Tuesday Thoughts: Strengths, Weaknesses and Speedway

I know what you're thinking. Speedway? We'll come to that later on. First, however...



Know your enemy(ies): With the playoffs beginning this weekend, it's about time for an assessment of each team, I reckon...unleash your inner scout as we size up each contender for the playoff trophy as individuals, and assess just why, at this time of year, every team has a chance...



Coventry: The strengths are obvious...goalscoring, a goalie who stops anything when he's in the mood and a tight defensive unit. The weaknesses, however, are not so, but contrary to what Paul Thompson and friends would like to have you believe, they are there. Give the Blaze the space to play and they'll murder you with speed and slick passing. Sit back and play the trap and they'll find a way around. But go out and hit, check, and bump relentlessly while turning Trevor Koenig's crease into a crowd scene worthy of Piccadilly Circus at rush-hour, and suddenly the gears of the Blaze machine slip just a little-frustrate them and they slip even more. This is why Newcastle have a hundred percent record at the Skydome, and why Edinburgh have a chance with players like Adam Stefishen and Doug Christiansen licking their lips at the thought of a battle which will be won in the dirty war of the low slot and the corners rather than the open spaces of the rink.



Sheffield: Another team with offensive talent to burn, but unlike the Blaze this isn't a team that can be beaten with the sledgehammer approach, thanks to players like Steve Munn and Mark Thomas regularly making the area in front of Jody Lehman's net their own. If anything, the Steeler's main failing is that, if you sit back a little and wait for them to make a mistake, they often will misplace their fifteenth successive pass. However, like the Blaze there are some suspect tempraments-If you can wind up Ryan Finnerty or Steve Munn, then powerplay opportunities will follow-and that's where the goals can come, especially if someone is prepared to take the punishment in front of the Steelers' goal...



Nottingham: The Panthers can score. Often. They come forward relentlessly and zing the puck around looking for that smallest chink in the armour. However, going the other way there are more than a few gaps for the opposition to exploit, particularly if Steve Pelletier has gone on a charge up ice or you can blow past the funereally slow Robert Stancok-and good as Tom Askey is, he can't stop everything...



Belfast: The Giants are a team who should, on paper, be everyone's nightmare opponent. They've got size, smarts, grit and goalscorers to waste. However, reality isn't like that. While the Giants are still a fearsome offensive team when firing, they can often be exploited at the back, particularly if you can get into Stevie Lyle's head with an early goal or shooting high (watch him "duck" at every glove-save if you don't believe me).



Newcastle: The Vipers will hit anything that moves, hard and repeatedly. Their high-pressure game doesn't really have any stand-out offensive or defensive stars (with the possible exception of Ryan Macdonald in goal), but relies on more of a team effort from several very good players-the likes of Todd Jackson, Colin Shields and David Longstaff. Then you have Derek Campbell, who is just as likely to drop the gloves as roof a laser shot from the circles or supply a beautiful pass to a linemate, and the human sandpaper that is Andre Payette. Trouble is, with all of this combustibility, they're easy to frustrate, and if you manage to light the fuses and don't back down, suddenly the powerplay goals start coming...



Cardiff: The Devils are my dark-horse tip for playoff glory. They have equal parts creative skill (Sylvain Deschatelets and Matt Towe), size (Max Birbraer and Phil Hill), scoring (Jason Silverthorn and Matus Petricko) and pure animal intensity (Brad Voth and Neil Francis) on attack. Combine that with the unflappable Jason Stone and the rapier passer that is Tyson Teplitsky providing goals from the blue, and suddenly the Devils look like a seriously tricky opponent. However, this season has very much been a case of "what might have been" for the Devils, with half the team still returning from injury. Rough the Welsh side up a little and, even with Brad Voth ready to dish out some instant justice, they may blanch just a little. Phil Osaer is a goalie who relies very much on confidence, so scoring early may be another way to rattle the Cardiff cage, particularly if you can get a couple and get into his head...

Manchester: The Phoenix are still, for my money, not given the respect they deserve by other fans. Joe Tallari may be grabbing all the headlines but players like Brian Passmore and Luke Stauffacher on offence, Simon Mangos driving forward from the back, and on defence the superb pair of Jeff MacMillan and Scott Basiuk are what make this team tick. Sparkplug Sean Starke may be missing after the recent tragic death of his father from illness (for which the Breakaway sends its condolences), but this will only give his team-mates another reason to go deep into the post-season. However, like Cardiff, they can be rattled when scored on early-peppering Scott Fankhouser and driving the net can cause the odd wobble in the otherwise tight Phoenix defence, particularly if Omar Ennaffati and Simon Mangos have given in to their more attacking impulses...

Edinburgh: And so we come to the Capitals as the last playoff team. Their desire is not in question-you only have to look at the way they fought their way into contention and overhauled Basingstoke to know that. With the power of Adam Stefishen and the goalscoring ability of Colin Hemingway they can play any style, but prefer to play fast and hard, which means that no opposition side will get a chance to rest for a second. Ryan Crane can shoot a mean puck, as can Patrik Luza, while both are good defensively. However, match them hit for hit or shot for shot and they need to rely on JF Perras to keep them in games long enough for Hemingway and co to work their magic at the other end...something which he hasn't always done this season.

So there you go...scouting reports on each of the eight playoff sides. Pick your team's opponent and read up on them...:)

It may not be as easy to get around as a wage cap, but it'll sure as hell make things more interesting...:
Much has been made recently of the new EIHL wage-cap rules, which are expected to be announced shortly. However, the same old complaints keep coming up:

1. It's easy to get around if you know how.
2. The bigger budget teams can still pay for the better players, they'll just have to be more creative to do it under the cap.
3. The owners are never going to enforce it anyway.

So, how do you ensure a competitive league when the owners seem to be sabotaging their own attempts to regulate it based on how much teams are allowed to pay?

I've been following a debate on THF about this, and someone mentioned a "points" system, which set me thinking as it just happens to be used (and used successfully for several years now) in one of my other passions...speedway. (see the link to the title now? :)) Basically, I worked out a way it could be applied to make hockey more competitive and also offset the "budget" advantage which appears to be so prevalent for some teams at the moment, giving the smaller teams more chance to compete. It would work thus...

The EIHL sets a framework of points valuescould rate every player to be signed into say, three to five broad categories of quality, with a points value assigned to each category. My suggestion for the system works like this...

It's actually a very simple system if the league are willing to work out a framework (perhaps based on where the player has spent the majority of their time playing before coming to the UK). Once in the UK you can use performance in that league as a marker.

Every potential signing is given a points value by the league based on the following framework...

• Young player with lower-league/junior experience in Britain: 1 point
• Majority of time in CHL/UHL/college: 2 points
• Experienced Brit (majority of time in lower-league) or young (under 25) Brit with EIHL experience: 3 points
• Experienced Brit (+25) with EIHL experience: 4 points
• Majority of time in ECHL/lower to mid European league (or lower divisions in top European countries): 5 points
• AHL/Top European league: 6 points
• NHL Experience (+25 games): 7 points

In order to make the system fluid and take account of performance, should a player gets +30 goals, +60 points or +91% save percentage in a season, a point gets added to their original rating, and this rating stays with them-if they do it again, another point goes on. If nothing ele it means that EPL players will become more sought after/in with a chance of stepping up in order to make up the rosters, which means more Brits in with a chance of playing at the top level.

Then all you do is set a league-sanctioned limit of, say, 100 cumulative points for a roster (ballpark figure-may be slightly lower), and off you go. It puts more emphasis on recruiting as coaches only have a set amount to play with and thus can't just go out and pay top whack (getting around the cap in whatever way possible) and load up on top talent thanks to a higher budget.

Certainly it would make for a far more interesting and transparent off-season, as all the league has to do is make the point categories publicly available each season, along with players whose rating has changed, and the fans can see exactly where players fit and how close teams are to the maximum...cheating is pretty damn hard to get around when all the information is in the public domain. If it works for speedway, why not hockey?

That's your Tuesday Thoughts dealt with...check back tomorrow for some Midweek Musings and keep keeping your eye on the puck...