Round the Rinks, November 6: Wrong Side of the Tracks

Yes, I know there has been nothing since the last one, for which I apologise. Busy times at Breakaway Towers...including finding out half your workplace will be being made redundant in January, has meant that sadly, the priorities have seen the blog drop quite a way, for which I apologise. But we're back now...

Let's look at the table, then. So, we have the usual suspects at the top-in no particular order, they're Belfast, Nottingham, Coventry, Cardiff...

Hang on a minute...where are Sheffield?

Look. They're 7th, after two losses to Belfast.

This weekend, then, could see the point at which the clock officially starts ticking on Dave Matsos...if they don't pull themselves out of the mire soon, then there will be trouble.

Let's look at the games...

FRIDAY

Sheffield v Newcastle

SATURDAY

Sheffield v Nottingham

Belfast v Coventry

Hull v Edinburgh

SUNDAY

Coventry v Hull

Newcastle v Nottingham

Cardiff v Belfast

After tonight's curtain-raiser between a struggling Steelers and a stuttering Vipers side, which is of interest mainly to see who can pull themselves out of a miniature slump, Saturday is the "big" day this weekend, with Coventry facing Belfast in a battle of the title-chasers at the Odyssey-this rivalry is always good for a scrap or two, especially with Sean McMorrow around and the high-flying offensive style of both teams. Back across the Irish Sea, Hull battling Edinburgh in a race to see which of these teams can find their groove-arguably the game is important for completely different reasons as the Capitals hope to push on up the table and the Stingrays to stop their slide down and away from the rest of the league. There's also a fairly important game going on at the Hallam, but far too much energy has been expended talking about this one by the teams involved, so we'll just say...if Nottingham want to really compound Sheffield's problems, now is the perfect time to do it.

Sunday, meanwhile, sees Coventry hoping to continue their run against Hull and continue to remind Sylvain Cloutier of how intimidating the Skydome can be when you're not in a Blaze shirt any more, Newcastle in a chase to bring the Panthers back down to earth as the aristocratic Midlanders take a trip to the heartland of blood-and-guts hockey, and Cardiff aiming to stymie yet another high-powered offence with their highly effective muck-and-grind style of play, which has served them so well already this season.

The Belfast-Coventry game, as per usual, is live with our friends on GiantsTV, and is well worth a watch if you're not at a game that night...

And that's your one-minute weekend preview...