Round the Rinks, 22nd February

Are you ready? It's another whirlwind trip round the EIHL as we go team-by-team for a weekend crucial at both ends of the table...

Basingstoke: The Bison face Cardiff and then their biggest game of the season so far against Hull in the KO Cup semi on Sunday. Steve Thornton is still out but apart from that the Bison are at full strength-although they may still be feeling the effects of a very busy week. However, with the Devils on even more of a losing streak than the Bison's four game streak, the Herd will be confident of two wins which can keep their season alive...

Belfast: Just the one game for the Giants this week-it's the resurgent Nottingham at the NIC on Sunday, which should be something of a humdinger with two strongly offensive teams battling it out. With both sides still holding out distant hopes of finishing second in the league, the game is sure to be hotly contested and in my view could still go either way.

Cardiff: Just Basingstoke for the Devils this weekend, away from home. With two arguably evenly-matched teams meeting and both desperate for points, this game is hard to predict, particularly with the Devils on a long, long losing streak and the Bison having one eye on the KO Cup semi-final. Certainly it's a good chance for the side from South Wales to end their losing streak if the Herd are caught looking ahead...

Coventry: This weekend can see the Blaze take another huge step towards the league title, with a very tricky pair of games against Nottingham and Sheffield, both of whom can and will take points from the Blaze given a chance, particularly as the Steelers still have an outside chance at the league title. This is one of the rare weekends when two deadly rivals will both be supporting each other in the hope they can do each other a favour or two...

Edinburgh: Points mean prizes for the Capitals-they simply cannot afford to lose any more games if they want to catch the Bison and make the playoffs. Hull and Manchester are the opponents, which means the points will be tricky to get, but perhaps not so much as, say, a Sheffield double-header. Every game is a four-pointer for the Caps now...

Hull: Edinburgh and the big KO Cup semi against Basingstoke are on the agenda for the Stingrays this week. Surprisingly we haven't been buried under a raft of press releases about how the players are ready for it yet...With injuries all survived and out of the way, the Stingrays will no doubt be hoping they can salvage something from the season, but the Bison will make it harder than they can probably handle...

Manchester: Newcastle and Edinburgh are the Phoenix's next adversaries, or, as they're more popularly known "the next teams to get scored upon by Joe Tallari". Two wins will settle the Altrincham-ers down nicely after their 5-1 loss to the Blaze on Wednesday night. The Vipers are on something of a run themselves at the moment, so stopping them will be a perfect spur into the Sunday night meeting with the desperate Capitals-especially with all injury worries seemingly out of the way...

Newcastle: Manchester and Sheffield make the trip to the MRA as the Vipers still eye a top three place. With Colin Shields on fire at the moment there's definite potential for the Vipers to take the points and have an influence on the league title at the same time-that is if they can stop the pattern of sublime to ridiculous which has characterised their season-they haven't been doing a bad job of doing so recently, however...

Nottingham: Belfast and Coventry are the opponents for a buoyant Panthers this weekend as they try and carry momentum along from their Challenge Cup triumph and force some more attention on them as they try to end one team's title hopes for good and dent another's, while at the same time actually helping their biggest rivals. It's a surreal weekend for the resurgent Black Cats...but four points will be very well received in the East Midlands

Sheffield: Calling Saturday a "big game" is like calling a hurricane "a bit windy". It's impossible to overstate the importance of their meeting with Coventry at the Hallam tomorrow night in the context of the league title race-and the Steelers players and fans will know that. Sunday's game against Newcastle, while being somewhat forgotten in the rush to comment on Saturday's game, is still not to be sniffed at-every point is precious, particularly if the Blaze slip up at home against Nottingham. Four points will be worth their weight in gold for the Steelers...

There you go-a nice long preview to get your teeth into before going out of a Friday evening...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...