Round the Rinks 12th October-EIHL Weekend Preview

And so the first weekly Round the Rinks entry kicks in-with a brief preview of the EIHL weekend action. You'll get a separate Blaze preview, obviously, but this one is for the rest...
The Blaze are in Conti Cup action this week, so their preview is the entry below.
Meanwhile, back in the UK, the tired and rusting old bandwagon that is the Sheffield-Nottingham hype machine has rattled back into action, with people still trying to claim it's the biggest game in UK hockey even though few people outside the two cities actually care about Panthers meeting Steelers. The rivals also face surprise package Manchester at home on Friday (Sheffield) and surprise package number II Edinburgh away on Sunday (Nottingham) as well as their meeting in Nottingham on Saturday. I can barely hold the excitement...
Seriously, though, it should be a decent game, with Nottingham on something of a roll and Sheffield still trying to convince us all that they are still the biggest team in Britain, honest. I'm not even going to TRY to predict the results yet, cause I'm always wrong, but maybe the two rivals should stop hyping up the Saturday game and concentrate on their other opponents, both of whom are far more dangerous than they've been given credit for this season, and both of whom have run the Blaze very close at the Skydome.

Hull have released their umpteenth "(insert player name here) says Stingrays can win this weekend" press release (although given that their games this weekend are Belfast and Newcastle there's actually a grain of truth in that), Cardiff and Belfast are both "on their last chances with the current roster" yet again as they face Basingstoke (twice) and Hull and Manchester respectively. The Bison's current off-ice uncertainties are detailed below, but they could forget them by at least splitting the points with the Devils, who are still labouring to get their full team firing after an eventful off-ice summer with rink woes...Newcastle just have the one game with Hull, and will no doubt be hoping that Belfast have tired them out the night before. There could be a few penalties in that one, because both the Stingrays and the Vipers like a bit of rough stuff. The Giants will just be hoping for a win, any win, in order to stave off the growing criticism from the Northern Irish crowd...

The full fixture list, then. All league unless stated...

Friday
Sheffield v Manchester


Saturday
Hull v Belfast

Basingstoke v Cardiff (Challenge Cup)

Nottingham v Sheffield

Sunday
Manchester v Belfast

Newcastle v Hull

Edinburgh v Nottingham

Cardiff v Basingstoke

Game on. :)