The Offical British Ice Hockey Thread

Post by **Calv** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:14 pm

Sorry Tasku Phoenix beat Edinburgh again tonight

Post by **Tasku** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 10:37 pm

Calv wrote:Sorry Tasku Phoenix beat Edinburgh again tonight

Oh gosh darnit!

Post by **archibalduk** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:43 am

Whoa Manchester are on fire at the moment!

I hope I don't jinx them when we go see them next Sunday

Post by **getzlaf15** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:21 pm

Are they at the Ice Dome or are they away? I fancy going down, just i don't have any much disposable income at the moment!

Post by **archibalduk** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 7:15 am

Home against Hull (Sunday). On the Saturday they're away at Coventry.

I don't have much disposable income either - but I don't travel up north very often so I have to make the most of it!

Post by **getzlaf15** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:55 pm

My friend has offered me tickets to the NFL in wembley, but that will cost a hell of a lot more than Phoenix, might just have to stay around to watch them.

Post by **archibalduk** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:49 pm

OT: I'd love to go see the NFL. I'm not a big American football fan but I'd love to go just for the experience.

Last year I regretted paying for the cheaper seats in the NHL game at the O2. I was pretty strapped for cash (unemployed and had just moved out of my parents' house) but it would have been well worth it for the better view as it is one of those once in a lifetime sort of things.

Bringing it back on topic: It was so funny at the Invicta game as they don't have any benches for the players to sit on. They literally stand in the gangway right in front of the first row of seats.

Post by **getzlaf15** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:38 pm

Invicta don't even have benches, what about penalty boxes? Do they just stand in the corner or behing the net or something?

I'm a pretty big NFL fan which poses more of a dilemna, and because of the San Diego - Anaheim closeness, i see myself as a Chargers fan, making it harder to say no too. But they are planning to do this every year... But it's a tough one.

Post by **Calv** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:47 pm

Result Tuesday 21st October 2008:
bmibaby Elite League:
Edinburgh Capitals 4-5 Basingstoke Bison (After OT)

Post by **archibalduk** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:18 pm

getzlaf15 wrote:Invicta don't even have benches, what about penalty boxes? Do they just stand in the corner or behing the net or something?

Believe it or not, it's just a wooden bench amongst the seats in the crowd. The penalty benches are right next to where the teams stand so they can chat to each other during their penalties

I'm glad to hear the NFL UK games are going to be an annual event. I'll have to try to get tickets next year. If only the NHL would come back to the O2...

Post by **getzlaf15** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:41 pm

The NHL seem to be "spreading the love" somewhat, looking to host it in different countries each year, may be a while before they are back in the UK.

That penalty box idea is genius, what if 2 players both sentenced for fighting one another. Tie Domi spraying water over spectators could happen again!

Post by **Calv** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:57 am

Basingstoke forward Brad Cruikshank is joining Sheffield Steelers after this weekends game. Brad scored 30 goals last year and is the power forward the Steelers have been looking for since Nathan Gillies injured his elbow - he will be out for 8+ weeks.

There's also rumours of Danny Stewart and Mark Richardson leaving the Bison amidst more worries over whether they will complete the season or not.

Post by **archibalduk** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:13 pm

getzlaf15 wrote:The NHL seem to be "spreading the love" somewhat, looking to host it in different countries each year, may be a while before they are back in the UK.

That penalty box idea is genius, what if 2 players both sentenced for fighting one another. Tie Domi spraying water over spectators could happen again!

Hehe. Luckily the two teams are located at opposite sides of the rink so there's plenty of ice between the two penalty boxes!

Post by **getzlaf15** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:28 am

Tough defeat for Manchester in Coventry, 3-2 they went down, and there were apparently a few bad decisions going against Phoenix, don't know if that is just sour grapes, or if there actually was. Let's hope they can change it around against on Hull, Sunday.

Post by **Calv** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 12:36 pm

Results 26th October 2008:
bmibaby Elite League:
Basingstoke Bison 7-2 Edinburgh Capitals
Coventry Blaze 3-2 Manchester Phoenix
Hull Stingrays 4-3 Newcastle Vipers (After Penalty Shootout)

British Knockout Cup (Preliminary Round) 1st leg:
Sheffield Steelers 3-3 Belfast Giants

Post by **Calv** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:36 pm

Results Sunday 26th October 2008:
bmibaby Elite League:
Cardiff Devils 9 Edinburgh Capitals 0
Manchester Phoenix 6 Hull Stingrays 4
Newcastle Vipers 8 Basingstoke Bison 0

Challenge Cup Group B:
Nottingham Panthers 3 Coventry Blaze 3

British Knockout Cup (Preliminary Round) 2nd Leg:
Belfast Giants 6 Sheffield Steelers 5
(Belfast win 9-8 on aggregate)

Post by **Calv** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:37 pm

Looking even worse for Basingstoke:

Bison stars play on without pay

BISON officials will meet with Planet Ice bosses today to discuss the team’s future after the players took to the ice on Saturday despite not being paid last week.

Owner Tomas Enerston failed to turn up to pay the players’ wages last Wednesday, was absent from a co-owners meeting he called the following night and was not seen at Saturday’s game against Edinburgh Capitals.

The lack of payment proved to be the final straw for team captain Brad Cruikshank, who left the club a week early having been set to play his farewell home game against Edinburgh.

The latest developments at the Basingstoke Arena have left a bitter taste in the mouths of the fans of Basingstoke’s best-supported sports club, in what is their 20th anniversary season.

The supporters will now be hoping that today’s meeting between Bison officials and bosses at Planet Ice, which runs the Basingstoke Arena, will make the team’s future clearer.

Despite not being paid, the Herd players did not disappoint a 1,000-plus crowd on Saturday night, as they took to the ice and produced a superb performance to beat visiting Edinburgh Capitals 7-2.

The Bison faithful showed their appreciation of the team’s efforts in these difficult times with a standing ovation as they skated off after their victory.

It was the club’s third win in four games and the Herd are now starting to climb up the Elite League standings.

Basingstoke player/coach Eric Braff, who has been in charge for just a fortnight, admitted it had been another roller coaster week.

He said: “This has been a very busy week with all that has been happening.

“None of the players got paid, but we held a meeting on Friday before the game and decided to play.

“We are professional sportsmen and it is hard to put to the back of your mind what is going on, but after the victory I can say it was a great all-round team performance.

“Thanks must go to the fans for their support and all that they are doing behind the scenes for the team.”

The game was set to be Brad Cruikshank’s last home clash for the Bison, but with the uncertainty surrounding the team, he decided to join the Sheffield Steelers a week early and played in their 3-3 tie with Belfast on Saturday night.

Talking before he headed north to Sheffield, Cruikshank said: “It hurts me to not be playing on Saturday, as I was really looking forward to it and wanted to say my goodbyes.”

He added: “But I felt I had no choice and I hope the fans who have been great to me understand.

“Sometimes your family comes ahead of what you want to do and I owe it to my wife and young son.”

His wife Jami and son Coeden were at the Bison game on Saturday night.

Post by **Calv** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:39 pm

And now it's Edinburgh's time to get into financial trouble:

Statement from Scott Neil

26th October 2008

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that the Edinburgh Capitals have to introduce several measures to stabilise the club.

A number of factors have left the club in a precarious financial position. The current economic climate has had a significant impact on the club and a number of sponsorship arrangements have fallen through.

Our increased player budget this season was based on the income from the commitments made to the club and it is therefore a major blow to everyone involved that these arrangements are not to be fulfilled.

A number of exciting plans and ambitions for the club have to be shelved or at least put on hold until we can find some alternative solutions but with the timing and non payment of expected funds there is little time to react to stabilise club finances.

Unfortunately this season things have not gone as hoped or planned both on and off the ice. On ice performance has a significant impact on gate revenue in Edinburgh and I really do feel for Doug, the players and the fans that plans which were made only a few weeks ago to bring our import content to 11 have had to be re-assessed. This has an impact on the whole club but solutions have to be found.

I have invested heavily over the years in the club and in particular last season where a loss of form saw a significant drop in attendances but we managed to turn things around during the latter part of the season. This came at a high personal cost though and I cannot bear the brunt of a similar experience to the one encountered last year.

I am hoping for new investment and help towards the running of the club as a part solution and to provide a springboard again for a successful competitive team.

This is the most difficult challenge we have ever faced at the club and I hope the hockey fans will help support the Capitals in our efforts.

At present there are two course of action that we will pursue to stabilise the club:

1) Try to raise funds through investment/sponsorship/revenue generation to allow the Capitals to field a competitive team for the remainder of the season.

2) Reduce expenditure on our budget.

We are focusing on some major goals and have targeted a game on Tuesday 30th December as a main event for the Christmas period. We have already secured support for the day from Edinburgh Council through Activcity and the cost of the event includes an Elite league game and a skating day with a selection of Capitals players.

The goal is to sell all 3000 tickets for the Capitals game and we are looking for volunteers to help sell the tickets to family, friends, and associates.

If you think you can sell or use the tickets as Christmas stocking fillers please e mail greatcapitalskate@edinburgh-capitals.com. A full PR will be issued about this event in the coming week and will include details on how to buy tickets online. The leaflet for this event can be seen here:
http://edinburgh-capitals.com/multimedi ... lskate.pdf

As part of our fundraising effort, the club has made available the current shirts for sponsorship. These can now be purchased through the online shop for £150 using the following link:
http://edinburgh-capitals.com/shop/cata ... ponsorship

Pledges of support can be made by calling the Capitals office on 0313 313 2977 or by emailing support@edinburgh-capitals.com

For those of you who would like to show your support (no matter how big or small), we have set up a special PayPal email address: support@edinburgh-capitals.com.

Post by **Calv** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:33 pm

Some good news for once!

Bison future secure
2:52pm Monday 27th October 2008

Just see this on the Basingstoke Gazette website by Graham Merry »

Great stuff

THE FUTURE of the Basingstoke Bison has been secured today after Planet Ice stepped in to take over running the franchise.

It has been confirmed by Planet Ice, after a meeting with Bison officials today, that the Herd will be in action on Tuesday night in Nottingham and will complete the remainder of the current Elite League campaign.

The latest development puts an end to weeks of uncertainty surrounding the Bison and secures the future of Basingstoke’s best-supported sports club in their 20th anniversary season.

Post by **Calv** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 2:41 pm

Results Tuesday 28th October 2008:
bmibaby Elite League:
Nottingham Panthers 4 Basingstoke Bison 6

Results Wednesday 29th October 2008:
bmibaby Elite League:
Coventry Blaze 10 Edinburgh Capitals 2

Results Thursday 30th October 2008:
bmibaby Elite League:
Newcastle Vipers 1 Edinburgh Capitals 4

Results Saturday 1st November 2008:
bmibaby Elite League:
Basingstoke Bison 2 Newcastle Vipers 5
Belfast Giants 3 Hull Stingrays 6
Cardiff Devils 4 Coventry Blaze 5 (After Shootout)
Nottingham Panthers 5-4 Manchester Phoenix
Sheffield Steelers 5-1 Edinburgh Capitals

Results Sunday 2nd November 2008:
bmibaby Elite League:
Manchester Phoenix 6 Cardiff Devils 2
Edinburgh Capitals 6 Newcastle Vipers 3
Hull Stingrays 1 Sheffield Steelers 2
Coventry Blaze 4 Nottingham Panthers 3 (After Shootout)

Post by **Calv** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 2:49 pm

Code: Select all

       Team  	   GP    W    WOT  L   LOT   Pts
1     Coventry 	 14 	10   2    2 	0 	24
2  	Nottingham   16 	10   0    4 	2 	22
3  	Manchester   14 	7 	3 	3 	1 	21
4  	Belfast 	  13 	9 	1 	3 	0 	20
5  	Sheffield 	13 	9 	0 	2 	2 	20
6  	Newcastle 	16 	4 	4 	6 	2 	18
7  	Cardiff 	  15 	3 	2 	7 	3 	13
8  	Edinburgh 	18 	4 	0 	11   3 	11
9  	Hull 	     16 	3 	2 	11   0 	10
10 	Basingstoke  19 	3 	1 	13   2 	10

Code: Select all


Player 	               Team 	      Pld  G 	A 	Pts  PP  SH  PIM
1 Greg Chambers	       Basingstoke	21	11	24	35	4	0	24
2 David Beauregard	    Manchester	 18	19	14	33	4	1	14
3 Paul Deniset	        Belfast	    19	15	17	32	3	2	20
4 Adam Calder	         Coventry	   18	15	16	31	4	1	26
5 Sylvain Deschatelets	Coventry	   18	8	 22	30	4	0	24
6 Dan Carlson	         Coventry	   18	9	 19	28	4	2	24
7 Dan Tessier	         Nottingham	 16	8	 20	28	5	0	18
8 Mark Hurtubise	      Edinburgh	  22	7	 21	28	3	0	12
9 Tony Hand	           Manchester	 18	6	 20	26	2	2	16
10 Colin Shields	      Belfast	    19	10	15	25	3	0	0

Post by **Calv** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 2:55 pm

Belfast losing to Hull and then not playing on the Sunday meant they drop down to 4th, Coventry have put together some good form and now find themselves on the top of the pile.

Manchester's 2 games this weekend against Sheffield will be key and both are must win.

Team GB are in action tonight in the olympic pre-qualifiers, tonight they play Poland, tomorrow they play Japan and on Sunday they play Romania.
Depite being seeded 3rd in the group they have easily beaten Romania the last time they played, they also beat Japan and only lost out to Poland on penalty shots. This time round GB see the return of Steve Thornton and Colin Shields 2 key players which gives them more scoring depth. The only slight weakness might be GB's inexperience in defence.
Fortunately both netminders, Lyle and Murphy, are playing well at the minute for Belfast and Manchester repectively and Murphy will start tonights match after his impressive displays in the World Championships last year.
Team GB are:

Netminders
Stevie Lyle Belfast Giants
Stephen Murphy Manchester Phoenix

Defencemen
Kyle Horn Edinburgh Capitals
Leigh Jamieson Coventry Blaze
Danny Meyers Nottingham Panthers
Ben O’Connor Coventry Blaze
David Phillips Belfast Giants
Graeme Walton Belfast Giants
Jonathan Weaver Coventry Blaze

Forwards

Greg Chambers Basingstoke Bison
David Clarke Nottingham Panthers
Russell Cowley Coventry Blaze
Jason Hewitt Sheffield Steelers
David Longstaff Newcastle Vipers
Matt Myers Nottingham Panthers
Greg Owen Briancon, France
Jonathan Phillips Sheffield Steelers
Paul Sample Belfast Giants
Colin Shields Belfast Giants
Ashley Tait Sheffield Steelers
Steve Thornton Belfast Giants
Rob Dowd Sheffield Steelers

Post by **Calv** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 12:49 pm

It was a case of Déja Vu last night as Poland once again beat Team GB on penalty shots after the game had ended in a 2-2 stalemate during the 65 minutes of play.

We need one of Romania or Japan to beat Poland now for any chance of qualifying....Japan beat Romania 7-0 last night

Post by **getzlaf15** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 5:52 pm

Team GB were beaten 2-1 by Japan.

They scored a shorthanded goal in the second period which turned out to be the Game winner.

I read in our small section that we own in the newspapers sport section that the Steelers released someone because he was recovering from a shoulder injury and they didn't want to wait or something? Bit harsh.

You at the game on sunday Calv? We have a weekend packed with the Steelers. Only 1 point is the difference between us and they have a game in hand. So we need to win both really.

Post by **batdad** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:03 pm

Losing to Poland and Japan. TIme to get TOny to play again.

BTW--How come he is only 9th in scoring? Must be time to pack it in for the old guy.