GAME THREAD: Clan v Steelers: LEAGUE: Wed 15th Oct

[mark]

Clan win in o/t.

[Rendo]

Oh my God have Glasgow just won the Stanley cup listening to bloody Aaron Murphy.

[greeny]

Well a point away in scotland is about what we deserve, too many average skilled players on steelers roster. Perhaps they are playing to the best of their ability and what we are seeing is the best they can produce,,,,, maybe just an average team this year

[Doom]

A thumbs up to Greenfield, Huttula, Cormier, Dowd and Tremblay, who were our best players tonight.

We don't look like a championship winning team though, too many average forwards for my liking. I'm not sure if it's the quality of the players themselves or just that they're not on the same page. At some point Fox needs to get settled lines and stick with them.

Regards

Doom

[Doom]

Just an addition to my comments above.

When putting a team together one thing Fox always mentions is having a team play with pace.

I thought it noticeable in OT, when pace plays a big part on the open ice, how much we seem to be lacking speedsters in the forwards.

Harper, Gentile and Pu certainly aren't quick.

Tremblay and Jasper don't strike me as particularly quick. I did think Tremblay had a good game again.

Dowd is undoubtedly slowing down, although he had a good game.

Balmas I've always thought of as being reasonably quick, but he seems to be struggling to have an impact right now.

Shudra and Neilson are both slow.

I'm not sure about Heard yet, but I suspect he isn't particularly quick.

The only one on last nights roster I'd describe as a speedster is Tait.

We're obviously missing Juusola who is quick and Seitz as well (I'm not sure if he'd be described as quick).

I thought it stood out that we lacked pace in OT.

Regards

Doom

[ginger]

I think the lack of pace in OT was more due to forwards being worn down from penalty kills - our top guys are also penalty killers and having 3 forwards lead ice time after the 2nd is unusual.

Frustrating as I think the 3rd showed what we could do - if Jasper goes top shelf instead of off the post it's a 3-2 game and we probably hold out. Chances were created, just not taken.

[Daniel14]

I thought it noticeable in OT, when pace plays a big part on the open ice, how much we seem to be lacking speedsters in the forwards.

It was evident in overtime but it’s also very clear in our the way we enter the zone in possession. Our zone entries last night were terrible for the most part last night with lots of ambling up to the blue line rather than attacking it at speed which made it easy for clan to make the zone entry messy and scrappy which stopped us getting sustained periods of clean possession (sloppy mishandling of the puck also didn’t help) which I think hurt us.

Obviously raw speed isn’t everything when it comes to zone entry but we seemed to lack conviction last night in the way we were gaining the zone

[mark]

I think a factor not yet mentioned is that Clan are improving as a team and an organisation, that was a midweek sell out attendance and we know it's not an easy thing to achieve. Clan played well but I thought we dominated more of the game and were a crossbar away from taking a lead we probably would have hung on to,. I suspect Clan will be a difficult place for teams to take points from this season and we've taken one which is a bonus while missing one of our best forwards in Juusola and another that could/should have been a point a game player in Seitz while icing a guy who only just signed and will not be up to speed with our systems yet.

One guy we haven't replaced is Vallerand, that ability to unlock a defense with a pass and a cannon of a shot as well as being able to pull moves that others cannot handle, yes he lost a bit of pace but his mind was usually quicker than anyone else's to make up for it. Finding another Marco will be very hard to do.

[smbmetal]

I think a factor not yet mentioned is that Clan are improving as a team and an organisation, that was a midweek sell out attendance and we know it's not an easy thing to achieve. Clan played well but I thought we dominated more of the game and were a crossbar away from taking a lead we probably would have hung on to,. I suspect Clan will be a difficult place for teams to take points from this season and we've taken one which is a bonus while missing one of our best forwards in Juusola and another that could/should have been a point a game player in Seitz while icing a guy who only just signed and will not be up to speed with our systems yet.

One guy we haven't replaced is Vallerand, that ability to unlock a defense with a pass and a cannon of a shot as well as being able to pull moves that others cannot handle, yes he lost a bit of pace but his mind was usually quicker than anyone else's to make up for it. Finding another Marco will be very hard to do.

Highlights (complete with the beautiful commentary from the one and only Aaron Murphy)

https://youtu.be/CIyWVKacu7I?si=pD-BJq6BGCoq9HfW (not sure about some of those camera angles)

I’ve mentioned in a previous post on another thread, that I think the ‘lower end’ teams have pretty much all improved. I’d also argue that the ‘higher budget’ (like us) teams have either stayed the same or have gone backwards in terms of improving.

Always great to see teams sell out, especially mid-week, although it was school half term in Scotland which should have helped. Wonder if they did a cheaper ticket night as well? Long may that trend continue

I’d agree we’re missing players like Vally and Watling. Don’t really think we’ve replaced their qualities if I’m honest.

[ginger]

Glasgow have signed players that most top teams in the league would consider - Sideroff, Burke, Langan and Neumann could easily be Belfast/Sheffield/Nottingham players based on CV. Teppo, Poolman and Fram, Aitokallio are as well. They probably don't have quite as much depth but there's 8 players there capable of being big factors in any game.

To be honest, it's about time for them. They should have been better over that last few years but have become a bit like Spurs - always seems to fall apart to some extent.

A dark horse team, could well get a top 3 spot if stay consistent and one of the big 3 don't. Otherwise they're very much in for that 4th spot battle with Cardiff