Round the Rinks...with a difference...

Welcome, one and all, to the last-but-one "normal" Round the Rinks of the season (the playoff quarters will see previews of each match-up rather than team-by-team) and it's a tricky one for me to write, because for several teams, the season is effectively dead until playoff time, at least as far as league play is concerned. At the top, Coventry are champions and Sheffield are, if not nailed-on, at least well in the driving seat for second. In the middle, Cardiff, Manchester and Newcastle are all in the playoffs, with the only question remaining being who their opponents will be (and even those are fairly cut and dried in the case of all but Cardiff and Newcastle, who could face either Nottingham or Belfast depending on results) and at the bottom Hull's season is over, and quite frankly I'm following a fair few Hull fans in simply not being willing to waste my time with them for much longer this season-there's only so many times you can write "Hull are only playing for pride...oh, wait, they've lost twice/they've won and restored a little pride (which we'll no doubt hear about ad nauseam in press releases leading up until next week)" before getting heartily sick of it.

What all this is leading up to is the fact that things change this week-the way I see it there's no point in doing a "team-by-team" breakdown, as the vast majority would read some variety of "team x play team y and team z. With the league position all but decided, team x will be looking to keep a good run going and build up some momentum before the playoffs"

And quite frankly, that's boring, and I'd feel a bit of a cheat were I to simply bang one of those columns out on autopilot...so I decided to focus on the issues that are still undecided and give them their own Round the Rinks in "newspaper article" style...

So what interest is left in the league season beyond the final shakedown of positions (which is all but settled apart from the cases detailed from now on anyway). Well, there's the fast-becoming-epic battle between Basingstoke and Edinburgh for the last playoff place, which took another twist on Wednesday as the Capitals lost 3-0 in Cardiff to keep the Bison in the race. The battle for third is another intriguing one-Nottingham and Belfast keep switching places in the battle for the bronze medal...Manchester also have an outside chance of sixth should they beat Cardiff and win all their remaining games, with the Devils losing theirs. However, with apologies to the Phoenix and Devils fans, due to the unlikeliness of this happening (Phoenix could win all their remaining games but I can't see the Devils losing all theirs), we're leaving that battle on one side...

Let's deal with the playoff race first. The Bison Nine only have one league game this weekend (Saturday night is reserved for a challenge game against Bracknell which seems to be nothing more than an excuse for both teams to relax and take a night off their respective league action). It's away at the same Coventry team who they beat in the BKO Cup final on Wednesday, and with the Blaze aiming to avenge the defeat they suffered and definitely not fancying being beaten on home ice (which would give the Bison a massive psychological boost going into Tuesday's second leg of the final). Meanwhile, the Capitals face a tough weekend trip to Manchester in their only game of the weekend as 7th and 8th (at the moment) face each other. With the Phoenix uncatchable in 7th and three games left, a win is vital, and will all but put the nail in the coffin of the Bison's playoff hopes should the Caps win and the Bison lose in Coventry.

Meanwhile...

In the battle for third place (subtitled-the battle for Mike Ellis's future if Neil Black is stupid enough to let his control-freakery rob him of the best coach the Panthers have had in a long while...) Nottingham face Hull and Sheffield, while Belfast also face the Steelers as well as Newcastle, both away. At first glance, Nottingham have the better weekend. However, now that Hull have seemingly finally decided to play a little and actually try and win games, the Giants would like nothing better than the "not-so-deadly" Stingrays to actually find themselves some offence in the same way they did against Manchester last week, and Steelers would fancy nothing better than putting the boot into their rivals one last time at the Hallam Arena...With the Vipers having nothing more to play for than personal pride and their paychecks (the second of which they receive win or lose, whether they try and avoid injury or not), the Giants have two games in which they can go a long way to give Ed Courtenay a decent leaving present in his last league campaign in Britain...

So there you have it-the games to keep an eye on are...

Saturday:
Sheffield v Belfast
Nottingham v Hull

Sunday:
Manchester v Edinburgh
Coventry v Basingstoke
Belfast v Newcastle

All of the others are, if I'm honest, little more than dead rubbers of no interest unless you happen to be a fan of the team involved (and, in the case of Newcastle/Coventry, even that's pushing it a little).

So there you are...a Round the Rinks with a difference. As always, keep keeping your eye on the puck...