The British Hockey Thread 2015-2016

[Calv]

On the train back from Phantoms-Storm. It ended 7-3 to Storm won 7-3, despite missing a line of forwards and 1 d man and another of their d men only landed yesterday.

Storm ran with 2 lines of Storm forwards and an extra 4 forwards from the Aces nihl team. The Aces guys didn't look out of place at all and cycled the puck really well. Wilcock from the Aces played the last 30 minutes in net as well and only conceded 1.

Of the forwards, Storm had a line of Paton-Toulmin-Koren. They looked okay,some nice stick handling skills but lacking some finesse in front of net. Koren seems like a good two way player.

The other line was Scarsella-Davies-Sisca. This line is awesome! The tallest player on the line is 5'7" they're really quick and had numerous breakouts that the Phantoms struggled to contain. Scarsella got a hat trick and Sisca got at least one. Davies is a very good player,great stick handling skills and enjoyed passing the puck through opposition players' legs.

On the back end they looked a bit sloppy. Davey Phillips is a good player but needs to control his temper a bit. Bobcek is a big player who likes to throw big checks. Didn't notice Folkes or Pacha much. Not convinced they have a lot of scoring from back there. The final d man is P. Phillips who looks a puck moving player,so that's good. Once they'd cut out the sloppiness ,they restricted the Phantoms a lot. Wilcock didn't make many saves in 30 minutes. The Aces defensemen looked okay too.

In net Kalemba looked solid, made a couple of flashy glove saves.

For the Phantoms, they started well and their PK looked good but they really struggled offensively. It was too easy to restrict their chances.

Phantoms played quite a physical game,couple of confrontations and a little bit of pushing and shoving but nothing serious, mainly just talking.

The game ended with a penalty shoot out which Phantoms won 2-0. It was a bit bizarre, after every save Auzins batted the puck in to the ceiling/netting and gave the Storm player an earful. Until the final penalty shot when Davies hit him in the mask and Auzins chased him a bit and wanted more than words

Bit difficult to say anything too concrete after a preseason game against an EPL team,but the Davies line looks very good.

[archibalduk]

There I was saying Auzins had cooled down since the beginning of last season!

[Calv]

He certainly made some odd hand gestures afterwards (nothing offensive).

Peterborough's rink reminded me a lot of Invicta.

[MWE]

IS there netting all the way round?

[Calv]

It does go pretty far round, not quite all the way

[Calv]

Fife and Dundee looking good already at the start of the season

I watched the Devils - Storm webcast, I thought Storm competed well. Looked a bit tired towards the end as they were down a player and some had only flown in this past week. Apart from a poor 70 seconds where they conceded 3 sloppy goals, they looked strong. Kalemba made some fantastic saves in net, but then let in some very simple ones. Hopefully they'll only get stronger as the season goes on, and they have a full squad for the first time today against the Caps

[MWE]

Storm won 8-1 tonight

Steelers lost 5-3 to Cardiff

[archibalduk]

Ok it's a pre-season game, but that's a heck of a thrashing by the Storm!

Guildford gave their usual poor pre-season performances last weekend. Sounds like we're missing our pointman, David Savage, who was the victim of the roster cull this summer (one of our best D-men IMO). It's far too early to draw any conclusions yet, but it sounds like a lot of the team is very rusty - even in comparison to other teams at this stage of the year.

[Calv]

The 8-1 was a league game! Eihl starts a week before the epl

[marksbros6]

Milton Keynes Lightning lost 'the Ashes' trophy to Peterborough after drawing 4-4 on Saturday and racing into a 2-goal lead on Sunday we went on to lose 5-3 on the Sunday.

Overall Lightning look pretty good, some decent new imports and dynamic youth players. The managment are all making themselves very available to the fans as well with Q&A's before Saturday's game (interested to see if they'll still be as visible if results take a swing for the worst)!

Looking forward to the first League/Cup game this weekend!

[MWE]

Ok it's a pre-season game, but that's a heck of a thrashing by the Storm!

That was a league game

[archibalduk]

The 8-1 was a league game! Eihl starts a week before the epl

I have clearly lost track of everything in amongst the move abroad. I can't wait to get a reliable internet connection hopefully at the end of this month so I can follow things via YouTube. The one thing I miss about moving is no longer living up the road from a hockey team.

[Manimal]

I just saw this: http://whitleywarriors.net/sega-link-up-with-warriors/ Kinda cool!

http://t.co/fSdEIqf1d6

Now, you researchers need to get the Warriors set up properly, lol

[archibalduk]

Yeah very cool! Thanks for posting that - I meant to last month, but got distracted by that whole wedding thing! SEGA are also linked with the Oxford City Stars (and have been for a few years, I believe).

It's cool to think David Longstaff is aware of the game (he is the player/coach of Whitley). Behind Tony Hand, he's one of the best British born and trained players to have played the sport.

[Manimal]

It's cool to think David Longstaff is aware of the game (he is the player/coach of Whitley). Behind Tony Hand, he's one of the best British born and trained players to have played the sport.

And a former Djurgården player!

[Calv]

One of the few British players to play in Sweden, along with Rob Dowd (Troja-Ljungby, 2012-13), Stephen Murphy (Bräcke IK & Bjorkloven, 2004-05, and Arboga 2005-06) and Sam Duggan (Orebro Juniors 2014-Present)

Don't think there's been anymore in recent times.

[MWE]

Steelers beat Coventry 4-0 last night

[archibalduk]

A 3 point weekend for the Flames isn't too bad a start. Especially as we usually have a slow start to the season. An OT loss at Basingstoke isn't too bad a result and it sounds like we really thrashed the Pirates today. Nice to see our new signings get some points - Jens Eriksson managed 3 assists.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the Flames play Peterborough next Saturday. Although we're going to have to really step up our game as Peterborough is always a tough team to play and they have won both of their games thus far.

[Calv]

I didn't make the Pirates game, ended working this weekend

Once I've submitted (hopefully by the end of September) , I'll make a few games

[MWE]

Steelers won 8-1 last night. 4 point weekend

[Calv]

Two bad losses for the Storm over the weekend, they really have a tendency for looking strong for 20 - 30 minutes of the game, then they let a goal in, panic, lose all defensive zone coverage and proceed to let in another one or two quick fire goals. Then they chase the game, get tired and let in a few more.... Up to about 30/35 minutes against Cardiff last weekend and Belfast this weekend, they looked comfortable, perhaps slightly on the back foot but not outplayed, but this has been followed by a collapse both times. Yesterday against Dundee, they looked the stronger team until a Dundee goal just before the end of the first period and then fell apart again. It's really frustrating to watch, because it looks like the potential is there.

4-point weekend for the Phoenix, looks like they might surprise a few teams this season. Their imports look good, and they look to be well backed up by Archer. Depth will be a problem later on in the season though. I'll definitely watch them when they play the Flames, and maybe at Milton Keynes too.

[Calv]

Always good to see the British game get a bit of wider coverage: https://twitter.com/TheHockeyNews/statu ... 4065601536

[archibalduk]

They were some cracking plays!

Belfast's video feed is very impressive. Makes the prospect of paying £8 for a game a more attractive prospect.

[Calv]

They do an early bird offer as well, £4.99 if you order a couple of days in advance. That's what I did with the storm game

[archibalduk]

4-point weekend for the Phoenix, looks like they might surprise a few teams this season. Their imports look good, and they look to be well backed up by Archer. Depth will be a problem later on in the season though. I'll definitely watch them when they play the Flames, and maybe at Milton Keynes too.

I can't imagine Manchester's run will last. They'll get an injury at some point between now and Christmas and then their performance will dip.

I really like the look of MK. I have always thought they've had a good core of players just like Basingstoke - but they've always had a small squad (especially last season). This season they seem to have much more depth, so perhaps they can challenge for a top three place.