So this weekend was quite an eventful one if you were a Panthers fan. Not all of it in a good way. A shut out defeat in Cardiff, a delightful Robert Farmer goal, a signing session with the players and Henley missing Sunday's game which at the time was without explanation.
Ice Hockey isn't the most popular sport in the country, it gets little, if any media coverage nationally, there is never any team news on Sky Sports News although it is covered well by regional media, so in order to find information you sometimes need to dig a little deeper.
Now Gary Moran is quick enough to tell us that as Panthers fans 'we are the best in the league' so then why aren't we treated as such? We live in an age of social media and a large percentage of fans are constantly able to access information online, information that the Panthers can be quite frustrating in giving out.
Let's take Friday for example, I was sat at my desk at work, beginning to look forward to the weekend's hockey action and I spot a tweet from the Panthers. 'Big Game Preview' was the tweet. Excellent I thought, now I can check on whether Lacho, K-Wall, Werner, Wren or Loyns had recovered from their injuries or whether they were making progress. So I followed the link, still fully expecting a preview of the big game. However, I was greeted with the following information....
1. Game is being played in the NIC on Sunday at 4pm, sponsored by Bricks for kids - fair enough.
2. This game comes on the back of a trip to Cardiff the night before - fair enough, although your title didn't really indicate which game you were previewing so I probably would have assumed it was the Saturday fixture.
3. The demand for the beefcake calenders exceeded all expectations - Well that's ok then, 2 points in the bag surely?!
4. Tickets for the upcoming Christmas quiz on 12 December will be available - Good news for all involved, that'll be worth a couple of goals.
5. The Panthers have partnered with Nottingham City Transport to get reduced fares on match nights - Again, brilliant news, now I can catch the tram cheaper to watch the game where I don't know who is playing!
6. We have also partnered with Pizza Express - Good because I didn't really want to watch hockey, I am hungry!
I apologise for the sarcasm, but to say I was annoyed was an understatement. If I am being told I am reading a big game preview, then that is what I expect, not an excuse to re-iterate things which are told to us at least once a period during games. I understand the Panthers are also running a business, but as their customers, I want information on the playing squad and while I am at it, comments by the coach wouldn't go amiss either.
Three hours later, the Panthers did finally put an extensive injury update on the website, so many of you will be wondering what my issue is. The issue is just a lack of detail in the information provided. In the weekend's game reports, would it be a hardship to detail who had scored for the Devils? In the match report for the Sunday game there was absolutely no mention as to why Henley hadn't returned as his suspension was now over, same with Makela. The fans didn't know, Twitter, Facebook and the forums didn't know. With Makela, the rumours had circulated that he hadn't travelled back from Asiago, which is understandable as he was only ever here short term, but the feeling amongst some fans was that he could have done a job for the rest of the season. Why not have some comments as to why he has gone, was it never an option for him to stay for the remainder of the season or was it that he hadn't done enough in Neilson's opinion to warrant an extended contract.
As for Henley, the lack of information provided meant that the friends we sit with were of the opinion that actually he was going to be released and that Corey hadn't played him as a result (it does seem that you are wrong on this one Mr Cooke!!)
So it was left to the match report by Mick Holland of the Evening Post to provide us with the information the fans were after. Henley had suffered a re-occurrence of a previous injury and was unable to ice. Simple wasn't it? So why was this information not relayed by the Panthers at any point? Don't get me wrong, it is fantastic the club and the local press have a good relationship but the club need to be telling us this.
After looking into this however, it seems like this just isn't a problem the Panthers suffer with. The Clan website have a game day news article which is all about off ice activity. The injury updates are in a separate article, but they do at least name the opposition scorers. The Stars didn't even have a weekend preview on their site, neither do the Flyers, Steelers, Capitals or Giants. The Blaze did provide an injury update before their Scotland weekend with comments from the coach as do the Stingrays. Don't get me wrong, the Giants had an article with Murphy looking forward to the Dundee game but it isn't the same.
So what I am trying to get at, is the Panthers and possibly the rest of the league need to be more forthcoming with information on their websites. They are frequently used sources of information that as fans we rely on. I am not suggesting we give away trade secrets, but just have a little honesty.
Monday, 2 December 2013
Sunday, 17 November 2013
The cracks are covered...... for now!!
The talk before this weekends games from the Steelers camp was all about the how the so called 'biggest rivalry' in sport had lost its edge. To be honest, I agreed with the comments by Lefevbre, the games had lost that spark, that nastiness and that games against the Blaze or Giants were more highly anticipated.
I didn't see the game in Sheffield on Saturday night, however I was a keen spectator this evening as the game dished out all the nastiness it needed. However after reading some of the comments on the forums and on twitter, it got me wondering whether I was watching the same game as everyone else!!
Usually I will try and blame any missed events in conversations between friends on my two year old boy and having to attend to his every whim, however this afternoon he managed to sleep for the first 30 minutes of play (don't ask me how with all that noise!) and that meant I could concentrate fully on the action unfolding.
Firstly was the Henley incident. It came as no surprise to me at the time he was thrown out. From where I was sat Spencer was no willing participant in that fight. He may of thrown a jab at Henley but there was no dropping of gloves by Spencer and Henley fell for the bait given to him. I am not condoning the fact that Spencer may well have been overstating the situation for staying down on the ice too long, but Henley gave Spencer a battering that many Panthers fans would have enjoyed but in reality was misplaced and could have cost the Panthers 2 points.
Twitter was full of praise for Henley, I understand why, even if these games don't have the physical edge they once did, emotions will have been running high as it was a niggly game and people will have enjoyed watching Spencer getting a beating, but for me I would have preferred to see Henley give him a beating in a fair fight with the gloves being dropped from the following face off.
Even though we scored a short handed goal to take the lead, Steelers were the better team and Hewitt was doing a fantastic job of winding our players up. We seem to have a problem with this, as we did last week in Fife when Fulton did a brilliant job of winding Stevie Lee up. I look at the make up of our team and we seem to go from one extreme to another. We have the hard guys such as Henley and Salters and possibly Makela who can throw a punch and then the rest of our team is made up of more finesse players. We miss a Matty Myers type of player, or at least we did until the third period.
I am going to very quickly overlook the second period, because we were awful. Passes were sloppy and we seemed to have gone into namby pamby mode in terms of aggression, the complete opposite from the previous period. Steelers deserved their equaliser and after Makela was also thrown from the game, many Panthers fans must have wondered what was in store for the final 20 minutes.
To coin a phrase, cometh the hour and cometh the man, and for me that man was Joe Jensen. Suddenly Hewitt and the rest of the Steelers were rattled because Jensen was dishing out the kind of torment that we were seeing from Hewitt previously. The Panthers had found that element of aggression again, but not too much and the Steelers were a mess. They took silly penalty after silly penalty and we capitalised and took the game away from them. So much to the point that Hewitt couldn't help himself and got kicked out for having a pop at Jensen.
So the fans left the arena happy and why wouldn't they? We have just beaten the Steelers 6-1, Spencer had taken a beating and the three (but felt like a lot longer) game losing streak was over. However for me it was a result that has only papered over the cracks.
We continue to rely on the Francis-Salters-Lacho line and this was evident again. They scored 4 of the 6 goals. There are no other consistent scorers in the team with the exception of Clarke who seems to score in batches. We are missing K-Wall but I think that Conway has done a decent job and was arguably the man of the match this evening. Then there is talk about Werner's return. Yes he is a highly skilled d-man but due to his attacking instincts he's not going to solve the leaks we have at the back. We have conceded 10 more goals than Coventry and 14 more than Braehead in the same amount of league games.
It was further announced that Farmer has been released by the Alaska Aces and I think we should sign him. In fact, I think it could have been part of the arrangement that allowed him to train with us that if he was released he would sign a contract with us. I am not a huge fan of Farmer, mainly because of his attempts to play the hard man, but he can score goals and more importantly he is British.
But bigger changes are needed at Panthers before I think we will look like a side that is capable of retaining the league title. We need to keep Jensen and Makela and I suspect we will see Wren and Capraro released but Ryan should also be worried. In fact I would be more than happy to see Ryan go if it means we sign another stay at home import d-man.
Lastly I just want to add that I thought that Hicks had a good game today. It is never easy controlling a game like this and the large majority of his calls were correct. Him, along with Spencer and Fata got their fair share of abuse from the spectators in Block 15 and where as I can't disagree with giving the Steelers players a bit of grief, I thought that Hicks didn't deserve it!! Roll on the 26th December!
I didn't see the game in Sheffield on Saturday night, however I was a keen spectator this evening as the game dished out all the nastiness it needed. However after reading some of the comments on the forums and on twitter, it got me wondering whether I was watching the same game as everyone else!!
Usually I will try and blame any missed events in conversations between friends on my two year old boy and having to attend to his every whim, however this afternoon he managed to sleep for the first 30 minutes of play (don't ask me how with all that noise!) and that meant I could concentrate fully on the action unfolding.
Firstly was the Henley incident. It came as no surprise to me at the time he was thrown out. From where I was sat Spencer was no willing participant in that fight. He may of thrown a jab at Henley but there was no dropping of gloves by Spencer and Henley fell for the bait given to him. I am not condoning the fact that Spencer may well have been overstating the situation for staying down on the ice too long, but Henley gave Spencer a battering that many Panthers fans would have enjoyed but in reality was misplaced and could have cost the Panthers 2 points.
Twitter was full of praise for Henley, I understand why, even if these games don't have the physical edge they once did, emotions will have been running high as it was a niggly game and people will have enjoyed watching Spencer getting a beating, but for me I would have preferred to see Henley give him a beating in a fair fight with the gloves being dropped from the following face off.
Even though we scored a short handed goal to take the lead, Steelers were the better team and Hewitt was doing a fantastic job of winding our players up. We seem to have a problem with this, as we did last week in Fife when Fulton did a brilliant job of winding Stevie Lee up. I look at the make up of our team and we seem to go from one extreme to another. We have the hard guys such as Henley and Salters and possibly Makela who can throw a punch and then the rest of our team is made up of more finesse players. We miss a Matty Myers type of player, or at least we did until the third period.
I am going to very quickly overlook the second period, because we were awful. Passes were sloppy and we seemed to have gone into namby pamby mode in terms of aggression, the complete opposite from the previous period. Steelers deserved their equaliser and after Makela was also thrown from the game, many Panthers fans must have wondered what was in store for the final 20 minutes.
To coin a phrase, cometh the hour and cometh the man, and for me that man was Joe Jensen. Suddenly Hewitt and the rest of the Steelers were rattled because Jensen was dishing out the kind of torment that we were seeing from Hewitt previously. The Panthers had found that element of aggression again, but not too much and the Steelers were a mess. They took silly penalty after silly penalty and we capitalised and took the game away from them. So much to the point that Hewitt couldn't help himself and got kicked out for having a pop at Jensen.
So the fans left the arena happy and why wouldn't they? We have just beaten the Steelers 6-1, Spencer had taken a beating and the three (but felt like a lot longer) game losing streak was over. However for me it was a result that has only papered over the cracks.
We continue to rely on the Francis-Salters-Lacho line and this was evident again. They scored 4 of the 6 goals. There are no other consistent scorers in the team with the exception of Clarke who seems to score in batches. We are missing K-Wall but I think that Conway has done a decent job and was arguably the man of the match this evening. Then there is talk about Werner's return. Yes he is a highly skilled d-man but due to his attacking instincts he's not going to solve the leaks we have at the back. We have conceded 10 more goals than Coventry and 14 more than Braehead in the same amount of league games.
It was further announced that Farmer has been released by the Alaska Aces and I think we should sign him. In fact, I think it could have been part of the arrangement that allowed him to train with us that if he was released he would sign a contract with us. I am not a huge fan of Farmer, mainly because of his attempts to play the hard man, but he can score goals and more importantly he is British.
But bigger changes are needed at Panthers before I think we will look like a side that is capable of retaining the league title. We need to keep Jensen and Makela and I suspect we will see Wren and Capraro released but Ryan should also be worried. In fact I would be more than happy to see Ryan go if it means we sign another stay at home import d-man.
Lastly I just want to add that I thought that Hicks had a good game today. It is never easy controlling a game like this and the large majority of his calls were correct. Him, along with Spencer and Fata got their fair share of abuse from the spectators in Block 15 and where as I can't disagree with giving the Steelers players a bit of grief, I thought that Hicks didn't deserve it!! Roll on the 26th December!
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