My skin would fall, from
Off my bones and run away from here..."
That weekend was something of a let-down, wasn't it? At least on the ice...off it the Breakaway and Five Minute Major finally met in person, and myself, Matt and Becky spent most of the Coventry-Belfast game conversing on all things hockey...some of the fruits of which you can read in this week's editions...let's get on with the last league Double Overtime of 2008/09...
Could it have been the first game that saw both teams trying to lose?: After Saturday's games, there was a text floating around, allegedly from a fairly senior Hull player with a famous father to a Blaze official, suggesting that the Stingrays were easing off against Edinburgh on Sunday (Edinburgh's win on Saturday against Manchester having ended Hull's season and taken away the potential showdown for eighth place) in order to allow the Caps to win and leapfrog Newcastle into seventh, thus gaining them a match-up against Coventry in the playoffs rather than Sheffield. However, the Vipers had allegedly agreed to this in advance, due to believing they had more chance of beating the Steelers with their style of play.
Meanwhile, Coventry, allegedly, would have preferred to play Newcastle as the Blaze seem to have the Vipers' number somewhat this season, whereas they've struggled recently against the Capitals. And, coincidentally, Blaze and Vipers faced each other on Sunday night.
As it happened, a Vipers win means that the Blaze will be the happiest-however, the very fact that people are openly talking about such "arrangements" in order that teams can effectively pick and choose their playoff matches, however valid the reasons and whether they happen or not (which is something that we'll never know for sure), leaves a little bit of an alarm bell ringing in my mind.
Speaking of alarm bells: Sunday night in Manchester saw the Phoenix finish the game with one fit defenceman after a rash of injuries, many of them caused by hits that it would probably be best to call "questionab;e" from Belfast. Interestingly, the Giants were similarly gritty on Saturday against Coventry, with a VERY questionable check from Dave Phillips (head-high from behind on Dan Carlson-luckily the Blaze forward was unhurt but severely unimpressed) being just one of many borderline plays from the Giants...by all accounts things were far worse up north in a game which doubled as cup-final first leg (with the 3-3 score in regulation counting) and league fixture (which the Phoenix took 4-3 in OT).
Surely there are less disreputable ways to soften up an opposition team in a cup final?
Is it getting warm in here?:...because, with the playoffs looming, Cardiff have suddenly caught fire. A 3-0 win against Nottingham following a 7-1 thumping of Hull was just the latest weekend in a lengthening run of victories and means that the Devils go into the playoffs in top form...the 123 PIM's shared out against Nottingham on Sunday proves that they are not afraid to defend each other either-a quality sorely needed at this time of year...Given their history of being perennial bridesmaids at playoff weekend time, all of South Wales' hockey fraternity will be hoping that this is the year that the Devils finally turn promise into fruition...
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye...: to Basingstoke and Hull, who are now done for the season and have no matters more pressing than planning their team end-of-season lash-up to occupy their hockey consciousnesses until the off-season transfers begin. Basingstoke's season died as, for the most part, it had lived-in penury and being outclassed by superior opponents. When you're playing Sheffield on the final weekend of the season, and have lost 25 on the bounce, then you know it's been a bad season...the Bison extending their record to 27 was almost inevitable.
At least Hull made a fight of it...
I appreciate this is a very short post, but with Saturday's results ensuring that there would be no final-day showdown for a playoff spot but simply teams playing out their fixtures (with, of course, the notable exception of Manchester and Belfast's cup final)...it ends like the league season itself..."not with a bang, but a whimper"
Bring on the playoffs...
