Tuesday Thoughts

Hello again, all...

We go straight into a stream-of-consciousness ramble through the news currently passing through British ice-hockey, including a bit of effusive praise of the Phoenix, a belated One Minute Preview and, as promised, the topic of fans doing their media thing being first on the list...

If the TV companies won't do it, we will: One of the major gripes at any level of hockey in Britain is the lack of media attention it gets, particularly compared to other sports which are, supposedly, of a similar popularity, at least spectator-wise (when was the last time you met someone who, say, declared their biggest spectator-sport passion in life to be snooker? Or darts?). Up until now, this has simply been an accepted problem of following hockey...in Britain until a few months ago you had IH-update, the team websites, a few forums and that was about it if you wanted to see anyone talking about your sport.

Compare this to across the pond, where the hockey blog and other types of fan journalism has established itself as a massive part of the experience. It's got to the point now where the NHL have this page as a major part of their website. And celebrities writing for them. Long gone are the days when blogs were considered the haunt of friendless nerds...

And recently, in the UK, similar things have started to happen. You can see by the links page on the right of this very blog that there's a slowly-growing community of British fans who have thought "sod sitting waiting for the clubs to feed us opinion, sod bitching on a forum...we'll write our own". Becky over at Five Minute Major (one of the leaders in the British hockey blogosphere) says it far better than me in this post as to what's changed recently.

Well, now things have taken another step forward-someone is working to get all these sites in one place so there's no excuse for not knowing where they are. Born out of a post on the Phoenix Forum, FanMedia is intended as, if you like, a directory of the "new" voices in British ice-hockey...those of the fan-writers themselves. It's only in its early stages at the moment, but the fact that someone (well, two people, actually-Kate, posting on the Phoenix forum as Lifson, and Ben Knight who also does the Phoenix Podcast) and has managed to get one slowly up and running shows that, clearly, something is happening that perhaps the clubs would be wise to take note of sooner, rather than later.

Keep an eye on this one...it could get interesting...

It's not just me, then...You know that people are listening to you when people start sending "long-time reader"-type emails. Here's one from Kyle Green, who's a Manchester fan (the Breakaway seems to have quite a few readers up in Phoenixland, or maybe they're just the noisiest :)), commenting on yesterday's Double Overtime:

I've been reading your hockey blog for a while now and have noticed, like yourself, that Manchester Phoenix seem to be overlooked when it comes to a possible title push or even just nudging our way into the top 4. If I'm perfectly honest, i never would have expected Phoenix to be looking this good early in the season. I'm guessing the majority of the Blaze, Panthers, Giants and (of course) Steelers organisation and fans would be thinking the same..

Indeed. But the Steelers and Panthers at least, one feels, won't be thinking that any more...:)

...I believe i heard one Dave Simms point out on his friday evening South Yorkshire radio Steelers slot this past week, that Phoenix had 'no chance' of beating the Panthers (you'd think he would wish for EVERYONE to beat the Panthers?!) as Phoenix were a 'one line team'.

I didn't hear that myself-but can believe it coming from Simms. Then again, this is the same group of fans who are trying to pass Andrew Sharp off as a competent hockey player, so you do have to wonder what games they watch...And anyway-for a team that look half the attacking force they were last season now they're without Dan Tessier, that's a bit rich....

the second line (Kyle Bruce, Nathan Ward, Bruce Mulherin) has suddenly caught fire. i'm not getting to carried away however, it is early days of course. I believe that if Phoenix were to break into the top 4 and stay there or thereabouts for the remainder of the season that can only mean a good thing for the league.

Interestingly, Matt (another Phoenix fan and one of the two responsible for Five Minute Major) mentioned in pre-season, when I picked Bruce as a player to watch, that Luke Fulghum (who doesn't even get a mention alongside the Big Two of Beauregard and Hand) was far more worthy of the honour...it just goes to show that, sometimes, even people who disagree can both be right-Fulghum's not exactly a slouch himself...

If the Phoenix were to break into the top four and break the monopoly of the "big" teams, it would be fantastic for the league as a whole, in much the same way Coventry doing similar in the first EIHL season was...it proves to the EIHL detractors (and there are many) that their view of the league as continually dominated by the Arena teams (i.e those with supposedly the most money) is utterly flawed. It won't solve the problems of the EIHL at one shot, but it will at least prove that the top league is moving on from being a league of haves- and have-nots. Slowly.

All is not lost, the BBC (ice hockey rookies that they are) have recongnised the Phoenix potential by stating "Manchester Phoenix continued their Elite League title charge" - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/ice_hockey/7679741.stm

Realistically (at least at the moment) I can't see the Phoenix winning the title-there are still questions in my mind as to how the loss of Beauregard and/or Hand for a few games would affect them. I also, as mentioned earlier this summer, still have a question or two about Stephem Murphy. However, I will now come out and say this...

Manchester will win a trophy this season.

There. If everyone else outside of Phoenixland will still continue to ignore the revolution going on in Altrincham, then fair enough. But don't say I didn't warn you.

Fuel to the fire: According to reports from Edinburgh (the game is also being webcast live, by the way) Basingstoke have arrived with just eleven skaters, with Mark Richardson being unaccounted for through injury or suspension as far as people are aware. Brad Cruikshank is still a Bison player for now. With rumours of Danny Stewart going to Cardiff, though, in place of the underperforming Rod Hinks, you wonder how long this uncertainty will last...

...and bridges over troubled waters: The roles are reversed at EIHL Towers this week, with Cardiff putting in a query and asking for review of the Steelers' Joey Talbot's game penalty for spearing Jay Latulippe on Saturday. Interestingly, though, there's no mention of "vendettas", "dangerous play" or the like, unlike when the boot was on the other foot in an incident involving a certain Brad Voth. It's nice, sometimes, to read match reports where only one line is given to a piece of play that is generally agreed to be one of the ugliest penalties you can get in hockey. One thinks that if the spear had gone the other way, the wailing and gnashing of teeth would be keeping people up at night still...

That's your Tuesday round-up done for another week..tomorrow we'll look at events in Edinburgh as they take on Basingstoke tonight, and maybe even consider the NHL...