"The lack of an enforcer could have affected Nottingham's confidence to play – some of the smaller players seemed to be tentative on the ice"
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illustration: Adam Poole
Attended by 7,000 fans from all over the country and hosted at the National Ice Centre at the Capital FM Arena, the playoffs were won by outsiders Coventry Blaze, who were the team in form, and duly stepped up to the plate to put the Sheffield Steelers in their place, who were runners up.
For the first time since 2009, Nottingham have not won any of the three major trophies, having to settle for only the conference title (the group of five teams – Belfast, Cardiff, Coventry, Sheffield, ourselves – against whom we play more often than the other conference), showing at least that Panthers won the most games against teams in its region. Yet the conference trophy is not well respected, Belfast even having to buy the trophy themselves in the first year that they won it!
Steelers fans at playoff final [image: Sally Utton]
However, despite Panthers’ lean year, the Elite League as a whole has arguably never been healthier, with five different teams winning the five available trophies:
League: Sheffield
Challenge Cup: Cardiff
Playoffs: Coventry
Gardiner Conference: Braehead Clan (Glasgow)
Erhardt Conference: Nottingham
Panthers’ supporters probably enjoyed their league dominance rather more in their “grand slam” year two seasons ago, when they won three out of four available trophies (missing only the conference title).
Problems for Nottingham this season were: repeated injuries (as suffered last season); lack of goalscorers; lack of consistency (unable to beat lower ranked teams and take expected wins, but able to pull out unexpected wins against tough, top placed teams, even European teams); the lack of a regular net-minder (multiple injuries to Craig Kowalski, including a broken collar bone); the lack of an enforcer to protect the smaller players; and, most hard to take, the apparent lack of team cohesion and spirit.
Braehead Clan fans at NIC [image: Sally Utton]
The inconsistency has led to confusion and disappointment all round, with uncertainty even currently lying over the future of long-time coach Corey Neilson. He has been the most successful ever coach for the Nottingham Panthers, winning nine major trophies in his seven years at the helm. Even he seemed to be out of ideas at the end of this season, failing even to call a time-out minutes before his team were knocked out of the playoffs by underdogs the Coventry Blaze, bringing a rapid early end to the season. Reality did not seem to sink in, and immediately after the game Neilson even stated that his team played like “champions”, despite having just been beaten by a team at the bottom of the conference that we topped!
No disrespect to Coventry and their outstanding defencemen who suffocate and close down teams’ offence, plus their star goalie, a giant of a man and absolute character, Brian Stewart at 6’5” (without skates) who won the Elite League goalie of the year award, but Nottingham failed to demonstrate the passion and desperation of a team wanting to win. This was in marked contrast to their opposition, who went on to win the playoff trophy against the odds, with an incredibly tough draw, beating Nottingham, Belfast and Sheffield along the way, all teams that finished higher than them in the final League standings (and all of whom have taken the league title in the last three years). Coventry’s Coach, Chuck Weber, has made a huge impact on the team, demonstrated by their latest win and absolute ability to play as a team with the security of Stewart at the back.
Coventry celebrate their playoff win at NIC [image: Sally Utton]
Critics have said that recruitment to the Panthers roster this season was poor, possibly geared towards the Champions Hockey League, the European competition in the early stages of the season. Yet many of those players were on short-term contracts only. Even so, there has been much talk that this was the worst Panthers team in years, one that simply didn’t gel, Neilson himself commenting – with some justification, although it’s not the full story – that the team was blighted by injury. Perhaps, although many of the players coming out together on lines seemed to change weekly, sowing the seeds of tactical confusion. The lack of goalscorers was increasingly apparent, too: only one Nottingham Panthers player, Chris Lawrence, scraped into the top 20 point scorers at 18th. He scored 25 goals and 63 points, including assists, compared to Sheffield’s Mathieu Roy, who scored 46 goals and scooped up a huge 101 points.
The lack of an enforcer could have affected Nottingham’s confidence to play – some of the smaller players seemed to be tentative on the ice and reticent to get involved for fear of injury and lack of protection. Two of our players, Lee and Wild, were badly injured by concussions, which took them out for 20-plus games each, compared to the two- or three-game ban for the offenders causing the injury (Coventry twice). Robert Farmer, 24-year-old British ‘agitator’, regularly showed that he was willing to step up and defend his team-mates, but he could only do so much at 6’3” and 14.5 stone. By way of comparison, Brent Henley, last year’s Panthers enforcer, was 6’7” and 18 stone.
Steelers and Clan fans mingle outside NIC [image: Sally Utton]
As mentioned above (through decidedly gritted teeth), Sheffield Steelers won the prestigious 2014-15 Elite League title, beating Cardiff to secure their success. The Panthers could have made it harder for Sheffield in a key game on March 20, both teams’ penultimate league match. It was a close game that went to sudden-death overtime, with Sheffield winning 4-3 in the last 13 seconds of the game, which they did several times this season (getting to the playoff final by scoring with only three seconds to go).
As the endgame drew near, the League title could have gone to at least three teams and Sheffield won by one point only, proving that they were the most clinical and ruthless team. Braehead Clan were hot on their heels but failed to seal glory by losing to Panthers 6-0 as well as to bottom-of-the-table Edinburgh Capitals in the last week of the league. Cardiff finished third and Panthers fourth.
The Challenge Cup was another disappointment for Panthers, who have won the trophy for the last five years. They were knocked out by Sheffield in the quarter finals, not even making it to the new format one-off game (previously, it had been two legs) at supposedly neutral Sheffield’s Motorpoint Arena on March 8. Cardiff Devils beat Sheffield Steelers to win the Challenge Cup.
Ultra non-partisan [image: Sally Utton]
For the top British players, there were international friendlies this week, as GB beat Poland 6-4 in Nottingham on Thursday and followed up with a 3-1 win at the Skydome Arena in Coventry the following day. A repeat of last season's World Championship (Division 1B) match in Lithuania where GB claimed a 4-2 victory, it was little surprise the games were so tightly competed, with GB currently ranked 22nd in the world and Poland 24th. GB now fly out to Netherlands for the World Championships.
So, overall a disappointing end for the Panthers team, coach, management and fans alike. The summer break gives them time to regroup, review what went wrong and look to the future. Last night, it was announced that David Clarke, Robert Farmer, Ollie Betteridge, Sam Oakford, Steve Lee and Bryan Schmidt would be retained, which might be bad news for some others (and, strangely, there's still no announcement about Corey Neilson). I would be surprised to see many more returning players, apart from a couple more Brits, maybe one or two imports and hopefully Craig Kowalski, our ever reliable net-minder, if he has recovered and wants to play one more season before retirement, which he has recently indicated. Some serious thought needs to go into rebuilding the locker room team spirit, instead of individual yet ultimately disjointed talent, which is obviously hard to predict in advance. The dynasty of success that was hoped for two years ago when the Panthers won the league for the first time in 57 years has not happened yet.
Defending championships is hard to do. The Panthers’ support, one of the biggest UK fan bases, admittedly do have high expectations, especially as an arena team with one of the largest team budgets in the league. While the club remind us that the “ticket says versus, not beats”, there still needs to be some accountability and some positive team spirit and commitment to support.
See you in September.
Follow Sally on Twitter: @sautton22
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