GAME THREAD: Steelers v Storm: Sun 23rd Nov

[Bryan]

Our faceoffs are a real concern

[greeny]

Happy for greener, deserves a shutout. Enjoyed the game overall especially first 2 periods but that was mainly down to the more physical aspect of the game. Always more entertaining with the odd scuffle here and there. Good result but against a average storm side but cant ask any more, so job done tonight,,,,

[paul johnston]

Great performance and the most enjoyable game of the season by far for me. Apparently Storm players were arguing amongst themselves when they were heading out on to the ice before the Heard incident. Dont know what about, but seems funny the Heard incident happened moments later.

[Doom]

Overall it has been a good weekend.

A solid performance in Nottingham and a comfortable win on home ice tonight.

The big plus for me has been the form of Juusola. He's such a key player for us, so it's great to see him getting back to his best.

The only real downer is the faceoffs. Again we were below 50%, which is a real concern. In those tight games against the likes of Nottingham the faceoff could be the deciding factor. I'm not sure how Fox can improve it without a change of personnel.

Regards

Doom

[Bryan]

A fight before 2nd period starts

Heard v Locke

Heard win

Both ejected

Again, I might go out on a limb here but, that wasn't silly... Locke clearly was agitated while Heard and another Storm player (Jenion) were involved in words and pushing and shoving, which Jenion started from the get go when they came out onto the ice.. Locke shook his glove off and mouthed off at Heard, and Heard went after him... I see nothing wrong with any of that at all, Storm were obviously stirring the pot looking to start something and get some motivation and possibly some momentum... the result took two players out, one from each team and showed the Storm we wouldn't back down and arguably gave us momentum in the second and not them... I completely applaud Heard for not taking any crap and wish we could see a bit more of this type of team togetherness... I do agree it has to be done right but I think this was... Heard clearly got the crowd going to and got several slaps on the rear and back on way off ice past the bench...
Just my opinion...

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I was concerned when we signed Heard that he might give away unnecessary penalties. He hasn’t and has proved his worth in the face of the opposition netminder. I agree he was dead right tonight and probably nobody else one else in the squad could have done it with such aplomb. Well done Storm might think twice next time.

[ginger]

Just checked face off stats in league play so far. Dowd, Heard and Pu have taken the most - Pu and Heard just over 50%, Dowd at 47%.

Need to go back and watch some, but do wonder if we're not winning the 50/50 winger battle often enough, rather than the problem being the centre themselves.

Away from face-offs, just a point on Balmas. Currently top point scorer in league play, 10 goals in 14 games, 20 points total. Keep up that pace and it's a 38 goal, 77 point league campaign. That'll do very nicely

[MLL79]

Soooooo kicking myself I passed on this one lol

I’ve been complaining for a while now about team toughness and that togetherness. As a former player I can attest that nothing gels a group more than getting stuck into the rough stuff together - hopefully this gels a few bonds now and gives everyone some confidence.

Feel bigger - play bigger - it really does work.

Congrats to the team on the weekend as seems like this could be a real momentum builder on the team building confidence side of things.

Thanks again to the forum for the updates.

Cheers

[Keith Sheppard]

We really enjoyed the game tonight, such a great watch for the fans. A well deserved mom for Greenfield, two of those saves in the second period were outstanding. I was also impressed with Ivan B-N, he didn’t look out of place at all and he has a nice size to him. I can see him developing into a good player at this level. Thank goodness we have a player like Mitch Heard on our team, I think we have needed someone with his attitude for a while. Tonight has been a great springboard for the week ahead when Notts roll into town, we need to start taking points off them if we are to finish above them.

[Doom]

Just checked face off stats in league play so far. Dowd, Heard and Pu have taken the most - Pu and Heard just over 50%, Dowd at 47%.

Need to go back and watch some, but do wonder if we're not winning the 50/50 winger battle often enough, rather than the problem being the centre themselves.

Away from face-offs, just a point on Balmas. Currently top point scorer in league play, 10 goals in 14 games, 20 points total. Keep up that pace and it's a 38 goal, 77 point league campaign. That'll do very nicely

Overall we're at just over 47% on the faceoffs, which is poor for a team with title winning ambitions. Looking at our main rivals currently:

Nottingham 52.73
Cardiff 49.81 - I was quite surprised by that.
Belfast 54.56

It's an area Fox really needs to look at improving. Whilst it's not the most important area of the game, it could make the difference in a tight title race.

Next Saturday against Nottingham will be interesting.

As for Balmas, he's really in the zone at the moment. He will need more support from others though, because at the moment there's only Harper on for a 20 goal season.

I thought one of the strengths in our GS winning season was how different players/lines stepped up at different times.

When the Watling/Balmas line went quiet, the Dowd/Vally line would step up.

At the moment it feels like we're heavily reliant on Balmas, it would be good to see a couple of other players hit a scoring purple patch. Armour certainly has done in Nottingham.

Looking at Dowd's stats, they're quite unusual. He's currently at a 15 goal season, which is low for him, but he's topping our assists. Is he becoming more of a playmaker as he's getting older?

Another stat which jumped out at me was our Finns being joint bottom of the +/-. Normally I'd expect them to be nearer the top end. I suspect this will be a blip and both will move up the +/- over the next few weeks......they're both class acts as far as I'm concerned.

Regards

Doom

[Bandanajan26]

A fight before 2nd period starts

Heard v Locke

Heard win

Both ejected

Again, I might go out on a limb here but, that wasn't silly... Locke clearly was agitated while Heard and another Storm player (Jenion) were involved in words and pushing and shoving, which Jenion started from the get go when they came out onto the ice.. Locke shook his glove off and mouthed off at Heard, and Heard went after him... I see nothing wrong with any of that at all, Storm were obviously stirring the pot looking to start something and get some motivation and possibly some momentum... the result took two players out, one from each team and showed the Storm we wouldn't back down and arguably gave us momentum in the second and not them... I completely applaud Heard for not taking any crap and wish we could see a bit more of this type of team togetherness... I do agree it has to be done right but I think this was... Heard clearly got the crowd going to and got several slaps on the rear and back on way off ice past the bench...
Just my opinion...

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

Completely agree with you. We’ve been missing this type of character and tough guy for so long. It was just like the old days. Loved it