CARDIFF, WALES; It has been a busy few weeks over the festive period for Devils with 8 games in 18 days, it has been a gruelling grind that has wrought some attrition and concerns for the next, important slate of fixtures to come.
Before next weeks IIHF 2025 Continental Cup action, they hit the road for games in Scotland, first visiting Glasgow to face the Clan.
Tale of the Tape
The last time these two teams faced, the game went down to the wire and Clan went home deserved winners. Each occasion so far this season has been a close encounter, with winning teams scoring no more than 3 goals and the average scored is separated by a single goal (Devils at 2.6, Clan at 1.6).
Both teams have had contrasting fortunes during this campaign, however Clan have been quietly building some momentum of their own, as Devils wane under the pressure of injuries that has plagued them so far.
Whilst only 3 points away from slipping out of playoff contention, Clan are starting to catch up with the middle pack and have some considerable goal threats in their line up. They have a -13 goal differential (GD), but recently their tandem has been battling hard and helping to improve their performances.
In their first 10GP they took just 2 wins, one home and away, but in their last 10GP, they have taken 5 wins, with 4 of them at home.
Form to Date
In those initial 10GP, they had a GD of -21, with the last 10GP improving to +4, increasing their offense by 61.7% and simultaneously improving their defence by 71.4%. This is indeed a massive turnaround as we get into the busier side of the campaign.
It is no surprise that they will feel confident giving the close nature of these match ups between teams managed by the current GB coaches and Devils arriving in town with some bodies on the recovery table.
Devils however, have a slightly better L5GP collecting 6 points from 3 wins going 3 – 2 – 0 whilst Clan are looking to reverse back to back losses with a strong performance at home, going into the game at 2 – 3 – 0.
This was done against difficult odds, claiming some good victories and solidifying the bond between them in the locker room, it is evident in their effort, even when they literally have no gas.
Special Teams & Discipline
Both teams have similar PP%’s, with the home team in 4th and Devils climbing to 5th. Clans’ Devin Sideroff is dangerous on the PP with 4 lamps lit on the special teams, with former Devils and fellow EIHL Face-Off Podcast hosts personal hero, Cole Ully putting up 3 of his own. A dangerous pair on the PP.
Josh MacDonald leads the league in points (35) and goals (20) in 28GP with 3 of his own PPG’s, with Martin also on the same on the special teams, who is three points away from 30, having his best season for several years.
The team have put up 17 goals on the PP, whilst Clan have claimed 15 of their own from 9 different players, Devils also from the same amount.
Three Devils players have a single SHG, whilst Clan have 4 players collecting 6 amongst them, so there is a danger on the PK from the home team, against the league leaders at 85.4% for the Devils.
Of course, staying out of the box is crucial, as both teams are bottom of the table with 12 or more PIM/Game, so with so many goal threats on both special teams, it will be a necessity to stay out of the penalty box.
Battle Between the Pipes
With a major tournament fast approaching for the club and Bowns still sidelined with injury, it should be expected for some rotation over the weekend to minimise risks, even allowing Bowns for a few shifts if he is capable (as per TK’s statement via cardiffdevils.com; regarding O’Briens return) because some are almost done with their time out (of up to 4 weeks sidelined).
Both Bow and Brine as mentioned above have helped to back stop their team to produce more competitive games, they combine for 90.14 SV% and 3GAA.
The Devils top tandem (excluding Burman due to less than 9GP), has created a 93.34 SV% and 2.95GAA for the leagues strongest so far.
Three is the magic number…
No team at this stage of the season has more than 4.00GFA, with Devils in 3rd (3.57) and Clan in 9th (2.88), there isn’t much but for Clan, it doesn’t bode well if a fully fit blue line is available come Saturday for the visiting leaders, back stopped by either Carruth or Bowns, as they have been making an art of boxing out the opposition on the road.
Devils lead in GAA as having the lowest at 2.32 with Clan 4th bottom at 3.38. Again quite close, but if Devils can hit 3 goals, they rarely look like losing from that point onwards. Each victory this season has been by 3 or more goals for the Devils, with just over 66% of the defeats with less than 3 goals scored by the good guys.
Also, across all league games so far, Devils have opened the scoring for 75% of them, with 55% of the losses also started with Devils scoring first, of which one was from when the team scored three or more.
So, keep an eye on the score counts going forward.
Who is Hot, who is not?
No, there is no typo or mistake for the Goat and the layout; those are all the points of the last 5GP, however the bottom 5 have either scored in 2 of last 3 or not scored in two consecutively. It is just a quick insight into dips in form.
For instance, Duggan hasn’t scored at all in his L5GP, where as Busch put up 2 in his last game, snapping another streak of games without any numbers to his name.
What’s Been Occurring?
If you haven’t already seen the buzz about on social media or listened to a recent podcast, it appears that there is a crunch time for IIHF and HC Arlan as it seems they have struggled to sort their visas on time.
This news, delivered by Owner Steve King on the Two Ales & Hockey Tales Podcast by former Devil, Brent Walton, ignited a flurry of speculation as the tournament is just over a week away.
This could mean either a reschedule of the planned tournament, potentially going back to the old format (Fri-Sun) or shorter, if they drop out and no 4th team replaced (making a 3 team final).
Or, IIHF could offer one team from the previous round to take up their place, likely best of the rest or from the same group, which could be Zilina or Aalborg, if they could manage it. This is what the majority of X users think so far; https://x.com/hockeysteve8719/status/1876635510044561411
It could be that with a total reschedule.
To further add in some nibble to the taste of this revelation, the official landing page for the competition has now been scrubbed, as it was initially set up and awaiting updates for official times, squads etc – so it is likely going to be changed.
Given the tight time frames, my own view is that it will be a shorter, 3 team Final.
READ AS THE INFORMATION BROKE
Grenoble seems to have confirmed this; https://x.com/bruleursdeloups/status/1877007648219934766
Moments later, Devils released their statement; https://www.cardiffdevils.com/news/continental-cup-update/
Since these updates, the IIHF landing page for the tournament has also gone live; https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2025/ccfinal including the proposed schedule.
Recruitment
Following this, the only prevailing concern for the team would be who will be available and who might they bring in?
As mentioned before, I highly speculated Isaac Johnson (ECHL) and Brendan Ranford (Injured) and even Jeremy McKenna (Injured), as there was some information provided on their webcast about recruits.
Hopefully this is still ongoing, but with such scant offerings and availability, it would be good to see who they could bring in.
With the suggested offer that Olischefski took over other contracts, this Club is truly a destination for overseas players, so with some extra silverware to player on a shortened contract in a country that speaks English as its first language, there is natural pull from across the pond (and in turn from the continent).
I could only make hazardous guesses at this stage, due to not knowing agents/agencies or player contracts and what can be offered or agreed too (why would I?).
Hot picks for me would be the following
F – Drake Rymsha; Dusseldorfer EG (DEL), 26 years old, RHS
D – Zach Osburn; Iserlohn Roosters (DEL), 27 years old, RHS
D – Riley McCourt; Augsburger Panthers (DEL), 24 years old, LHS
F – Cole Fonstad; Utah Grizzlies (ECHL), formerly Straubing Tigers (DEL), 24 years old, LHS
One of my other favourites that I hope to see in this league one day, is Gregor MacLeod (Kilmer Haie, DEL) and another Canadian import, Hunter Garlent (DEL 2) but he signed an extension earlier in the season.
A further prospect is on the same team as Fonstad, another Cole, Gallant, who was touted last season also. There are of course many more that have been looked into, such as Welshman, Joey Lewis or former Giant, Kohei Sato, but the message is clear – they want the right recruits and will go about it efficiently.
Trust in the process.
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