Big Dave Sez….

SHEFFIELD, UK – Who would have thought that the league and play-off holders would be in such a mess? Free-fall would be the understatement of the year, as falling crowds and 6^th place does not paint a pretty picture. Where has it all gone wrong for the Sheffield Steelers? Is the loss of key figures such as Ryan Finnerty, Steve Munn and Jody Lehman been that much of a difference? You only have to look towards the bench last Sunday in Coventry and you could argue that to be the case. At no time did you see any of the senior players take charge of the situation and try and get Sheffield back into the game. Last season there would have been a queue of people doing this.
 
Could it mean further changes to be made by Coach Dave Matsos unti he gets his leaders? More than likely that will be the case. Matsos and GM Mike O’Connor will not want the team languishing at the bottom end of the league for too long, and will do whatever it takes to get back up there. The pressure will mount on the imports, especially those in defence, where much of the criticism has been aimed at so far this season, and it is up to Randy Dagenais and Kevin Bolibruck to turn around the defences form to something similar to last season.
 
This will also put pressure on Matsos. This is the first time that Matsos will have been under the spotlight whilst he’s been the head coach in Sheffield, and it will be interesting to see how he handles the situation. A number of fans often say that he does not have a ‘Plan B’ and if that is the case, it is now that it will be exposed. I don’t believe that to be the case, and I do believe that he does have the ability to turn this around. Results is the only way that he can show that he is the man to turn it around and with some big fixtures on the horizon, it’s going to be an interesting November at the House of Steel.  

 
However, what might end up being in the clubs favour is a trip to Bolzano at the end of November, with a shot at the Grand Final of the Continental Cup at stake. Standing in the way of Grenoble is Bolzano the hosts, Maribor of Slovenia and The Hague of Holland. With the season so far in Sheffield, this could be a blessing in disguise for the club. Previous years everyone has bemoaned the Continental Cup for being a distraction to the important stuff of the league, however given the run that Sheffield have been on this season, this could give them the chance to go back to basics, and maybe find a vein of form they can take back to domestic action. Do they have a chance of making the Super Final? Course they have, realistic though? Probably not. However with a few lucky bounces in the team’s favour over the weekend, then who knows….
 
One person who has got hockey fans talking, is Mick Holland of the Nottingham Evening Post. His recent article praised the efforts of Nottingham in getting the bigger attendances of the Elite League, and placed it solely on their marketing. Marketing that he believes the likes of Newcastle and Edinburgh do not do. My take on the reason Nottingham, and the likes of Cardiff are getting the crowds in are simple – they are marketing their club in areas that other clubs don’t feel comfortable with going into. It’s as though the clubs have found a few areas/avenues for marketing, and have trapped themselves in these areas and are unable to find other areas. If you wander around Nottingham, you cannot fail to see the Panthers name – even in the windows of closed shops. Even going as far as sending one of their players to be involved in a cooking contest during a food and drink festival, the Panthers brand is well and truly established in the Lace City.
 
Do other clubs not try as hard? Of course not, in fact it would be fair to say that every other Elite League team try even harder to implement ideas to market their clubs in their respective cities – but for some reason it has not worked. Maybe this is where the likes of Nottingham and Cardiff go to other clubs, review their marketing policies and offer suggestions and opinions as to where the other clubs can get better results from their marketing. That is not to say that Nottingham and Cardiff will rest on their laurels, because they have not achieved the end result of putting up the ‘Sold Out’ signs on a regular basis, and they might even pick up some ideas which even they might not have tried doing. What is clear however is that the league does need some form of collective marketing strategy that not only each club can implement, but also afford to execute.
 
Finally, it looks like the Nottingham Panthers might have a side that could break the 53 year wait for that elusive league title. Corey Neilson has put together a team which looks like it has the potential to take that extra step and go for the league title. One of the keys to this has been the form of Jade Galbraith, with the summer work-out working a treat as he’s Nottingham‘s leading points scorer with 25 points. With the likes Sean McAslan, Marty Gascon and Brit David Clarke contributing on the scoreboard on a frequent basis, is this the team to finally do it? The big test will be the Christmas period, with Nottingham making this an annual period where any aspirations of silverware are destroyed by the end of the holiday period. If they can get through this time and get the vast majority of the 22 points available from the busy schedule over Christmas and New Year   then I believe that the title is theirs to lose. However I am not so sure they can achieve this. I can’t see them changing their normal routine.
 
The only thing is certain, is that whoever wins the league will not win it as comfortable as Sheffield did last season. I predict that it will go to the final weekend, with so many twists and turns to look forward to along the way.
 
Till next week
 
Big Dave
Contact dave.grant@prohockeynews.com