Courtenay Vs Whistle

05-Oct-2007 | Discuss this Article

I bet you laughed at the mere suggestion of this but hear me out.

It's true that this year's thoughts on the future of our coach are up for debate as it stands considering our awful start to the season. Either way, I just wanted to dispel peoples theories that Ed should have went long ago and that up until September 2007 he wasn't a great coach for us. So, I've looked at his coaching record vs. Dave Whistles - our greatest coach ever.

I skipped the 00-01 season under Whistle as it was a building year, instead looking at his best two seasons in which we won the league one year and finished second in another. Equally I took in Ed's first two years in which we again won the league one year and finished second in the next.

From 2001 to 2002 we played 123 games compared to 112 between 2005 and 2007. We won 73 games under Whistle, 69 under Ed. We scored 164 points when you factor in all competitions under Whistle and 159 under Courtenay. That equates to 1.33 points per game under Whistle and 1.42 points per game under Ed. Our win percentage under Whistle was .667 compared to .670 under Courtenay. Ed's brand of hockey was also as entertaining as it got averaging 3.65 goals a game in comparison to 3.55 under Whistle.

Not really that bad is it? In fact it's better.

Oh and anyone suggesting we're not as physical as we once were, we took 2224 penalty minutes in Whistles two years compared to 2754 under Courtenay. (Granted those stats are a little misleading what with the introduction of zero tolerance last year).

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Ed was better than the great Whistle, after all the Elite League is a different kind of hockey to the Super league, though it could be argued that coaching in the EIHL is as tough or tougher than the ISL what with player development.

What I do think however, is any criticism (pre-September 07 at least) is maybe a little harsh and a little quick as we have arguably had our most winning, most scoring two years under Ed. The current pressure is probably fair but maybe Ed does deserve the chance to make his changes and put things to right before we consider burning him at the stake.

SEASON	PL	W	L	OT	T	PTS	GF	GA	PIMS	GPG	PPG	PCT
01-03	123	73	32	1	17	164	437	303	2224	3.55	1.33	.667
05-07	112	69	31	5	7	159	409	296	2754	3.65	1.42	.670

PL - Games played, W - Wins, L - Losses, OT - Overtime Losses, T - Ties, PTS - Points, GF - Goals For, GA - Goals Against, PIMS - Penalty Minutes, GPG - Goals per game, PPG - Points per Game, PCT - Win Percentage (Wins added to half of the combined total of OT losses and Ties, divided by Games played).

Stats gathered from giants-history.com

Ricky Blayney: Ricky joined KotG as a contributer in September 2007 but has been posting on the forum since the beginning. He is also big fan of the NHL, supporting the Philadelphia Flyers. He runs his own blog/website on the Giants and it's storied history at giants-history.com. Away from watching, and even playing a little hockey Ricky spends a lot of his spare time out on the road with his other sport, cycling. In September '08 Ricky moved to live in Canada.

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P	TEAM	GP	W(OT)	L(OT)	PTS
1	Giants	54	46(0)	5(3)	95
2	Steelers	54	41(0)	11(2)	84
3	Panthers	54	38(0)	12(4)	80
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7	Stingrays	54	16(0)	34(4)	36
8	Stars	54	13(0)	35(6)	32
9	Capitals	54	13(0)	37(4)	30
10	Flyers	54	8(0)	40(6)	22

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Points	Robert Dowd	78
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Assists	Craig Peacock	49
PIM	Adam Keefe	247