Rally around the table
If you want to just argue out
The last scenes of us"
Fightstar: "Paint Your Target"
The Elite League is in trouble. And this time, it's fact. There are documents doing the rounds on all the forums showing that the company that owns it haven't filed any accounts since they took the league over. If they don't file them this time round, then the company gets wound up, and shut down.
Meanwhile, we have Newcastle fans being told that, if they don't travel with their team to Whitley Bay, in the numbers of 1500 at least, then the Vipers won't survive. We have Edinburgh's owner, Scott Neil, sending out a press release basically admitting that the Elite League is becoming more and more expensive. And we even have Todd Dutiaume, Fife's coach, admitting that the Flyers should be playing at a far higher level than that of the SNL, except for the fact that they don't want to join such an unwelcoming and complicated league...
British hockey in its current form, in any league form, is unworkable. And it's nothing to do with import limits, Brits' wages, wage-caps or lack of them, or even the lack of the junior systems.
It's about pure human ego.
We are constantly told that those in power have the best interests of the sport at heart, That it's always somebody else's fault that the EPL and EIHL can't mix, or that the clubs don't talk, or that no-one can agree on import limits.
Bollocks. It's the fault of every single owner. GM and, for all we know, tea lady in the sport. Equally.
I know that I'm only seeing this from the viewpoint of a slightly-jaundiced fan, but it seems to me that any time you get something like this happen, there seems to be far less time spent on actually working out a solution then there is in saying whose fault it is that one wasn't found. Sarky press releases, claims of misplaced pride, and God only knows what else-in fact sometimes you think that the only person who hasn't been blamed for negotiations breaking down is, well, Brad Voth...
Maybe what the top league in Britain needs is what's coming-a meltdown.Maybe the fact that the top league in the country is seemingly about to go up Brown-Stuff Creek without a paddle, yet again, and most likely leave the biggest clubs in Britain in serious danger of being without a league to play in (you can't seriously see them accepting a drop to the EPL given the Arctic relations between the two of them, can you?) would be the best thing to make those running our sport realise that you don't just run a hockey team for the ego boost, or volunteer to be on the governing committee in the hope of getting hold of a free junket or two...you do it because you want to keep the sport which is a massive part of thousands of people's lives running in a way that doesn't make even hockey's most ardent fans think the off-ice side of British hockey is an absolute, genuine rib-tickler of a bloody great joke...
Now for the weekend preview:
SATURDAY
Hull v Coventry: A one goal defeat in the Skydome last time these two met and another new import coming in on defence for Hull means that this could be a close one, especially as both teams, for different reasons, need to win, and win convincingly...
Belfast v Nottingham: This is a close one...and should be a hell of a game to watch on GiantsTV-two teams who have already proven themselves to be offensive powerhouses, the Giants doing so only last week, in fact, meeting in a run-and-gun battle which will see two very tired goalies by the end of it...
Cardiff v Newcastle: Don't expect pretty hockey in this one. That's more likely to be over in Belfast. This game will be all about which team can work the hardest. And frankly, at the moment, until the final hooter goes, it's a toss-up.
Sheffield v Edinburgh: Half a team plays half-awake, as injury-hit Edinburgh play a Steelers team who, quite frankly, haven't reached their potential this season. They have another chance this weekend to convince their fans that maybe, an injection of new blood is all they needed.
SUNDAY
Nottingham v Cardiff: Revenge will be the only thing on the Panthers' minds after their 6-2 drubbing at the hands of the Devils last week. Cardiff, on the other hand, will happily settle for "same old, same old" this time round...
Coventry v Sheffield: The Skydome could be a warm place this Sunday. Coventry v Sheffield is always a crowd-puller if not a crowd-pleaser, and this game should be a tight, hotly-contested addition to that group...especially with two fervent sets of fans going head-to-head off the ice as well as two fiercely-competitive coaches on it...
Edinburgh v Hull: The battle of the nearly-men takes off again-"nearly" in the sense that both of them are perhaps one player short, still, of challenging the big boys based on the early evidence, but the scrap will be all the more ferocious as both teams try to scramble over each other on the way up...
Newcastle v Belfast: This game is a classic example of the aristocrats versus the blue-collar, at least in styles of play. On the surface saying that the Vipers can win this is about as clever as, say, a racist attempting to defend his beliefs on Question Time. However, this is not the Vipers team of old, and the Giants, for all their razzle-dazzle, are vulnerable...
And there's your weekend preview...
