Andrew Lord admits the current inconsistency of his Cardiff Devils team is driving him ‘nuts’.
Coach Lord and his Devils defeated Vaxjo Lakers, one of the strongest teams in Europe, 5-1 at home just over a week ago, but then crashed 5-3 against Belfast Giants in Elite League.
This evening, in Sweden, they play Vaxjo in the return at their Vida Rink and the match is being shown live and free at Cardiff’s Bierkeller from 6pm.
“Inconsistency!,” said Lord. “It’s driving me nuts. We found our feet as a team, were implementing our game plan and they were a couple of games which were an example of how successful we can be.
“Then we were two goals up at home (v Giants) and starting to complicate things, play slow and we hit penalty trouble. It wasn’t good enough.
“Belfast outcompeted us in the dirty areas at times. We had that little bit extra against Vaxjo, but that wasn’t there against Giants.
“Playing against Vaxjo, one of the best teams in the World, we had to keep it simple. Everybody bought in.
“When we scored a couple of goals against Belfast things seemed easy all of a sudden, we were trying to do too much, there were odd man rushes and guys weren’t covering for our D.
“Those on D were over-complicating.
“It’s crazy how things go one way and then the other so quickly. Our job is to correct things just as fast.”
Devils are on a two-game CHL winning streak, having beaten HC Davos and Vaxjo.
Swedish media outlets described Vaxjo’s performance in Cardiff as a ‘Fiasco’ and head coach Linus Froburg says: “We are eager for revenge.”
They return to domestic action this weekend with fixtures against Guildford Flames at Ice Arena Wales in the Challenge Cup on Saturday (7pm) and Coventry Blaze in a League clash at the Skydome the next evening (5.30pm).
Tonight’s CHL group E fixtures: Växjö Lakers v Cardiff Devils (Vida Arena, 7pm CET, 6pm UK time), HC Davos v Bili Tygri Liberec (Valiant Arena, Switzerland, 7.45pm CET, 6.45pm UK time).
Devils’ match against Swedish side Vaxjo Lakers will be broadcast live on Cardiff’s biggest screen at Shooters Bar in the Bierkeller Complex.
Located next door to the Principality Stadium in the Stadium Plaza, Shooters Bar can be found at the rear of the Bierkeller complex. Entry is via the main doors on Wood Street.
Join the Red Army for face-off at 6pm with food and drink offers being put in place for all Devils fans throughout the game.
Shooters Bar welcomed over 300 Devils fans for the opening road game of the Champions League against HC Davos and we hope the Red Army will be in fine support for our final group game on Wednesday evening.
Entry is free and under 18s accompanied by an adult are also welcome for the game.