniel Ciampini - 7
14 Patrick Watling - 9
24 Mark Simpson - 8
25 Brett Neumann - 7
27 Cole Shudra - 7
29 Scott Allen - 7
55 Kameron Kielly -N/A
63 Mikko Juusola - 7
74 Brandon Whistle - 7
75 Robert Dowd - 8
88 Marc-Olivier Vallerand -7
92 Mitchell Balmas - 7


Defenders

06 Kevin Tansey - 8
08 Zack Vinnell - 6
22 Matt Petgrave - N/A
23 Colton Saucerman - 7
44 Sam Jones (IR) - N/A
57 Niklas Nevalainen - 7
58 Dominic Cormie - 8
65 Brien Diffley - 7


Netminders

01 Matt Greenfield - 9
31 Anthony Morrone - 7
64 Angus Laing - N/A

Fox - 8

[greeny]

My half term report would be A+. Dosnt seem to be any slackers on this team. Gelled as a team really well. Not sure if we are just head/shoulders above everybody else or if the league standard has dropped this season. Full credit to all the team/staff and cannot ask for more at this point in season

[Bryan]

I think what distinguishes this team from earlier ones is that on any given night any player stands a chance of being MoM. There really are no weak links. Fox has done a superb job from the summer until the end of the year. Quite remarkable. The other teams must be scratching their heads or moaning about out imagined budget.

[jas]

I can't imagine anyone would have predicted the position we are in right now. The team has been relentless and there is incredible depth. There are so many who could find the back of the net at any particular time yet play in an unselfish way. I was ready to wave Aaron off at the end of last season but really glad Tony chose to keep him on. Short of a major collapse the league is there for the taking

[steeler pete]

I think we’ve improved our D on previous seasons but in addition to that all the forwards work hard to bolster the D. It’s team defence, so as a consequence the net minder is left exposed so rarely.

Goal scoring is also spread and if a netminder is hot they still find a way. A couple of our losses were down to great defence and a hot netminder but the loss was narrow whereas in previous seasons we would’ve lost our heads and lost more heavily.

There’s also a confidence and patience about the team. They don’t panic or get despondent.

Events early in the season could’ve crushed our chances but it seemed to bring the team together even more.

As far as coaching is concerned I think Fox and his team always had it in them but a combination perhaps of experience and bringing the right characters together has given them the chance to prove it.

Another factor is his ability to bring in the right cover when needed, which is also credit to Tony Smith for giving him the budget flexibility to do it.

Excellent work so far - keep it up!

[mark]

10/10 so far but there are no prizes for being top in January. We are good enough to win the games needed to be league champions, we are not good enough to take the rest of the season off and cruise in from here. Keep the winning habit going, try and rest players where we can and never forget that the biggest danger comes from ourselves thinking it's over. Keep it going and you can all fly away for a holiday with a bag full of trophies and titles, and you will have earned it.

[ginger]

Obviously very happy with things currently! Push on now and win some trophies!

The biggest thing for me is that the 'gamble' signings have all paid off. I know there's a few who thought Juusola would do well and whilst I expected him to be solid, I'm not sure I fully expected what we are getting. Simpson has been top drawer for a 3rd line role, and Morrone has been excellent in relief of Greener. Diffley as well was a bit under the radar and has been excellent.

No one disappointed, it's all been rather good so far!

[Doom]

I would suggest apart from those who put a much heavier weighting on the physical/fighting element of the game, it would be unreasonable to give anything other than an A+ to netminder, defence, forwards and coaching staff, especially when you consider what they've been through.

There are a couple of forwards I have been disappointed with, but overall I think we've been superb.

I always expected the defence and netminding to be very good, but I was less sure of the forwards because we did sign a number of new players who had poor seasons last year, all be it at a higher level than ours. Fortunately they've all come off to varying degrees which has meant we have 3 very dangerous lines and a solid 4th line when everybody is fit.

I was also very impressed with how Fox dealt with the Adam Johnson tragedy. Things could have easily crumbled and I'm sure everybody would have understood why, but that's not been the case and I think Fox takes a huge amount of credit for that.

Let's see what the 2nd half of the season brings.....

Regards

Doom