Tuesday Factual Frolics...

"So I guess we're back to us, oh cameraman, swing the focus
In case I lost my train of thought, where was it that we last left off?
(Let's pick up, pick up)"
Panic At The Disco: "Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off"

And back we come to factual matters, after yesterday's excursions off into the realms of nostalgia...let's have a look what's going on the the EIHL so far this week...

Greg Wood from Coventry to Manchester: The Phoenix are very lucky...Wood was almost criminally under-used at times last season in the opinion of many Blaze fans after an excellent breakout season in Basingstoke the year before, and will only get better at EPL level...

Patrick Bateman to Belfast: The Giants continue their policy of signing new imports to the country, bringing in this 27-year-old winger from Gwinnett Gladiators of the ECHL to replace Bobby Robins, who's apparently disappearing off to Denmark. He's not bad, judging by his stats from last season...

In related news, the Steelers also had the chance to sign Alex Ovechkin, but decided that Brad Cruikshank could fill the role instead: The latest bit of PR coming out of Sheffield has them turning down Andre Payette in favour of Brad Cruikshank. Which makes sense on a hockey level...but you wonder why they're running around telling people "well, here's this guy who we could have had but didn't". It's like me saying "well, I could have had Angelina Jolie as a girlfriend, but for the fact that there's no chance in hell she'd go out with me...". It just seems a completely pointless press release...although it does link Payette with both Hull and Edinburgh...

Speaking of which...perhaps not pointless but more just amusing...the Steelers have joined the Blaze this season in immediately following a signing with several more press releases of current players telling everyone how great the signings are...although they've perhaps released a classic of unintentional comedy with Jon Phillips' reaction to Cruikshank's return. At first glance all is well and makes sense, right up to when Phillips says this...

""Some clubs just look for a big guy who is tough, they forget that over here you have to be able to skate and play as well. That's where we had the advantage on so many teams last year"

Erm...Jon...that makes sense, but your team willingly paid money to Andrew Sharp last year. Was that just a memory lapse on their part?

Trevor Koenig to Nottingham. Or Sheffield: This is fun...depending on who you believe Trevor Koenig is on his way back from Denmark to either Steelers or Panthers...the theory is that the Steelers have leaked that he's a Panthers target in order that they can then gloat when he becomes a Steeler...

Can we not just have Dave Simms and Gary Moran find a spot on the wall of a neutral venue somewhere, take aim and see whose...erm...liquid waste is projected further up the wall at the beginning of the off-season, and just say that the winner's team is better for the duration of that off-season? All this one-upmanship is getting tiring, and it isn't even June yet.

Luke Fulghum and Jason Robinson to Coventry: This is a growing rumour round here-he'd appear to fit perfectly on a line with Adam Calder and Dan Carlson, and after thirty-four goals last season, there's no doubting the 6', 196lb Colorado Springs native would fit in very nicely on the wing...
Meanwhile, Jason Robinson is also linked with the Blaze as they revamp their defence...the ex-Racer, Viper and Steeler has spent this season in the IHL in America, but would seem to be in the mould of "big, stay-at-home and proven in the EIHL" that the Blaze lacked so sorely last season...

Meanwhile, in the EPL: Telford, Romford and Bracknell are, as medical slang has it, "circling the drain"...they're all still in desperate need of funding and May 15th is the deadline for committing to competing in the league-this one is worth keeping an eye on for the rest of this week...

There you go..that's a quick look round the British hockey world for a Tuesday...