McMorrowed

Where do you start with such a shocking performance? Personally I wish I had been delayed a bit longer in Belfast then I wouldn’t have had to witness that shower of shit last night! If only the Panthers players I put in as much effort as I did to make the game!

After a close game in Belfast on Friday night I was expecting the Panthers to really take this game by the knackers and really go for it. Unfortunately we got what I consider to be one of, if not the worst panthers performance in the NIC era.

One of the biggest reasons for our insipid performance last night was the antics of Belfast hard man Sean McMorrow. We allowed him to come into our barn and run the show. We were so preoccupied with McMorrow that less attention was paid to Colin Shields, Brandon Benedict and the outstanding Jeff Szwez, and the Giants made us pay big time.

McMorrow basically took the piss for the 35 minutes and 40 seconds he was on the ice, what really annoyed me is that no-one took him to task for it. With a couple of exceptions, we played like a bunch of fairies, running scared of the hardman! I will say this though. The cross-check that McMorrow put on the back of Mario Larocque’s neck was straight out of the bush league. I lost a lot of respect for McMorrow after that, I always had him labelled as an honourable fighter, but that was a deliberate intent to injure which could have done some serious damage. The league needs to look at that incident and hand out some supplemental discipline as he can’t be allowed to get away with that.

Only 19-year old Brit Stevie Lee stood up to him, body slamming McMorrow to the ice and for that he deserves a great amount of credit. Even when McMorrow skated to centre ice inviting a fight not one of our so-called hard men grew a pair and took him to task. He did his job to the letter (apart from the cross-check) and had a big hand in Giants win. I hope the team watch the video from last night and take a long, hard look at themselves!

TCW Live – Belfast Giants v Nottingham Panthers 20th November

TCW Live will be bringing you live text updates from the crunch clash at the Odyssey Arena between Giants and Panthers (connection permitting). Join me from 6.55pm on the link below.

TCW Live – Giants v Panthers

TCW Live – Cardiff Devils v Nottingham Panthers 15th November

TCW Live will be providing updates from tonight’s game if it goes ahead. Many thanks to Tom Martin who will be operating TCW Live from the rink tonight.
Coverage will start when the game starts, expected to be around 8.45pm at the moment! Please click on the below link to follow the action.

TCW Live – Devils v Panthers

As an alternative The Inferno will also be covering the game through their Match Night Live service on the link below

The Inferno Match Night Live

Hull Stingrays 2 Nottingham Panthers 5

Traffic chaos on the M1 meant the game faced off late at 6.15, defensive chaos on the Stingrays blue line meant Panthers were 2-0 up after two minutes!
The first was scored by cult hero Bruce Richardson, tapping into the net at the far post with Tommy Sandahl nowhere. 17 seconds later Cameron Mann made it 2-0, again easily beating Sandahl in the Stingrays net. Panthers were comfortably on top and continued to slice through the Hull rearguard at will, Mann was particularly rampant during this period, the puck seemed to be glued to the end of his stick!
The now obligatory fight happened in the middle of the first, though not from the usual protagonists! This time it was Marc Levers and Lee Mitchell who dropped the gloves. I’d say Levers edged it and the video appears to back that up: Panthers continued to cruise and the period ended 2-0.
The second started similar to the first, Richardson scored his second and Panthers third after some great work by Jade Galbraith, who beat two defenders and drew Sandahl wide before slipping the puck across for Bruce to fire into an empty net. Panthers continued to dominate, but started to run into penalty trouble which gave the Stingrays a route back into the game. Lee Mitchell scored two power play goals to give the Panthers a far narrower lead of 3-2 going into the final period.
Stingrays started to up their game and hit the pipework as they cranked up the pressure looking for an equaliser. However Panthers finally made their superiority count as Dominic D’Amour blasted in the fourth from the blue line. As the Panthers went to celebrate, Adam Knight caught Bruce Richardson, which saw Knight’s evening end with a 2+2+10 for attempted spearing, idiot!
From the resulting powerplay Sean McAslan made the game safe, firing home from a tight angle, making the final score 5-2 in Panthers favour and consolidates our position at the top of the Elite League.
Full video highlights of the game by the Stingrays are available below.

TCW Live – Hull Stingrays v Nottingham Panthers 14th November

There will be TCW Live coverage from Hull tonight (traffic problems permitting) as Panthers look to mantain their top of the table status. Coverage will start from around 5.25pm, please follow the link below.

TCW Live – Stingrays v Panthers

To understand some of the terms and abbreviations used in TCW Live coverage, please take a look at the TCW Live Glossary

Edinburgh v Panthers Result

Edinburgh Capitals 3-4 Nottingham Panthers – Final score

Referee: Moray Hanson

Scoring:
13.11 1-0 Smith (McKenzie, Lambert)
27.24 1-1 Gascon (Bergin, Neilson)
28.43 1-2 Mann (Galbraith, Larocque)
34.33 1-3 McAslan (Neilson) PP
42.16 2-3 Fussey (Lambert, Pilskauskas)
43.48 3-3 Pilskauskas (Smith)
52.45 3-4 Clarke (No assist)

Incidents:
33.44 Galbraith (NOT) ejected for abuse of official
33.44 Lambert (EDI) missed penalty shot

No TCW Live tonight, but…..

….You can follow all the action from the game in Newcastle thanks to coverage from UK Hockey Live. Just click on the link below:

UK Hockey Live – Vipers v Panthers

 

Panthers 6 Steelers 3

The scene was already set. A Steelers loss would send them to the bottom of the Elite league while sending Panthers back to the summit.
Panthers included new signing Mario Larocque in the squad, Nick Toneys making way for him. Steelers were at full strength.

The fun & games started from the opening face-off as Bruce Richardson and Jason Hewitt dropped the gloves. Hewitt got the take down (probably to save himself from further punishment) while Bruce got the better shots in, including putting Hewitt down and dragging him back up again. Maybe that will teach Hewitt to keep his mouth shut after games in future, but I doubt it!
Panthers opened the scoring when a mistake by Ben Morgan allowed David Clarke to fire a bullet of a shot past Andrew Verner. Steelers equalised through Matt Hubbauer who find the tiniest of gaps at KSP’s near post. Panthers re-took the lead later in the period after a sustained spell of Steelers pressure was broken up, Sean McAslan skated along the wing and centered the puck for Ross Dalgleish to poke home. Verner complained but there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Robert Dowd earned a 10 minute misconduct for firing the puck after the whistle, which lead to a coming together between all the players on the ice, the only penalty being a 2 minute roughing penalty for Bruce Richardson. From the resulting powerplay Steelers equalised, Brad Cruikshank scoring. The period ended 2-2, Steelers would be the happier team as Panthers dominated for long spells and out shot the visitors 20-10 in the period. Nothing could have prepared us for what was to come in the second!

The middle period was quite scrappy for the first five minutes, but Panthers regained the lead when a fabulous pass sent Danny Meyers clear and he made no mistake to chalk up his first goal of the season. Soon after it was 4-2, great passing across the zone saw Jade Galbraith produce an unstoppable one time shot that I doubt Verner even saw! Worse was to follow for the hapless Steelers, while on a powerplay the puck found its way to Richardson, who skated in unopposed on Verner and slotted the puck into the net for a short handed fifth. The Steelers were now totally outmatched, outfought and outplayed, but what was worse is the showed no fire to get back in it. Too many of their player went missing, including so-called hard man Brad Cruikshank, who was nowhere to be seen. As I said in last night’s commentary, I don’t think I have ever seen such a weak, powder-puff Steelers team!

Panthers coasted the third after Clarke notched his second and Panthers sixth early in the period. Steelers did score a consolation goal through Hubbauer, but the result was never in doubt, and Panthers skated to an easy 6-3 victory.
While Panthers were good they weren’t exceptional. I felt the result was more to do with how bad the Steelers are, and believe me they are bad, quite easily the worst Elite League team I’ve seen this year. It really is no coincidence that they find themselves at the bottom of the Elite league.
As for Panthers, well we return to the top, but to stay there wins against Newcastle tonight and Edinburgh on Tuesday are vital, and that will be a tough ask with injuries and a reported illness in the camp. There could be tough times ahead.

TCW Live – Nottingham Panthers v Sheffield Steelers 7th November

TCW Live will be providing live text updates from the biggest rivalry in the known Western world! Tune in from around 7pm for all the action.
Note for Steelers fans. I am a huge Panthers fan and the commentary will have a huge Panthers bias. If you can’t handle that or are easily offended then don’t click on the link below.

TCW Live – Panthers v Steelers

Panthers v Steelers Preview

The biggest rivalry in Middle Earth sees the second league meeting of the season and the first in Nottingham this Saturday in front of what is likely to be a sell out crowd. Both teams have been having a pretty poor time of it lately, but the Panthers are still top of the Elite league while the Steelers are languishing in seventh place. The form of both teams since the last meeting at Sheffield Arena on 26th September is as follows (both have played 12 games):

Panthers: WWWWLLWLWLWL - Goals for 40; Goals against 39

Steelers: LLWLWWWLLLWL – Goals for 39; Goals against 41

Goals for and against are pretty much identical, however the win/loss column is a little different with Panthers having a 7/5 record compared to the Steelers 5/7.
The concensus of opinion on Steeltalk is that the Panthers are going to romp to victory, but we all know that the Steelers raise their game for these encounters. Panthers will hopefully have new signing Mario Larocque in the line up so you would expect the players to be fired up as they are now playing for their jobs. Personally I think netminding will decide the game, it will come down to how KSP and Andrew Verner perform on the night.
If it becomes a physical contest then the Panthers should win hands down. Steelers only physical threat is Brad Cruikshank and Larocque, Kevin Bergin and Dominic D’Amour will not lose any sleep over facing him in a showdown. No doubt Steelers fans will clamour for Jason Hewitt to face Bruce Richardson, but why should we lose the teams heartbeat for five minutes when the trade off is a well below average Brit? If the game is safe then by all means give Hewitt a beating, but not before.

Overall it will probably be a close game, no predictions from me but only a Panthers win will do.