Careful What You Wish For...

Typical EIHL. I slag them off for not providing anything to talk about and suddenly there's an absolute raft of new news for us to consider. Let's look at the happenings hot (well, slightly warm) off the presses first, before a bit of a plug for a kindred spirit...

Giants sign even more: Yes, they're all returnees and possibly not quite as exciting as new signings, but the three players announced today by Belfast are all vital pieces of the jigsaw in Northern Ireland. Stevie Lyle returns in goal, which isn't a bad move because a) he's the GB number 1 and b) it means that there'll be ten imports in front of him, and one of them won't be Ed Courtenay, which is an advantage all round for the Giants defence. Shane Johnson returns for yet another season at the Odyssey after making his Giants debut round about the time dinosaurs still roamed outside the rink, while, towards the other end of the age spectrum, Graeme Walton joins him on d for another season. Walton is the best of these three signings in my opinion-a big, steady, British d-man who doesn't score many points and is thus far under-rated by many, but is key to his unit, as he can easily step into a number 4 d-man role and allow the Giants to go with two imports on d should they so wish, thanks to the signing of Dave Phillips to join the Brit contingent...this is of course assuming that Steve Thornton believes Phillips is ready to become a top-tier d-man at the age of 21-his form for Hull would suggest so...

Steelers re-sign Finnerty: Damn. It appears the Steelers (or more specifically Dave Matsos) has broken the habit of many Elite League coaches and put players who are key to his team over simply signing the top ones back first-Ryan Finnerty is one of Sheffield's unsung heroes. Tessier, Talbot and Tait get all the press for the goals they score-however, there are few players in the league loved more by their home crowd (except when he takes the odd stupid penalty) and hated by the opposition than the feisty Albertan centre, who is the glue that holds the Steelers' second line together. He'd walk into any team in the league, and after being one of the players who were crucial in the Yorkshire club's playoff victory this season, he's a huge early capture for Matsos and his team...

Rules Rumpus Revisited: Well, it's nice to see that someone is happy with the new Elite Rules...the thing that worries me is that a) it's the owner of the club who were simply awful at times last season, finished bottom, and are one of the clubs gaining an advantage, so they're hardly going to be unhappy, and b) the main foundation of his happiness is the supposed "15 point penalty" which will be imposed on those breaking the cap. So, let's use a hypothetical example (this is not an accusation of wrongdoing up until this point, by the way)...

Nottingham (whose owner has already publicly stated that the cap is worthless) break the higher wagecap. Dock them 15 points? On the surface, easy decision. However, suddenly the Panthers turn round and go "Yeah, but Sheffield are doing it too, and so are Coventry, look!" Now you have the three most powerful members of the EIHL board being accused of breaking their own rules. Are you really going to tell me that the owners are then going to go "alright, fair cop-chop our points and we'll fall down the table"?. Or cut a player to get underneath it?

Are they fudge. There'll be a long drawn-out discussion of "this is under the cap, this isn't." "But we didn't agree that at the start of the season...you're just out to get us." "Ah, but you're paying one player 2,500 quid a week!" "Yes, but his wife works for us too, and you never said that counted"...Suddenly the league dissolves in in-fighting as those non-lawbreakers either band against the dodgy teams or keep their heads down to avoid causing a split. Or, in the worst case, the teams branded as cheats say "fine, we'll go and play somewhere else" and we have a situation much like that created by the demise of the old Superleague.

At the moment, all my cynical soul can see from these new rules is creative accounting suddenly becoming as important to a league title as the team on the ice, because with the league being the way it is and few daring to challenge the big four, breaking the wage-cap is not as much a crime as being seen to break the cap. And as we all know, there are a myriad ways to get around it if all that the cap is considering is the wages placed on the balance sheet...especially if the cap is nothing more than a "gentleman's agreement". The only way forward is to chop the cap completely (which could lead to teams folding in an ISL-style situation) or make it unbreakable by sticking EVERYTHING underneath it-perhaps saying "teams can only offer players a set number of uni places before they start being counted under the cap" or "bonuses are counted within a weekly wage". In fact, reforming the wage-cap is a whole other topic.

And finally, a shameless plug...But not for anything to do with me. Regular readers of this blog will have read (and doubtless enjoyed) the comments of Matt and Becky, particularly on all things Phoenix-related. Well, they've not started up their own blog, and having read the first few posts, it's looking like a good one. Five Minute Major is its name, and I'm already considering lobbying to turn the Greater Manchester Hockey League into a nationwide one...it's an excellent addition to the slowly-growing sphere of British hockey blogs..They're inviting people to take part as well...so feel free :)

That's all for this Tuesday...keep keeping your eye on the puck, now...