The Weekend That Is: Storm (A) Review, Fife (H) Preview

I was going to write this during the week with the idea that it was going to be released on Friday, and given how last night went - in a multitude of ways - its a good thing I didn't!

31-1-26 - Manchester Storm 4 - 3 Sheffield Steelers (PS)

Storm shelter is a hard place to play, innit? Of the top 4 (Currently, in descending order, Belfast, Nottingham, Cardiff and Sheffield), all except Nottingham have lost there, but they have only been there once, so there's still time yet. The angles are tight, wall to wall it's a narrow ice surface, it's rough ice, its cold, it's daunting, it must feel like the fans are sat on you, and Storm themselves are very unforgiving. They're fast, they get into it every opportunity they can after the whistle, they're not afraid to finish hits, and they're absolutely willing to get the dirty stuff done to get a win, and hats off to them, honestly. There's not an arena, or in this case, tin shed, in the league, that an opposing player should go to and feel welcomed. Part of the "home ice advantage" IS the fans. It IS the environment. The home team train there at least twice a week and play there usually at least once. They're supposed to know where the weird bits of the glass are. It's supposed to be uncomfortable for the opposition, it's supposed to be unfriendly, and it's supposed to be annoying - and it's all of those in spades. Head Coach Cam Critchlow also played for them for the better part of 250 games, so he knows what it means to wear that crest, and that is very evident in the style they play.

Pre-amble aside, I think thats what this game became by the end of it. Hostile, annoying, end to end, constant odd man rushes manufactured from nowhere. And credit to Sheffield - In recent weeks they've been known to concede a second goal and just think "ah tomorrows a new day innit fellas" and get steamrolled. But not tonight. At no point did they lead this game, but 2-0 is the worst it got.
I tried to watch some footage of Storm leading up to this to see what they're like in the o-zone when they're settled, and im not sure if it was just the highlights packages I was watching, or if this is just genuinely true - they're not often putting in extremely long shifts in the o-zone. I think this is partly because of how they defend. They push at least 2F high toward the blue zone to pin the the opposing D men back, and create turnovers through pressure, from there, the other F (F2, in this instance) is usually carrying a bit of speed - the puck gets handed off to him and before you know it, you've got a 2 on 1 or a 3 on 2. And this happens, a lot, against everyone. I don't know how you mitigate that really apart from playing a 2-3 with heavy movement down the walls to throw off the marker, but that requires a fair amount of training and planning and isn't usually just something you can switch to mid-game. The upside of this is that teams that rely on rush offense aren't amazing at defending against the rush, and that could be shown last night, with both Heard goals coming off the rush.
Either way, on the face of it, 4-3 in a shootout is a fair result. Both teams are good in OT so neither was really overcommitting to force the goal, and for as long as I can remember, Fox teams couldn't win in a shootout if their lives depended on it.

Steelers vs Fife (H)

Since our last game against Fife, both teams have had their struggles. We went on to beat Dundee to have a pretty embarrassing weekend across the pond, followed by 3 performances you can be pretty proud of. Fife on the other hand, have lost all but one, and look quite devoid of all pride, really. Prior to Saturdays run of fixtures I'd have the key to beating Fife as: neutralise David Booth. But, he's done that himself. So... just make sure you box out Lucic. He's gonna try and ask (this is prior to lineup announcements) McAdam what he's got for dinner, how the kids are - don't let him. He will fight back, because it's Lucic, but ride the crosschecks and you might even get a powerplay out of it. I'm not expecting anything to happen but, it would be fun to see something between Lucic and former linemate Brett Ritchie.

I honestly don't think we have to do a lot to win this game. Fife got absolutely embarrassed last night for a plethora of reasons, and they've got the worlds most treacherous bus ride ahead of them. And Booth is injured, neither of their goalies are particularly hot this year, and you'd hope Fox's men understand what is at stake at this point. This isn't about winning the title anymore to be fair, it's about just getting a decent run of results under us, making sure we finish strong and see some results through the cup and into the playoffs, and after a hard fought loss last night, this is the perfect fixture to get a quick W back into the column and on to next week.