Gains and Losses

"Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock..."

Gwen Stefani: "What You Waiting For?"

"Tricked me once, but I won't let you trick me twice..."

Kelis: "Trick Me".

Before part three of Frozen Dreams, which'll be following tomorrow, let's have a quick look at the news, which has been somewhat neglected on here recently, starting with more signings in Edinburgh, and moving on to problems in Sheffield which couldn't really come at a worse time as the countdown ticks on towards the start of the season..

Capitals sign Martin Cingel and Mark Smith: Edinburgh are slowly building a roster which just might bring a whiff of the glory days back to Murrayfield, depending on their final signings. Their adopted Scot from Slovakia, Martin Cingel, returns for his eighth season in Capitals colours, joined by useful Lithuanian forward Darius Pliskauskas, who returns for his second spell in the Scottish capital and possibly has the best song in the Elite League ("Super-cali-fragilistic, Darius Plis-kau-skas!") just edging out his team-mate's "Cingel Bells"...

Mark Smith, meanwhile, is an ex-CHL defenceman who looks like a strong addition to the Caps' defensive core, even if he may spend the season in the shadow of the very exciting looking Chris Allen in the skilful d-man stakes...

Matus Petricko signs for Vipers:...alongside Michel Robinson in net. Aye well, if they have a defence worth its salt, Robinson should be a just-about-safe pair of hands..and Petricko is a proven player in this league after spells in Newcastle, Cardiff and Nottingham...

Steelers Screwed:...by Eurologix, their title sponsor until a week ago, after the ex-Telford sponsors pulled out without warning. This has caused a spectacular mix of schadenfreude and much hand-wringing on the forums, mainly over how bad it is that it's happened twice. Of course, you get some league zealots on both sides trying to put the "see, people only care when it's a big-league/the EIHL will eat itself now" arguments, which quite frankly are tired, repetitive and if nothing else, bloody boring to read every time anything happens with any club in either league. They're now the Field Electrical Steelers as mentioned last week...

Nope, no typo there:...not the Sheffield Steelers-as officially any semblance to a place-name has been dropped by the Yorkshire club. All I shall say about this, not being a Steelers fan but well aware of the need for an identity for sports teams, is that if Coventry ever become the "insert company here" Blaze, with no mention of my (adopted) home town*, then this blog will suddenly see a lot more fire-and-brimstone

*for those of you who're bothered, I'm half-Kentish, and despite living in Coventry since...well, ever, have something of a southerner's pride for my roots in the Garden of England-more so than the Sky Blue City, if I'm honest...

Speaking of pride...: The Blaze shirt designers appear to have put theirs on the shelf for this season...they're cheap, cluttered and the so-called "anniversary" jersey for the Blaze's 10th year is a (very) cheap Penguins rip-off, with only the fortuitous coincidence of the Pens jersey also being on a base of sky-blue allowing the Blaze PR to claim it's a "Coventry-inspired" jersey. But enough of my ranting-judge for yourself here

And that's a lightning blast through the major news of the past few days..