No Need To Panic

Posted on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 8:56 am

Not the best timing to decide to write a new blog. I could have picked one of the weekends that we came away with two big wins, but instead I pick the week after two disappointing games to post on the web. Nice timing, right?

First of all, I think it was evident at home against Manchester that we slipped up. We went from being in complete control after two periods to letting them pick us apart in the third. We did what every team tries (and often unsuccessfully) to do against Manchester, contain Tony Hand. We gave Tony room to do his stuff and he did what he always manages to do, make perfect passes and set up goals. I think David Beauregard is a great player, but even he knows how lucky he is to have Tony passing him the puck all year.

The game in Sheffield came at a bad time. They were sitting at home, watching on the internet, knowing that we were battling it out with the Phoenix, that we still had to get up early and travel the next day and that we had injuries to some key players as well. I still think that you need to believe that you are going to win every game, but as a realist you know there are games that you know you will be stealing if you win on the road. We stole one in Coventry this season, and they stole one in Belfast. We stole a Knock-out Cup series in Sheffield in October against the Steelers, and had we won on Saturday, that would have been stealing another victory against them. I didn’t expect to lose, but when you look through the calendar of games, you can understand that dropping points in Sheffield after playing the night before isn’t as disappointing as losing to Manchester the night before.

Had we beat the Phoenix and Hull the weekend before in Hull, it wouldn’t have been a big deal to lose to Sheffield, but the timing hurt us. Still, it’s a long season and there is no need to panic after a couple of losses. We are still in both Cup competitions and are still in the hunt for the League Title. Nobody is pulling away from the pack just yet.

Speaking of Cup competitions, how crazy is it that we now have the Blaze in BOTH the Challenge Cup Semi-Final and the Knock-Out Cup? We have to somehow jam four more games against the Blaze in over the next few weeks, and I frankly don’t know how we are going to do it. January is a busy month for both teams, and since we have a couple of midweek games and they play every Saturday and Sunday, we are going to end up playing 4 games in one week at some point.

Still, we can’t complain about success and we wanted to win anything and everything we could, which is why we entered both Cup Competitions this season.

Injuries once again have taken their toll on our team this season. With small rosters and no feeder system, when you lose guys to injuries, it really puts the team in a tough situation. I still don’t know how we beat the Blaze with 10 guys, but I know that game hurt us because the more players are on the ice, the more they get worn down and it does get tougher to recover after a game like that.

I am pretty sure Andrew Martin will be back in the line-up for Friday Night against the Panthers, and hopefully Paul Deniset is okay to play again, although I have my doubts about Deniset. He came back to play against Manchester and pulled his groin again, which is why he sat out on Sunday in Sheffield. We will know more when he tries skating again on Wednesday morning.

This weekend against the Panthers is going to be huge. Whenever you play one of the other top teams in the league that you are competing with for league supremacy, the games become doubly important, hence why every one refers to these games as FOUR POINT GAMES. So we basically have 2 four-point games this weekend against the Panthers and both teams will understand just how big this weekend could be for them. Two wins for either team seriously separates the two for the next few weeks and sends a message to the other top contenders in the league.

I’ll write again next week, and hopefully have plenty to celebrate after the weekend. We need all the help we can get, so make sure to get out to Friday’s game. See you at the Odyssey…

Todd Kelman
General Manager