"Set Europe a-Blaze..."-Continental Cup Preview

Phew. Four in one day? Let's just say that my blog production is flowing like Carlson and Calder on a good day...there may be some days where you don't get an entry, some where you get one-and there there's a day like today, where I don't have much else to do, and so you get several.

Well...The Blaze are off to Europe again as representatives of Britain this weekend, and unlike the last trip, I'm not making this one. Damn redundancies. But enough about my job woes-what you lot really want to know is what's occuring in the Continental Cup.

Blaze's opponents, first of all...

Red Bulls Salzburg: Possibly the only team in the competition to actually have their sponsor as their team name rather than just part of it, the Austrian side are the danger team-they've got more money than Vienna has Schnitzel and some players who've spent some time in the NHL, including Rick Jackman, who played for my Pens, and Reinhard Divis, who was in St Louis for a spell. Up front are ex Coyote Frank Banham and ex-Canuck Josh Green, so they've got punch at both ends of the ice. Although-they are only 5th in the Bundesliga, so you never know.
Aalborg: Hosts. The Danes could be a problem-in their home rink they'll fancy their chances, and with a team of players who are all but unknown to the Blaze, it could be an interesting first game against them.
HK Slavija Ljublijana: If you're looking for an in-depth analysis of Slovenian ice-hockey, you're in the wrong place. Trouble is, no-one seems to know anything about Slavija, and their website is only available in Slovene, so it's bloody hard for me to find owt out about them. But, since everyone seems to think they're the underdogs of the group-let's hope they are.

Now, everyone in the UK seems to think there's a bit of a curse attached to British participation in this competition-Nottingham have a bad month whenever they travel to it and then come back, Blaze did in the 05/06 season (well, that season is one that people would rather forget, mainly because it was such a comedown after the treble the previous year rather than the fact that Blaze won nothing for the first time in two seasons-Blaze have in fact only gone three of their eight seasons without winning or getting to the final of at least one competition, if my maths are correct. Paul Thompson has come out with the usual fighting talk in the press today, saying that there's "no such thing" as the curse, Blaze are strong enough etc etc. Hopefully he's right, or you may soon see the tone of these entries change slightly for the worse.