Friday night in the Hull Daily Mail saw a Hull Stingrays press release. Anyone who keeps an eye on the Elite League will know this is not exactly a rare event-in fact it would be more notable if there was a weekday without Rick Strachan's name and a cliched quote appearing on the front page of the Elite website. But in this one, things were different-there was actually some steel appearing, it appears. This quote jumped out at me.
"I'll be looking for consistency, there'll be no excuses now we have lots of guys."
"We've brought in Slava Koulikov and Marlon Joseph so we've got two more players." (There goes the excuse used up til now, which has centered on the Stingrays' admittedly harsh injury problems this season.)
Then, just to prove how intense he is to his growing army of critics, the article finishes with Strachan saying this...
"It's just about the last roll of the dice. It's crunch time. It's time for players to stand up and be counted."
Now, if I were a long-suffering Hull fan I'd be hopeful of changes in the way things are done-an improvement. Even as an opposition fan I read this article and thought "maybe all my sniping and jokes at the expense of the Stingrays (which culminated in me admitting I really couldn't find anything nice to say about them at the end of last week) would be proved wrong. And so I kept an eye on the scores this evening with interest.
So, did we see the expected improvement? Did the Stingrays come out hell-for-leather and did Rick Strachan finally deliver on his promises to force changes?
Erm...well...the final score from Hull Ice Arena was...
...wait for it...
Hull Stingrays one, Sheffield Steelers...nine. That's nine as in one less than ten. That's not just a loss-that's the team (as an collective entity) being taken out behind the woodshed, their pants being pulled down, and the snot being well and truly beaten out of them. With ex-TREME prejudice.
And it gets worse for the Hull faithful. In 22 games the Stingrays have scored 47 (least in the league) and conceded an incredible eighty-eight. That's nearly double. And this is a team whose stated aim is to play trap hockey and rely on their defensive game!
I genuinely can't find the words to sum up just how many problems there are with the Stingrays right now. But as a shortlist...
- They have a budget which means that new signings are not likely to be on the horizon...at least not of the quality that is desperately needed.
- The fans have lost all confidence in the coach.
- The rest of the league's fans (perhaps justifiably, although I refuse to join the crowd because I can see the odd flash of skill in players such as Paul Cabana) see them as the most boring team to watch in the league-mainly due to Strachan's suffocating system.
- The crowds are dropping like a stone.
The only thing the Stingrays have going for them is that they are run extremely well by owners who genuinely love the sport. But how long before their patience runs out? It can't be too long-otherwise there will be no-one left to watch hockey in Hull-they'll have been driven away as shown by comments like this on the Stingrays forum, from a poster called Hollie:
"some thing really needs changing, after coming for years, i am actually thinking of missing a few games. ive never seen the place so empty tbh. and when the steeler fans are singing can we play you every week, embarrasing doesnt even begin to cover it. imo strachan needs to go!"
And this gem from "adrock"...
Disappointed? Good night and God bless Hull Stinkrays. I dont care how they do tomorrow, the biggest ever waste of money. Men versus very very small boys No passion, no balls, waste of a night. cannot comment anymore apart from feelings go out to Mike and Sue.
That's clear enough, I think...but rather than go off for another few hundred words, I will let the feelings in Hull be summed up in this short and sweet posting from "markg"
"After 16 years...goodbye".
Hockey in Hull is in big trouble.
