The Official British Hockey Thread

Post by **Calv** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:34 pm

Well the season starts this Sunday and I figured it would be a good time for a new thread, even if only a few people post in it

The EIHL has expanded this season and now has the following teams in:
Edinburgh Capitals
Manchester Phoenix
Newcastle Vipers
Hull Stingrays
Basingstoke Bison
Cardiff Devils
Belfast Giants
Nottingham Panthers
Sheffield Steelers
Coventry Blaze.

Both Hull & Manchester(My local team) are new to the EIHL this season, Hull coming up from the now defunct(sic) BPL and Manchester, returning after 2 years after going into administration, who are in the process of building a new stadium which won't be ready until the 30th November

so they'll be playing at various stadia in the North-West of England.

Anyway I'll try and update this thread every week or so but the first fixtures are so:
9/9/2006 Edinburgh Manchester
9/9/2006 Newcastle Hull
9/9/2006 Basingstoke Cardiff
9/9/2006 Belfast Nottingham
9/9/2006 Sheffield Coventry

Anyone else gonna be following this season?
I hope to be going to a few Manchester games as it's only 20mins away on the tram

Post by **archibalduk** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:52 pm

Nick, where in the North West will Phoenix be playing? I'm starting my new job on the 25th Sept so I'll have some money to watch them in October (hopefully).

It looks like most games are going to be on a Sunday and so that'll make it a little harder to travel down to see the games. It seems the best way to go is from Lime Street to Victoria and then I guess you get the tram from there. Is that right?

Post by **Calv** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 10:57 am

Lime Street to Picadilly, then get the tram from Piccadilly to Altrincham, there's no tram station at Victoria I don't think. They'll be playing at Deeside, Blackburn and Sheffield. I don't think any of these stadia are particularly big(as in a few hundred capacity probably) so I'm gonna wait until they start watching them when they move into Altrincham

Manchester also just lost a player to ACL damage

So he won't be signing for them anymore

Last season's tropthy winners:
Elite League: Belfast 1st, Newcastle 2nd
Challenge Cup: Cardiff beat Coventry
Playoffs: Newcastle beat Sheffield
British Knockout cup: Sheffield beat Coventry

Post by **Calv** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:56 pm

First round of fixtures were played this weekend, Manchester losing their first game in a shootout but winning the second game 3-0 against hull!

Belfast Giants 4 Nottingham Panthers 3 (After penalty shots)
Edinburgh Capitals 5 Manchester Phoenix 4 (After penalty shots)
Sheffield Steelers 3 Coventry Blaze 5

Coventry Blaze 6 Belfast Giants 4
Hull Stingrays 1 Manchester Phoenix 3
Nottingham Panthers 9 Basingstoke Bison 4
Mobilx Vipers 5 Sheffield Steelers 4

Post by **Calv** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:57 pm

Phoenix outshot the Edinburgh Capitals on Saturday night 56-28 but the home side fought back with two late strikes, one on a dubious penalty on Hand himself, and then a last-gasp equaliser with just 6 seconds remaining in regulation time. Andrej Rajcak eventually slotted home the game-winning penalty to give the Capitals the win.

Phoenix went a goal behind inside just 49 seconds against the Stingrays in Hull on Sunday night, but fought back magnificently with Hand equalising on the first of his teams three powerplay goals that secured a 3-1 win. Simon Mangos crashed home a second period go-ahead goal and Robin Gomez got a telling touch to a howitzer shot from Scott Basiuk in the final period to secure the points and an excellent start to the season for the Phoenix.

With the bmibaby Elite League opting for a 'zero tolerance' approach this season to improve the quality and speed of the game in the long-term, both games saw a rash of minor penalties that, at times, bemused both players and fans of all teams alike. Phoenix Coach Tony Hand added, "It's going to take a few weeks for everyone to adjust to the new rules as it's largely different to the way we've all played the game over the years. In the long term, I think it will be good for the game but, I think everyone will have to be patient as we all come to terms with the way the officials are now calling the game."

Good start for Phoenix

Highlights from the games can be found here: http://www.manchesterphoenix.co.uk/mikes-downloads/

Post by **archibalduk** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:53 am

Sounds like Phoenix were pretty unlucky against the Capitals. It's certainly a promising start. I wasn't expecting anything special for quite a while because I thought it would take time for the team to gel. Next up are Nottingham this Saturday - I imagine that'll be a real tough game.

The "commentator" in the Phoenix highlights is absolutely atrocious! His dull voice completely removed any excitement in the shoot-out against the Caps $:\$

Post by **Calv** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:06 pm

They'd only practiced 3 times before the first match, plus some of the players had only flown in on the friday so it is a very promising start

Post by **archibalduk** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:18 pm

Any news on whether they're gonna replace Mike Kiesman?

I was a bit confused about when you mentioned the Vipers as Mobilx Vipers rather than Newcastle Vipers but it turns out that they've dropped the "Newcastle" from their name. I guess it's so they can get more money from Moblix. There's a petition going to get their name back: http://www.petitiononline.com/new1234/petition.html

oxenhoper · Post by **oxenhoper** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 8:23 pm

Should be a good game saturday night. New coach Ellis looks like he's got a good squad together.
Hope Phoenix can get their rink sorted sooner than later, it's no fun playing home games on the road.

oxenhoper · Post by **oxenhoper** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 8:49 pm

If phoenix do play some of their games in Blackburn, a word of warning take an extra jumper because it is absolutly freezing in that place (i only live 20 miles from Blackburn). Hawks arena holds around 3000 fans.

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:53 pm

Great stard for Panthers 9-4. Hopefully we will do well this season.

Post by **archibalduk** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:43 pm

Aye the arena is a problem at the moment. It's supposed to be finished by November 30th and I think the first home game is something like December 4th. I'll be heading down for that game hopefully. It's not worth going to the Deeside "home" games as you have to go to the ticket office to try to get tickets and that's a little too far for me (I'm on the Wirral).

hluraven · Post by **hluraven** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:50 am

Not quite EIHL but British hockey none the less, my team (Streatham Redskins) has had a good start to the season, winning 6-5 away to Chelmsford of the EPL is probably our best result since reforming three years ago, even if it was in a challenge. The downside was losing three players to injury, two long-term in that match. Our only competitive game was a 13-3 win in a game we were expected to win easily, with more than 10 of them being PP or SH goals with zero tolerance kicking in for the first time at this level.

It's actually quite funny watching amateur players try not to hook when it's all they know how to do. If you thought the NHL players took a long time to adjust, we play once a week and train one hour a week, how long do you reckon it will take amateurs to adjust

Post by **archibalduk** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:08 am

hluraven wrote:Not quite EIHL but British hockey none the less

I'll change the thread title

Good point about the hooking. Certainly in the Phoenix games there were a lot of penalties taken as the players hadn't yet adjusted to the new rules. I guess maybe it's going to result in much more conservative defensive play as players try not to get called for penalties.

hluraven · Post by **hluraven** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:40 am

Like in the NHL it will take time to adjust, just they have 82 games and many many hours a week to train, and it still took months! I reckon it will take a whole season (if the refs show any consistency) to adjust for the amateurs

oxenhoper · Post by **oxenhoper** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:14 am

Last period of the panthers v bison game was great, first two not so. The players finally worked out what Boniface was calling and there was some great flowing hockey played by bothe sides. Looks good for the future.

Post by **Calv** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 2:33 pm

Phoenix announce "home" game details

Tuesday, 12th September 2006

The Phoenix are pleased to announce the details of their first ten "home" games, to be played before moving into the new multi-million pound Altrincham Ice Dome.

"The Long Road Home" will feature games split between Deeside Ice Rink and Ice Sheffield. There are minor changes to the faceoff schedule, and the movement of a game against the Nottingham Panthers.

For the benefit of fans, there is a separate set of web pages at http://www.manchesterphoenix.co.uk/longroadhome/ which detail the full schedule and ticket availability, including an opportunity for Season Ticket Holders to reserve tickets for games which are not covered by their season tickets.

The main navigation menu has a new link - "Home Games" - to take fans directly the game details.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our fans for their patience in this testing time. We would also like to thank the players, staff and officials of the teams, leagues and venues that have come to the plate to help the Phoenix out in this diffuclt situation.

Some info about the rink situation at Manchester

I'll start posting in here a bit more once I get the internet at home!

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 4:56 pm

Cheers for that Calv.

Would be good to go to this new Stadium.

Would it be easy to get tickets do you think??

Post by **Calv** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:27 pm

I don't think they'll be selling out tbh, even if the capacity is only 2,500ish. Should be easy enough to turn up on the door and get it, not sure if you can pre order them on the website.

Tickets for the Steelers game at deeside go on sale tomorrow, I won't be going to any until the new rink is built tho

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:03 pm

Tickets for the Steelers game at deeside go on sale tomorrow, I won't be going to any until the new rink is built tho[/quote]

I will probably wait aswell.

hluraven · Post by **hluraven** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 11:00 am

Good win for Streatham, 2-4 away to Oxford who are always strong. Zero tolerance lasted one competitive game though, it was just like last year

oxenhoper · Post by **oxenhoper** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:07 am

Close game saturday night spoilt by some poor ref decisions. It's nice to see the odd powerplay but for three quarters of the match.

Post by **archibalduk** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:51 pm

oxenhoper wrote:Close game saturday night spoilt by some poor ref decisions. It's nice to see the odd powerplay but for three quarters of the match.

Aye, I heard the ref was calling them left, right and centre. Apparently he wouldn't explain any of his calls and so this couldn't have helped matters.

Phoenix weren't too happy with the game-winning goal as one of the Panthers players knocked Wolfe (the G). The argument being that if the referee was taking a zero-tolerance approach throughout the game then why didn't he call goaltender interference?!

oxenhoper · Post by **oxenhoper** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:43 pm

Yeah, Tony Hand was quite miffed about it at the end and got 10+Game for his troubles.

Post by **archibalduk** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:34 pm

Sheffield 6 v 2 Manchester

Ouch! Apparently it was a total disaster! The only highlights being when Hand and Molin scored two SHGs within 25 seconds of each other to get the score back to 2-2. The Steelers managed three PPGs

A pretty ill-tempered game: Five fights. Steeler's Cloutier got into two or three of those. He was just skating around looking for fights and eventually found one with Gomez.

Prior to the game, Sheffield Scimitars' GM (we beat them 6-0 pre-season) stated that the Steelers had nothing to fear about Manchester (link). I guess he was right

Tonight we play the Steelers again but this time it's at Deeside. Heopefully we can get revenge in what has been dubbed "War of the Roses"!