Scenes from a Season part II...

I know. It's not Saturday afternoon. But I did warn you that we were going onto a summer schedule. I apologise profusely, though. Be warned that from now on the blog may not be updated until mid/late evening on days there is a post, thanks to me being back in the working world full time as opposed to part-time. Anyway-on we go, playing catch-up...

Lyrically blessed...First of all, let's finish off the EIHL season review with the other five teams...

Hull Stingrays:
"Just remember the first step in forgetting Is destroying all the evidence."
Alexisonfire: ".44 Calibre Love Letter"
This season was a nightmare from start to finish for the Humbersiders-Rick Strachan's style of play was vilified by home and away fans alike throughout the league, there were rumours it was causing unrest in the dressing room (given credence by Paul Cabana's departure despite being top-scorer for the team at the time) and watching them became a hockey version of the Chinese Water Torture as the Stingrays slipped to the bottom of the EIHL ocean and then began to dig themselves into the sand. The low point was probably a 10-1 thumping from Sheffield just a week after Rick Strachan had called for his troops to show more battling spirit, but there were plenty more in a season the Stingray's faithful will want to forget pretty quickly. That's if they return at all, judging by alarmingly low season-ticket sales thus far...


Manchester Phoenix:
"Don’t hold me up now,I can stand my own ground,I don’t need your help now..."
Rise Against: "Prayer of the Refugee"
The Phoenix proved they belong in this league this season before finishing with an epic playoff quarter-final in which they just lost out to Sheffield, thanks to the evergreen Tony Hand, the quietly effective Brian Passmore (who a Manchester fan described as having luck so bad in front of goal that he "must have been an axe-murderer in a previous life" when explaining the lopsided stats of the American) and Jeff MacMillan, the simple grit of Brett Clouthier, and the mercurial Joe Tallari. With Tallari gone to Italy, the Phoenix faithful will need to find goals from somewhere else next season, but Hand has a habit of pulling rough diamonds out of his hat (Luke Stauffacher, anyone?). The future is rosy in Altrincham...

Newcastle Vipers
"I hope to be the biggest disappointment"
From Autumn to Ashes: "The Funny Thing About Being Pistol-Whipped Is..."
Poor old Vipers. Top for a week, then Rob Wilson de-rails their season with one ill-placed quote that angered the hockey gods and condemned them to a season of mediocrity, as well as making a rod for his own back that many people happily beat him with the moment the Vipers began to fall. Despite being the only team to have a 100% record at the Skydome (a fact which should make the fans of the league pause for thought when they say the Tynesiders are nothing but a goon team) there's no better way of summing up the season than that quote...one more time, Mr Wilson...
"We (Newcastle) deserve to be where we are"...
Looking at this season, I couldn't have summed it up better myself.

Nottingham Panthers
"She looks like the real thing...She tastes like the real thing...It wears me out..."
Radiohead: "Fake Plastic Trees"
Another season, another Panthers team which flattered to deceive. Despite Tom Askey finally giving the Cats the solid netminder they've needed for the past three seasons, the Challenge Cup victory in Sheffield masked another season in which the expensively-assembled Midlanders went out of the playoffs before the weekend at their home rink and finished nowhere in the league. Mike Ellis has shown that he can get the Panthers going where it's needed, but surely the curse of 1956 will have to be lifted soon, otherwise they might as well call themselves the Nottingham Cubs...

Sheffield Steelers:
"Climbing on the way up, Sizing up the competition, Waiting for the right time..."
From Autumn To Ashes: "Lilacs and Lolita"
The Steelers are a scary team. You can dominate them once, you can gain a lead on them, but they just keep plugging away, and the moment you ease off, they strike. A game-plan which saw them cement second in the league this season before taking a deserved playoff win, sparked by Dan Tessier and the awesome Steve Munn-a trophy is well-earned in Steelerland this season. Next season, however, they'll want the league as well...

Fourth will do:...but it could have been so much better. GB did the easy bit, beating Holland by eight goals to one on Friday, but couldn't beat Kazakhstan on Saturday, going down three-one in a potential silver-medal game. As it happened, the medal would have been bronze instead due to other results, but fourth place with a young team is no disgrace for the Lions. With another season in the EIHL under their belts next time round, there's many a reason to be optimistic about Britain's chances in a World Championship for the first time in a long while by the time 2009 comes around...all the Lions need is for the defence to tighten up and hope that the forwards sharpen up their finishing next time round...with a lot of shots on GB to not a lot on the opposition being the general form of games, that trend is clearly one which needs to be reversed if there is to be progression to the next level...

Rumourwatch: Not that many new (credible) ones floating around apart from "Ben O'Connor to replace James Pease at Coventry" which is believed to be being announced this week as a done deal-it's been around the Blaze forums for a few weeks. In the EPL there's plenty, but most of them are re-signings rather than actual moves, although Dwayne Newman is upping sticks and landing in beautiful Chelmsford, which is a pleasant rumour simply for the fact that it appears to support the Chieftains actually existing at EPL level next season after some uncertainty recently....

That's your update for today...next one to come midweek (likely Wednesday night)-as I am taking part in the Beth Davis Festival of Hockey at the Skydome tomorrow night-all Coventry teams are represented and the fun starts at 6:30 pm...

Until next time, keep keeping your eye on the puck...

Scenes from a Season

Yes, that's a very pretentious title, and yes, this is very late on Thursday evening...but the Breakaway, like the British leagues, is now going onto its summer schedule thanks to other stuff (like earning money) grabbing its four-month window to be more important than hockey with both hands-don't despair though. You'll still be getting the same Breakaway you've come to know and (in probably no cases) love-the difference is you'll now only be getting two or three doses a week as opposed to one a day-at least until the run-up to the new season-and the postings may be somewhat shorter at times, starting with this somewhat rushed one- And, naturally, we shall finish the daily posts with a two-part look back at the season that was, team by team-using my signature style of carefully-chosen song-lyrics for each one...

Basingstoke Bison:
"The worst is over...You can have the best of me"
The Starting Line: "Best Of Me"
After a season which started so badly and nearly ended with a trophy, you can forgive the Bison fans for needing an off-season break. Money troubles nearly killed the Herd in September, before Tomas Enerston rode in on his white horse and saved the day. Real progress has been made both on and off the ice in Hampshire this season, with the heroics of the famous Bison Ten going down in British hockey lore, and crowds going up and up ever since Christmas. Now, with Ryan Aldridge, top scorer Greg Chambers and club captain Brad Cruikshank already signed for the new season (Chambers turning down Coventry among others in order to do so) the summer can be a restful one for fans of hockey down south, as they look forward to a promising autumn...

Belfast Giants
"Everythings all right up here...When I come down...Ill be coming home next year"
Foo Fighters: "Next Year"
It could be said the Giants took a year off this season, as their roster promised so much but ultimately fell short when the pressure was really on. Losing top player and their coach in the same man (Ed Courtenay) won't have helped, but already new coach Steve Thornton has made a splash in the transfer market, re-signing Colin Shields and tempting Dave Phillips away from his hometown Hull team to ensure that whatever happens, the Odyssey will have two of the top British players calling it home ice. The Giants, as the song lyric suggests, will be back...

Cardiff Devils
"I could've been a contender I could've been a someone...I could've been the heavyweight champion of the world..."
Reverend and the Makers: "Heavyweight Champion of the World"
But for injuries, the Devils would have won several trophies this season. That's something I firmly believe-their 16-game winning streak before the injuries hit shows that they had the quality. And so the 2007/08 season can be summed up in two words for the South Wales side, and they are, as you might have expected, "what if....?"

Coventry Blaze
"Summertime...and the living is easy..."
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald: "Summertime" (from "Porgy and Bess")
Two trophies will take the sting out of losing a third. Not that much-but they will. And, let's be honest, the Blaze never really looked like losing the title from around about the time they returned from the Continental Cup. Hiccups in the Challenge Cup were brushed aside as they romped to the league title and ensured another lazy, contented summer for Warwickshire hockey fans. However, with the squad rumoured to be decimated this off-season, and linchpin of the team Neal Martin already gone, both Blaze fans and the opposition alike will be watching Paul Thompson hard this off-season to see whether he can work his magic yet again...

Edinburgh Capitals
"Just when I thought our chance had passed...You go and save the best for last"
Vanessa Williams: "Save the Best For Last"
A cheesy song, yes, but it sums up the Caps' season beautifully. After bumping along in ninth place for the majority of the season, pulling off a shock result here and there but never sustaining form long enough to mount a serious charge up the table, the Scots, led by the mercurial Colin Hemingway, sneaked into the playoffs by the back door with a beautifully-timed run of form which caught the Basingstoke Bison just as they lost theirs at the end of a tiring season. Pushing the Blaze all the way in the playoff quarters is an indication that top-flight hockey at Murrayfield is well and truly back under Scott Neil and Doug Christiansen, and fans north of the border will be getting just a scent of the old Racers' glory days in their nostrils as they hope the Caps can improve over this off-season...

There you go. I know it's short, but with my time being well and truly at a premium at the moment I'm grateful I could get that much on. Part II will be coming on Saturday afternoon, as well as a look at the GB-Netherlands game, which will be taking place on Friday evening with the British Lions still in the hunt for at least a silver medal...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...