GAME THREAD: Steelers v Clan: LEAGUE: Sun 5th Oct

[Bryan]

I don't have stats so someone will probably correct me, which is fine. From watching the two games this weekend (as well as all games this season so far) I see a number of problems. On the positive side our special teams seem better than last season. However, our centres seem very poor in the faceoff circle. There doesn’t seem to be any real goalscorers. More goals have come from the D rather than the forwards. A lot of our efforts on goal are straight at the netminder. We seem to be poor physically. I’m not one who wants to see fights all the time. However whenever there is a scramble in the corners or on the boards, we rarely come out with the puck. Our passing is frequently poor, often not reaching its target. We often seem to try long cross ice passes that are easily intercepted. Several goals against this season have come directly from this failing. In short there is little JUMP in this team. Others have said flat, and I agree. So many problems!

[greeny]

cannot see any other result than a home victory,,,,

shows what i know,,,, what a unstructured/ non physical performance that was,,,, nobody had any idea what they were supposed to be doing, very similiar to the foxy teams pre- grandslam, no plan A or B. and as we know too well these early home league defeats catch up on the final run in,,,

[steeler pete]

Seitz has played 5 games for us and scored 1 point, Balmas has played 8 this season for 9 points.

I agree Juus is not very productive yet but nor is Dowd. We know they give more to the team than just scoring.

Jasper is our best points producer so far. Tait, Pu and Harper less good but still producing.

Seitz may yet come good but he’ll need to start showing something soon.

Team character and cohesion seems lacking which given the number of changes is perhaps understandable but we need to start getting it right soon. The support is lacklustre at times due to frustration with an unconvincing team.

[ginger]

Well, that was flat. Scrappy for both teams really. Can't believe we didn't fix the neutral zone coverage after the first period. Passing poor but nothing sat nice and flat all night.

Overcommitted on the puck and play far too often, and gave up too many odd man rushes.

A lot of work to do, but there's a couple of forwards who really need to work it out quickly, or I'm pretty sure there'll be a change or two.

It's going to be an interesting league this year. All teams seem up and down, Belfast go down on penalties to Dundee, Nottingham bounce back and stuff Cardiff 0-5, Guildford and Coventry tied at 1 in the 3rd

What would the changes be? Easy to change Seitz, young guy, new to the team and limited ice time, yet guys with plenty of ice time, good Steelers history like Balmas and Juus very underwhelming so far.

Balmas is fine I think, feels more slow start but still picked up 2 assists last night.

Juusola needs a settled line - personally I'd get him with Dowd, I've quite liked them previously together.

They've both got credit in the bank too.

Seitz and Tait are probably the two most at risk - need a lot more from Tait defensively. Seitz just looks lost in the system. Not bad players but if it's not working then there's a danger there. I'm not saying they should go, they're good players and you give them the opportunity to get themselves playing well. But at the moment, they're the 2 probably at the bottom of the charts as such

[Bryan]

Tait won MoM !

[ginger]

Tait won MoM !

Not really sure how. Diffley by far our best player tonight

[Brian]

Sometimes it’s a confidence booster for those who may need it. Especially when the performance is so poor even Steeler Dan has a chance of winning it!

[smbmetal]

Not seen either game over the weekend, as I don't tend to enjoy games against the Scottish teams in general, but it sounds very mixed in terms of the 2 x performances.

Probably best I didn't see this one as the match report on the Steelers website says Greenfield was taken out, I would have been upset if there was no one to stand up for him:

"As the clock wound down, tempers flared when Greenfield was taken out in his own crease with just over two minutes remaining, but no penalty was called, much to the frustration of both the netminder and the home bench."

Was Juusola our 'enforcer' here then, taking the 2 minute roughing penalty?

I've said many times that I find Fox's style of hockey very bland to watch generally, the best being the CHL games last season which I thought was awesome to watch. When it works it's decent, when it doesn't, we don't appear to have someone that can take the game by the scruff of the neck or send a message for next time etc.

It's very early days still and there's plenty of interesting results around the league which I guess can only be good for the league in general.

I think that the lower end teams have improved and I'd say the higher budget teams like, us, Belfast, Cardiff and Nottingham have actually gone backwards in terms of quality.

I didn't expect Glasgow would have the energy for this one with the amount of travel they've had, but I guess you have to give credit where it's due.

Let's see what things look like at the end of this month. It wouldn't surprise me if Fox makes a roster change or two though.

[ginger]

It's the instigator rule unfortunately. Dowd very clearly wanted to go after the player, but couldn't afford to take an extra 2 when behind in the final period.

That's why the instigator rule needs to go.

[paul johnston]

We had 50 shots last night, almost 50% were not on target. Inaccuracy was a big big problem, off the top of my head i can think of 3-4 chances where our guys were shooting from only 3-5 yards out but failed to make the nettie have to make a save as they shot high and wide.
Balmas, our top line forward/winger, has 1 goal in those 8 games despite his top line minutes 5 on 5 AND his PP role. Similarly, Juus, top 2 line winger has managed 2.
I dont think creating opportunities has been too much of a problem through the Blaze, Stars and Clan game, it's the inaccuracy/lack of finishing. We do have to remember that the Stars result was padded out and the game blown open with the 3 pp goals.