Pucks, Half-Truths, and Stick Tape

"Beneath the concrete there’s a sound...a muffled cry below the ground
There is a poison in the air...a mix of chemicals and fear
Mama, I've just hunches, I’m not sure what they mean..."
Maximo Park: "Our Velocity"

It's amazing how even the merest mention of money can polarise British hockey...after Wednesday's post, the hare of speculation is off and running, chased hard by the hounds...it's not taken long for the denials to come loud and long in the forum world, with Wednesday's mention of events in Northern Ireland being dismissed as "made-up", "overblown" and my personal favourite..."chav rubbish".

However, along with the slings and arrows have also come a few hints of truth...certainly there are many in British hockey forum-land wondering if it's possible to protest too much, and exactly what is going on, if anything, behind the calm facade of the Odyssey.

I should state once again that anything further is not fact unless clearly presented as such-however, it seems that the "Giants owing money" rumour may have some foundation-the Breakaway has heard a whisper that, in tthe course of fixture arrangements last season, there may have seen promises made to that seemingly weren't kept, leaving other teams out of pocket.
Further, it seems that the dates on several occations, at least those on the "other" side of the Irish Sea, were arranged without any consultation between the clubs involved, with no room for maneouvre, with travel arrangements made by the Giants in order to make them possible. However, despite promising to take care of the expense, the money reportedly never appeared.

This one could run a while...

Sharks in the Water

"Baby, there's a shark in the water
There's something underneath my bed"...
V.V Brown: "Shark In the Water"

Interestingly, the rumours floating round about Belfast's potential financial problems, as mentioned in yesterday's post, have taken on a life of their own. After yesterday's rumours of "cost-cutting" appeared to be substantiated by those far closer to the Giants on this Kingdom Of the Giants thread (you need to be registered to view, but the basic gist of it is that several posters have come out appearing to confirm that cuts have been made within the Giants office recently), the Breakaway has now heard whispers from several areas that one organisation within British hockey has not received money it was promised by the Giants last season, despite waiting for several months.

Now, I should point out that, being a mere fan, with no connection to the Giants organisation, and thus no access to either the Giants' accounts or the league's dealings, I'm not sure of the veracity of this, and am presenting it as nothing more than a rumour....however, once again this information has come from a reliable source within the parties concerned.

Make of it what you will...

A Dance To The Music Of Time...

"Out here, the birds don't sing
Out here, the fields don't grow
Out here, the bells don't ring...
And the good girls die"
The Killers: "A Dustland Fairytale"

I'm really starting to despise summer now, with a passion...simply because the burning hockeyless wasteland of each day seems without end (there's only so long you can lie on a beach, particularly if, like me, you have ice and snow in your soul and prefer the velvety inky blackness of midwinter evenings to the relentless, glaring glow of midsummer), the weekend nights, whatever you're doing, still miss the excitement of game time, the news comes in dribs and drabs, and rumours and half-truths are about as fun as it gets...

But rumours and half truths are better than nothing-there's even some genuine news in there, so as we continue to dance aimlessly and often drunkenly through summer with nothing more than the odd crumb of speculation to sustain our hockey appetites, let's have a look at it before departing into the realms of wild speculation and, as the title hints at, Icetunes returns with a few music gems that can take away the sting of hockeyless nights...as well as provide a bloody good accompaniment to anything else you may be doing...


A Brit Abroad: Let's start with perhaps the biggest news for British ice hockey as a whole. After being invited to the Chicago Blackhawks' prospect camp recently, Belfast d-man Dave Phillips, considered as one of British hockey's brightest home-grown talents, has been signed on a two-way between Rockford Icehogs (AHL) and the ECHL, with the potential to make the next step up now more than just a distant dream...much as I despised him when he played for Belfast, good on him.

Trouble is, Belfast are now left with a massive hole at the back, with Phillips being one of their top four defencemen and all the import slots now filled back there, either Graeme Walton will have to step up a level or there will need to be some readjustment in the Giants' season plan...

But then, at least they'll save on the wages: However, it could be questioned whether the Giants will sign a new player at all, with rumours from the Northern Irish capital pointing to light purses in the Giants camp and desperate measures, up to and including quietly "re-organising" their staff, being taken to make sure their (exciting-looking) roster will actually be seen on British ice. Obviously, we hear such rumours every single season, but this one will warrant watching closely...

The EPL doesn't know what's coming: Andre Payette, everyone's favourite pantomime villain, has been strongly linked with Manchester recently by sources in both Newcastle and Manchester-if he's allowed to play rather than expected to perform pantomime antics such as he was in a Vipers shirt, then he could dominate the EPL in the power-forward stakes...it will be extremely interesting to see if this one comes off.

As if the Skydome boards weren't rickety enough already...: they'll now have to contend with the impacts of bodies placed there by Jason Robinson-the ex-London Racer, Newcastle Viper and Sheffield Steeler, who isn't exactly shy when it comes to introducing opposition players to the plexi with extreme prejudice, is the Blaze's final import signing, returning from the IHL to provide the Skydome side with some muscle on the blue-and a more-than-useful enforcing element to his game also.

Meanwhile, up north...: Defence is the watchword, with Hull, Newcastle and Edinburgh all adding players new to the UK to their defensive strength recently. Ryan Jorde joins the Stingrays from the IHL, as well as Stephen Burns from the CHL, Jerramie Domish (something of a pocket battleship at 5'9 and 200lbs) heads to the Vipers from the AHL, and Michael Beynon, who has been linked with an unnamed EIHL club since the beginning of the summer, heads to the Capitals. The first three seem to be defencemen equally comfortable at either end of the ice, while Beynon is reported as someone more inclined to take care of business in his own end before charging forward-all three should be considerable improvements to their teams, with Domish in particular carrying an impressive pedigree with him...


However, perhaps the signing of the summer so far has occurred not for one of the big four teams but up in Edinburgh. Chris Allen joins after playing last year in Asia, but his stats suggest he could be the top d-man in the league next season...consider these facts:

Tied for second all-time scoring in the OHL for a defenceman-the other two players are ones you might have heard of...Bobby Orr and Al MacInnis.

A shot clocked at 103mph

13 goals and 25 assists in his last season in the ECHL, before moving over to Denmark

He's not exactly small either at 6'3 and 223lbs...and judging by this, should be popular off the ice as well. Particularly if he also brings his fellow "sexiest vegetarian" title holder with him...

Finally, in the land of steel, Sheffield have finally signed their replacement to Jody Lehman-it's ex-Bison goalie Kevin Reiter. Now, you'll forgive me if I'm not exactly conceding the league title to Sheffield yet, but Reiter struck me as something of a one-game-wonder last season. Yes, there's the whole "66 shots, 65 saves" malarkey (and as a Blaze fan who was present that day, that still stings a little), but one wonders if his exploits behind a Bison defence who were quite frankly bloody awful have placed his skills in a somewhat flattering light...there was a rumour he was Blaze-bound earlier in the summer and this worried me hugely, given that he hadn't looked hugely special in any of the other games I'd seen him play in. Nevertheless, he's still a decent goalie at this level, particularly with a better defence in front of him this time out. Whether he's a enough of a stand-out goalie to meet the expectations in Sheffield, though, particularly with the spectre of Jody Lehman lingering in the wistful minds of many a Steelers fan, remains to be seen.

And that's now you lot just about up to date...

And now, and in time for something completely different, for some music...

It's been a long time since the last IceTunes (several months, in fact) but with it now being midsummer, here's one or two songs, old and new, that the Breakaway recommends to help blast the summer by and sound as good now as thumping out of your rinks speakers in autumn...I suggest you turn the volume up to eleven before reading on...and click on the youtube links to hear them...

Florence and the Machine: "Kiss From a Fist": We start with something bang up-to-date. This is awesome...it's the kind of sleazy thing you can imagine fitting just as well in a sweaty club as when the gloves drop...it bounces along like one of those small balls you used to get from vending machines and lifts you almost as high while doing so. Their album Lungs is pretty special as a whole, but this is probably the stand-out track from it...

Explosions in the Sky: "First Breath After Coma": And, at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, you have this. People have compared them to an American Sigur Ros (more of which later), and like the Icelanders they have a gift of making music that doesn't so much represent a tune as a state of mind. This song is my favourite one of theirs-a simple way of describing it is "instrumental prog-rock", but that doesn't really do them justice. This is the kind of music that, when played, can make even the most mundane tasks seem epic. The Earth Is Not a Cold, Dead Place does tend to disappear somewhat up a cul-de-sac, and you probably need a perfect summer evening and lying staring at the sky in order to appreciate it properly, but this is music at its most raw emotionalness...

As for what relevance this has to sports or where it'd fit in in a hockey game...well, how about this for a pre-game build up?

Sigur Ros: "Hoppipolla": The title means "jumping in puddles" in Icelandic. Which makes it perfect for a walk in an English summer. If you prefer your music a bit faster, then maybe the Chicane dance remix (I'm shuddering typing that) is more your style. My advice-stick with the original, get quietly drunk in your back garden on a clear summer night with someone you care about, and lie next to each other staring at the stars. It helps the summer pass quicker...

Aiden: "Die Romantic": Yes, if it was any more emo it would only be found in the corner of your bedroom, crying over wilted flowers and writing poems about the sweet embrace of death despite being about fourteen*. But it's still a very good song indeed to just randomly fire out of your speakers and laugh at the overblown-ness of it, while at the same time secretly enjoying it.

*(note-I actually like this sort of thing...this is what is known as "irony." No offence is meant to anyone of such a disposition, whether real or put on for effect)

Nine Inch Nails: "Wish": Violent, chaotic and fast. Also a bit disturbing to those who don't understand the appeal of such entertainment. Just like hockey, in fact...

And finally, a link or two...: Goalies. They're a strange breed. And they like to write a fair bit when they're not stopping projectiles being fired at their head...Ken Dryden and Jack Falla in particular come to mind...
Becky over at Five Minute Major is one in a long line of literary puck-stoppers, and has produced this extremely enjoyable piece which seeks to work out just why all the best hockey literature is produced by those in masks...which, assuming I can marshal my thoughts, may see a response from the other end of the stick (almost literally, what with me preferring to attempt to score goals as a forward rather than stop them)...

Also tonight, The Cat's Whiskers' Jono Bullard is interviewed by a site I'm likely very remiss in not linking to before now-UK Hockey Live, offspring of the already successful View From the Bridge, in which he and Patrick from the podcast discuss the growing popularity of the UK hockey blogosphere, and he also says some very nice things about yours truly...it's an interesting listen...

And that, ladies and gents, is your lot for now...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...

A Song of Ice and Fire

"I'd like to sing a song...a song of great social and political import. And it goes like this..."
Janis Joplin: "Mercedes Benz"

"On a lonely afternoon in June, I need you...just like raindrops"
Basement Jaxx: "Raindrops"

"Winter is coming"
George R. R. Martin, first words of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series

I have a confession to make. I despise summer. And this is why.

Every year, without fail, the same thing keeps happening. The hotter it gets, the more I long for the sun to disappear again.

Halfway through the hottest day of the year last week, a day which saw the British workplace turned into an experience far beyond even Dante's wildest dreams of infernal torment, a day in which air-conditioners howled in pain as they were worked harder than they have been in many years, I left my desk for a few minutes and heard a very brief burst of this from a passing car as I sought a breath of air outside.

And much as I despise the song, its almost ubiquitous presence in British ice-rinks (most notably Nottingham and my own second home, the Skydome) meant that, as others sweated and complained about the heat, my soul went on one of its increasingly frequent journeys to a world where it is permanently early September, the leaves are just starting to fall from the trees and you can make the trip to hockey in golden sunshine one day and a dark, wet, rain-pattering evening the next.

This is a world when hope springs eternal, the winter stretches away in front of you and everything that's been so sorely missed during the seemingly endless weeks of speculation, rumour-mongering and desperate hunting around for information on new signings is back. The new signings are on the ice, your spot at the plexi is still open and you fit it like an old, familiar glove, and the boys of summer have finally given way. It's a bright, shining time lit by the muted glare of floodlights off pristine new ice and soundtracked by conversations picked up almost where they left off in April.

Trouble is, reality intrudes all too quickly, and we're back to an earth of traffic jams, heatwave alerts and overcrowded beer-gardens, sound-tracked by Eeeeebeeeefaaaa anthems, the sound of British failure at Wimbledon, rain-delayed cricket matches and really, really bad holiday dancefloor songs.

But surely I can't be the only one whose summer is occasionally interrupted by such dreams...it can be a fragment of song, a random video on youtube, or even the kind of memory when you're bored and daydreaming at work on a burning midsummer Wednesday...

The bite of the hockey bug is one that just keeps on itching...and you only need one bite to put the poison of being a closet summer-hater into your blood...

Come join me in the autumn of the soul...it's only 50 days or so until hockey season begins again...:)

There you are...after such philosophy, a bit of hard news will go down a storm, so in the next few days we'll have another round-up of the latest goings-on and player movements in the EIHL.

Until then, keep enjoying the summer...

Catch Up If You Can

"This town rips your bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap..."
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: "Born To Run"

Yes, I know it's been two weeks or more since the last post...everyone's allowed something of a summer holiday...:)

For this one, let's just have a quick look at the signings taking place around the EIHL...there have been a few, but we're now well and truly into the doldrums of summer where hockey is at its farthest point from the light of consciousness...as you prepare to laze in front of diamond-shining seas and on soft white sands, it's hard to believe the first game of the new season is a mere 54 days away...although I'll freely admit that while my body is roasting in the unaccustomed heat of an English summer, the leaves are already falling off the trees in my soul and the nights are lengthening again as hockey returns to British shores...the British summer is heat, greenflies and no hockey, and thus is welcome to end itself as soon as possible as far as I'm concerned...

Belfast: Brandon Benedict and Tim Cook are the latest new additions to the roster in Northern Ireland, with the former being a chippy, slightly undersized but useful centre who appears to be from the same cloth as Bruce Richardson, and the latter being...well, not. Cook is a big defenceman who will presumably be expected to take care of business in his own end way before charging forward...both played for the same team in Denmark last season, so will have to help ease each other into a new locker room. The Giants are excited about their team this year, but it'll be interesting to see just how important these two end up being...

Cardiff: Not content with simply signing Mark Smith, the Devils have also gone and ensured the return of his partner-in-crime Max Birbraer for his second spell in South Wales, as well as completing their blue-line with the services of two-way d-man Scott Romfo from the ECHL. The Devils are quietly building a pretty damn scary roster down in South Wales this time around...

Coventry: Two signings which have caused much debate to report in Coventry since the last round-up...the return of the one of the prototypical EIHL pests in Danny Stewart, returning for his fourth season, and the capture of Derek Campbell from the Vipers. Now, some are underwhelmed by these two signings, but they please me...we've had the silk in the Blaze forward line already, and now we need the sandpaper to balance it. With Stewart and Campbell, who have crossed swords more than once already during their respective tenures in the league, on the same side other teams will really not look forward to facing the Blaze-particularly those with players of a slightly...well, fiery disposition. Campbell and Stewie are both players who can put up the points as well as the penalty-minutes, though, and should add some a surprising touch of speed and guile as well as their, shall we say, "own particular appeal"....

Edinburgh: It's still slow up north, although we have seen the return of possibly the ugliest man currently playing in British hockey...Kyle Horne is a fine British defenceman but...well, I would imagine that those puck-bunnies driven by looks over personality and skill don't exactly beat a path to his door during the season...

Hull: James Hutchison steps up from the EPL to join a promising-looking Stingrays side in their only signing since the last round up, as the Humbersiders continue their rebuilding under Sylvain Cloutier...after several good seasons with Peterborough, including winning every possible EPL trophy last season, it will be interesting to see how the Tynesider develops...

Newcastle: More new blood on Tyneside, although new signing Matej Kralj will be familiar to at least a small proportion of Blaze fans after facing Coventry with his former club, Maribor, last season. The bigger news is who isn't signing for the Vipers-with Kralj being the final import forward, Andre Payette and Jeff Hutchins will need to find a new club if they want to stay in the UK...

Nottingham: The Panthers' final import forward is CHLer Marty Gascon...perhaps not quite the "superstar" East Midlands fans were hoping for, but as a playmaker, he's clearly planned as a foil to the likes of Sean McAslan and Jade Galbraith at the NIC-14+54 in the CHL last season, with three teams, appears to bear the "playmaker" tag out. We'll see if he can step into the role filled with some aplomb by Dan Tessier last season...
Meanwhile, Matt Myers has made the trip across the pond, joining Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL...an interesting move both for him and the team. British ice hockey will be watching with great interest to see if he can emulate Colin Shields and Jon Weaver and hold down a regular ECHL spot...

Sheffield: The song remains the same in Steelerland, as the roster still has no new faces on it, with the Jody Lehman replacement still eagerly awaited in net. However, Ashley Tait will leave a big hole as he follows GB team-mates Greg Owen and David Clarke and tries his luck in Europe with Ritten Renon in Italy, after being signed by his former team-mate in Nottingham, Paul Adey.

It's still too close to call in the Elite League with rosters still to complete...but at least now, both you and the Breakaway are all up to date...

Picture Perfect...

Just because it's a slow Tuesday, a few EIHL-related pictures that are currently floating round the web...

Firstly, thanks to a mole within the Panthers dressing-room, we have breakfast-time at Jade Galbraith's...

Following that is a sign specially designed for Andre Payette...

...and another which I can't apply to anyone in the EIHL's morals, simply because I'd probably (and justifiably) be sued for libel, but may be proof that someone in the EIHL hierarchy moonlights by being a sign-placer in the off season...plus, the unfortunate juxtaposition amused me (the bottom bit is a "no parking" sign, apparently)

The EIHL have also released a pictorial representation in answer to the question "can we break the wage-cap?"

...and the NIC's new crowd-control policy may cause a problem or two...

as, in the interests of balance, will the planned escalators to make access easier at the Hallam Arena...

And finally in this journey of randomness, we have proof that Andre Payette's new contract may be heavily incentive-laden...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...

Thought For The Day: The Hardest Part of Going, Is Coming Back...

"Home, now that I'm coming home

Will you be the same as when I saw you last?

Tell me how much time has passed..."

Funeral For A Friend: "Into Oblivion (Reunion)"

We're back in the UK, finally...and it's been a week or two. Given that there's been a fair bit happen in the world of the EIHL, we'll simply have a look team-by-team rather than signing-by-signing...

Belfast: The Giants roster has seen only one new addition in the past week or two after a spate of early-season signings, but in Pierre-Luc Faubert they not only have only the second double-barrelled first name to appear in the EIHL (Jean-Francois Perras being the other) but a very, very, VERY quick forward indeed, who can also put up a point or two, it seems...The Giants fans are already getting very excited about him having a better pedigree than Paul Deniset (who was fairly useful last season himself)...however, Dan Carlson has better ECHL stats then both of them, so the claims of "top forward in the league" may be a little premature...

Cardiff: The Devils have been a little quiet recently, after having most of their roster already re-signed as returnees early in the summer. However, despite losing Mike Prpich after the speedy centre and one of Devils' stars last year got himself into a bit of bother off-ice that saw him released they've covered the spectrum with their last three signings, with Ben Davies taking the "young Brit and potential star" mantle as a reward for his coming on in leaps and bounds last season and Phil Hill returning as a power forward. However, their third signing, announced today, is the one that really raises eyebrows-as Mark Smith returns from Italy for his second stint as a Devil. The immensely talented centre and one of my favourite opposition players of the EIHL scored 80 points in 06/07 as a Devil, and will be one of, if not the top centre in the league-the Devils have suddenly leapt from "maybe a trophy" to "one of the title hopefuls" in one fell swoop-that's how good the 5'10 native of Kelowna, BC is...

Coventry: The revolution continues apace at the Skydome. Leigh Jamieson is gone to MK Lightning (in the eyes of some, not a moment too soon), as well as another player who we'll consider below, but arrivals have been busier than departures thus far in the West Midlands. As well as the returning Matty Soderstrom, the Blaze have two new faces in the big American Brian Lee, a team-mate of fellow new signing Greg Owen at Briancon in France last year, and one of the unsung heroes of the EIHL in Luke Fulghum from Manchester. Lee is a big lad, who appears to have been brought in as a d-man who can go both ways with equal ability on the ice, although if you believe the rumours he's intended as more of a defensive d-man then a points-scorer...something of a Steve Munn, if you will. The Breakaway will be trying to get an interview with his team-mate Greg Owen next week, after the Peter Hirsch interview was well received, and so perhaps we'll be able to gain a few more ideas then.
Fulghum, meanwhile, is one of the signings of the summer. The plaudits went to Tony Hand and David Beauregard for Manchester's heroics last season, but the American winger who shared the ice with them (earning himself 34 goals in the process) was the one that made that line tick and could well be the perfect foil for Adam Calder and Dan Carlson on the Blaze's top line with his combination of speed and physical play. Certainly, those in Manchester have been fulsome in their praise of him...

Edinburgh, as usual, are hard to read because, as is traditional north of the border, signings are once again slower in coming than a tantric-sex-loving eunuch.
However, they have snapped up Ben O'Connor from Coventry, in a move which saw a very catty press-release from the Blaze about his manner of going...obviously I have very little idea of how frenzied the negotiations were or the exact circumstances, and I fully appreciate the need to stay within a budget and not throw money at those who aren't worth it...however, releasing a press release trashing him by basically saying "this player's a greedy young sod who held us to ransom, so we let him go" is a little over the top. After all, isn't what happens in the coach's office supposed to stay in the coach's office-would not something along the lines of "Ben and I couldn't agree terms, so we wish him the best of luck wherever he goes", like that released for Russ Cowley before he U-turned last season, have sufficed to give reasons?
Aside from that, any Blaze fan (or indeed any Caps fan) who thinks that the Scots are paying him more money may need a quick dose of reality juice...O'Connor will certainly take a more prominent role in Edinburgh than that he would have had in Coventry, but surely he can't be on what the EIHL would call "big money"...if he is, then clearly the credit crunch hasn't yet reached Scotland.

On the plus side, any players they do sign will be able to take on two AHL teams in the Toronto Marlies and Hamilton Bulldogs, who along with Belfast will be taking part in the special Ice Hockey Homecoming tournament in Edinburgh and Belfast for the Gardiner Cup in September-more info here...

Hull are making a wave or two of their own on Humberside, building themselves a solid-looking roster, although it's fair to say that recent signings have addressed the "work and grind" aspect of the team rather than the "score as many goals as possible" area, as you'd expect from a Sylvain Cloutier-coached side. Adam Knight, joining from New Mexico in the CHL provides the physical presence on D (his stats of 2 goals, 3 assists and 153 PiM's last season should give you a clue as to where his role lies), while Shaun Thompson and Lee Esders give some hard-working British presence up front.

Newcastle have once again signalled their "new direction" by signing the skilful Ryan Mahrle from the ECHL, as they look for a more mobile defence. Along with Mike Berry, the returning Todd Griffith, Jason Tejchma and a new import to be announced tomorrow, the North-East could be seeing a very different team to that they're used to on the ice next season...

Nottingham have been quiet recently, although that's to be expected when most of your squad has already joined. Mark Hartley makes the step up from Coventry ENL to be the Panthers back-up, which is an interesting move for both him and the Panthers...doubtless many will be praying Kevin St Pierre stays very healthy indeed...however, Jade Galbraith will once again be easing a Panthers shirt over his (not-inconsiderable) torso this season...

Sheffield, meanwhile, have contented themselves with simply re-signing some of the top players in the league, with top-scorer Joey Talbot the latest to return...great for Sheffield, not so much for opposition goalies.

And there you go-now, we're up to date on the EIHL...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...

Game Seven: Seven Ways to Scream and Shout.

"You make me laugh, you make me cry
I don't know which side to buy...
But the 7th thing, I like the most about you
You make me love you"
Miley Cyrus: "Seven Things"

Yes, I just used a Miley Cyrus song to open a post about game seven...but what the hell. It sums up my feelings about hockey as a sport to perfection. Be warned, this may switch into and out of lyricism, Falla-esque writing, and be fairly video-heavy....they will be referred to, so watching them would be an advantage...

Let's just get this out of the way early, because it feels so damn pleasing to see it in print.

Pittsburgh Penguins. Stanley Cup Champions, 2009.

Now, on to the game itself. I tried to do a running diary for post afterward, but it descended into complete anarchy after about ten minutes, when there was a very real possibility, at least in my mind, that I wouldn't survive the game.

Pens v Red Wings-the beginning...

Little did we know, watching this way back at the end of May (and this video may just about surpass the HNIC intro for Game 7 of Pens-Caps back in the Conference semis), that the series would go to seven, and little did I know that it'd age me ten years. Especially with the Pens down 2-0 after the opening two games in Detroit.

Then came Game 3, which meant that once again, there was a little hope...at this point I'm thinking "well, there's no sweep, and even if the Wings win now, we've gone down fighting".

Game 4 came and went, and suddenly it was two-two.

Game 5 was horrific. At that point, I thought the Cup was headed back to Detroit, and the best the Pens could hope for was to take it to seven. The jokes from the Red Wings of "history repeating" echoed long and loud, and the prospect of seeing the Pens lose the Cup on my birthday was not a great one, either.

But then fate took a hand.

Superstition is a weird thing. Certain rituals become imbued with their own magic power, and fans buy into this primitive form of sports voodoo in much the same way as the players do. As Game Six began, Pens fans were looking for some sign, any sign, that the race for the Cup wasn't already in its final stretch. And CBC, inadvertently, provided it by using a song that is almost like a modern-day spell of its own...

Step forward, "In the Air Tonight"

This song, I'm convinced, is either cursed or blessed with some sort of mystic power. Used before a sporting event, it makes extraordinary things happen.

And once again, it worked its magic.

And so we go to Game Seven.

The first period saw me regressing back to the primal consolations of superstition (I refused to sit in the same seat as that I'd sat in for game five), fear (when Valteri Filppula had a shot cleared off the Pens line, I uttered a sound containing fear, pain and hope never likely to be heard on this earth again), and jealousy (somehow, every bounce in the Joe seemed to go Osgood's way, or at least that's how my haunted eyes saw it).

Then came the Mad Max Redemption, otherwise known as the second period. First Maxime Talbot banged home his own rebound after hard work behind the net for one-nothing. The Wings came back furiously...but this night, Marc-Andre Fleury's pads had been stitched together by the angels themselves...they were truly blessed in stopping shots that, at the other end, could (and should) have gone in. Ten minutes gone, and 30 minutes at least from the Stanley Cup, Talbot went away again down the left side and aimed. His stick rose, lined up and fired, and puck left blade on a trajectory so perfect that Chris Osgood will never be able to tell you anything about where the shot came from, or indeed where it went past him, becuase he simply didn't see it rocket into the top corner.

And so, period three. Twenty minutes to realise a dream for the players, twenty nerve-wracking minutes for those watching. The period itself seemed fairly run-of-the-mill, though...right up until Jonathan Ericsson wound up and pulled the trigger on a howitzer from the point that "Flower" in his turn never even saw...and it was two one with eight minutes to play.

Two minutes later, with the Wings pressing, we saw the hand of the hockey gods reach down and pass the Cup to Pittsburgh. Nicklas Kronwall wound up from the point for another blast, and put every single last ounce of his 189lbs of muscle into swinging his stick, which sent the puck away on a path that scientists will tell you was ordained by physics and gravity, but Pens fans will say was influenced by the breath of angels. It rises slightly more steeply-than planned on a stray air-current somewhere in the course of its otherwise-dead-straight 70-feet-long journey, which takes it an inch or so higher than it perhaps would have gone on any other night, This inch means that it thumps into Fleury's crossbar, rather than the twine...and Flower himself rubs the bar better when its work is done...

There was still time for one more moment of magic...the Wings pile forward with the clock ticking down from ten to zero, and the puck finds Nick Lidstrom's stick tenths of a second before the buzzer-he fires, and Fleury stops it.

Game over.

And four months of celebrations in Pittsburgh have begun...

Gordie Howe, Chris Chelios, Steve Yzerman, Henry Ford, Alice Cooper, Tom Selleck, Kid Rock, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Madonna, Mitch Albom...

Your boys took a hell of a beating...

Now, hockey is officially over until August...so we'll come back to the UK and by Wednesday, I'll finally have a summary of events in the EIHL while we've been focused across the pond...

Agony and Ecstasy: Game Seven

"Don't wait, Don't wait
The lights will flash and fade away
The days will pass you by
Don't wait"
Dashboard Confessional: "Don't Wait".

Game. Seven. Two words, three syllables, eleven innocuous letters.

But, at the same time, one of the greatest phrases in all of sports.


Game Sevens are, truly, like nothing else. Every bounce could make twenty players' dreams come true, every shot could be one that echoes down through the ages, and every pass could be the last building block in a dream...

There are few other sporting events on the planet which inspire such emotions, and such extremes. Few which have produced so many iconic images, so many iconic sounds. And few whose rarity only adds to their value (there have only been eight game sevens in the Stanley Cup Final in forty years).

And now the Pens are in one.

Luckily, they have players who have "form", as the British cops say. People who've been there before. More of them than the Red Wings, because in all their wins, the Wings haven't been pushed to a game seven of the final.

Ruslan Fedotenko scored both goals, including the Cup winner, last time he was here with Tampa Bay, as well as giving inspiration for Gary Thorne to produce an awesome bit of commentary...

"..Score!...HE'S GOT ANOTHER ONE! FED-O-TEN-KOOOO!"

Search it on youtube..."Fedotenko game 7"...:)

Craig Adams has won the cup with Carolina in a game 7 too...so history is (just) on the Pens' side...

By this time tomorrow, new legends will be born, and many tears of joy or celebration will have been cried in either Detroit or Pittsburgh. But either way, tonight is a moment in hockey history that comes along all too rarely. Savour it. Whoever wins.

That said...

GO PENS, GO!

Reaction to come tomorrow, either way...and then we might get back to events in the UK hockey scene sometime on Sunday or Monday...:)

(Not) Enjoying the Silence

Yes, I know that with the Cup Finals I really haven't said anything about events/signings back in Britain...I'm putting together a summary of these which will hopefully be up in time for tomorrow. As will a musing on the appeal, by way of a preview, on the sports version of Beauty and the Beast, and possibly one of the greatest recurring occasions in world sport-the mix of joy, pain and blinding fear that is Game Seven of a Stanley Cup Final...

Check back tomorrow morning...and keep keeping your eye on the puck..

Game Six: If No-One Speaks Of Remarkable Things...

"Just one more breath, I beg you please
Just one more step, my knees are weak
My heart is sturdy but it needs you to survive"
Dashboard Confessional: "Reason to Believe"

Sweet Jesus Christ. I can't take any more. If you don't hear from me after Friday night for more than a day or two, whatever the result, then worry a little. There is at least a five percent chance the Pens have killed me.

I swore not to watch last night-mainly because I didn't want to ruin my birthday with a vision of the Wings once again lifting the cup, which, after Saturday's shower of faeces from the Pens, particularly in the second period, looked something of a formality. Then Jordan Staal scored, and hope returned. Then Tyler Kennedy made a play out of nothing, and just briefly, I and every other Pens fan began to hope that just maybe, there was a Game Seven in this thing after all.

Then Kris Draper (Kris....bloody...Draper!) scored to make it two-one, and suddenly the fear returned in all its vomit-inducing, dry-mouthed, weak-kneed fury. Shot after shot rained in on Fleury, and shot after shot got turned away. Even before the equaliser, Zetterberg tinged one off the post and for half-a-second I knew despair as I thought it had gone in, because I was as certain as of anything in my life that, if this game went to overtime, the cup was going to Detroit.

But still the Pens hung on. Until two minutes that, I swear by the hockey gods, came as close to causing my death from a heart attack as anything ever will, and nearly killed me on the same day as I'd been born twenty-five years before.

First came Pavel Datsyuk's gorgeous, made-in-hockey-heaven pass to Dan Cleary, which I couldn't help but admire even as I watched the big Newfoundlander attempt to destroy the dreams of the black-and-white half of Pennsylvania. In the second or two of his approach, I promised anything to the hockey deities, up to and including my firstborn, if Fleury stopped it. He did, and the thump of puck hitting left pad was like the hammer of the hockey gods crashing down. Surely that was it.

But no. The Wings kept coming, the clock in the corner of the screen moved like a sloth through treacle, and with twenty seconds to go, all hell broke loose.

With Fleury out of position and the puck sitting on the stick of Johan Franzen, my eyes widened in horror-this was it. The final, vital break through the Pens defence, and the spirit-crusher which would win the Wings the Cup in OT. As the Swede shot, my heart stopped...and didn't beat again for fifteen long, even eternal seconds, even as Rob Scuderi somehow got in the way with one of the greatest pieces of desperation defending you or I will ever see. It only started again at the final hooter.

God, I'm dreading game seven...

But even so, there is a fierce hope. We saw the hockey gods manifest themselves in all their cruel, heartless yet glorious beauty through Rob Scuderi last night. Next game, as is customary at this time of year, they'll pick someone else to do their work, and the Cup will be won.

For the sake of my bleeding and bruised soul, I hope it's a Penguin.

Let's go Pens...

Game Five: The Sound Of Silence

Ouch. It's been three days now, and I still haven't quite processed the sheer nightmarishly bad-ness of the Pens game 5 collapse, particularly in the second period.

However, it has been done, and there will be an epic post tomorrow morning ranging from NHL to EPL as we look at hockey happenings both in the UK and in the "big league", including game six...check back around midday...

Game Four: Power and the Glory

"I'll fight forever, I won't surrender,
And I will always...
Hunt...you...down!"
Saliva: "Hunt You Down"

Oh, hell, yeah.

One quick goal (from Geno Malkin, who else?) and a three-goal second period, with the third of those (Tyler Kennedy's) looking so beautiful that if it were possible, you'd make love to it until next July, and suddenly, with the Wings reeling on the ropes, we have a best of three.

Not only that, but the "best team in hockey" look shaky, especially on the penalty-kill-of the eight goals scored by the Pens in games 3 and 4, three of them, or nearly half, came on the powerplay. If you include Jordan Staal's shortie, the Wings special teams have been on the ice for half of the Pens goals in the past two games, and four of the ten Pens goals in the series have been scored with the man advantage.

By contrast, the Wings have scored only one powerplay goal in the series, despite getting ten themselves...

Special teams win games, and winning games wins championships. If you'd asked me after game two whether I thought the Pens could be returning to the Mellon on June 9th with a chance to lift the Stanley Cup, I'd have said "no way-they'll be trying to take it to a game 7 for sure". Now, I genuinely think a game 5 win is not only possible, but probable...Chris Osgood has been proven to be vulnerable, the vaunted hitting of the Red Wings defence (particularly Nicklas Kronwall) is failing spectacularly to intimidate (watch Malkin's goal from last night-the powerplay comes from a Kronwall hit that goes slightly wrong, on Geno himself...he hops up, stays on the ice and bangs home a rebound off the boards...a rebound which, by the way, makes up for the horrific Brad Stuart goal in game 1...

Oh yes, and there is the small matter of Sidney Crosby finally appearing to catch fire in the goalscoring department, too.

On Tuesday morning, the hope was just that the Pens could avoid falling into a deep hole. Now, as the series heads back to the Joe Louis, there's a real possibility that, far from just climbing out, they can go on and chuck the Wings into that same hole before they come back on Tuesday.

Watch out, Hockeytown. This summer, you have serious competition...

Game 3: Hope Reborn

"Raise a bright hope, that there is a brilliant tomorrow"
Small Towns Burn a Little Slower: "A Tune of Panic"

Ladies, gentlemen and Red Wings fans, we got ourselves a series again. And this despite Sid still being held to one point, and Geno not scoring this time round (although he did once again step forward as "the" Pens player of the series so far, assisting on three of the four goals). How's that "two players scoring on the team" schtick smell now?

It's all about Mad Max Talbot, be-yatch, scoring two goals-the opener and the dagger-to-the-heart empty netter. Although you wouldn't put him among the top offensive stars in the series, Max can finish when he needs to...


Or Chris Kunitz, throwing only two less hits by himself in the first two periods (10) than the entire Wings team (12)...by far the leader on a Pens team that out-hit their opponents by over three-to-one. Crash-and-bang playoff hockey at its best...


Or maybe Kris Letang and Sergei Gonchar, blasting home a pair of bullet slapshots after the Wings looked like they'd weathered the storm to go 2-1 up, thanks to the Swedish tandem of Zetterberg and Franzen deciding that they'd do their bit to reclaim the superstar mantle after being shown up a little in the scoring stakes by the AHL line.


Whisper this...but maybe the Wings have a weakness-three penalties taken, two powerplay goals conceded. If you're looking for the ideal way to lose a game, then taking a 2-1 lead and throwing it away by failing to kill penalties must be up there somewhere.


Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader, where art thou? The Wings everyone have been talking about in this series appeared to be a little off their games for a change...pride comes before a fall, and all that...


Three goals on 20 shots, including two on seven in the first period alone? Not that Chris Osgood is cracking (he's far too much of a professional for that) but the aura of flawless invincibility he was slowly building over the first two games has, if not shattered (after all, this is just one game), at least now got a few blemishes on it. If the Pens out-duel him in game 4, suddenly the Wings will have to come to Pittsburgh at least once more...and with the ground-shaking noise produced by 17,000+ Pens fanatics plus the massive crowd outside, it is not a friendly place for anyone wearing the winged wheel, but Ozzie will be the one under the gun most of all...

Game Four is now the Pens' to lose. They can keep Sid and/or Geno away from Zetterberg and/or Lidstrom, Datsyuk ain't fit yet, and 17,216 roaring voices are a hell of a sixth man. But if they do lose, the Wings are not only in the driving seat but have the key in the ignition and the handbrake released in their drive towards victory. For so many reasons, the season for Sid and friends has now reached the point where losing with dignity and pride, as they did last time out, is simply not an option any more.

After the first two, many were saying that the Winged Wheel was rolling toward another Stanley Cup. After Game Three, the Penguins are preparing to march again.

Thursday is D-day.

We need a repeat of Tuesday night on Thursday, Kunitz to crash and bang like a demented destruction-derby racer again, Malkin to play like a demon playmaker again, and Sid to channel the spirit of Mario through himself to his team-mates, many of whom will need no telling of how important a win is. Nothing else will do.

All 82 regular season games and the 20 playoff games thus far are history now. Grounding the hated Flyers, storming the Capitals and blowing away the Hurricanes were great fun, great achievements and would be enough for many other teams. But not this Pens squad. Not now.

We know the Cup will be won, but we don't know who by. Thursday's game will have a massive say in deciding that question...

Let's go Pens...

Game Two: Between the Hammer and the Anvil

"She said
"Some races can't be won"
And so we fade with the setting of the sun"
This Day And Age:"Slideshow"

Now the Pens are in a hole. With Detroit going 2-0 up in the series after winning game two 3-1 last night, with their backs broken thanks to another goal from Justin Abdelkader just as they looked like equalising Valteri Filppulla's go-ahead strike (indeed, Sidney Crosby had missed a gilt-edged chance seconds before. Twice.), and with Crosby pointless and Chris Osgood sneaking into Malkin's head by stopping him twice in two nights on breakaways, the Pens now have to win four in five, while the Wings can lose all their games away from the Joe and still win the Cup.


If one of your top scorers is being relied upon to tie for the lead in hits in the game (Malkin had three) then you have problems...although at least someone finally nailed the "float like a turd, sting like a butterfly" Zetterberg (Malkin again, with less than twenty seconds to go in the third and the game all but gone).

For Detroit's first, though, I'd love to know why Darren Helm was allowed to stand completely unmolested in front of Fleury for several seconds-enough time for Jonathan Ericsson's bullet of a shot to be aimed, fired and travel past him and leave the Pens nettie no chance of seeing it in time to react...surely, come playoff time, that guy gets moved, if not flattened (and curse the new NHL rules for making bruising battles in front of the net almost a thing of the past).

On the plus side...there are moments where the Wings look suspect. If they keep presenting Geno with presents of breakaways then one day, Osgood will not save them. The longer Crosby's held scoreless, the more motivated he'll be. Although obviously every Pens fan hopes that this streak will end (much) sooner rather than later.

More positives-Pepper Osgood and the puck will go by-particularly if players such as Guerin (although some sources say he's carrying an injury-oh, good) Talbot, Staal, Adams and the like are willing to get involved in the brutal trench-warfare in front of him (what I'd give for Tomas Holmstrom to be on the opposite side to the one he's on-he's the epitome of what the Pens need right now)-indeed, the only Pens goal in game two came after seemingly every player on the ice bar Geno thought "sod it, we're crashing the net..." and we saw a proper playoff hockey goal-uglier than the thought of this lady sitting on your face while performing her party piece, but oh so needed...

The Pens need a few more of those in games 3 and 4...it's going to the Mellon now...and if the Wings can win one of two there, followed by one at home (or, God forbid, earn a sweep with two) then they've well and truly have earned the Cup. Pens win both and suddenly, it's a whole different series...

First, though, they have to get some offence...



Sid and Malkin have to start firing sometime...please god, let it be Tuesday...

Cup Fever: Game One

"Now peel back his skin dear, peel back his skin
And he'll just smile....
But he's only smiling to deny the pain
And he's only smiling
And I bet you love this, don't you?"
Fear Before the March of Flames: "On the Bright Side, She Could Choke..."

I'm fast coming to despise Darren Helm with every fibre and sinew of my being, because the Red Wing currently filling the role of "young player who becomes a star from nowhere in the playoffs" this season is terrifying. Not because he's a league superstar who can win games by himself (well, yet) but because he's just so good at his assigned role.

But my hatred for him is nothing compared to the hatred I now have for inanimate objects in Detroit-or one set of them in particular. You may be wondering whether I'm in full control of my mind at this point, but bear with me.

It's the boards at the Joe Louis.

The Red Wings won game 1 3-1 last night, and two of the three were a direct result of strange bounces off the boards behind Marc-Andre Fleury's net...including the opening one of the finals. Brad Stuart's shot went wide by several feet, but bounced back harder than a well-aimed pass, and the back of Fleury's thigh did the rest. Franzen's second...that wasn't a shot so much as an instinctive hack at a puck which had again rebounded strangely...it went in off Fleury again, while Abdelkader's winner also had a slight element of luck in the way the puck rebounds straight up off Fleury's pads from the initial shot. Nicely pulled down and finished, though, I'll give him that.

Saying that, the good luck in Detroit must all have gone to the Wings...I mean, this is a typical street scene in Red Wings Nation...

This means, then, that we go into game 2 today with the Finals already at a crossroads. The Penguins win, and it's back where we were going back to the Mellon Arena. The Wings win, and suddenly there's a big, big problem...

But I shall quote my facebook status in saying that winning one from seven is a lot easier than three in six, especially when you're a) having to win at least one of them away from home unless you want to go all the way to the lottery that is Game Seven, and b) you won't have the friendly boards of the Joe for at least two of them. If the Pens can win game two, then it's simply a case of holding serve at home-something which they've done pretty damn well in the playoffs up to now, losing only twice at the Igloo.

Oh yeah...and the reason Crosby is the face of the NHL? It may have something to do with the fact that he's the best in the NHL, plus, for a combination of reasons, he's considered media gold by the league, at least in terms of selling the game to your average suburban American family...
Plus, he probably makes better chili than Chris Chelios does.

Quick thought...Brooks Orpik, we need more of this side of you. Preferably on Marian Hossa, if at all possible. However, if you could arrange a few to be on Henrik Zetterberg (who has more ice-time than Crosby but scores less despite most of Michigan wanting to have his firstborn, still. Yes, even the men. Maybe it's the playoff beard) then that would be nice...

Nicklas Kronwall...continue as you are. None of your famous big hits, and leaving Feds wide open to score the Pens solitary goal. Keep going, superstar...

With 14.2857142 percent of the Finals gone (yes, I looked it up), the Red Wings have the advantage. But the Pens nick one tonight, and suddenly things look very different.

The March of the Penguins has suffered a slight detour. But there is little, as yet, to worry about...whatever those in Detroit would have you think.

Cup Fever: Random Thoughts...

I tried to keep quiet until game time. I really, really did. Then Red Wings Nation (or at least the British blog representatives of it) put their reasons why the Wings will win the Cup. And in doing so perpetrated the falsehood that every non-Pen uses as their foundation argument to why the Steel City ain't getting a visit from Lord Stanley this year.

The "you've only got two players" argument...

Which on numbers of goals alone, is just about arguable (although I fail to see how a team which ices its top forward and best player, Henrik Zetterberg, even more than the Pens ice Sid the Kid and its second-and-third best players, Franzen and Datsyuk, for round about the same time as Malkin can complain about double-shifting superstars-especially when they ice Nick Lidstrom longer than the Pens ice Sergei Gonchar). However, given that the Red Wings would give their eye-teeth to have one, never mind both, that smacks of sheer jealousy. After all, this is a team relying on a starting goalie who let Fedor Tyutin (Fedor Tyutin!) do this earlier in the season...But hey, if you want to forget Sykora, Satan, Guerin, Fedotenko, Staal and company and focus all your efforts on stopping two players, then fair enough. After all...what's the worst that could happen? It's not like Feds has ever scored an important goal or anything...

Oh, wait...

It can't be denied that the Wings are a damn good hockey team with a huge amount of depth. But the Pens, this time out, are younger, hungrier and (Darren Helm excepted) as fast if not faster, player-for-player. But can you really see a 39-year-old who's just come off an injury as the ideal counter for Crosby, even if he's won six Norris Trophies?

Nick Lidstrom will play game one after finally recovering from an injury which saw him miss most of the Conference Finals...and Chris Kunitz, hopefully, will duly give him the same treatment he gave Kimmo Timonen. Certainly this would seem to make sense...last season it was the Wings who put the hits in early in the Finals, and we all know what happened there...

There's also been a claim over "the other side" that Crosby and Malkin have something of a "bromance" going on. I see your Crosby and Malkin, Matt, and raise you Draper and Osgood. Is that what they mean when they say he's got a "quick glove-hand?"

The clock is ticking...next post after Game One...

A Declaration of War...

"So pick your friends out
I'll take my place and you'll take yours
Load your guns up...
Cause now I'm ready for your war..."
Hadouken!: "Declaration of War"

For the latest from the EIHL, have a gander at the post below this one (Arrivals and Departures)...this one is all NHL.

As for the somewhat antagonistic lyrics opening...don't worry, I'm not going all Dubya on you...let me explain...

You may have noticed, or at least formed the opinion, that I'm something of a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. This, in recent hockey terms, was the equivalent of being a six-stone-weakling in a maximum-security prison for the first year or two of my hockey-watching life, right up to the point where one of the greatest talents ever to strap on a pair of skates fell into the Steel City's lap, thanks to a bit of luck in the 2004 and 2005 entry drafts...the seasons were grim but with first Evgeni Malkin and then Sidney Crosby arriving, things have got better and better...and us Pens fans have enjoyed every minute of it (and if you don't know who Crosby and Malkin are, then let me show you)...

Evgeni Malkin...

Sidney Crosby

Anyway...this presents me with something of a quandary, as my good friends Matt and Becky, over at Five Minute Major, are (and don't hold this against them) fans of the Detroit Red Wings, who beat the Pens to the Stanley Cup last year, and are the only obstacle in the way of my team's charge to the Cup again this year, with the finals starting this Saturday, May 30th.

Well, at least Matt is. Becky is first and foremost an Edmonton fan, and thus is well-prepared for being the experience of being on the losing side in a 21st-century Stanley Cup Final...to Carolina, no less...although given the history of the Oilers, not too-well prepared...

And so, naturally, war has been declared-in true hockey tradition, the Breakaway and Five Minute Major, while being good friends away from the ice, will now engage in verbal combat throughout the Stanley Cup Finals, with Matt and Becky cheering for the Red Wings, and me advancing the cause of the Pens. There will be taunting, there will be jokes, there will be below-the-belt pop-culture references, and at the end, one blog will earn the right to claim their team are the better...

And naturally, you lot out there can follow every sledge, every dig and every obscure joke for your own entertainment...

And it starts now...the gloves, from this point, are off...I shall preface every post relating to the duel with an appropriate catchy title, as soon as I or FMJ (or even you lot out there) think of it, but for now...let's consider just why the Pens will emerge victorious...

"Heads I win, tails you lose
out of my way I'm coming through
roll the dice don't think twice...
and we crush...crush 'em"
Megadeth: "Crush 'Em"

Chris Kunitz, Sidney Crosby, Bill Guerin, Sergei Gonchar, Brooks Orpik, Marc-Andre Fleury. That's the starting line of the 2008/09 Pittsburgh Penguins. Two of the best power forwards in the NHL, one of the best goalies to come out of Quebec since some bloke named Patrick Roy, a lethal offensive defenseman, and a stay-at-home d-man who, some say, can cause an opposition forward to wet himself just by a raised eyebrow. Oh, and the best player to strap on a pair of skates since Wayne Gretzky, too. You can talk about the likes of Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Lidstrom all you like, but they aren't Sidney Crosby. And thus, they pale in comparison.

And then we have the rest of the roster. Evgeni Malkin, who, by the way, is like Alex Ovechkin, only even better. Jordan Staal-the best young forward in the NHL who isn't Crosby, Ovechkin or Malkin (Hang on-did someone say "Darren Helm"? Who's he?...). And a supporting cast including Petr Sykora and Ruslan Fedotenko, both Cup winners already...it's a murderer's row of forwards. Including two of the top five scorers in the NHL this season.

On defence-Kris Letang and the monster that is Hal Gill. This is a team that has a third line that can (and has) beaten many first lines...mainly because it has Miroslav Satan (a career NHL top-liner with over 350 goals) on it...simply because there was no space for him anywhere else.

Sure, you will say that the Red Wings and their loaded team came out on top last season. But that was last season. Even many Pens fans thought that team was a year too early.

This time round, though...there's a firm belief that the March of the Penguins will not be stopped. Especially not by a team whose best d-men are 47, 39, and 35, has the league's third-best Russian as their superstar, and is growing old faster and becoming more boring and over-praised than Susan Boyle (if you're not British, look her up)...

I predict Pens in six. Or more likely seven...

And no superstition about touching a conference trophy, never mind Chris Osgood and friends, can change that result...

Let's go Pens!

Arrivals and Departures

"tick, tick, tick, tick, on the watch, and life's too short for it to stop
Oh baby, your time is running out..."
La Roux: "Bulletproof"

I know...it's been a bit of a while...but then again, just rounding up the signings is a bit mundane, so I thought I'd wait until we actually had a decent amount of news. And after ten days since the last round up, we do...

Bracknell survive, Telford die...: Well, technically the Tigers are still alive, with the new owners taking a year out to consolidate, but the EPL still loses its westernmost team while one of the marquee names hangs on by the skin of its teeth. No one said a summer in British hockey was easy...

On to the signings, now...we've said far too much about the negative aspects of British hockey this summer...

Mike Berry and Todd Griffith to Newcastle: The Vipers signings so far this off-season have been a statement of intent-they're moving away from the big bruisers to those who can stick up for themselves but also use speed and brains as well as muscle to put the puck in the net. Todd Griffith is known to the EIHL after his stint in Newcastle last season as a useful (and skilful) forward, equal parts sniper and pest, and Berry looks much the same judging by his size (5'11, 180lbs) and scoring record (15+24 in the ECHL last season for 39 points). With Andre Payette returning to handle the glove-dropping duties also, the Vipers are clearly building a team of human sandpaper aimed at grinding teams down through constant pressure and no mean amount of skill-which, if blended properly, is a very strong brew for this league indeed...


Jeff Legue and Jason Hewitt to Sheffield: Meanwhile, the Steelers continue their philosophy of evolution over revolution-indeed no player who didn't play for the Steelers last season is confirmed as signing for them yet, although the goalie at least may well be new to these shores after Jody Lehman's departure for Denmark. Hewitt is a very good defensive forward (and British to boot) while Legue is one of the quickest and most dangerous forwards in the league-he and Joey Talbot head the Steelers attack once again, although there could still be a new star import forward to come...

Pavel Gomenyuk back to Hull: These re-signings, while not the most exciting, have all been very good ones up until now, and the Stingrays' returning d-man is no exception. He's not the most skilful in the league, but deceptively good in this league...rarely noticed by the fans but a key part of his team nevertheless, as he has been throughout his time at Hull and Newcastle...

Mathias Soderstrom to Coventry:...and continuing on such a theme, the Swedish d-man and one of the Blaze's best-loved players ever returns to the Skydome for another season. Like Gomenyuk, his impact on the team is rarely noticed, with many in the Blaze fan-base picking him out as the weak spot of the Blaze defence thus far. Unfairly. He'll never light up the scoring charts but "Matty" will once again be a welcome presence on the blue-line in the West Midlands.

Mark Garside returns to Edinburgh:...and with it, earns himself some serious pluses in the "loyalty" column...the young Glaswegian has developed into one of the top British forwards in the league over the past season or two, and can be expected to continue his meteoric rise next season...

Dominic D'Amour to Nottingham: A new-to-the-UK signing, finally! Linked with the Blaze last season, the 6'2, 221lb Quebecer is the player the Panthers hope will be their Steve Munn-an intimidating physical force who can chip in at the offensive end where needed, but will always take care of his own end. And make it an extremely unfriendly place for opposition forwards to visit...Well, that's the theory...

There you go...that's the EIHL news...check above if you haven't already for a declaration of war (of words)...and keep keeping your eye on the puck...

Still Alive...

Hey all...

I know I've been quiet for a week now, but at some point tonight there should be a posting summing up the past weeks' happenings in British hockey...just been busy with work etc...