Bracknell travelled to London to match up against the Knights, and one must ask why they even bothered! I'd have rather we just conceeded the two points by not turning up, than be so humiliated. Still, more of that later.
Due to Brian Greer injuring himself in training on Tuesday, and with Bernie injured and still no replacement found, Bracknell had to borrow Slough's ex-Moo Richard Gallace as first keeper. They also missed Denis Chasse, suspended after kneeing Rick Brebant. London started with Cavallin in nets and missed both Darren Stolk and Mike Kelleher.
The game got off to a frenetic pace, with no real pattern, although the puck spent more time in London's zone than Bracknell's. About 7 minutes into the match, the Chief had a fantastic chance to open the scoring. Skating across the crease with the puck, he backhanded it straight onto cavallin's stick. The rebound came back out to him on the near post, and he again backhanded it towards goal. Cavallin was nowhere, and the puck flashed behind him, but also straight through the crease, missing the far post by an inch at most. Play stayed down London's zone until they got the first powerplay. However, this was cancelled just over a minute later, and Bracknell moved the puck back down the ice. The extra space worked in London's favour, though and Gallace did well to stop Krainz from scoring a mistake by Matt Cote. The puck was won by London, and a fast pass through the neutral zone was missed by Matty, after he sung his stick wildly at it. This put Krainz in unmarked, but his shot for Gallace's five-hole was swallowed up by his pads.
Cavallin earned himself an Ocsar at 12:20. Paxton Schulte skated backwards across the crease waiting for the puck, accidentally collided with the Keeper, who threw himself to the ice melodramatically. Paxo turned in amazement at the whistle, Dungey the tart threw his gloves and tried to start a fight, Paxo blatently refused to drop his gloves, and both sat for two. Grrrr! A penalty to Burke 40 seconds later gave London a 4 on 3 powerplay, whic required some heroic defending by the Bees to scramble the puck clear. Towards the end of the period, London again had a chance to take the lead. Quick thinking saw a turn-over sent straight up to Bracknell's blue-line, were Johnson was lingering. He was in alone on Gallace, but again the stand in keeper trapped the shot between his pads (obviously been practising those five-hole shots since he played for the Moos!). So a pretty boring first period ended quite rightly with neither team scoring.
A fast start for Bracknell saw ward in 1-on-1 with Cavallin straight from the face off, but he shot well over the bar. Bracknell went yet again on the penalty kill when Denis Burke was given 2+2+10 for attempted Spearing. I have to admit, I never saw it. The two (I forget who it was on, Cooper I think) were tustling near centre ice and seemed to get their sticks tangled, but I didn't see anything that merited either getting a penalty. Dennis' face was a picture of amazement when the call was made. Despite London having the man advantage, Bracknell had the first chance of the powerplay, when PC was well-stopped by Cavallin after skating behind the defence. The puck went straight down the ice, and a hard shot from the blue-line appeared to hit a couple of sticks before lying past Gallace, the credit going to another ex-Moo, Greg Gatto. Finally, the game began to liven up a little.
Some poor defending let Junkin and Norm Dezainde skate in on goal with just one covering defender. Junks faked the shot and sent the puck across the ice to Norm, who had loads and space and Cavallin on the back foot, but his hurried shot went staright at Cavallin's body. Bracknell spent a lot of this period on the penalty kill, thanks to some frustrating calls by Boniface. On one of these PKs, a fantastic steal by Jeff Johnstone saw him charge into London's zone and set up PC, but Cavallin just got a skate to it to kick it away. However, for most of these man disavantages, Bracknell were desperately defending. Finally, in the 34th minute, Bracknell got a powerplay, and made full use of it. The puk cam to the Chief on the point, he feignted to shoot, but instead pushed the puck up the ice to Joe Ferras, by the post, who tapped home the equalising goal. This pretty much killed the period, and the game lapsed again into doldrum, Bracknell not taking advantage of another powerplay.
The last period, from Bracknell's point of view, was a complete joke. Four and a half minutes in, London again took the lead after a rebound fell to Eric Flinton and he easily scored past the prone Gallace. 48 minutes in, and Bracknell again went on the powerplay. It was utterly dire, though, the Bees totally devoid of any imagination, and they had trouble even getting the puck into London's zone. The story was repeated a few minutes later, and immediately after Dungey returned to the ice, the Knights streamed into Bracknell's zone, and a hopefully shot from theboards by Kelly Glowa somehow went over Gallace's shoulder and in apst the far post. This was pretty much the death knell for Bracknell. They desperately tried to pull the goals back, and even pulled Gallace for the final couple of mintes, but this just back-fired. Nick Poole stole the puck and skated up the ice. However, he tarried instead of shooting, and was dispossessed. Somehow, from the floor, he knocked the puck into the middle of the ice and Flinton scored his second in the empty net, despite Chief's attentions.
Quite frankly, this was an uterly pathetic display by Bracknell. They never once tried or believed in themselves. We apparently out-shot London 37-26, but very few of those shots were of any real quality. They just didn't seem to be playing as a team, or have any motivation. I can't really single out any player as being out-standing, and I have no idea how PC Drouin was selcted for the man-of-the-match award. That said, Richard Gallace (who's not even a member of the team) played well, but with the quality of defending in front of him, he never had a chance. London weren't a great deal better, and it's clear that both these teams deserve to be near the bottom of the table on merit. I was impressed by Ian cooper, who as useless worked his arse off and caused a few problems for Bracknell, and also a few short tempers. Cavallin played well, I thought, particularly as he wasn't shielded much by his defence either. However, some very dodgy defending was saved by incredibly disinterensted attack. The game wasn't improved much by the stripies. both linos insisted on throwing a player out virtually every face-off, and then would drop the puck before the teams were properly set up. Seems to make a mockery of the system, as most of the time they were thrown out for being a quarter of an inch out of position! Boniface also made some overly officious calls, seemingly calling retaliation, but refusing to call the original hits. At one point, this policy did look like it would cause a ruck, but the game calmed down again. On the whle, though, they didn't really have a major effect on the game (except high irritation), and I'm certainly not blaming them for Bracknell's pathetic performance.
Several Bracknell players need to ask themselves some very searching questions, because if they're not 100% committed, then they should really just ship out now. It's not just the player's who come under fire though. Dave Whistle has to shoulder a great deal of the blame for the team's lack of motivation, and for the choice of the team's tactics. Last season, Jim Fuyarchuck took a bunch of second-rate players, fired them up and gave them a game plan which suited them, and they over-achieved by finishing fifth and in a Final. This season, on paper, we have much better players, yet we are heading slowly and inexuriably downwards, and deservedly so. To often yesterday, the players just threw the puck into the corners, without even looking to see if any Bees were in a position to win the puck. And even if there were, London still came out with the puck too often. I've never been a fan of dump and chase anyway, but when it's not even played well, you have to ask questions of the coach.
So, to sum up, Bracknell really need a kick up the arse, or well be fighting Newcastle for that wooden spoon soon.