Club vs Country...Midweek Musings

So, it's Wednesday, and there's not much happening in the British hockey world beyond the usual complaining about referees, arguments about wage caps and, somewhere, someone saying that the only way British hockey can survive is that if all imports are physically prevented from entering the country and blasting the Elite League with a torrent of such virulent xenophobia that Enoch Powell is wincing in his grave. All in all, a normal day.


Except there's another row rumbling around at the moment-that asking why the EIHL is continuing to play its games despite the GB team being away in Poland in November-a move which will see at least one weekend in which some teams will lose large chunks of their roster and (in some cases) some of their most skilled players. Naturally, fans of the teams most effective are almost uniformly against this, while those "for" it argue that the EIHL would be unpatriotic if it didn't release the players, they should be proud to represent their country and who cares anyway because it's only the Elite League and no-one cares about the Brits when they do play...


Me? I think it's a great idea to keep playing.


Let's look at the teams likely to be most affected: Coventry, Sheffield, Belfast, Nottingham, and to a lesser degree Manchester and Edinburgh, as well as piecemeal players taken from the other teams. That weekend will see some of these teams face each other with only their imports and any Brit not considered good enough or too young to go to Poland-but still making up the numbers. Not to mention the fact that all the "best" Brits, due purely to economic factors, have gravitated towards the team who pay them the most. Suddenly, we have two teams made up mostly of imports and a few token Brits facing each other in games that no-one can predict...a straight shoot-out between imports with a few young Brits brought in to shore up the numbers. And people are complaining about having to pay money to see this...

Hang on a minute. The last time we had a similar template for teams, it was called the Superleague, and 17,000 people once packed into the MEN arena to watch that. How is that suddenly an object of scorn just because the players are paid a little less now, or there's a few less foreign accents on the bench in these games? Aren't imports supposed to be be the only reason the standard of EIHL hockey is what it is? And if the young Brits everyone is so "dedicated" to seeing progress/love to watch don't get a chance to ice in the top league and prove themselves against top opposition with half the players who are being preferred to them away on international duty, just when are they going to? And just when are people going to get to see their "local lads" playing in the top league alongside the imports-the goal they all claim to be the ideal solution? There's no better chance for British kids to get noticed then then...

My view on whether there should be games that weekend in Britain, despite people whinging about their teams being "understrength" thanks to missing the few British players so far settled at the top level, is simple-and it comes mainly from the fact that there will be youngsters getting the chance of taking their places on the teams alongside their import role models and proving that the British kids belong there. And quite frankly, if you're not off with GB, and are not at least thinking of paying just to see if this is the case, then maybe you should get off your self-imposed "understrength = automatically inferior quality product" high horse and change your mind...you might even be glad you did. Win or lose.

As the crowd at the Houston Astrodome chanted to the Bad News Bears....

"Let them play! Let them play!"

On to other tidbits...

CHL: also stands for "Could Hastily Leave": Another player signed from the CHL has decided to go back Stateside after a month of hockey to get himself in shape. After Austin Sutter backed out on playing for Basingstoke before the season even began, Grant Jacobsen has put a 6'3 210lb-sized hole in Manchester's plans by doing the same just six games into the season...citing a "better offer". It would seem, going on thus far, that signing players from the CHL for supposedly lower wages than ECHLers, for this season at least, is turning out to be something of a false economy-it will be interesting to see if these are isolated incidents, the start of a trend, or just two players with a lack of loyalty. It'll be even more interesting to see how the Phoenix react-and just who they'll bring in. I'll now attract the wrath of every Phoenix fan by voicing the thought they're all desperately trying to squash "just how much would it affect them if David Beauregard does the same?"

Edinburgh hockey mourns...: as Glenda Horne, one of Scottish hockey's best known fans and the mother of Caps d-man and GB stalwart Kyle Horne, passed away on Saturday-marked by a two minutes silence at Murrayfield. Condolences from me to Kyle Horne and his family...

I know that's fairly short for a midweek...but tomorrow night will see Round the Rinks and IceTunes, so don't despair too much, and keep keeping your eye on the puck...