Title race updates

[ginger]

I suspect Belfast will be in for him, but I do hope we're taking a look. His work rate and forechecking was top drawer last night, as well as an obvious snipers instinct. Potentially a Vallerand replacement (although I do hate that as he's made me eat a bit of humble pie recently, and he's been a great part of the Fox era).

What has impressed me is his ability to play on the big ice as well as the Manchester mini-rink, high skill and work rate levels and he plays smart, in a team that can get a bit goon happy he keeps his head.

Absolutely. Quality player. Mind you, I quite like Ullett as well - when he stays disciplined, he really can hit and he's more often than not perfectly clean. He's got a bit of skill to him too.

[smbmetal]

So I've got these different permutations for how the three teams can win the league:

Panthers:

*Need to win both their games in regulation against Belfast AND we lose both our games in regulation. An O/T loss for us or Belfast means Panthers can't win the league.

Belfast:

*Need to win both their games in regulation or O/T to guarantee the League.

*They can also win the league if we lose both our games and they lose 1 game in O/T v Panthers.

Steelers:

*We can win the league with 1 x O/T and 1 x regulation loss if Belfast lose both games in regulation, as we would have the tie breaker v the Panthers.

*We can win the league with one win OR 2 x O/T losses and a Belfast O/T loss and regulation loss as we have the tie breaker on regulation wins.

*We can we the league with 2 x wins and Belfast 1 x regulation win and 1 x O/T loss as we would have the tie breaker.

I think that's about it. Basically Belfast are the only team that can guarantee the league with 2 x wins in either regulation or O/T.

What an exciting end to the season!!

[Doom]

I suspect we would have had this wrapped up by now if it wasn't for a couple of things:

1. The fatigue and injuries as a result of the CHL. By rights we shouldn't still be in this after losing 7 out of 10, but fortunately for us there's no outstanding team this season.

2. Our Special Teams have been terrible. Combining powerplay and penalty kill you want to be totalling a minimum of 100, but we're currently 96.08, which puts us in 8th place.

We're currently 74.31% on penalty kill (9th) and 21.77% on powerplay (7th).

To put that in to some context, last season we were 86.21% on penalty kill and 28.83% on powerplay, which I think put us top on both.

I'd love to hear Fox's thought's on this, because the majority of the players remain the same.

Is it simply a confidence thing?

Very odd.

Regards

Doom

[ginger]

I suspect we would have had this wrapped up by now if it wasn't for a couple of things:

1. The fatigue and injuries as a result of the CHL. By rights we shouldn't still be in this after losing 7 out of 10, but fortunately for us there's no outstanding team this season.

2. Our Special Teams have been terrible. Combining powerplay and penalty kill you want to be totalling a minimum of 100, but we're currently 96.08, which puts us in 8th place.

We're currently 74.31% on penalty kill (9th) and 21.77% on powerplay (7th).

To put that in to some context, last season we were 86.21% on penalty kill and 28.83% on powerplay, which I think put us top on both.

I'd love to hear Fox's thought's on this, because the majority of the players remain the same.

Is it simply a confidence thing?

Very odd.

Regards

Doom

PK agree has not been as good, but it's not like it's glaringly terrible from the eye test.

PP had a shocking start, but I'd be interested to see the % over the last 20 games where we have been much better.

The injuries/fatigue is what's held us back, but on form over the last 30 games in league play, we're top, with notts second and Belfast 3rd

[mark]

Panthers V Giants on Sunday is sold out.

[Firefox1001]

I suspect we would have had this wrapped up by now if it wasn't for a couple of things:

1. The fatigue and injuries as a result of the CHL. By rights we shouldn't still be in this after losing 7 out of 10, but fortunately for us there's no outstanding team this season.

2. Our Special Teams have been terrible. Combining powerplay and penalty kill you want to be totalling a minimum of 100, but we're currently 96.08, which puts us in 8th place.

We're currently 74.31% on penalty kill (9th) and 21.77% on powerplay (7th).

To put that in to some context, last season we were 86.21% on penalty kill and 28.83% on powerplay, which I think put us top on both.

I'd love to hear Fox's thought's on this, because the majority of the players remain the same.

Is it simply a confidence thing?

Very odd.

Regards

Doom

PK agree has not been as good, but it's not like it's glaringly terrible from the eye test.

PP had a shocking start, but I'd be interested to see the % over the last 20 games where we have been much better.

The injuries/fatigue is what's held us back, but on form over the last 30 games in league play, we're top, with notts second and Belfast 3rd

To expand on this a bit further:

Last 5 games - Steelers top, 10/10 pts,
Last 10 games - Steelers top 17/20 pts,
Last 15 games - Steelers top 24/30 pts,
Last 20 games - Steelers top 33/40 pts.
Last 25 games - Steelers tied top with Nottingham, both 39/50 pts.
Last 30 games - Steelers top 49/60 pts.