The British Hockey Thread 2016-17

[MWE]

Steelers will be announcing a new signing on Tuesday after Tyler Mosienko left on Friday.

[Calv]

Another Swede! Yared Hagos, seems to have a good pedigree although looks to have dropped off a bit.

Storm looking good this weekend, 3-point weekend with an OT loss at home against Cardiff and an away win in Edinburgh. Big improvement from last season, looks like they can compete this year.

[Calv]

Just on my way to the airport, and saw an interesting pr from Telford: http://www.tigershockeyuk.com/2016/11/t ... bracknell/

Talk of 'playing for the fans' and official statement next week about the club. Perhaps the end of the road for the Tigers? Lots of rumours flying around as usual

[marksbros6]

Odd one?

Not seen any suggestion they've been in financial trouble?

Maybe they're moving up to the Elite League to be the 12th team?

[Calv]

By the sounds of things they certainly won't be moving up anytime soon...

[Calv]

If they cease to exist, then this could have some serious consequences for the rest of the league. Some teams might be in a pickle with 3 fewer home games

[marksbros6]

Yeah, just been reading through the rumours.

Just didn't think Moneybags Telford would encounter 'financial woes'

[archibalduk]

Scholes took a step back some time ago (albeit his company still owns the Tigers). I've no idea whether they still have the same level of funding they used to. But that said, they still have plenty of big name players on their team.

Apparently a Tigers fan saw the players leave a meeting yesterday/the day before and the players were less than happy. There were also existing rumours they hadn't been paying for their ice time. Now with this weird sentence at the end of the press release people are thinking they're going to fold. But who knows. It could be something totally innocent and/or just a poorly written/thought out press release (which wouldn't be the first time for an EPL club).

[Calv]

Yeah, just been reading through the rumours.

Just didn't think Moneybags Telford would encounter 'financial woes'

To be fair, it only takes the owner stopping funding for most teams in British Hockey to be in financial problems. I imagine if PI or Silverblades pulled out of MK Lightning or Manchester Storm they would have to significantly cut down on their spending...

Want and see what happens on Monday I guess

[Calv]

Telford have a £33,444 county court judgement against them bought by a local coach company, and apparently this is only a small part of their debt... http://www.shropshirestar.com/sport/oth ... istration/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/telford ... ts&fref=ts

[MWE]

Steelers with another 4 point weekend beat Nottingham 8-1 and then beat Dundee on penalty shots.

Puts the Steelers up to second in the league 5 points behind Cardiff with 4 games in hand.

[Calv]

Steelers with another 4 point weekend beat Nottingham 8-1 and then beat Dundee on penalty shots.

Puts the Steelers up to second in the league 5 points behind Cardiff with 4 games in hand.

Panthers are a bit of a mess right now, their recruitment over the summer appears to have been all wrong. Steelers & Devils looking good for the league, Giants possibly with an outside chance too?

Sheffield is not so far away now that I'm in Manchester, I might try and take in a game or two maybe when Storm are there

[archibalduk]

Some interesting background into the Guildford Flames from some of the former players: https://www.facebook.com/Watty49/posts/ ... 6009580214

[Calv]

Some interesting background into the Guildford Flames from some of the former players: https://www.facebook.com/Watty49/posts/ ... 6009580214

Crazy that the owner has so much power over the selection of players!

Telford have gone into liquidation, owing about £500k. Apparently games this weekend will still go ahead, but more on that to come. http://www.shropshirestar.com/sport/201 ... -lined-up/

[MWE]

Shame about Telford.

[marksbros6]

Hopefully won't be the full £500k that needs paying of as long as Scholes isn't calling it in.

Still waiting for Arch to come on THF again to explain all the financial implications to everyone

In happier news: MKL have signed a 'cover' import (only 6 weeks after Lopuski was injured). Antti Holli, Finnish winger. Looking forward to seeing him play at the weekend.

[archibalduk]

Still waiting for Arch to come on THF again to explain all the financial implications to everyone

Done!

If it's true that the coach company called in the debt then Scholes is just a creditor. It doesn't matter whether he calls in his debt as the company is already in liquidation. It's just that once all of the assets have been sold/turned into money, he will receive a small amount in settlement of his debt (most of the money will go to the players/staff). Scholes will have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds from this.

[marksbros6]

That was quick!

Bit scared now. Don't want to see what happens when we type your name 3 times on a forum post #candyman

Selfishly hope they have to trim the wage-bill, and finish mid-table somewhere, while still being a going-concern.

Failing that: can 'your lot' get their act together and take some points off them Arch?

[Calv]

Failing that: can 'your lot' get their act together and take some points off them Arch?

That will probably depend on how many Tigers players they sign, their current players seem to be pretty useless

[Calv]

A quote from someone who seems to be in contact with Wayne Schole

The debt is exaggerated by a large margin and the statement is very poorly worded to imply Wayne Scholes left the club in a mire of debt. £350k of it is a 0% interest loan to Mr Scholes, which will get written off. There will be a new management team to takeover the club. The rest I'll leave to the forthcoming statement due this week.

[Calv]

Last night Nottingham were about to go on a 5-on-3 penalty kill (with 90 seconds left in the game, they were losing 2-1) so asked the ref to examine one of the Devils' sticks, which turned out to be too large (too much tape applied) meaning Cardiff took a 2 minute penalty. Not something you see every game!

[marksbros6]

Haha, the old 'illegal equipment' call (always thought it's a bit unsporting that one)!

So; a bit of a player Merry-go-round in the EPL at the mo.

Wonder what Arch thinks of the latest pick-up from Telford?

Also hoping Telford start to drop points now. Bit of a farce if they win the league after going into administration/liquidation (whichever it ended up being).

Off to watch MKL v Bison on a rare Friday night game tomorrow. Need to beat them at home at least if we can't win away!

[Calv]

The Elite League has made it on to a Freeview channel with weekly highlights, problem is I've never heard of the channel and it looks like the viewership is very low Difficult to get too excited about this really, the only advantage it has over the Premier deal is that it's on freeview.

[archibalduk]

Yep that's a strange one. I'll need to hunt around the Sky Guide to try and find that channel. I'll stick it on series link, but I doubt I'll watch it. The Sky Sports Elite League Show was poor but the one on Premier Sports was even worse. I can't imagine an unknown free-to-air channel will do a better job (but who knows). They should take a leaf out of the NFL Show that is on BBC2 every Tuesday night where they focus on a couple of games rather than just being a goal fest. I absolutely love that show!

[Calv]

One of the main problems with the previous show was the varying quality in the highlights from the different clubs. In particular, some of the rinks have poor viewing angle or poor lighting, etc. I don't really see the point in putting highlights on TV until the quality is good enough from all of the teams.