Tuesday Thoughts: Coaches, Clubs and Cups...

It's Tuesday, so it must be time for Tuesday Thoughts!

Whoever it is, Blaze fans'll find something to poke fun at:
As has been hinted at several times in recent days on these pages, Belfast are in imminent need of a new coach-this is likely going to be one of the dominating issues of the off season, so I should really donate some coverage to it.
First, let's look at the candidates from within the UK, or at least those who've coached in the UK before. Dave Matsos from Sheffield would seem to me to be very much among the front runners-he knows the players, knows the league, and knows Belfast. Also, he's already coached pretty successfully in Cardiff and Sheffield, so is fairly well grounded in the way things work from the other side of the bench. Notwithstanding the fact that he would form a fairly instant bond with Belfast fans, having played there already in a title-winning team in the last ISL season.

On an outside note, some have mentioned Paul Thompson-it may be almost sacreligious but, putting it brutally honestly, he's won everything he can win at Blaze now, with the exception of the Knockout Cup, and could, deep down, fancy a new challenge-especially as the trips into Europe for the Continental Cup have been nothing more than expensive (if enjoyable) jaunts. If so it would be a massive blow to Blaze but superb for the league itself. Maybe it would also shake up things at the Skydome something rotten...and intensify the Belfast rivalry far, far beyond its current level.

Then of course there's the chance of Rob Stewart coming back after cutting his teeth properly down in Romford. He did always seem much like Rick Strachan in his approach to systems, however, which perhaps isn't something the Giants fans would accept after becoming used to run-and-gun hockey.

Other coaches currently out there are Paul Heavey, Dave Whistle (if you pay him enough) and Paul Adey as others who've done well in the British game...hell, even Enio Sacillotto if you can tempt him out of retirement and fix up a permanent ventilator...

Jason Ruff is the final ex-player in the frame-although he's joined and left the Giants so many times in the past few seasons, one wonders just how reliable he'd be.

There has been talk on the Giants Elite Forum of bringing in a coach who is entirely new to the UK-following the line that a new broom sweeps clean, and other such proverbs. The thing with signing coaches from abroad-just how high a level are you going to get-ECHL assistant? Lower league assistant? College assistant/minor head coach? It's a conundrum but I can see it involving someone who's coached in Brit hockey before...

Christiansen! Thompson! It's the coaching battle of the season in the third-most-important-cup in British hockey! Feel the excitement!
Yep. It's the British Knockout Cup semi this week, with Coventry and Edinburgh playing back to back. In true Hull Stingrays style, let's try and put a positive spin on this game in the style of a fifties film press release...
Gasp as you watch the league leaders desperately try and pretend they care as much about this competition as all the others!
Scream in surprise (at least if you're a typical Blaze fan) as Edinburgh do what every other team in the league hopes they will and play like bats out of hell for 120 minutes in their hunt for silverware in order to beat the Blaze!
Marvel at the cauldron atmosphere of a half-empty Skydome! (after all, this isn't a final, or one of the big three teams)
Shiver because Murrayfield, while a fine old rink, is still bloody freezing no matter what the time of year or the temperature outside...
I think I've extended that analogy just about as far as I can now...:)
Some of you may be getting the idea that I don't like the KO Cup. This isn't entirely true. I don't like the KO Cup in its current format, which is basically "Challenge Cup without the group stage or two EIHL teams". If the league genuinely made it a proper competition rather than something that looks like it was drawn up on the back of a napkin at a slightly-too-liquid lunch for the EIHL board, then I might change my view. If they can't get the EPL or ENL involved, then scrap it altogether-or at least change the format so every team is involved-something like the old ISL Autumn Cup. Here's an idea, actually...

Two groups. Five teams each, split geographically on a line crossing just north of Nottingham/Sheffield (I know there's a grey area in the fact that five of the ten EIHL teams are in the Coventry-Manchester belt, which makes it tricky to group. Sheffield and Nottingham must be kept apart, however-to keep all the hype down if nothing else). Each team plays every other ONCE-two points for a win, no points for a loss-nothing in between. Two of the games are at home and two away, dictated by ice-time issues etc...Tied games go straight to penalties. Top two teams in each group qualify for a one-leg, winner-takes-all semi at the home of the first team in each group (which plays second in the other group). The final is also one game, winner-takes-all. But it's held at a neutral venue, sometime in December.

Of course the owners would likely never agree to it due to money issues...after all, the two-legged system is a moneyspinner ticket wise. But tell me people wouldn't turn up and the exccitement wouldn't be high for such a sudden-death type competition. By my count, it adds only an extra six games to the season, which is two less than the current KO Cup. And it's far more unpredictable...anyone can win on any night.

Who knows-the EPL teams might even be interested...

"What do you want?" "We want information." "Whose side are you on?" "That would be telling. We want information... information... information..."
With apologies to fans of The Prisoner, and with full expectation of being chased by the modern equivalent of Rover, I'm finally replying to people who've asked just what the fans should be being told that they don't already get. This in my view is reducing things to simplisticness. I'm not going around saying "tell us what so-and-so earns, and what he spends it on"-that's unreasonable and I'm fully aware of that. One thing that is constantly being complained about by fans, however, is the culture of telling people one thing, others another, or saying one thing and then denying it later on (as with the Taylors in the Basingstoke problems, the shenanigans in Cardiff, and any number of other clubs). I talk to a lot of fans about various things hockey-related, and there have been a few occasions over the past year or so where clubs have said one thing, it's come up in conversation and other people (those who should know, since they're directly involved in some way with them) have turned round to me and said "that's rubbish". For example-the general consensus put out is that the Blaze won't look at changing a winning team if they can possibly avoid it. Funny, that, as Dan Tessier was asked just how much he would take to play for the Blaze a few months ago-the only reason he didn't sign was because the answer was in the region of nine hundred quid a week.
Then we have the strange case of the disappearing PR executive. Phil Andrews was brought in after a successful stint at Basingstoke with great fanfare, and promises of new and revolutionary PR and fan stuff. He's seen regularly round the rink for a month or two and then...pop, he's gone. Disappeared into thin air. No mention of anything whatsoever...in a 1984-esque thing there's no mention of him ever existing on the website-I can't find the PR's or anything. Did the Pod People of Wood End take him?
And that's just at my own club-I'm sure there are examples of similar things at other clubs...
Basically-I would like every owner to be open and honest all the time, much like Tomas Enerston is and Neil Morris (edited after I somehow manage to confuse the owners of Manchester and Nottingham-thank-you to the person who put me right) and co are attempting to be at Manchester. A start would be asking every club to tell every other what their total wage spend actually is-and even make this publicly available. After all, footballers have their wages splashed all over the papers every single week, and no-one bats an eyelid. Why not wait until, say, the second week of the season and then post on the EIHL site-these are the declared wage bills (as a whole, not player-by-player) of each EIHL club. That way, there is no chance in hell of anyone breaking the wagecap, because not only are they breaking the rules, but the integrity is called into question...and that's what every businessman and woman values most, right? Once that's up and running, we can go from there...

And finally-if Michael Hicks was a football referee:
You know some hockey referees seem to think that we pay our 13 quid every week to watch them perform? Well...here's what they'd look like if they swapped skates for football studs...(note-this is not a comment on their personal lives. Don't take it as such)

I know this post is a bit heavy going, and kudos to you if you've made it this far...but hopefully theres some food for thought in there..as well as a laugh or two at the end.

Tomorrow will see a review of tonights KO Cup semi, as well as your usual mix of thoughts and comment...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...