EIHL Daily Roundup...

;Apologies to those of you logging in expecting a Round the Rinks-that will now appear in time for tomorrow morning-I'm just using my break from work to post a few titbits from yet another day in the EIHL...

Vipers go top: In the only midweek game played this week, Newcastle beat Edinburgh 4-2 at the Metro Radio Arena last night, including two goals from local prospect Ben Campbell, in order to go clear top of the Elite League-they are now on 27 points with Coventry on 25 and two games in hand. The two teams face each other in the North East on Saturday in the EIHL game of the weekend...this just adds a little extra spice to what is sure to be a fiercely contested game.

Hay Panthers-we wanna know...where your import's gone?: Ooops. It appears that Panthers will not be welcoming Dwayne Hay to the NIC after all, as a recurrence of the injury that shortened his season last term has forced the Canadian into retirement before he even made it to the UK. This is a huge pity for him, but equally so for the East Midlanders as they now have to play at least a weekend with an import down. Mike Ellis is doubtless frantically searching the waste-paper bins in the Panthers office for Dan Tessier and Donald Maclean's mobile numbers as we speak...

Principles? Isn't that just a clothing store?: Not satisfied with simply saying one thing and doing another, my team the Blaze have now used the local media to slate the Elite League for turning down their appeal to be reinstated in the Challenge Cup-the Coventry Evening Telegraph story is here. As a Blaze fan, the continuing hoo-hah over this is somewhat embarassing-firstly because the Blaze tried to take the moral high-ground by saying that they wouldn't appeal, and then did so anyway, completely removing any sense of morality whatsoever, and secondly because, rather than accept the decision they've now played the "it's just because it's Blaze" card. Read this quote from Andy Buxton in the article...""You can bet if it had been us who had made the infringement, certain people would have been calling for the book to be thrown at us." (Yes, just like loads of Blaze fans have been on forums doing exactly the same thing with Belfast and Cardiff). Don't pretend it's just Coventry who take the flak...it just sounds like the spoilt kid at school complaining because they haven't got their own way.
Meanwhile, Mike Cowley says this...
""We've asked for the rules for the Challenge Cup to be up dated. Both games would have been forfeited if it had happened in the Elite League and it's only fair that the same rules apply for all competitions.". This conveniently fails to mention that, had the same rules applied for all EIHL competitions last season, the Blaze would not have been able to ask Jody Lehman to come in to cover for Trevor Koenig when Koenig's family suffered a major emergency (which thankfully turned out well) during the playoffs last season, and playing Stevie Lyle, who they eventually asked, would also have been somewhat dubious. (Admittedly, Lyle never played for the Blaze, but this was only because the Blaze goalie returned, with the blessing of his family, at the last minute).
For the record, it wasn't Shaun Johnson (Vipers centre) who played for Cardiff-it was the same Shane Johnson who played for Belfast and Sheffield. Nice bit of fact-checking.

And by the way...: Since the EIHL is an owner-run league, and Messrs Buxton and Cowley are both Blaze directors and thus will have at least one seat on the board between them-they had a hand in making the rules in the first place! It's like a gun-maker complaining about someone being shot-this whole thing is slowly descending into farce.

Steelers in trouble with arena: Well, maybe that's a bit alarmist. But there has been friction between the Steelers and the Hallam Arena recently, with the arena management refusing a weekend date for the Steelers and forcing a change to Ice Sheffield for a midweek game. Could a permanent move be on the cards?

That's your lot for today...Round the Rinks to come tomorrow. And don't forget-keep your eye on the puck...