What exactly is wrong at the Panthers?

Yikes.

Having only seen a handful of Panthers games this season, all of which were victories (I was a lucky charm pre-Christmas I guess), I hadn't got a first hand look at how disjointed the team really is at the moment. Our Christmas series with the Sheffield Steelers, along with declining results, shows just how far off we are from being a title challenger. 

The Yorkshire side have become the benchmark for success, as they sit rather comfortably at the top of the standings, and will do going into the new year. If that's the standard we have to reach, then we are lightyears away right now. 

Although possession seemed pretty even, and Aaron Fox's side were heavily outshot in the home game, the efficiency levels were polar opposites. Players such as Marc-Oliver Vallerand, Martin Latal and (ugh) Evan Mosey, were cruising through the Panthers defence like a hot knife through butter, even when killing penalties. 

As for our offence, again, mainly in the home game, were we still drunk from Christmas? The amount of misplaced places and lack of options players had was catastrophic. Forwards were isolated and were forced to shoot into Rok Stojanovic's chest. Despite facing 47 shots, the Steelers goaltender had an easy ride. 

I could spend all day breaking down these two performances, but we need to look at the bigger picture, because it's a bleak one in the context of this season and in previous ones. We're not learning from mistakes, but making even more as we head for an 8th straight season without a league title. 

Losing a series that was effectively an 8 pointer to our biggest rivals and the favourites for the end of season crown puts the cherry on top of our problems right now. 

Looking at this season alone, the large portion of fans who predicted a two horse race for the title are on their way to being correct. Sheffield and Belfast haven't let the financial hit of covid prevent them from building blockbuster rosters, and they are scarily good right now. The Panthers have faced the full force of that. 

In league fixtures against the sides, the Panthers have come away with a grand total of 0 points. Two were 5 goal hammerings to the Giants (5-0 and 7-2) as well as this series against the Steelers (5-3 and 4-1). To be the best, you have to beat the best. It's as simple at that. 

It's not just the top teams either. In the last month, all three of the current bottom teams have come out victorious against Tim Wallace's side. A dire Fife side (3-2) and a Glasgow team (4-1) that had been playing together for two less months took the points from the NIC, before a 4-1 beating by Dundee on a trip to Scotland. 

Despite not seeing games as much, this form is all too familiar. In six of the seven seasons prior to this one, the same script was followed. We start the season well and capitulate in December. The one exception was 2019/20, when the freak of nature that was Sam Herr was able to carry us. Sure, the roster around him didn't end up being terrible, but you're kidding yourself if you think there was any sort of title challenge without his one in a million brilliance. 

That team was something to build on, and of course, the pandemic didn't help, but the downgrade has been pretty staggering. Belfast and Sheffield were still able to pull off some incredible summer business. We were signing players straight out of college and two players who didn't even ice last season (Brady Norrish and Robbie Baillargeon). 

Taking a gamble on a few imports without flashy CV's isn't something I'm opposed to though. In fact, Kevin Domingue and Christophe Boivin are two of the few players who I've been fairly impressed with, having signed them from the USports league in Canada. The Norrish signing also made a lot of sense at the time too, with recent AHL experience. 

However, when these sorts of players take up the whole roster, you start to wonder if it's down to a lack of investment from owner Neil Black. I struggle to see why director of hockey Guillaume Doucet would outright avoid a Brendan Connolly or a Tyler Beskowarany standard of player. It's lack of funds or a big naivety on Doucet's part to the quality of the EIHL.  

No player signed during the summer looked like someone who could post a point per game. Jeremy Welsh had done ok in Poland. Matt Lane was a good ECHL centreman. Did anyone wow your socks off on paper? I had the attitude of 'we'll wait and see' for nearly every new import. I'm still waiting on most of them... 

Doucet himself was hired with zero experience and has stated himself that he didn't expect to be offered the job. It feels like the Panthers simply cheaped out on a former player that the fans could get behind. Doucet then went on to hire Tim Wallace, who had 6 months of experience. Again, I don't mind a gamble on somewhat of an unknown quantity, but it seems like quite the occurrence over the last two seasons (I'm not counting the Elite Series positively or negatively for the record). 

In contrast though, Neil Black's approach hasn't necessarily been completely stale. After hiring Paul Adey, Mike Ellis and Corey Neilson throughout his time as chairman with no to minimal coaching prestige, Rich Chernomaz was bought in with a heck of a reputation. The players he bought in, and there was a lot of them, echoed the same. On paper, some considered Nottingham to be title favourites. 

Again, it was a car crash of a season, with Chernomaz having his contract terminated in January with Panthers out of the title race once again. The club were playing dull hockey, with little discipline and would have it all come to a halt in devastating fashion with a 9-4 playoff semi final humiliation to Cardiff. Rather than underinvestment, this seemed to just be a horrendous miscalculation by hiring the former DEL coach. 

Of course, the approach changed again that summer with the appointment of Doucet as the club's first ever director of hockey. Therefore, I don't think it's as simple as trying a carbon copy of the same thing over and over. It's doing new things in the wrong way. 

This has seen what is turning into a sensational decline since Panthers all out domination of the league in the 2012/13 season. Since then, of the EIHL's so called 'big 4', Cardiff, Belfast and Sheffield have two titles each. The Panthers, although successful in Europe and the domestic cups, have not gotten close to the main prize that defines your prestige at this level. 

The highest the Panthers have finished has mostly been 4th, which is pretty poor in a 10 team league. A 3rd place finish is as good as it has gotten, although in that 2018/19 season, the club was a whopping 22 points off second placed Cardiff. Ouch. 

A lot of our problems stem to the club ethos, which was made very evident in the boxing day loss. At 3-0 down, Taylor Doherty was seen laughing and joking with the Steelers players, before Dan Green, who still works for the Panthers, implied on commentary that Tim Wallace should not be concerned at the performance. Can I just repeat, we were 3 goals down after 20 minutes. Hello?! 

The following day, Wallace's post game interview starts with the words "we tried". Is that how far the standards have fallen? Effort should be a minimum requirement. 

If we go back a few days, Panthers decided to release both Simon Suoranta and Tommi Jokinen with no replacements lined up, meaning the team are playing short on the import front....during their busiest schedule of the season. It's not the first time that the Panthers have been short and taken their time to bring in replacements. In the time we're short, we usually end up dropping points that cost us in the long run. 

Lastly, perhaps more than ever this season, Neil Black's ownership of fellow EIHL side Glasgow creates a conflict of interest. The Clan had a lot of uncertainty over their future and spent the summer fighting to secure a lease on the Braehead arena. Does this affect the investment and where the priorities have lied for the Panthers chairman? 

Reading back, this is all very, very similar to my article for the Cat's Whisker's two years ago. Alleged underinvestment, slow midseason recruitment and Glasgow were all covered, showing that too much is unchanged. 

It's just not good enough.