Thursday Thoughts...

...from a freezing Coventry...

And so we're set, then: Both Challenge Cup semis went (just about) as one would have expected. with Coventry unable to sustain their challenge against Belfast over 120 minutes, mainly due to a combination of cruel luck (how on earth do you manage to hit the iron four times in a game and not have any of them go in?) and simply being beaten by the better team, as the Giants won the tie with two unanswered goals and then hung on for dear life as Erik Hjalmarsson threatened to lead a Blaze comeback, before Steve Thornton made the tie safe and George Awada's ENG rubbed salt into the wound. Meanwhile, down in Basingstoke, the Bison lost again, as Manchester eased their way through to the final, winning the first leg of the second semi by 5 goals to two in a game which you can read more about on Five Minute Major here...

Rivalry Redux: And so onto the main point of this post...following up on Tuesday's Rivalry Ruminations....

Wow. That post was definitely the one that generated the most feedback for a while. Interestingly, though, there was a clear split between those who said "yes, the Panthers/Steelers thing isn't as important as it was" and those who disagreed-admittedly this is a somewhat small sample but it appears that even within the Panthers fan-base there are different views of things-for example Jono from the Cat's Whiskers says:

"If there is to be a change in leagues I hope Steelers and Panthers are split up, less games against each other in a season might make them more of an event once again."

While Yotes disagrees that the rivalry has diminished with familiarity, for them at least:
"I dunno Paul, while I do (to go all Romford for a minute) f-in hate losing to your lot, I really f-in hate losing to those Squealers.

And Panthers Kim makes an interesting point regarding the rivalry in a wider context than just Panthers and Steelers fans:

"The thing about the Panthers-Steelers rivalry is that if you were to ask someone in Nottingham who doesn't really follow the sport to tell you one thing about the Panthers their answer will likely be that we don't like the Steelers. It's something that seems to transcend the support of the club. I think it's the Panthers' most marketable asset and we would struggle to 'sell' a game against another opponent to the same extent, which makes the reluctance that some might have to us being in different sections of a divided league understandable."

This got me wondering, particularly with the comments from Becky, Mark and Kyle regarding the "War of the Roses" rivalry between Manchester and Sheffield (which incidentally, seems very under-marketed compared to the Nottingham/Sheffield one, by both sides-amazing when you used to get stuff like this happening when they met)- why aren't teams apart from Sheffield and Nottingham making a bigger play to foster such rivalries, at least off the ice? I don't mean by sniping, cheap digs or comments that just portray people in a bad light (for example the Team Hollywood rumpus earlier this season, or the Sheffield/Cardiff back-and-forths) but by simply getting out there and telling people "look, this is THE game-these are the ones we really want to beat above all others". In Coventry, every game is marketed as a "really important" one, which means that they tend to blur together over a season, particularly when you get similar language used for each PR. After all, one thing that can't be denied is everyone knows about Panthers/Steelers...but how many are aware of, say Phoenix v Devils as mentioned? Or, unless you know your history, the Lancashire/Yorkshire divide as applied to sports?

Sadly, with the dropping of Chelmsford from the EPL to the ENL, the cross-Essex rivalry mentioned has withered, at least in hockey terms. However, one thing that has come out of this season is the fact that new rivalries have been created-and although any re-alignment of the leagues could potentially split up some "current" ones, the potential is always there for new ones...

There you go..Round the Rinks to come tomorrow...