Hardly surprising is it? So desperate are Payettes band of merry men, that they play a pre season friendly for a made up, means nothing really trophy like its the deciding game of the play offs. I can take losing. That in and of itself does not bother me. What I can’t take is the continual bullshit that follows the Steeldogs and their ‘brand’ of ‘hockey’.
Now, I’m all for a bit of physical play. Big hits, solid work on the boards, that kind of thing. But the continual slashing, chipping, hooking, etc behind the play from Payettes supposed ‘hockey players’ is beginning to wear thin. That the 1st period on Sunday took almost 45 minutes to play out should give some indication of just how much their ‘hockey’ breaks up the flow of the game. And the really sad thing is, they have enough decent players not to need to descend to the level that they do. There is a very decent level of skill within that squad of theirs, but Payette seems incapable or unwilling to allow it to shine, preferring to craft a squad of goons instead.
Some of his charges seem to be more than willing to go down this route rather than play hockey. Greg Wood being the prime example. Since joining the Steeldogs, he has become a little shit on the ice. Slashing his way merrily along, trying to start fights then bailing when it looks like someone might actually take him up on it, and hiding behind ‘big bad Andre’. Steve Duncombe is another prime offender, never failing to raise the ire of both fans and players on the ice, but also never seeming to have the balls to back it up when called out. He shat himself last season when Schnabel decided enough is enough, and I’ll bet he does it again this season.
Of course, it isn’t all the Steeldogs fault. For some reason, referees seem more interested in calling the retaliations by Phoenix (and other clubs) players, rather than the Steeldogs players. Sunday gave us a prime example. Kovar gets booted for beating lumps out of a Lee Heywood, who decided he wanted to be 3rd man in on the brewing scrap between James Archer and Greg Wood. Now, for sure Kovar deserved to be thrown out for hitting a man whilst he was down on the ice… but why wasn’t Heywood called for ‘3rd man in’ on the aborted Archer/Wood scrap. It happened right in front of all 3 on ice officials, so they can’t say they never saw it. Sadly, though, until officials have the nerve to call everything they see, instead of letting things go for the sake of the games ‘flow’, shit like this will continue to happen.
Personally, I’m looking forward to Sundays return for the Steeldogs. They are going to face a different team then. One which has practised more, and bonded better. And I’d bet that there will be fireworks.