Mistakes Made As Panthers Simply 'Not Good Enough'

I started my last article talking about how we, as fans, had reached the point where we start paying more attention to the fixture list as we we get into the run-in that is the tail end of the season. I might as well not have bothered as I think us Panthers fans no longer need to worry too much about what’s coming up as our team are now, effectively, out of the title race after results over the last weekend. We’re still mathematically, at least, in with a shout but there have been too many performances like Saturday’s 6-2 defeat to Sheffield Steelers for us to have any realistic hope of lifting the league trophy this term.

I’ve been through the whole gamut of emotions since I left the arena on Saturday night. Straight after the game I was angry and humiliated. Angry that we’d been out-played, out-thought and humiliated again by the Steelers. I was angry that I could see our title hopes dwindling into the distance yet again but over time whilst the pain of the defeat hasn’t faded my anger at being out the title race has. That anger was replaced, at first, by the usual feeling of resignation we’ve become all too familiar with as our chances for another season fade and then that was replaced by an odd kind of gratitude that we’d ever been in the race in the first place.

I’m not entirely sure how the Panthers were even in the title race in the first place. We won five games out of our first 14 in the league. That sort of form should condemn you to mid-table mediocrity at best regardless of how well you do from then on and in most seasons it would. The EIHL has been a little different this year. Every “big” team has had spells where they’ve dropped points you would have expected them to have picked up. That’s meant that until this weekend the league could have gone any number of ways (and mathematically it still could) but I think we’re down to a two horse race in Cardiff and Sheffield and Panthers are now in a dogfight which could see us anywhere from 3^rd to the 5th placed mid-table finish we expected in early November.

So, why are we failing again. Basically, because I don’t think we’re good enough. I’ve seen plenty of talk that the Panthers are a team in transition. The introduction of Gui Doucet as Director of Hockey alongside Tim Wallace as coach is certainly a change that will need time to bed in but I think using that as a reason for our performances this season is missing the point. Sheffield made as many, if not more, changes to their on-ice personnel as the Panthers but I don’t hear anyone from South Yorkshire saying they’re a team in transition. Why should they? The Steelers are top of the league and were head and shoulders above what little the Panthers threw at them on Saturday night.

The side Doucet and Wallace put together over the summer simply wasn’t good enough. You could see from the outside that there weren’t going to be enough goals in the team and that’s how it proved to be initially. If you watch the first episode of The Hunt (watch on YouTube here) you’ll see Gui Doucet warn the players that they have to start winning from the outset as they can’t leave it until November and expect to be in with a shout of winning the league. The thing is he and Wallace didn’t get the right players to do that.

Having said all that there are some positives to take away from the season so far. The team at the start of the season might never have looked good enough but every signing since has been an improvement and that is a trajectory that will hopefully continue if they’re given the chance. You can argue that they should have made the right decisions in the first place, they both knew the standard of the league after all and the likes of Loiseau, Jakobs and Quist were never going to be good enough but hindsight is a wonderful thing. There’s also a work ethic in the team that is good to see. Even when you could see that they weren’t good enough to do well in the league you could never fault the amount of effort they put in and as fan that’s what you want to see. I can always forgive a lack of talent but never a lack of effort.

Who knows, that hard work could still be the key to any success the Panthers have this season. It isn’t over yet. I might have given up hope but the team can’t. The odds may be stacking against them but you want to see them keep striving until it becomes a mathematical impossibility. There are always twists and turns in any season and, who knows, there may be more and they may lead to a much better ending to the season than the beginning. I certainly hope so.