GAME THREAD: Clan v Steelers: Sun 5th April

[heathk01]

They can’t be expected to put two good games together the little darlings.

[smbmetal]

Not particularly interested in the result.

As long as we’ve made this game and the weekend through injury free, that’s good enough for me.

Finally, it’s time to play some non-dead rubber games.

I expect the compete level to be right at our best.

[Nathan]

Body language at the end of the game said it all for me.

It's hardly enthusiastic at the best of times but tonight was non existent.

[Jayboy]

How will Fox spin it this time? Did all we needed to do, blah blah blah, got a point blah blah blah, liked our compete level over the 2 games blah blah blah, if we gave a good week leading into the next game... blah blah blah

He 100% knows it was garbage whatever he says to the media afterwards...

Jayboy

[Clear The Zone]

Those on here who enjoy taking the piss out of Paul Thomson with the endlessly hilarious "best coach in the world" jibes may wish to note that his team finished in 2nd, comfortably two places ahead of us (unless the EIHL website changes it's mind again and puts us back in 3rd) despite presumably a much lower budget, if arena sizes are any indication of available expenditure.

[Nathan]

Those on here who enjoy taking the piss out of Paul Thomson with the endlessly hilarious "best coach in the world" jibes may wish to note that his team finished in 2nd, comfortably two places ahead of us (unless the EIHL website changes it's mind again and puts us back in 3rd) despite presumably a much lower budget, if arena sizes are any indication of available expenditure.

He did ok here with Gerad Adams team.

[mark]

Those on here who enjoy taking the piss out of Paul Thomson with the endlessly hilarious "best coach in the world" jibes may wish to note that his team finished in 2nd, comfortably two places ahead of us (unless the EIHL website changes it's mind again and puts us back in 3rd) despite presumably a much lower budget, if arena sizes are any indication of available expenditure.

They are not taking the piss out of Thompson, he wasn't the one claiming that, it was his buddy Simms who said that, putting a lot of pressure on PT which he probably could have done without. Simms is the target of those comments. And I still think Fox is a better coach because he built his own team that won the grandslam, Thompson inherited a winning team and went slowly downhill.

[steeler pete]

That’s right it was Simms who bigged his mate up. Thommo did not improve on Gerard Adams and his post game interviews got gradually more bitter towards the fans and his team.

Despite this season’s results (so far) I never liked Thommo as a coach and am not in the least impressed with his 2nd placed team.

His greatest success (post Coventry) was getting Liam Kirk his chance for the NHL draft IMO.

[Clear The Zone]

They are not taking the piss out of Thompson, he wasn't the one claiming that, it was his buddy Simms who said that, putting a lot of pressure on PT which he probably could have done without. Simms is the target of those comments.

It's always used in the context of being disparaging towards PT though. Maybe the people constantly referencing it need to remember that.

PT may have made the mistake of following on from GA here, but you can't level that criticism of him during his Coventry days, or taking a Marc Lefebvre basement team in Odense and taking them to a playoff championship.

It remains to be seen if Fox is a better coach than Thommo if we're honest. He may be, but he doesn't yet have the track record across different leagues and different countries to back that claim up. He is (or was) a better recruiter, that's for sure, but that's not coaching, that's about being a good GM. We've had a couple of strong seasons where we've run out of steam due to injuries (perhaps due to the style of play demanded - a coaching issue?) or hit some thin patches which have cost us titles and not pulled us out of them fast enough (this is a coaching skill, surely), and a couple where he intended to split the netminder duties then bottled it, all off which point to a level of inexperience. And he's not really proven himself to be the sort of coach that can galvanise the team reliably for really clutch performances in big games in the last couple of seasons (CHL campaign notwithstanding). Don't forget that in virtually every other league than here it's those big game clutch performances in cups and playoffs which define success and where you earn your money as a coach. I like Fox a lot, but I think for him to become a genuinely great coach he needs time with a different organisation to challenge himself a bit more and get out of his comfort zone, possibly where his only responsibility is coaching rather than GMing too. I'd love to see him do a 3-year stint in North America as a smaller cog in a bigger organisation, then come back here and run riot.

[mark]

It's always used in the context of being disparaging towards PT though. Maybe the people constantly referencing it need to remember that.

PT may have made the mistake of following on from GA here, but you can't level that criticism of him during his Coventry days, or taking a Marc Lefebvre basement team in Odense and taking them to a playoff championship.

It remains to be seen if Fox is a better coach than Thommo if we're honest. He may be, but he doesn't yet have the track record across different leagues and different countries to back that claim up. He is (or was) a better recruiter, that's for sure, but that's not coaching, that's about being a good GM. We've had a couple of strong seasons where we've run out of steam due to injuries (perhaps due to the style of play demanded - a coaching issue?) or hit some thin patches which have cost us titles and not pulled us out of them fast enough (this is a coaching skill, surely), and a couple where he intended to split the netminder duties then bottled it, all off which point to a level of inexperience. And he's not really proven himself to be the sort of coach that can galvanise the team reliably for really clutch performances in big games in the last couple of seasons (CHL campaign notwithstanding). Don't forget that in virtually every other league than here it's those big game clutch performances in cups and playoffs which define success and where you earn your money as a coach. I like Fox a lot, but I think for him to become a genuinely great coach he needs time with a different organisation to challenge himself a bit more and get out of his comfort zone, possibly where his only responsibility is coaching rather than GMing too. I'd love to see him do a 3-year stint in North America as a smaller cog in a bigger organisation, then come back here and run riot.

PT also became quite antagonistic towards the fanbase, many have not forgotten that, he should never have stayed for the final year, again that can be partially blamed on Simms who promoted and defended his mate when it would have been kinder to let him leave, the bitterness at that time was not pleasant. His best days were behind him when he came to this club.

With the Steelers, Fox has a far better record than Thompson ever did. That CHL team in full flow was the best hockey I've ever seen from the Steelers.