Andrew Lord has warned his Cardiff Devils after their embarrassing eight-goal Elite League thrashing against Belfast Giants, saying: “Our performance was unacceptable.”
Devils have lost four of their last five matches, but the result against Giants in front of a sell-out 3,000-plus attendance will haunt Lord and his players.
“I have lot of thoughts, many of which I will keep to myself,” he said. “It’s frustrating because we’ve had a little bit of a blip for a few games, but seemed to work our way out of that when we battled through a win at Milton Keynes.
“The second our guys came in before the game against Belfast it was obvious we did not have our energy, our jump. That is completely unacceptable because everybody controls being ready to play.”
Devils now turn to three fixture in five days starting against Nottingham Panthers in Cardiff Bay on Saturday. They then travel to Dundee Stars the following day before entertaining Fife Flyers on Wednesday, November 21.
Lord was clearly bitterly disappointed after the defeat against Giants, saying: “If losing 8-1 isn’t a motivation for our next game I don’t see what would be.
“This was a wake-up call. I’ve seen this potentially coming for the last couple of weeks because our game has not been where it was earlier this season.
“Energy levels are down, we are not playing as a team nearly as much and don’t have much fight.
“That’s disappointing to see. We have addressed that and I can’t see it happening again. Now we must find out what we have in our locker room.”
Devils were 2-0 down after the first period despite having outshot Giants and Lord said: “We handed them the first two goals. The first followed an unfortunate fall, but our stick work before the second was atrocious.
“A huge factor was our special teams. We were not ready and did not execute.
“We found some spark in the second, but then ran into penalty trouble and their powerplay goals put us in a huge hole. This was a terrible night.”
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