GAME THREAD: Steelers v Devils: CUP: SUN 19th

[smbmetal]

I sit just behind the away bench and Thompson looked like a despondent man on a ledge at 4 -0 down. The players seemed to be avoiding him and just going through the motions.

We must sit very near to you. When he called a timeout, it just looked chaotic. But he’s the best coach in the world so it must turn out ok.

He must be losing his touch and despite the longest pre-season of all the EIHL teams they’re already out of the CC.

https://www.eliteleague.co.uk/standings ... llenge-cup

Unlucky Thommo.

[Jayboy]

I sit just behind the away bench and Thompson looked like a despondent man on a ledge at 4 -0 down. The players seemed to be avoiding him and just going through the motions.

We must sit very near to you. When he called a timeout, it just looked chaotic. But he’s the best coach in the world so it must turn out ok.

He must be losing his touch and despite the longest pre-season of all the EIHL teams they’re already out of the CC.

https://www.eliteleague.co.uk/standings ... llenge-cup

Unlucky Thommo.

I am not in the camp that believes he ever had one... nothing will convince me he was ever a brilliant coach, yes he won some silverware, but for him to be haild as one of the greatest, was always a work of fiction..

[Jayboy]

I sit just behind the away bench and Thompson looked like a despondent man on a ledge at 4 -0 down. The players seemed to be avoiding him and just going through the motions.

We must sit very near to you. When he called a timeout, it just looked chaotic. But he’s the best coach in the world so it must turn out ok.

He must be losing his touch and despite the longest pre-season of all the EIHL teams they’re already out of the CC.

https://www.eliteleague.co.uk/standings ... llenge-cup

Unlucky Thommo.

I am not in the camp that believes he ever had one... nothing will convince me he was ever a brilliant coach, yes he won some silverware, but for him to be haild as one of the greatest, was always a work of fiction..

[ginger]

Yeah, sorry, but that's ridiculous. Guy has literally won EIHL trophies with 2 teams, won in Italy, won in Denmark.

He's got a wider and better coaching resume (and the trophies to back it up) than every other coach in the league. I mean, he's so bad he got a shot in the DEL

You might not like how he was brought in to Sheffield, you might not like what happened in the last 18 months of his time in Sheffield, you might not like his personality, but to say he's not a good coach is demonstrably false.

[mark]

He got lucky with recruitment at Coventry ( Calder/Carlsson etc ) and won a title. He inherited a good squad at Sheffield, immediately won again but then recruitment was spotty, more misses than hits and the hockey went downhill, some people are lucky not to have experienced that last season and a bit in Sheffield, the hockey was dire and attendances dropped while the club was at odds with large parts of the fanbase over his continued employment, some of that was directed at Thompson and some at Simms who many thought was the main reason that PT was still at the club ( they are good friends ) and Simms understandably stood by his mate.

In hindsight it was probably one season too long for him at the Steelers and the bitterness it caused certainly got to him. I have no reason to suspect that Thompson is anything other than a decent human being and a very experienced hockey coach but it clearly wasn't working anymore and we all know that results are everything at a club that expects to win or challenge for titles, there's a couple of people who would probably admit that his last season did no-one any favours, especially to Paul who probably suffered the most.

That's why I can see echoes in the current situation at Cardiff. The style of hockey on Sunday immediately took me back to when he was here, the lack of belief as soon as they went behind was noticeable.

[ginger]

He won a GS with Cov, and Calder/Carlsson were not one season wonders either (didn't they win back to back league titles?).

He took a bottom feeder team in Denmark and built them to champions over a few seasons.

Given half that Cardiff roster is not his recruitment, I'd say he gets a free hit this year to some extent. The players who clearly are his recruitment (Estes, Oligny, Yaremko) are probably the better ones so far this year.

I get that he was here a season too long, but he's also the reason the true professional set up behind the scenes is in place, and was already there for Fox to build on. As I understood, this was one of the reasons he was hired Vs Adams - G apparently just wanted to keep going with recruitment/coaching only, rather than taking on some more of the GM hockey ops aspects that Thompson was willing to implement. How accurate that is, and I'm sure not the only reason (being Dave Simms best mate obviously a factor), I don't know, but sometimes doing the right thing in principle is messy if that was the case.