Double Overtime, September 28th:

"Your last words to me: "tonight's the night..."
But redemption is harder than it looks"
Aiden: "Die Romantic"

Here we are for another Monday evening, after a weekend that saw distressing rumours, some high calibre hockey, a bit of McMorrow Muppetry and...oh yes, a Steelers-Panthers game too, just in case you missed it (which was considerably easier to do than previous years-both teams have appeared to work out that British hockey as a whole isn't THAT interested in what these two have to snipe at each other after all)...

Let's dive straight in. And, for the first time this season, we'll try and get the Cardiff scores right.

"It's a tragedy, the like of which we've never seen. You must mourn, sir. Don't you see? You must mourn!": That Red Dwarf quote was referring to the end of a few thousand boxes of curry, but this weekend saw the end of something else seemingly inconsequential until you actually notice it's not there any more: Vipers Eastern European star Matej Kralj's scoring streak against British hockey teams is over, after a ten-game run, as he was held pointless in both their 6-3 loss to Coventry and their 2-0 win over Sheffield.

In fairness, though, even the win was somewhat overshadowed...: by a horrific-sounding incident involving Jeff Hutchins. The Steelers player was hit (cleanly, by all accounts) by Ryan Mahrle on Sunday night, and cracked his head hard off the ice as he went down. Reports had him suffering everything from a "mere" concussion to swallowing his tongue and needing an emergency tracheotomy...it appears that these were exagerrated and the Steelers centre, while bruised and reportedly severely concussed after spending 15 minutes unconscious, has now been given the all clear by doctors to leave hospital. Even though Hutchins is not popular with opposition fans as a hockey player, you never want to wish that on a fellow human being. The Breakaway sends best wishes for his recovery...

The reaction is fair enough-but you'd think SOMEONE would have noticed: Somewhat more impressive/worrying is the fact that all four of the other Steelers players on the ice were so keen to go after Mahrle that they reportedly skated straight past the unconscious body of their team-mate in order to do so. Righteous anger or a slight lack of team bonding...you decide.

See-saw goes up..: Four more points for the surging Nottingham Panthers mean that they're giving their fans more than the usual potentially-false hope this season with their 5-2 win in the Hallam Arena on Saturday night and pulling out a gritty win in Hull on Sunday...

See-saw goes down:...conversely, the gloom only deepens for their Sheffield rivals, as dropping attendances and a lacklustre start to the season mean that it's grim up north at the moment...

And, while we're on the subject:...you'd be forgiven, if you're a Blaze fan, for not knowing which team is going to turn up, as the perennial title-chasers from the Skydome once again won one away before losing one at home...

And, in the War of the Muppets: it seems that Sean McMorrow can take the moral high-ground-his Belfast team won 6-2 against Andrew Sharp's Edinburgh, with McMorrow himself reportedly dismantling Sharp in a scrap-there must be footage of this somewhere...

Sheffield and Nottingham-take note: In more Gardiner Cup action, the reports of the Toronto Marlies-Hamilton Bulldogs final are glowing-apparently this is a rivalry built more on hatred than hype thanks to the Toronto/Montreal rivalry of their "affiliated" NHL clubs-and the game well and truly reflected this. And we didn't have to suffer ten days of posturing in the build-up, either.

"They don't give points for artistic impression": One of the quotes of the weekend is at left, in response to a Blaze fan friend of mine bemoaning Cardiff's physical play and classic exhibition of shutdown hockey which saw them beat Coventry 6-4 on Sunday night-it perfectly sums up the way Cardiff won. Ugly, but, judging by the reactions of Devils fans, oh-so-sweet.

Maybe it did calm down a bit after all:: Finally, a quick look at the Cardiff-Hull game on Saturday-a 4-1 win for the Devils which was considerably quieter than the same fixture two weeks ago. Whether it'll stay that way is something we'll see throughout the coming season...

And there you go-there's your weekend reviewed...