Tuesday Update...

Following on from the rumours posted yesterday-the news that Tom Askey has been signed has now been officially released via the Panthers website here. Robert Stancok is still a Panther for now, however, in a move which is somewhat strange purely because there's been no mention of Rastislav Rovnianek being replaced-simply the fact that Askey is coming in. If nothing else, let's hope he has a better taste in pads than these horrors, which he wore while playing in Finland. Chavtastic! (I should take this opportunity to inform the rest of the league that as far as I'm aware, these pads are not available in Coventry-we have enough trouble with the chav stereotype already without having Koenig and Fone wear these.) :)

It's at times like these you wonder at a coach's thought process-Panthers are screaming out for a forward and/or a big steady d-man, with both needs being far more urgent than a replacement goalie. Why should Mike Ellis potentially waste an ITC card (of which there are only fifteen available a season) by keeping two import netties on the roster, particularly when there are far more pressing needs on your side?

That's the major news story this Tuesday, but there are several other tidbits...

Charity game to take place in Oxford: On the 14th December, the Oxford University Vikings are taking on the RAF Bluewings (who I've played against for the Coventry Chaos, and thus can testify at first hand are no shrinking violets) at Oxford ice-rink in a game to aid the Oxford Children's hospital-all details are here. Definitely worth a visit if you're in that part of the country and fancy doing a bit of good for charity as well as watching a decent standard of hockey on a Friday evening...

Belfast games available on webcast: If your team are playing over in Belfast, there's now no need to rely solely on sporadic forum updates-you can watch and listen to the games yourself thanks to the Giants' webcast team. The link to the page is here, with all Giants home games being covered-as soon as I work out how to get a picture to hyperlink it shall appear permanently on the right-hand side. It does cost £3 per game, paid via Paypal, but for that you get audio commentary on the first two periods, highlights in the period break and live video coverage of period three, with commentary from Nigel Ringland (who is the Belfast Telegraph's hockey reporter) and Wayne Hardman. It's a lot cheaper than the air-fare, hotel and match ticket...so definitely worth supporting if you can't get to Belfast but still need your hockey fix...

And that's your Tuesday update...keep keeping your eye on the puck...