Devils Debrief 2025/26 - Episode 29 - Devils 8-1 Dundee Stars

Gaz, Franny and Dan give their thoughts after the Devils demolish the Stars 8-1 on Sunday night

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Today's podcast is brought to you by Minerva Hearing. Hear the cheers, protect your ears. Shemai Pao Bakroisot. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Devils Debrief after the Devils have beaten the Dundee Stars by eight goals to one on Sunday night to cap off a four-point weekend. Two wins, eleven goals, scored, one conceded guys. It's job done. It's a pretty good weekend, all things considered.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yeah, absolutely. Uh you can't ever sniff at an 8-1 victory, can you? That's uh as comprehensive as you can get, uh, really. So uh yeah, job well done tonight. And I think we were worried last night, weren't we, about the start that the devils may have, and within close to 90 seconds it was 1-0, and uh Cantus got the first of uh his three. So great start, and uh overall, I think uh a pretty comprehensive weekend, and I I enjoyed the performance tonight.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yeah, I mean you can only beat what's in front of you, and the devils just kept on the their foot on the gas, which was great to see. Um yesterday I felt the Devils got sloppy, and as did uh Paul Thompson, because you can tell by his interview there was a few things that he wanted to clean up tonight, and his interview then tonight you know indicates that he was happy with that, and and I was too. It was I I thought they just carried on the same way right throughout the game that it was in that first 90 seconds when they went on the board to to score in the eighth at the end.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Yeah, Tomo a lot happier today than he was last night. I think the devil set a tone by by starting well, like you say, Gaz. And uh, and maybe those standards slipped a little bit to start the third. Once Dundee got one on the board, you you kind of saw a little bit of disappointment that Stover had lost that second shutout. Because I think that that maybe didn't necessarily matter to him, but it mattered to the team and the guys. So after that, they then stepped up and got three more after that, which really put the game beyond doubt.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yeah, it would have been nice for uh Stoves to get uh two shutouts and two nights. I think that would have been a really cool little achievement for him. But uh I think in in a weird type of way, I it was quite good to see the response to conceding that one goal. We felt a bit hurt by it, we felt a little bit kind of, you know, well, we shouldn't have allowed that to happen, and we instantly fixed it. It wasn't a case of waiting for this week in practice to go over and say we should have done this, we should have done that. I felt the guys kind of took responsibility for uh not letting stoves down, but you know, allowing that goal so he didn't get that shut out and then kind of punishing the stars. I mean, pretty much straight away it was uh a goal back and then a power play conceded by the stars, and before you knew it, uh Kontos had his hat trick and uh everyone was uh was happy about it. So yeah, I I think that was uh I liked that we were hurt by that goal because I I think that's a good habit.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Yeah, a bit of adversity, probably a good thing. Franny, um Ryan Barrow was not in the lineup tonight. Uh Cedric LaCroix jumped onto that second line, and whatever seemed to work between them worked really well. You know, you look at the the point sheet, uh Contos with a hat trick, Sanford gets five assists, a one plus two, I think it was in the end for Lacroix. Just click quite nicely that line. And and when you spit up a line, especially take someone like Barrow off it, you worry maybe the impact it could have, but it worked.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah, I mean Barrow missed out tonight through injury, which is you know, worrying like because I think he's been absolutely superb. He was superb again yesterday. Um, but the squad depth showed, didn't it, where Lacroix comes on and has a three-point night. I mean, I don't think this was the the most difficult night, but like I said, you can only beat what's in front of you and uh put up that level of points, yeah, you know, five points for for one of them and Contas with four and LaCroix with three. Um overall this weekend, I mean it did feel somewhat like a training session. I don't want to be too disrespectful for that because it did just because of the dominance, but I thought the devils adapted well to that and they will have got a lot from this weekend in terms of the confidence. And I felt it was a lot more fluid and the passing was on tonight, and you know, this was a game where the devils had a lot of the puck, so we had to manage the game, manage the puck rather than you know, like we said last night, against one of the the other top four sides where it's kind of 50-50, or maybe you don't have the puck as much as the other team. So it's a different style of game tonight, and the Devils got I think the Devils got everything they could possibly have got from this weekend, including a brilliant performance over the weekend from the penalty killers. Uh, no um power play goals conceded, and power play goal last night, and two out of three power plays um scored on today. So, yeah, all in all, you know, a good weekend, a useful one, not the most challenging, but professional displays nonetheless.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Yeah, I think that's a really good point. And uh you talk about the power players obviously coming into this weekend, Dundee, worst penalty kid on the league, really struggling in that regard. So it gives that it gave the devils a chance to get that going, which they did, like you say. I think you you you you isolating, you honed in on the stream tonight about the devils' passing speed and and how they were playing quite fluidly. And Gaz, when the Devils seem to be clicking like that in games where they have more of the puck than they expect, it can go two ways sometimes. Sometimes it can get a little lax, but tonight, especially, it was a lot more honed.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Yeah, especially when you look at that spell in the second period with poor old Jarrett Fisk in the net for that. I think it was about three or four minutes where it was just shot after shot after shot. And by the end of it, bless him, he he just looked like he was sort of down and out, he was just physically exhausted, and he did so well to keep uh a lot of those out. But also, we were probably a little bit guilty of being wasteful uh in in that spell as well, with shots going over or wider the goal where we really should have probably tested a bit more. We could have hit double figures tonight uh from that spell and spells in the third uh as well. And yeah, it it did feel like we were enjoying tonight stepping away from the physicality a little bit and like you say, playing a bit more with the pack on the stick and being a bit more sort of adventurous in that regard. I think the guys enjoyed the fact that they thought, knew that and felt that there were goals in this tonight. And what's more fun than scoring goals?

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Well, exactly. Yeah, and and funny, let's just chat. We're gonna probably look at this game in a bit more depth when we record insider this week. So we won't go into too much more on tonight. But just looking now ahead, the Devils they're at home to Manchester and away in Coventry next week, which will be a harder challenge, a bigger test than what we've seen over this weekend. And that's the thing, isn't it? You want to build momentum now between now and the playoffs and step it up as they go because then you look after that, and they do have to play Sheffield and Nottingham as well. So it's it's building those blocks ahead of the playoffs.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yeah, I think it's a huge test next weekend against two sides that are in really good form. Um, you know, Manchester have had a great season, Coventry. If it wasn't for that period where they you know struggled to get wins, I mean they've been on some brilliant streaks, haven't they, and put a great performance in the Challenge Cup final as well. Um, so that is a tough weekend. I mean, you look at the league table after this weekend and it sees the Devils now up from fourth into third. Nottingham go into Belfast, where Belfast will be looking to seal the championship there. Um, so you you know you feel that Nottingham will drop some points next weekend, so an opportunity to go into second, but only if the Devils get the job done against Coventry and Manchester.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Well, of course, as well. It it has implications then beyond just the next couple of weekends where places will move around and the Devils are going to have to play one of Manchester, Coventry, Glasgow, or Guilford, which is never a particularly easy task, any of those. So um, yeah, there's a lot still to play for, I think is the important thing. And that's what Tom has been trying to tell his players.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Yeah, and I think this block of games that the Devils have got leading into the playoffs is great. You know, these Dundee games, like we said, it's given the opportunity to work on maybe a bit of confidence, a bit of swag. Um, then you've got a real big test coming up for the weekend. You know, we've still got Nottingham once, we've still got Sheffield. So it's a little bit of everything, isn't there, in the run into the playoffs. So it's a it's a good opportunity to really gear up for that playoffs. And you know, the Devils will still want to finish in second place. First is out of reach. The Devils will still want to finish in second place, and at the moment, that would see them up against the Blaze. Whether it stays like that, who knows? Um, so it's I think, yeah, all which whichever matchup you get, it's gonna be really tough because all those four teams have had spells where they've been extremely tough to play against. So uh, and that's the way it should be. If you want to be the playoff champion, you should have had challenges and have to go through these tough games and and come out the other side. So it's all set up for I think a really exciting end to the elite league season.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

That it is. If you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best, guys. It's gonna be a good run in.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

It is, it's uh it's a shortened competition to others around the world, but the margin of error is so small that it's just so exciting. You you make one mistake and that's it. That that competition's over. And uh I can only echo the fact that it's it's the elite league so tough that it doesn't matter which of those four teams we come up against. There's gonna be uh such a challenge, isn't there? And every one of them have uh given us different things to deal with over the the season, so it'll be a unique challenge, whatever we get. But we've got a couple of weeks to put some markers down.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

We do indeed. The Devils this weekend take all four points against the Stars. They'll be very happy with it. 11 goals scored, one conceded, and two wins. Tomo's happy. I'm pretty happy. You two seem all right as well. We'll be back with Insider this week. We will have a very special guest once again. It's one of the guys who've shone this week. I won't give away too much. But yeah, that's all for tonight. Thank you so much for listening. We will catch you very soon. Good night. Thank you very much once again to our sponsor, Minerva Hearing, for today's podcast. And remember, Minerva Hearing, hear the cheers, protect your ears.