The Official British Hockey Thread 2012-2013

[MWE]

Where are Invicta in the league at the moment?

[grazza]

Was at the Edinburgh v Dundee game on Sunday night. Dundee won 5-3 with a empty netter. Caps did well though in parts coming from 2-0 down to take a 3-2 lead. They had plenty of opportunity with Dundee getting a lot of soft calls against them in penalties but in 7 powerplays the Caps only got about 2 shots on the Dundee goalie, really the powerplay is the weakest point of this Caps team. This was a challenge cup game so as part of a trial in this cup there is 2 referees, frankly though if this means as many soft calls then I am against it even though it favoured my team, they are coming down to hard now and taking some passion and edge out of the game and not letting it flow. Edinburgh's first choice goalies is serving a 5 game ban after kicking at Hull last weekend so it was the backup that came in, I thought he did okay but the team played a bit too deep early on to minimise shots on him but should have pushed out once he had made a coupel of early solid saves, they are at home so need to take control of the game and it is against a team of similar calibre. We had portwood missing our only North American player and it told he is great at holding up the puck in the offensive zone. Caps need to use all their import slots as while I don't doubt the effort and workrate of the Scottish lads they ain't of import level like previous guys we had like Horne, Garside and McKenzie. Looks very tough to get out of the cup group into the quarters so gotta focus on the league and reaching the play offs (top 8) would be a successful season. Not much between us, Dundee,Fife and Hull but two of these teams will surely miss out in the post season.

[archibalduk]

It's early days, but Fife are looking good at the moment. The Caps have been a bit hit and miss thus far. You're right - they have to fill their import slots to improve their chances. Do you think it's a lack of money stopping the Caps getting imports?

Where are Invicta in the league at the moment?

They're in Division 1 (South) of the NIHL (formerly known as the ENL). It has become a pretty exciting league since the likes of Wightlink and Chelmsford have dropped from the EPL to the NIHL. The quality of the league has really benefitted. I've no idea whether the northern half of the NIHL is as skilled as the south (but I suspect it's not).

[MWE]

Are Invicta top at the moment?

[archibalduk]

Ha that's a very good question! The problem is that the official website is seemingly always out of date! As far as I know, Chelmsford, Cardiff and Bracknell are at the top. However, many of the games this season have been cup rather than league games - so the league table is all over the place at the moment. For example, Invicta have played 3 league games and 3 South East Cup games.

[MWE]

I hate cup games so pointless. I also hate the way the EIHL use Challenge cup games for the league standings why can't they just have it as a separate comepetition.

[archibalduk]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of cup games either.

The Challenge Cup schedule is a complete mystery to me. Some teams play more "doubled-up" games than others (i.e. those games that count as both league and cup games) - so some teams have a heavier schedule than others...

[MWE]

I think thats a financial decision made by the league to cut travel costs for the smaller teams

[Manimal]

It feels so wrong that the British leagues are the ones most talked about on this site

[archibalduk]

Hehe we all know it's the best league this side of the Atlantic!

[MWE]

Hehe we all know it's the best league this side of the Atlantic!

Agreed

[archibalduk]

Not strictly related to real life British hockey, but:-

I've been working on updating the UK for the next Manimal update. A couple of weeks ago I finished the first draft of CAs and attributes for EIHL players (am working on the EPL and NIHL at the moment). Here's how the standings in the EIHL are looking following the update:



Generally speaking, things seem to have come out alright. I've found that Braehead are perhaps a little overpowered (and Cardiff a little underpowered), but I think this is unavoidable given that they have Krestanovich and Galbraith. The level of scoring is quite low compared to real life (about 30% lower), but I'm not sure if there's much I can do about that. I've done a few sims and as it happens, the above screenshot is from the only sim where some teams have scored less than 100 goals.

By way of comparison, here's how the game looks before the attribute update (for some reason Fife always win the league):



The spread of Pts is much improved with the update (last season in real life, the Pts ranged from Fife with 24 pts to Belfast with 99 pts)

[grazza]

It's early days, but Fife are looking good at the moment. The Caps have been a bit hit and miss thus far. You're right - they have to fill their import slots to improve their chances. Do you think it's a lack of money stopping the Caps getting impors?

Money will surely be a factor but the club has implied that they are waiting for the right player, so perhaps waiting for the ramifications of players being cut from training camp in north america and of course the NHL lockout and the filter down. effect that can have. Juraj Senko came in for a two week trial about 3 weeks ago and is still there but no confirmation he has got a season long deal, though he ain't a good enough class of import for the elite league and really just about the level of a depth home grown player. Caps first choice goalie finishes last 2 games of his suspension this week and backup Craig Holland is injured so for Saturday's game at home to Braehead they are borrowing James Flavell of Billingham Stars and still trying to find a goalie to play in Dundee on Sunday, I'll be happy to take 1 point this weekend I think.

[grazza]

Biggest signing of the season so far Braehead Clan have signed Detroit Redwings forward Drew Miller, and he will become the first ever active NHLer to play for a Scottish team. He won a Stanley cup with the Ducks in 2007 in his rookie yea. Drew is the brother of Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller. What a great signing for Clan and the elite league. Would be interesting to see what made Drew decide on playing here, wonder if maybe there is a family connection or something as Miller is a very common name in Scotland. Apparantly Neil Black (Braehead and Nottingham owner) is paying for this out his own pocket as I imagine the insurance costs are significant

[MWE]

Not a bad signing for the league.

We beat Braehead 7-3 last night but lost to Cardiff 2-1 on Saturday But still we are 2 points ahead in our conference but we are now 1 point behind in the overall standings behind Belfast who have 2 games in hand over us

[archibalduk]

My brother tells me that there's a rumour Coventry may sign Deryk Engelland. Tom Sestito might be signing with Sheffield too.

[MWE]

The player himself announced it on Twitter not a good a signing as Drew Miller though.

[getzlaf15]

I also heard that Coventry have also signed Matt Beleskey...

[archibalduk]

I'm going to see Coventry v Nottingham this weekend. I so hope Engelland and Beleskey sign in time (assuming the rumours are true)... I guess, however, that it'd be a bit optimistic for them to sign contracts and arrive in the UK in time for Sunday.

[philou21]

Did getzlaf really made a comment? Can't remember the last time I saw him post something!

[getzlaf15]

I'm going to see Coventry v Nottingham this weekend. I so hope Engelland and Beleskey sign in time (assuming the rumours are true)... I guess, however, that it'd be a bit optimistic for them to sign contracts and arrive in the UK in time for Sunday.

He's joining the team on the 10th and Coventry have said he WILL be playing against Nottingham! Have you caught any Phoenix games this year? One of my close friends has been signed for them this year, although he hasn't had much ice time. I need to get myself to it more often!

Did getzlaf really made a comment? Can't remember the last time I saw him post something!

Ha, I'm still around.

[archibalduk]

I'm going to see Coventry v Nottingham this weekend. I so hope Engelland and Beleskey sign in time (assuming the rumours are true)... I guess, however, that it'd be a bit optimistic for them to sign contracts and arrive in the UK in time for Sunday.

He's joining the team on the 10th and Coventry have said he WILL be playing against Nottingham! Have you caught any Phoenix games this year? One of my close friends has been signed for them this year, although he hasn't had much ice time. I need to get myself to it more often!

Woohoo!!

No, I haven't seen any Phoenix games this season. The last time I saw them was last season at Slough (which is pretty much the only EPL team close enough to where I live in Kent). They're at Slough later this month - hopefully I'll have the money for the train ticket (I'm a student now and money is tight!).

You friend must be pretty stoked to be playing along side The Great One. Does he get paid as a professional or is he on a pay to play contract?

P.s. Nice to speak to you again! It's been a while.

[archibalduk]

If anybody is interested in what an NIHL-1 looks like then here you go! It's got plenty of goals and fights - who needs the NHL eh?! It's funny how after the first fight (right at the beginning of the video) the guys give each other a nudge to say "good fight" - you don't see that often.



I missed last Sunday's game, but luckily it seems somebody filmed it. Although unfortunately he's edited out Romford's goals. Invicta are going through a bit of a tough patch at the moment and it sounds like the Romford game was pretty typical of this - Invicta were 4-1 up but ended up tying 4-4.

[grazza]

The NIHL seems to be improving and that crowd there is not that far off what low end elite teams perhaps get on occasions. Would you say there is a massive got between top NIHL 1 and bottom EPL if you took away the imports. Manchester and Basingstoke were in elite not that long ago so imagine they have more resources and Guidlford have big fanbase around them. If the top 3 or 4 EPL teams were to ever somehow go to the elite or form another BNL style league with weaker leagues then perhaps promotion and relegation to and from EPL might be a bit more realistic in terms of gap in quality of teams (though finance and geography will make things difficult). I imagine that with much greater population base in the south that the southern teams have a bigger player pool to choose from so perhaps they are a bit better than the northern NIHL teams.

i seen a bit of the northern league/celtic cup about4 years ago when I lived in Dundee which had the likes of Dundee, Fife, Solway, Billingham and Whitley involved and that was possibly fairly similar standard to NIHL 1 south is.


Is there any cup competition involving NIHL and EPL clubs?

[archibalduk]

With the exception of following Manchester and watching the odd Slough Jets game on Youtube (here's the link - it's by far the best highlights offered by any UK team that I'm aware of), the EPL is the league I know the least about (well, other than the NIHL North which I know zero about). However, there is a big gap between the top five EPL teams and the bottom EPL teams. I doubt the gap between the top NIHL South teams and the bottom EPL teams is all that large (particularly if you limited the EPL teams to two skating imports like the NIHL). Then again, three of the NIHL South teams were recently in the EPL (Romford, Chelmsford and Wightlink) - and Invicta played in the EPL until ten years ago.

There probably is enough of a grading of skill from top to bottom to make a BNL style league feasible, but like you say finances will always prevent this. I know Invicta and Chelmsford dropped from the EPL to NIHL for financial reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if Wighlink and Romford dropped down for the same reasons too.

I'm not aware of any cup competition involving the NIHL and EPL clubs. There certainly isn't in the south. For whatever reason Invicta are involved in two competitions: The Southern Cup (featuring two groups of five teams from both divisions of the NIHL South - the two group winners play a two leg final) and the South East Trophy (four NIHL South 1 teams in a group and the group winner is the champion).

On a related topic, as a part of my research for the Manimal Rosters, I have been rating the NIHL-1 players (both North and South). As you might know, there is virtually zero information about these teams other than roster lists and career stats on EliteProspects. Even the official EIHA is almost always out of date! The career stats will give me enough to rate these players and seeing as I watch the South each week, the South teams are easy enough to rate and I know what sort of performances the players and teams should be making. The North, however, is a different story - I know nothing of this league and therefore have to rely solely on the career stats. As a part of my ratings, I have been grading each team out of six depending on how good they are (the top teams I give a grade of 1 and the weakest teams I give a grade of 6). These team grades then help me award the stickhandling/skating/speed ratings to players in order to help ensure that the stronger teams typically have the faster and more technical players.

Here are the gradings I have awarded the NIHL-1 South teams:

1: Chelmsford
1: Romford
2: Invicta
2: Wightlink
3: Bracknell
3: Cardiff
5: Milton Keynes
5: Streatham
6: Solent & Gosport

The difference between teams graded 1 apart isn't all that large, but it is larger the more gradings between teams (e.g. the difference between Chelmsford at 1 and Solent at 6 is fairly significant and so Chelmsford will in general will be a more technical (e.g. the stickhandling attribute in EHM) and faster team of players than Solent). You'll see I haven't graded any teams a 4 - the reason for this being that I think there is a bit of a gap between Bracknell/Cardiff and the bottom three.

Now I need to figure out how the North league fits in with this. All I really have to go by are the past two or three seasons of standings (seeing as the balance of power seems to shift quite dramatically year on year in the North). Billingham seems to be the strongest team (closely followed by Whitley and Solway) but I don't know where they'd fit in comparison with the South. I think perhaps Chelmsford and Romford are possibly stronger than Billingham and so I'm leaning towards giving Billingham a 2 rather than a 1. Here's how I've graded the North in comparison to the South:

1: Chelmsford
1: Romford
2: Billingham
2: Solway
2: Whitley
2: Invicta
2: Wightlink
3: Bracknell
3: Cardiff
4: Blackburn
4: Telford
5: Sutton
5: Milton Keynes
5: Streatham
6: Coventry
6: Sheffield
6: Trafford
6: Solent & Gosport

What do you think to this?

Btw, the team gradings in now way affect the other ratings I'm giving to players (such as the CA and PA ratings).