Double Overtime, March 16th

And so we go into another week as the league season slowly dies a death...if you're looking for games that mean something this week, then focus your attention on those involving Belfast and Manchester, who contest the second leg of both cup finals in the next ten days, or Edinburgh and Hull, as their Crazy Eighth battle to steal the last playoff place from under the nose of the other reaches a climax this coming weekend. However, that's all to come-for now we look back at a weekend that saw trophies presented, banners raised, and both Crazy Eight teams ramp up the ante...

It seems that the fashion police were on holiday this week: First of all, a quick mention of the Sheffield Steelers fans, who were joined at the Hallam Arena on Sunday with the Monteith Bowl (which, having been presented the night before, was passed round the crowd so every fan got the chance to hold it), and, amongst other things, a living English breakfast, several wizards, a bunch of garden gnomes and possibly even a sheep or two. No, honestly. You can see them after the game highlights, briefly...

This was thanks to their opposition, the Cardiff Devils, whose fans had their annual end-of-season fancy-dress away trip, and, for their sins, were immortalised for posterity by SteelersTV...although personally the funniest bit of that clip for me is Rob Dowd desperately hunting around for a stepladder in an attempt to get high enough to punch Doug MacIver earlier on in the clip...

And so they fade away: Basingstoke are now on one of the longest loss streaks in British hockey history, as another weekend passes without a win, with an aggregate score of 15-2 in the two losses. This weekend it was Hull and Manchester doing the damage, 8-1 and 7-1 respectively, to Kevin Reiter's GAA...the Silverdome deserves far better than this.

Not the best way to give your fans hope, lads: Belfast, meanwhile, ended their home league season with a pair of defeats, as first Nottingham and then Coventry took the points from the Odyssey in the scramble for second spot behind Sheffield-the Giants, too, are a team who appear to be easing off briefly to catch their collective breath for a full-tilt charge at the playoffs...that wouldn't have made the losses any easier to take, though.

Speaking of fans losing hope..: The Skydome is not that nice a place to be at the moment, despite the Blaze appearing to be sitting fairly pretty in the league standings-mainly because the fanbase as a collective appear to have, if not turned against, at least turned slightly away from their team this season-you only have to read the comments on the forums to see that the final horn on next Sunday's game against Newcastle can't come soon enough for many. Even with the playoffs traditionally renewing hope somewhat, there is a consensus of opinion among their own crowd that the Blaze dragon is ripe for slaying by their playoff opponents, whoever they might be-I can't remember the last time a Skydome team was viewed with such a mixture of support underlaid by disappointment. Oh, yes I can-the 05/06 season...

It's crazy to think that a team in the top four could be unpopular with a lot of its own fans, but this, rightly or wrongly, is how things are for many in Coventry...failiure, it seems, is simply not an option...

(for the record, I wish that people would at least wait until the end of the season-after all, however unlikely you may think it is, Blaze fans, the PO trophy is still out there to be won...)

Meanwhile, in the middle of the pile..: ...Cardiff are finishing strongly, taking another four point weekend against Hull and Sheffield, while Newcastle settled for just two after beating Manchester on Sunday night following their loss to Sheffield on Saturday. Some measure of the importance placed on the game by the Steelers, however, can be gathered by the fact that Andrew Sharp was on the top-line all game, while Becky of our friends at Five Minute Major comments that Sunday's game against Manchester was "'ve never seen two teams care so little about the outcome of a game... Dullest. Game. Ever.". Which should tell you something...

They're going up in the world...last year it was just an auction...: In a masterpiece (ahem) of marketing, the Elite League have once again announced that there will be special "playoff" shirts produced for all teams this year, along with auctions of the puck used in every goal scored in the three EIHL games at the playoff weekend. Just like last year. However, clearly someone at EIHL Towers realises that, in these recession-hit times, even selling the same stuff as last year needs to be presented as something special to get people to part with cash...

So, I present to you a fine example of media sleight-of-hand...here's the only EIHL press-release announcing playoff weekend I could find for 2008...note the matter-of-factness...

And here's the one announcing the shirt auction (yes, that's the same format and stuff for sale as they ran for the All-Star Game) for 2009. Whoa, Nelly...did you know that stuff you bought in an auction was a "prize" and not a "purchase"?

Anyway, enough of my cynicism...over to Al Pacino for the final part of today's post...

"The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second.
On this team we fight for that inch.
On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch.
Because we know when we add up all those inches, that's gonna make the f-ing difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!"
Coach D'Amato's last speech, from "Any Given Sunday"

Both Hull and Edinburgh are now in the "Any Given Sunday" Zone of the season...and over the weekend both teams won one and lost one, meaning that Edinburgh still hold the advantage going into the final weekend of the season. Judging by the way the Caps played in Coventry on Sunday, it seems that these words were ringing in their heads on every shift-a fact equally true of Hull as they not only beat Basingstoke, but ripped them to shreds, led by Jeff Glowa...Next Sunday's game when the two meet in Hull could be the hottest ticket of the weekend. if not one of the hottest of the season...

Speaking of hot tickets-check back tomorrow, when we'll be running the rule, chapter and verse, over Belfast and Manchester's meeting in the CC Final...

And there you go-that's your weekend previewed...