Midweek Musings: On Hockey and Sports Adultery

"But if it wasn't for you, We wouldn't have all these multiple crowds.
How am I supposed to choose, which one I belong to?"
I Set My Friends on Fire: "Things That Rhyme With Orange"

I have something of a problem at the moment. I'm contemplating one of the (supposedly) most unforgivable sins in sports fandom, which is supporting two sports teams, playing the same sport, in the same country. Perhaps my only saving grace is that they're not in the same league.

You may have noticed, reading back over the past two seasons (yes, there must be one of you out there who's followed it that long-believe it or not the Breakaway is now into its third full season) that I have something of a soft-spot for the Manchester Phoenix. This is partly due to the fact that the Breakaway is good friends with several Manchester blogs, not least Five Minute Major, and partly due to the fact that, as I've written several times, the Phoenix seem like the ideal template for running a hockey club, and partly because...well, I just like them.

Obviously, with Manchester and Coventry both being in the same league, there is no way up until now that I could have been a fan of both, and Coventry won for fairly obvious reasons...but now, unless you've been under a rock for the past few months, you'll have noticed that the Phoenix have moved to the EPL. And signed a former Blaze player, none other than Andre Payette, while the Blaze have signed ex-Phoenix Luke Fulghum (personally, I reckon we in Coventry got by far the better end of the deal, but there we are)...

And so, as of now, I'm declaring myself openly...coming out, if you will.

My teams in Britain are Coventry Blaze and, as of now, officially at least, Manchester Phoenix. And thus, expect to see a bit more EPL content, or at least links to it, on here as I keep an eye on them from afar...

A perfect season was never an option, but to fail at the first weekend just smacks of carelessness: In other news, I have to apologise to the whole of Wales. Especially the portion of South Wales that watches hockey.

After Monday's post I received a very polite email from Gareth Jenkins, a regular reader and Devils fan who, after saying some very nice things about the blog in general (which I won't reproduce here as modesty forbids, but thank him for), points out that I made several errors in both Friday's and Monday's posts...not least completely forgetting that Cardiff was in Wales.

The full list of errors I'd somehow managed to make and now will correct are:

a) Getting the day wrong of Newcastle's 5-4 win against Cardiff (this occurred on Sunday, not Saturday)
b) Completely omitting any mention in either Round the Rinks or Double Overtime of Cardiff facing Newcastle at the Big Blue Tent on Saturday night (a game which, by the way, the Devils won 4-3 on penalties, so you'd have thought it was a pretty difficult game to miss)

and finally, in possibly the only EIHL error more horrific this weekend then Kevin St.Pierre letting in a goal from the opposite blue against Coventry, in the Sky game...

c) I said that Matej Kralj had scored against every "English" team he ever played against (the word should, of course, have been "British" or, avoiding offending national pride at all, "from the EIHL".

Many thanks to Gareth for not immediately organising a Welsh lynch-mob in order to come raging up to Coventry and show me the error of my ways (in fairness, it would have probably been deserved if he had done), but instead very nicely and calmly pointing out that I'd relocated the Welsh capital on the other side of the Severn Estuary as well as completely ignored the opening game of one of the Blaze's biggest rivals in my preview...I apologise to the Devils and their crowd and shall attempt to avoid making such amateur errors in future...:)

And that, short but sweet, is your Midweek Musings...

Double Overtime, September 7th,

"we are, we are the shaken (shaken)
we are the monsters (monsters)
underneath your bed"

Matchbook Romance: "Monsters"

Now the regular season has officially begun, a few home truths have landed already as all the foibles that are hidden during the bright, glittery performances of the pre-season-and several of the teams haven't even played yet...so let's have a few reflections on the opening season as we look back at the opening weekend of the 2009/10 season proper...it might be a bit shorter than usual due to there only being six-games...

Chicken Little is a Coventry native: Saturday night's win against the Steelers thanks to a Greg Owen hat-trick saw the pre-season optimism in the West Midlands rise to ever greater heights, and going two-nil up against Nottingham inside ten minutes (including an absolutely horrific error from Kevin St Pierre for the second, in front of the Sky cameras as well-watch the coverage on Friday night for just how bad) only fuelled it even more. The four unanswered goals from Nottingham, on the other hand, punctured it like the last forlorn beach-ball of summer being popped with a pin. Even Adam Calder's crisp finish with two minutes to go didn't really help things much, and as the Panthers fans, travelling in some force due to the fact that they haven't become ridiculously bitter and disillusioned with their team yet this season, celebrated wildly at the sight of an empy netter, the moans were already beginning. "No defence. Toothless third line. Lack of effort...Help! The sky is falling. THE SKY IS FALLING!"

Even milk left out in the desert heat doesn't turn as quickly as some in the Skydome crowd. You get the sense that this team may be the kind that has Blaze fans doing so many U-turns they'll make themselves dizzy...

How to (apparently) win friends and influence people, Sean McMorrow style: Much has been written over the summer over Sean McMorrow, the Giants' new enforcer-but surely he must be the first player to actually (or hopefully, otherwise he really is stupider than even his most violent critics would give him credit for) attract an imposter on Facebook. A Sean McMorrow facebook page bearing his picture reportedly bore a status this morning of "Belfast suck ass, Nottingham are going to own the league this season" and continued with derogatory references to team-mate Mark Morrison. Given both the poor grammar and the poor spelling on this, it appears this is a (very, very) bad attempt to discredit him...although nice to see that the Panthers fans are, seemingly, not all the highly moral, upstanding bunch who can be found complaining at length on the Cage Forum about the behaviour of opposition fans. Usually after they've lost, or visited Coventry, for whom they reserve hatred even beyond that of Sheffield...

Meanwhile, on the ice: The Giants won one, lost one, being brushed aside by Nottingham on Saturday before squeaking past Hull on Sunday night...and have provoked Dave Simms, who saw neither game, to pipe up already that they have no chance of winning anything due to having a British goalie. I'm not sure the Giants should be written off just yet...

Snake-bite. Now not just a way to ruin Guinness:...but a headline that may be used more than once to describe a Vipers game. They beat Cardiff 5-4 on Saturday night, with Jason Tejchma having a dream debut and scoring twice, David Longstaff getting two more and Matej Kralj also getting off to a fine start in Vipers colours, continuing his run of scoring against every English team he's ever played against. The Devils contributed fully to the game themselves, but were just squeezed out...We'll see whether this one is a false dawn or not as the season progresses.

Panthers...well, they've started well at least...: No-one can deny that Nottingham looked very good indeed this weekend...against Coventry they took the early punches, blinked, and then went throught the Blaze time and again like a hot knife through butter. Many, many times. Marty Gascon in particular quietly stood out amongst the bells and whistles of his more illustrious team-mates, and could be one to watch throughout the rest of the season...

There you go...that's a streamlined view of the streamline opening weekend...

Round the Rinks, 4th September: The Return

"Over the top, over the top...
Right now it's killing time..."
Bullet For My Valentine: "Scream, Aim, Fire"

"And here we go, life's waiting to begin
Life's waiting to begin"
Angels and Airwaves: "The Adventure"

I couldn't choose between an optimistic and menacing tone to set for the opening weekend of the season with the song lyrics at the beginning, as I liked them both...so in the end I thought you might as well have both...

It's a slightly fragmented start to the season, as only five games are taking place over the weekend (only two on Sunday), but three of them are stormers-let's look at the fixtures:

SATURDAY

Newcastle v Cardiff: The Vipers open against the Devils in what will be a tricky test for their opening game of the season-the two teams look to be playing a similar hard-working, gritty style this season, and you can bet that any Rob Wilson team, however widespread the denials, will never be far away if there's any rough-stuff taking place. Obviously, this early in the season, results are perhaps not a true barometer of teams' pedigree, but with the Vipers fanbase jaded from several seasons of mediocrity, their home team need to make a splash early, and given that the Devils will be one of their major competitors in the rush to break into the upper reaches of the table, both teams will be aware of the need to set a marker down as quickly as possible.

Sheffield v Coventry: Stormer number one of the weekend-last season's top two renew early acquaintances after sharing the honours in preseason play. The Blaze have looked impressive so far, but the Steelers are a team known for coming together as soon as things start to become important, and now have defensive rock Kevin Bolibruck in the country, a player who they lacked visibly in the preseason meetings. They more than any other team know that a Blaze win will send a message to the rest of the league that the champions aren't invincible this time round, while the Blaze know that if they win in the Hallam tonight and then beat Nottingham tomorrow (more of which game shortly) that will fire a very loud and very accurate warning shot across the bows of the good ship Elite League...


Nottingham v Belfast: Stormer number two. The league's two self-proclaimed offensive powerhouses meet in the NIC, in the Elite League equivalent of a pissing contest-full of sound, fury and boasting about firepower. However, there is a serious side to it-because both teams need to prove that their defences are up to keeping the offences of the rivals out-and taking on a huge offensive test in their first competetive games aren't a bad way to send comforting messages...

SUNDAY

Coventry v Nottingham: Stormer number three. There is no love lost between these two clubs after the "Team Hollywood" furore of last season, and the fanbases share what is, shall we say, a cordial dislike of each other. The pair of them are two of the most powerful teams in the EIHL, and, every time they meet, sparks fly. With both teams having possibly the toughest possible opening weekends they could (or at least the second-toughest), they will both know that this game, even early in the season, can go a long way to ensuring their Challenge Cup qualification...


Hull v Belfast: This one, meanwhile, is important for completely different reasons. With the Stingrays fanbase buzzing with a new hope after Sylvain Cloutier's summer recruitment drive has left his team looking stronger than it has done for several season, they will be looking at games like this one as games to savour rather than games to simply survive-especially as two points are looking far more of a possibility than for the Stingrays of yesteryear...the Giants, depending on the result of the game the night before, will either want to bounce back from a nasty loss or continue the momentum of a morale-boosting win in the NIC...

That's your weekend previewed...

Frozen Dreams Part IV: One Shining Moment

"And this is the smile, that I've never shown before

Somebody shake me

Cause I, I must be sleeping"

Staind: "So Far Away"

As you may be able to tell if you've kept up with the story up until now, most of the major hockey moments in my life have happened in front of only a few thousand people, and pretty much all of them have involved the Blaze. However, we're going to step away from them now-in fact, they will play absolutely no part in this story beyond this point, except perhaps a brief background reference.

There have been some great moments in my hockey-watching life which haven't involved the Blaze or, in some cases, British teams-watching Evgeni Malkin playing live for Russia before he joined Pittsburgh, as the Russians warmed up for the Turin Olympics with a match against Germany at the Kolnarena while I was over there, supporting Germany and then taking part in an unofficial Germany-Russia street hockey game as (probably) the lone British import on the German side, through the concourses of Cologne-Deutz station, over a main road and back, streaming over the pedestrian footpath on the main Hohenzollern railway bridge (basically, the equivalent of a few players taking over Tower Bridge to shoot a puck or two) and out onto the banks of the Rhine, with the teams at about 300-a-side, anything from beer-cans to tennis balls being used as pucks and seeing a paralytically drunk Russian hurl himself full-length to stop a flying beer-can shot by one of his mates going through the window of a moving tram, for example (he stopped the shot and the traffic). Playing another game during the World Cup in Cologne main square which turned into a weird hybrid of football and hockey with a bunch of chanting Swedes, Poles, and Portugese was another one.

Or, closer to home, jamming home a loose puck from all of about six inches out in an empty Skydome to finally score a goal in a competitive game at my home rink-even though the place was empty, it was a rec game and only the players saw it, I still went ballistic in an outpouring of joy which included a weird "up on one leg, cocking a shotgun and firing" hybrid of a celebration (one I still use in the unlikely event of scoring) and had to be held up by a linemate as I nearly went over backwards.

All not bad nominees for "greatest moment", but surely my greatest hockey memory has to involve the Blaze, right?

Does it hell.

The greatest moment of my hockey life was this: Bill Lindsay scoring the overtime winner for Cologne against Dusseldorf in game 4 of the 2005/06 DEL playoff semi-finals.

A bit of background here: I'd moved to Germany at the beginning of that season, and Cologne were my nearest team. Being alone abroad, and having not really found that many friends at uni, the weekly train-journey from Aachen to Cologne, then the underground from Hauptbahnhof to Deutz, followed by the walk up the steps to purchase a ticket at the ticket window, became something of a ritual...it was bringing something of home with me, even if the colours and language were different. It helped that I made friends with a fair few Haie fans thanks to being able to speak fluent German, and given that I was becoming seriously disillusioned with British hockey (a process which just got worse when I came back, as you saw in part III), the Haie became more and more important to me.

I started watching games over there as a neutral, but got sucked in as the Haie (or Sharks, if you prefer English) began to band behind the killer instinct of Slovak sniper extraordinaire Ivan Ciernik, the blossoming young goalie Thomas Greiss (who is now in the San Jose Sharks system) and the crafty veterans Dave Mcllwain, Brad Schlegel and Alex Hicks (to the point where, when they came over to Coventry to play the Blaze as part of the Ahearne Cup, I supported the Sharks for that game just because it felt right due to various issues I had with the Blaze's treatment of me over certain things) and then came my first KEC-DEG game.

DEG are Dusseldorf Metro Stars, and anyone who's been anywhere near Germany knows that the rivalry between the two great Rheinland cities of Cologne and Dusseldorf, standing half-an-hour's journey from each other on the banks of the Rhein, is possibly one of the fiercest city-to-city battles in Europe. Think Manchester and Liverpool, only tripled...Dusseldorf is the capital of the state of Rheinland-Westfalen, while Cologne is the economic powerhouse and one of the culture capitals of Germany-it's the beautiful classical maiden to Dusseldorf's rugby-playing powerhouse of a modern businessman. Hatred of the other city isn't learned in the inhabitants of these two towns-it's fed to babies with their mother's milk. The Haie-Metrostars games are known as the "Rheinderby" and if you think the hype over each Sheffield-Nottingham game is bad, then look away-these games are bloodless wars on and off the ice-you get the sense that, as long as these games are won, any poor season can be forgiven.

It was the most unbelievable atmosphere I've ever experienced...words simply can't do it justice. Imagine the atmosphere at the EIHL Playoff Finals just before the first game, then multiply it by 17,000, and you've got the Koelnarena on derby day.

Now imagine that in playoff time (German playoff series are "best-of-five"), with the Haie 2-1 down and having to win to keep their season alive, and 17,000 people, including a thousand or so from just up the Rhein, holding their breath as the puck drops and hoping for the result to go their way.

What followed was 70 minutes of the greatest hockey I've ever seen. Bar none.

Cologne scored first through Alex Hicks, who had already announced his retirement at the end of the season.-every shift could now be his last, and boy, could you tell by the way he leapt high into the air in celebration as the puck hit the net. The first period ended 1-0 Cologne, before the momentum went back the other way as DEG pressure told, Chris Ferraro scored and the game was once again balanced on a knife edge. A blast from Stephane Julien moments later restored the home advantage, before the script went badly, badly wrong.

First, Hicks earned himself a game misconduct for a viciously hard hit on DEG's Alex Sulzer, which was not noticeably harder than any of the others flying in (every collision was a board-rattler that night), but was judged to be from behind-and so from now on, the continuation of his career rested on his team-mates. And they seemed to wilt under the pressure-Klaus Kathan and Andy Schneider, both German internationals, scoring in quick succesion with a bullet wrister and a rebound respectively to leave the Haie 20 minutes from elimination.

The third period was horrifically tense. First, elation as Eduard Lewandowski tipped in a Mcllwain pass to equalise. Then, despair as DEG were awarded a penalty shot thanks to a Metrostar being hauled down on a breakaway-the silence when Craig Johnson scored was bottomless-the celebrating DEG fans one tier above my place in the terracing behind the goal he scored it sounded like the laughter of ghosts in a deserted mansion.

The clock ticked, with the roaring of the Haie crowd ceaseless, like the thundering of a hurricane-tossed sea, but becoming tinted with more and more desperation...the clock ticked past 59 minutes, and people were praying in the stands...

Then, the puck went into the DEG zone yet again as the waves of red charged forward one last time, bounced, found the stick of Brad Schlegel, and was propelled like a rocket into Trefilov's pads-it came out and the hopes of a city sat on the stick of Bill Lindsay as he found himself with an inch of space and got to the puck just as goalie Andrei Trefilov dived...and poked it home.

Bedlam. Utter, total, complete bedlam. The ghosts across the river in the cathedral must have stirred in their sleep at the roar of complete, mindless joy which nearly lifted the roof off the Koelnarena. We were going to overtime...

A season resting on every pass, every shot, every check. You don't know the tension until you've lived it, and I did that night...when Lewandowski broke away, the air seemed to be sucked out of the rink as the crowd held their breath, only to be expelled in a primal roar of anger as he, too was pulled down from behind.

Oh. My. God. Penalty shot. In overtime. For Cologne.

Jan Alinc was the man chosen to take it. And, unbelievably, he fanned on the shot. This game had more twists and turns than the Stelvio Pass...

Back and forth the game went, before it ended in a single, glorious second right in front of me, when this happened. I was stood at ice-level, right behind where Mike Pellegrins loses the puck, and as Lindsay scored I thought the roof had come off the Koelnarena, as I joined in with and was lost without trace in a hurricane of noise which the tape simply doesn't do justice to. Sometimes, in quiet moments, I can replay the whole scene in my mind as it unfolded in front of me. And I am certain that, this time, the ghosts in the cathedral woke up and roared with us.

Unfortunately, time has dulled my ability to summon back anything close to the emotion of how I felt at that precise moment, but it's not an exaggeration to say that (and I remember the words I used even if I can't remember the feeling itself) I felt like I was lifted up on the shoulders of the hockey gods. Nothing before or since has come close to the extremes of emotion I felt in that game. Nothing. And I don't think anything in hockey ever will.

And, in some ways, that's sad. But I look at it this way as I travel to every Blaze game with part of me in a ceaseless hoping to get a feeling close to it, and respond the same way to those who say "once you've felt something like that, everything else is a disappointment"...even if you shoot for the moon and miss, you'll land among the stars..."

So keep searching...and one day, it might be your turn for a piggyback on the shoulders of the Gods...in the meantime, I'll keep looking, hoping to get my chance at another ride, however brief. Although this time, I hope it's my home-town team that gets me there...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...Round the Rinks to come later...

Serious Playtime...

"My knuckles have turned to white
There's no turning back tonight
(so hold on tight)"
Underoath: "It's a Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door"

Pre-season is done. The teams are back on the ice, the imports are arriving, and the acquaintances have been made and re-made in the stands. With Hull winning the P+O Cup up on Humberside, beating Nottingham and Tilburg to do so, Coventry coming through their pre-season unbeaten and looking very impressive indeed (particularly new signings Peter Hirsch, Luke Fulghum and, believe it or not, Derek Campbell, looking more like the skilled power-forward who made such an impression at Manchester rather than one-half of the carnival-sideshow act he became at Newcastle alongside Andre Payette), and Sheffield taking on Nottingham this evening in the official Elite League curtain-raiser, the Charity Shield, the time for mucking around, half-measures and still getting to know your team-mates is over. Admittedly, I've not seen half the teams in the EIHL, having been limited to what's gone on in Coventry, Cardiff and Sheffield (although, if you want a finely-written insight into Hull and Nottingham's pre-season preparations, then have a gander at the F-Block Blog). So, some (limited) first impressions of the teams seen so far:

Cardiff's big line is shaping up to be more of an anticlimax then expected. So far: Mark Smith looks somewhat off the pace, Max Birbraer is big and ugly as ever, but not quite fit, and Matt Miller is committed but a bit rusty. I hope for the Devils' sake this is little more than pre-season cobwebs, otherwise the pre-season foreshadows a much bleaker season than many in Cardiff are hoping for.

Brad Voth is...well, still Brad Voth: And this, whether you're a Cardiff fan looking for someone to drive your team forward or an opposition fan looking for a hate-figure, is no bad thing.

Brian Lee, defenceman of the year. You heard it here first: Yes, I may be a little biased, but Blaze's big American blue-liner, instantly recognisable thanks to hair that would be more at home in a mosh-pit than on the ice, is a hard-skating, positionally-sound d-man who can go both ways with equal ease. And if he keeps hitting the way he has been so far, expect him to become one of the most hated d-men in the league if you're an opposition fan-the man goes through opposition forwards like a runaway freight train through a collection of Ming vases. Seriously. It would appear his dial is set not so much to "check" as "attempt to wipe from existence". Watching him battle with the likes of Dominic D'Amour, Cameron Mann et al is one of the tastiest sub-plots of Sunday's meeting with the Panthers...and any time you feel the air in a rink begin to crackle when a player steps onto the ice, as is already the case when #5 crosses the boards at the Skydome, you think "hang on a minute...this could be fun"...

If you're a betting fan, then here's a dark-horse: Luke Fulghum, Elite League top scorer, 2009/10.

Be afraid, Sheffield: The Steelers appear to have stood still this off-season...they're still a very good team, but there will be more than one better than them if all teams play to their potential this season...although, as I write this, they have just beaten Nottingham 7-6, after a ridiculous number of penalty shots...defence clearly not considered important by either team on this early showing.

It's a very, very different Hull this season: For a start, they've won something already. Granted, it's only a pre-season trophy, but even so...there is a real, real buzz on Humberside

Greg Chambers will only be popular as long as the Blaze are winning: Wonderful, wonderful passer, and when he's interested, you can see just why he's one of the premier players in the league...the man has skill and vision to burn. But, like Sylvain Deschatelets, inclined to disappear for periods at a time compared to his linemates-and given that Deschatelets was roundly disliked for such a tendency last season, it'll be interesting to see what happens if he or the Blaze hit a slump in form...When they're Greg Owen and Luke Fulghum, though, you only need to make one or two crucial passes a period, and you have a good chance of a multi-point game.

Jason Robinson can read minds: OK, that's pushing it, but based on the pre-season the big Canadian has reached an even higher level than that which made him one of the stand-out d-men in London and popular wherever he's played-people have been claiming he's slow but, when your positioning is as good as his is, being beaten for speed is much less of a worry than it might have otherwise been.

Nottingham just might have something this year: Demolishing Tilburg 11-3 in the first game many of their players have played together? The talent is clearly there...can Corey Neilson finally mould it into a team, and will the "concede five but score six" approach finally work this year?

Nothing gets more of a welcome than a former enemy becoming a friend: The roar that Derek Campbell got when introduced on his Skydome debut is testimony to that...compared to that, the albeit-still-enthuastic reception given to the other players was about the same size, relatively, as a fart to a tornado...

There you go...a few pre-season reflections...Limited they may be, somewhat biased towards Coventry they may also be, but the appetite for the beginning of the serious stuff on Saturday is now well and truly whetted.

Tomorrow will see part IV of Frozen Dreams appear in the evening, while Friday afternoon/early evening sees the return of Round the Rinks as the season starts in earnest...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...

Watching and Waiting

"I've been watching
I've been waiting
In the shadows
For my time"
The Rasmus: "In The Shadows"

I haven't gone away. The silence is simply due to the fact that I'm keeping an eye on the whole pre-season (Coventry's ends against Cardiff at the Skydome this evening) before commenting on it.

Expect (finally) something new around Wednesday evening. And apologies to those few of you who've been waiting...

PW's Fourth Annual Season Preview!

"I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night"
Black Eyed Peas: "I Gotta Feeling"

Here we go then. Last night, the 2009/10 hockey season officially began, as Coventry took on Sheffield up north in the first game of the pre-season, drawing 4-all. From now until April, the pain of hockey withdrawal will be but a memory, as it slowly feeds back into the weekend routine all over the country.

It's been a long, hot, summer, but, at last, autumn is no longer a few flips of the calendar away.

And so, naturally, it's time for a late-summer tradition on the Breakaway...PW's team-by-team EIHL Season Preview. Now into its fourth year, you know the drill by now...every team gets a song, and we break them down.

Buckle up, and let's hop on for season six in EIHL City...

Belfast Giants
"It's all you wanted to know, that I'm as fragile as you"
Racing Kites: "Hands Against the Sky"

The Giants are an enigma this time out. Their offensive power looks, quite frankly, terrifying on paper, and their defence looks like a solid-but-effective unit which will give more than enough protection to Stephen Murphy, a goalie who won game after game by himself for Manchester last season.

So, they're going to be the champions. End of preview...

Except it isn't. Normally, when writing this I have a fairly clear idea of what I think about each team-and a fairly clear idea of what type of song lyric I'm looking for. But when I look at the Giants team, so many questions and voices fill my head, a doctor would probably have legitimate grounds for suspecting schizophrenia...

"Can Stephen Murphy lead the Giants to a title, and disprove the "Brit Goalie Postulate" that you need an import to win the EIHL? How will the Giants cope with his absence?"

"Is Tom Walsh all he's cracked up to be, since one review called him "the worst player ever to play in the (Finnish) SM-Liiga?"

"Sean McMorrow-useful third-line winger or hired thug on skates?"

"Pat Bateman and Brandon Benedict...are they tough enough?"

"That defence...is it seriously weakened without Dave Phillips?"

"Will the money hold?"

We can speculate all we like (and doubtless Giants fans have answers prepared for each and every one of these questions already). However, I don't. And anywhere there are more questions then answers lies suspicion that something, somewhere, just isn't quite right. Or, alternatively...if you think it's too good to be true, it probably is.

It's going to be an interesting season in Belfast...

Key Player: Tom Walsh: Heralded as arguably the top defensive signing in the league this season by his PR, Walsh looks like the kind of defensive leader the Giants will need to keep Stephen Murphy protected. Along with Michael Jacobsen, he's the player Steve Thornton hopes will be the defensive rock to build his team on. If he isn't, and the doubters are right, then Murphy could face more rubber than he (and the Giants) have bargained for.

Player to Watch: Pierre-Luc Faubert: The speedy French-Canadian has already had the label "best forward in the league" pinned on him by some Giants fans. However, given that he has similar stats to Dan Carlson in Coventry, one thinks that the Blaze centre (and quite a few others) will have something to say about that. Faubert will have to prove himself. And quickly.

Unsung Hero: Graeme Walton: A strange pick, you might think. But Walton has quickly developed into one of the premier British defencemen not just in the EIHL, but anywhere...his steadying influence on the blue means that Jacobsen and Walsh will not be expected to carry the defence single-handed. Walton does the simple things defensively, and little more (he'll never burn up the points charts). However, he does them as well as any other defenceman, import or Brit, in the league. And that's what makes him so valuable.

Prediction: 3rd

Cardiff Devils
"I’ll start this broken heart
I’ll fix it up so it will work again
Better than before"
Motion City Soundtrack: "Broken Heart"

Poor Devils. Again and again they look promising early season, and again and again their season is ruined by injuries. However, last time out saw genuine progress off-ice, with the acquisition of the Devils by Comms Direct owner Matt Burge and his subsequent efforts off the ice turning the Devils into arguably the most professional organisation in British hockey. This off-season has begun to bear the fruits, as the Devils have signed an exciting-looking roster based on a mix of continuity on defence (Scott Romfo and Mark Richardson join Wes Jarvis, Jason Stone and Mike Hartwick to form a unit with both size and skill-Richardson in particular appears to be fast progressing towards challenging Jon Weaver as the best British offensive defenceman, while Romfo is a proven winner at his former clubs), finding the right blend of speed and power on the forward lines and bringing back some proven quality in Max Birbraer and the mercurial playmaking skills of Mark Smith. Pairing them with the speedy Matt Miller on the top line, who impressed last season in his brief spell with Basingstoke, has created arguably one of the most dangerous lines in the league.
Although there are questions about the Devils' scoring below the top line, and also whether Stevie Lyle in net is good enough for a title challenge, players of the calibre of Jay Latulippe and Brad Voth can't be discounted in the points column either, while Ben Davies is an exciting youngster and Tylor Michel providing the import grit on line three-and with the passionate Welsh crowd roaring them on and the club going from strength to strength off-ice, the future looks brighter than it has for a while in South Wales.

Key Player: Brad Voth: You could have picked any one of five or six for this slot, but in the end you have to go with the Devils captain, who is as close to a genuine franchise player as this league has. Where he leads, the Devils follow-usually full-tilt into battle...he is the heart-and-soul of his team...and, often forgotten, can play a bit too...

Player to Watch: Mark Smith: Arguably the best pure playmaking centre of the EIHL era (although Dan Tessier and Dan Carlson may have something to say about that) the slightly-built Canadian, when he's on his game, is an absolute dream to watch-skilful, fast and utterly, utterly clinical in front of goal.

Unsung Hero: Tylor Michel: New to the UK, Michel is described as the perfect pest-a grinding winger who will be expected to get into the opposition's heads almost as fast as he chases down opposition d-men. If he plays this role effectively, particularly on home ice, then he and Brad Voth will make the space and time for Smith, Birbraer and Miller to do their work...

Prediction: 5th

Coventry Blaze

"This time, baby, I'll be bullet-proof..."

La Roux: "Bulletproof"

Here we go then...the Breakaway's (unbiased) view of the 2009/10 Coventry Blaze. This, for obvious reasons, was a tricky one to write...

After a season considered disappointing by many in the West Midlands last season, this Blaze roster, at first glance, is one that will definitely excite the demanding (although I'm not sure "demanding" is a strong enough word for a fan-base that can consider finishing second in the Elite League a "disappointment") Skydome crowd. After the problems experienced last season in replacing the likes of Martin, Koenig and Cloutier, Paul Thompson has stuck with proven Elite League players in the main as he looks to correct the frailties in last season's roster, even though the roster has a significant number of new-to-Coventry names on it. Luke Fulghum and Greg Chambers join from the departing Basingstoke and Manchester squads, with Chambers' ex-team-mate Greg Owen's return from France boosting the GB contingent. An interesting storyline in the early-season will be that of Derek Campbell-as one of the players the Skydome crowd used to, shall we say, "welcome the most heartily" when he appeared for Newcastle and Manchester, he may have a job to win over certain sections of the Blaze crowd-but if he does, it'll be in spectacular fashion. At the back, the emphasis has markedly shifted toward the physical, with the big and immensely popular (except with opposition forwards and fans) Jason Robinson returning to the UK and looking like the defensive leader already, alongside new American d-man Brian Lee (no shrinking violet himself at 6'2 and 210lbs), and returnees Jon Weaver and Matty Soderstrom.

The signing that caused the most buzz, however, was that in net, as Danish international Peter Hirsch joins from Aalborg, probably about eight months later than he should have in the opinion of many Blaze fans. Financial issues meant JF Perras was temporarily reprieved from being replaced by the Dane in January, but Thompson has now got his man, and with a pedigree of the highest order Hirsch (who gave an extremely enjoyable interview to the Breakaway back in May outlining his aims for the season) should be the potential title-winning goalie all teams need...

Key Man: Peter Hirsch: Like Cardiff, a few players could have filled this slot, but after the struggles of JF Perras last season and the excitement caused by his signing this time round, few would argue that many see the Danish goalie as the key to the team this year. Goalies win you games, and games win you championships, after all.

Player to Watch: Luke Fulghum: Unforgivably, in last season's preview I picked Kyle Bruce ahead of the right winger from Colorado. Rave reviews from every Manchester fan I've spoken to, a shedload of points and being the crucial cog in the Beauregard/Hand/Fulghum line which gave the Phoenix arguably the most complete top line in the league proved how wrong I was. Fulghum is little short of a big, fast-skating, skilful beast-from-dman's-nightmare of a right-winger, who can do it all, and, last year in Manchester, frequently did.

Unsung Hero: Danny Stewart: I know this section is somewhat forward-heavy, but the little winger with the huge heart from Fort McMurray, Alberta will never, ever stop skating, harrying or puck-chasing until you pry the shaft of his Warrior Mac Daddy stick from his cold, dead hands. He will play on both forward and defence where necessary, and in his time at the Blaze, he's been involved in the vast majority of "big" goals and scored quite a few himself-the overtime winner against Manchester last season in the epic 7-6 game was just the latest in a long line.

Prediction: It may be biased, it may rebound horribly, but 1st.

Edinburgh Capitals
"We'll start a fire
And burn some bridges
And make it out of here tonight"
Funeral For a Friend: "Escape Artists Never Die"

What's going on in Edinburgh? The Capitals (although, at the point I write this, they’re still lacking a starting goalie and a few signings) have made huge strides this off-season, seemingly deciding that if they can’t beat the Elite League big-boys in the politics, they may as well join them. Signings such as Simon Lambert, Chris Allen on defence and latest acquisition Owen Fussey have well and truly put them on the map. Unfortunately, due to their roster being incomplete I can’t consider them in the same way I have all the other teams…so let’s look at what they do have.

In defence, with the likes of Ben O’Connor and the aforementioned Allen, as well as Scotland’s own “face only a mother could love” winner in Kyle Horne, the Caps look tighter, more organised and just plain better than they have in a long while-Michael Beynon will never win any scoring awards but he and Horne will allow O’Connor and Allen to flex their offensive muscle.

Up front is where things get interesting, though, with Fussey and Lambert competing for the title of “this year’s Cap who makes a massive impact on the scoring charts”, won previously by Colin Hemingway and Mark Hurtubise, while Martin Cingel, Darius Pliskauskas and Mark Garside provide useful scoring depth, and not forgetting the giant Doug Christiansen, who can pop more than a few in himself if the need arises…

And then there’s the carnival sideshow that is Andrew Sharp, which, if nothing else, guarantees Caps games will be entertaining…

With more signings to come, it’s difficult to work out just where the Caps will finish, but assuming they’re at a similar standard…I think they’ll occupy their usual mid-to-lower-playoff birth, but improvement all the time could see that made a mockery of. For the purposes of this though, and only because they lack a starting goalie, they occupy bottom. That could change very quickly.

Prediction: 8th

Hull Stingrays

"I don't blame you for walking away

I'd do the same if I saw me
I swear it's not contagious
In four short steps we can erase this"

Alkaline Trio: "This Could Be Love"

Step one: fire Rick Strachan. Two seasons two late, but better late than never, always.

Step two: bring in a proven winner and Coventry Blaze legend as player-coach, who just happens to be one of the best two-way centres ever seen in this country, including the ISL era.

Step three: let him recruit one of the most lethal snipers of the EIHL era, retain the best of last year and build a roster that has people well and truly raising their eyebrows.

Step four: simmer, allow the sheer force of Sylvain Cloutier's will to win to mould the disparate ingredients into an exciting-looking Stingrays side, built on hard work, grit and one very, very good top line, and serve.

The Stingrays could surprise a few people this season, including their own fans, with just how far such a recipe could take them:

Key Man: Tommy Sandahl: The young Scandinavian, in his first starting job, simply has to be a good ‘un, and hit the ground running right out of the blocks. The Stingrays now have scoring power and a decent defence, but they don’t have the offensive punch to outscore the top teams, and so that’s where Sandahl comes in. Keep ‘em out, and the Stingrays, if they follow the lead of their player-coach Cloutier, will always, always have a chance.

Player to Watch: Konstantin Kalmikov: The Russian now has the perfect complement to his passing skills on the top line in sniper extraordinaire Curtis Huppe, and a centre who will win the puck time and again in Cloutier. He’ll have to create the chances for these two, though-if Huppe has no ammo, he can’t fire off those deadly quick shots of his. All that and contribute goals too? If that top line are to be successful, a lot rests on Kalmikov’s shoulders…

Unsung Hero: Jeff Glowa: A Stingrays institution now, Glowa will work hard all night, and then, if necessary, through the following day to give his team a chance to win. If no-one else does, though, he’s been known to score more than a couple himself as well…

Prediction: 7th

Newcastle Vipers

"Staring at my own reflection

when suddenly, it changes

Violently, it changes ..."

Disturbed: "Down With The Sickness"

It’s been an off-season of huge change in the North-East. With Rob Wilson stating his intention to move away from the Slapshot hockey we’ve come to know and…well, know from the Vipers, this year’s roster sports a very different look to the previous ones, built on speed and grit rather than just brute force. The defence, in particular, will need to be good with Michel Robinson behind them-a goalie who splits opinion between “good” and “absolutely bloody awful” solidly in half. With players like Mike Berry, Tyler Kindle and Ryan Mahrle coming in, and very few players remaining from last season’s team, the next bit is hard to predict-but I shall try:

Key Man: Matus Petricko: As a proven scorer in the EIHL, the Slovak will be expected to contribute hugely to the Vipers goal column, potentially alongside Slovenian Matej Kralj-if the two Eastern Europeans can form an understanding then it will take pressure off the likes of Mike Berry and Jason Tejchma, as well as perennial talisman David Longstaff.

Player to Watch: Jerramie Domish: 5’9 and 200lbs, this pocket-battleship will be expected to lead the Vipers defence, hitting, blocking shots and contributing at both ends. An AHL pedigree suggests he can do that-with Ryan Mahrle, Mark Gouett and Tyler Kindle also joining him, the Vipers’ import D, and their ability to stop shots going in on Michel Robinson in net, could be the key to their season.

Unsung Hero: Ben Campbell: The young Geordie is progressing in leaps and bounds-and boundless is a fine way to describe his energy on the ice. Scared of nothing and possessed of no little skill, he’s an often-un-noticed but valuable asset to his team.

Prediction: 6th

Nottingham Panthers

"I know I’m not

The best decision

(the best decision)

But take a chance now..."

Handshakes and High-Fives: "Maybe Next Time"

The Panthers are impossible to write a preview for, every single year. One wonders how a team that looks pretty damn good every season can be so, well, average. Their problem last time out, and a common one under Corey Neilson, was that once again they appeared to be a loosely-connected group of talented individuals who just happened to be wearing the same shirt, rather than..well, an actual team. The latest incarnation of the GMB Panthers, however, appears, once again, to be similar, although they do have the massive benefit of Bruce Richardson, who like him or despise him is a pint-sized version of Sylvain Cloutier in his drive and will to win. The big news of the off-season was the signing of Cameron Mann from the DEL, but in all the excitement over this, the return of Richardson and Kevin Bergin, and some pretty solid D signings, the dodgy bits of trivia that keep popping up whenever you look at the roster get forgotten. For example:

Kevin St.Pierre lost his job in Tulsa last season to...erm...Davis Parley. Yes, that's ex-Panthers, cut-by-them-for-being-rubbish-mid-season Davis Parley.

Danny Meyers is expected to be one of their offensive forces on D. Yes, Danny Meyers, who even some Panthers fans think is way over-rated.

If Kevin St.Pierre gets injured, their back-up is Mark Hartley, who was considered a bit dodgy at ENL level. Pray he doesn't, Panthers fans.

Of course, there are many positives about this Panthers roster, not least the return of Sean McAslan from Denmark, giving the East Midlanders a genuine one-two punch, especially if Marty Gascon is a (very) poor-man's Dan Tessier, as he appears to be, Dominc D'Amour is as good as reported on defence, and Jade Galbraith actually puts the effort in this time round as he's promised (he wasn't too shabby a sniper even not trying). But the questions are still there...

Key Man: Bruce Richardson: The Panthers centre won a lot of friends in Nottingham last season for his ability to seemingly carry the team on his back and drag them up to the level of play expected of them through sheer force of will last time out. This time round, he's got players around him who are used to expectation, and have dealt with crowds far more demanding than those in Nottingham. Can the little centre lead the Panthers to a title?

Player to Watch: Jade Galbraith: WHAT? No Cameron Mann or Sean McAslan?! You must be out of your mind, I hear you cry.

Then you remember that, just occasionally, despite being roundly derided for being fat, lazy and slow, Galbraith looked like a very, very good sniper indeed. In fact, despite being relentlessly mocked for having more meat on him than a barbequed elephant, he scored 74 points, and has since openly admitted that he...well, could have tried a little harder than he did. Which, if true, is a frightening prospect, especially as he'll be alongside the aforementioned Mann and McAslan, who are pretty damn good themselves.

Just how good can this guy get? We shall see.

Unsung Hero: Nick Toneys: Last season Toneys was all but unnoticeable, unless you were an opposition forward. Then, his calm defensive play and superb sense of positioning were very noticeable indeed, mainly because it stopped you scoring yet again.

With players like Dominic D'Amour and Corey Neilson around him again, expect Toneys to keep on keeping on in his usual quiet, effective fashion this season.

Prediction: 2nd

Sheffield Steelers
"And I know that we've still got time

But I do not think we're invincible"

Enter Shikari: "Juggernauts"

The big signing news from Sheffield this summer is...well, that there's been no big signing news. The Steelers roster only contains a few new faces, as Ben Morgan steps up from the Scimitars to replace Steve Munn, Rod Sarich moves to forward, and Jeff Hutchins comes in from Newcastle. Even their big import signing was a familiar face, as Kevin Bolibruck returns on defence. Their biggest signing, in fact, was in net, as Kevin Reiter makes the trip up from Basingstoke based on his rave reviews last season...however, it remains to be seen how he'll cope in following in the footsteps of one of, if not the best goalie of the EIHL era in Jody Lehman...Rob Dowd will be hoping for another banner season to cement his place as the heir-apparent to Tony Hand, especially now Ashley Tait has disappeared off to foreign (Italian) shores. But it's very much a case of evolution not revolution again in Yorkshire-time will tell if it's as effective as last season...especially with the improvement across the league

Key Man: Kevin Bolibruck: With Steve Munn gone, the defensive unit needs a leader, and Bolibruck is it. He was possibly the best defenceman in the EIHL's first season last time he was here, and with a career that's gone from strength to strength in Europe since then, "Boli" will have the hopes of Dave Matsos pinned on him to help mould the defensive unit into the same stingy and remorselessly effective template as that which served him so well last season

Player To Watch: Rod Sarich: Already viewed as one of the best offensive d-men of the EIHL era, Sarich now moves forward full-time to provide the Steelers with a genuine power-forward-sized winger. The question is-is he a genuine forward?

If this experiment works, Sarich could quickly become a very effective forward indeed. If it doesn't, then the Steelers will need to move him back to his accustomed position quickly, before the hole he's left on defence impacts their title challenge significantly.

Unsung Hero: Doug Sheppard: Often forgotten in the blare of publicity focused on super-snipers Joey Talbot and Jeff Legue, Sheppard is a very effective, hard working winger who provides the Steelers with a genuine threat in all situations-he'll very rarely be out-worked and makes valuable contributions in the points column despite rarely receiving the fanfare of his more illustrious colleagues.

Prediction: 5th

So, the final table reads thus...

Blaze

Panthers

Giants

Devils

Steelers

Stingrays

Vipers

Capitals

Cup Winners: Any of the top five.

Playoff Winners: Pick one from eight...it's simply too early to tell.

I admit that the bias may seem blinding in putting the Blaze at the top, but I genuinely believe they have ever so slightly more than the Panthers thanks to Peter Hirsch. Giants will push hard for the top two places but losing Stephen Murphy for the early part of the season could hurt them, while Kevin Reiter may be Steelers' Achilles heel behind the offensive power and defensive solidity of the Devils. The bottom three, quite frankly, are a lottery...I put Stingrays over Vipers purely based on the Vipers having Michel "rebound-king" Robinson in net, while the Caps are bottom for no other reason than them currently lacking a starting goalie.

I do predict, however, that this league will be very close indeed, with first and eighth separated by no more than twenty points.

The 09/10 EIHL season...it's going to be the best yet. Let's drop the puck...

It's Coming...

...honest. The season preview will be up in the next few hours...check around seven-thirty...

And sorry it's late...

Calm Before the Storm

"motivate the situation

comprehend my intuition

understand the bigger plan"

Halo Friendlies: "Don't Let Me Down"

I know it's a bit quiet today and will be on Thursday...but that's because PW's Spanking New Fourth Annual Season Preview is in the works for Friday morning, as well as the Blaze section of the season preview over at The Cat's Whiskers and another instalment of Frozen Dreams to appear in the next week or two-so there is a lot of activity going on under the surface, honest.

But while we're waiting for that, the fruits of which will start to bloom on Friday, let's graze on the tidbits of EIHL news that have been floating around recently to feed your starving eyes...mostly involving Edinburgh:

Edinburgh sign Andrew Sharp...:...and one of the major reasons, Doug Christiansen says, is to get people talking about Edinburgh. Judging by a thirteen-page forum thread on THF which is still running even now-I'd say he's done that.

...and Owen Fussey...: Now, Fussey is good. Very good. A big power-forward who has four games in the NHL and has never played lower than ECHL or comparable (Italy last year), the British-passport-holder (a fact which I'm sure has made Paul Thompson prick up his ears), he's the "sweetener" to the very sour taste that signing Andrew Sharp will leave in a fan's mouth. His stats are here.

..and Simon Lambert: ..., from the CHL, who, reportedly, will be the quickest forward in the league. I'm expecting, for those of you who remember him, a Patric Lochi for the EIHL era. And a fan favourite in Edinburgh in the making.

Now, all they need is a decent goalie...

Hocktoberfest!: Despite the awful name, the idea of having all EIHL teams appear in action at one venue in a single day is an awesome, exciting one. And it's happening in Sheffield on October 4th, as the EIHL introduce a new competition. The Breakaway is already looking at live-blogging it...more on this to come next week..

I know that's very quick indeed...and there may well be a fair amount of news I've missed or will only touch on (including Cardiff's new sponsorship deal) but that's simply due to stuff piling up. I apologise to those teams, players and signings I've not considered...

Check back on Friday, though...the season preview will be done and up. And, that, you can guarantee, will be more comprehensive than a whole island's worth of secondary schools...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...

Frozen Dreams, Part III: Hockey Soup For The Soul

"So dear, dear Katie
What have you done lately?
I've heard it's all gone wrong."
James Blunt: "Dear Katie"

"...but you and I...we know the reason why
I'm gone, and you're still there"
Rachael Yamagata: "The Reason Why"

"even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through"
All-American Rejects: "Move Along"

The last part of Frozen Dreams dealt with the beginning of my first (and so far only) "proper" relationship with a girl. And this one, following the rules of logic and also the eternal truth that "all good things come to an end" will deal with the end of it. Not directly-it didn't actually end at a hockey game or anything like that (which is perhaps a small mercy-after all, it's bad enough to have your heart casually tossed into a dustbin when you're by yourself, never mind when you think a few hundred or even a few thousand people might be aware that here is someone who is, to use the so-cruel-but-so-apt phrase, being dumped, in public.)

Although, amusingly and perhaps somewhat weirdly, hockey did manage to find its way into my life even at the very moment I was being dumped, given that it happened outside the Coventry Skydome (which had become our meeting-place given that we spent so much time there during the season, when I wasn't in Germany) and the painful "here's anything of yours I've still got" moment had hockey overtones, given that even this moment saw her hand me back, amongst other things, a Marc Lefebvre replica white jersey (which she'd bought for me the previous Christmas). I no longer have that jersey-it ended its days a few months later on a bonfire in the back garden after I, fuelled by a mix of one of the rare times I've ever drunk too much alcohol and miserableness, decided that there was simply no way I could keep it).

That last sentence may have given you some sort of clue as to my general state of mind entering the 06/07 hockey season. I'd just come back from a year in Germany, lost my girlfriend literally days afterwards (wonderful timing on her part-it might have had something to do with the rumours that she'd been less than faithful while I'd been away, but hockey-rinks are the kind of place where everybody knows everybody and so the whispers floating around really didn't help much), and after the bitter infighting and arguments which had taken place amongst the Blaze fans and God only knows what else, I'd come within an ace of taking a year off. Hockey was, to all intents and purposes, ruined for me.

Yup. Autumn 06 was not a good time for your friendly blog-writer, folks.

And so, come the first game of the new season, I had to, for the first time ever, force myself down to the rink. As for the game itself? The team, the league and indeed anything to do with the sport were the furthest thing from my mind.

I went through the first few months on autopilot...which was a shame given that the Blaze had Danny Stewart, Jon Weaver, Sylvain Cloutier and Neal Martin tearing up the ice in front of us, as well as Reid Simonton throwing hits left, right and centre and an exciting battle with Belfast for the top of the league.


However, come March, and me possibly at my lowest point-even to the level where a Challenge Cup demolition of Sheffield and finally coming out on top in the league race against Belfast barely registered a flicker, the playoff quarter-final against Newcastle was the last game of a season that had almost passed me by.

Most Blaze fans remember that rainy March night due to the amazing Blaze comeback after Newcastle had gone 3-0 up inside ten minutes, capped by Ashley Tait scoring an overtime winner that was almost the exact double of his playoff-winning goal in Nottingham. I remember it for a different reason.

I'd turned up more out of duty than anything else-after all, the feeling was worry given that the Vipers had won the night before, so nothing less than a victory would do-and when Longstaff, Weaver, Morgan and Payette put the Vipers firmly in the driving seat so that the end of the first period was a time for bitter recriminations in the crowd.

Then came the fightback. Over the next two periods, the Blaze played with a fervour and passion that even penetrated my frozen consciousness, so, for the first time in ages, I found myself actually caring about a hockey game again, yelling encouragement, heckling and generally getting back to the way I'd been when not wallowing in the depths of a broken heart. Although, even then, every time Newcastle went forward I feared that they's score again and bring me back down to the depths of despair.

But they kept scoring. 4-1 (Martin). 4-2 (Cloutier). 4-3 (Stewart). 4-4 (I can't remember the scorer, worryingly) and suddenly, OT beckoned.

And then, Ashley Tait went through, beat Ladi Kudrna again in the same way as in Nottingham, and the crowd roared with a pure, primal, unhinged bellow that contained a mixture of relief, joy and just a hint of madness. And, for the first time in a long, long while, my voice yelled along with them.

And, a year after a nasty break-up, at the end of a year in which I'd fallen well and truly out of love with hockey and indeed life in general, that split-second was the exact, pinpointed moment when, finally, the healing of the wounds caused by the death of first love, and also the tearing-away between me and hockey in my soul, began. And, to a small degree, it might still be the reason I'm watching today...just in the hope of more moments like that.

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...

Gains and Losses

"Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock..."

Gwen Stefani: "What You Waiting For?"

"Tricked me once, but I won't let you trick me twice..."

Kelis: "Trick Me".

Before part three of Frozen Dreams, which'll be following tomorrow, let's have a quick look at the news, which has been somewhat neglected on here recently, starting with more signings in Edinburgh, and moving on to problems in Sheffield which couldn't really come at a worse time as the countdown ticks on towards the start of the season..

Capitals sign Martin Cingel and Mark Smith: Edinburgh are slowly building a roster which just might bring a whiff of the glory days back to Murrayfield, depending on their final signings. Their adopted Scot from Slovakia, Martin Cingel, returns for his eighth season in Capitals colours, joined by useful Lithuanian forward Darius Pliskauskas, who returns for his second spell in the Scottish capital and possibly has the best song in the Elite League ("Super-cali-fragilistic, Darius Plis-kau-skas!") just edging out his team-mate's "Cingel Bells"...

Mark Smith, meanwhile, is an ex-CHL defenceman who looks like a strong addition to the Caps' defensive core, even if he may spend the season in the shadow of the very exciting looking Chris Allen in the skilful d-man stakes...

Matus Petricko signs for Vipers:...alongside Michel Robinson in net. Aye well, if they have a defence worth its salt, Robinson should be a just-about-safe pair of hands..and Petricko is a proven player in this league after spells in Newcastle, Cardiff and Nottingham...

Steelers Screwed:...by Eurologix, their title sponsor until a week ago, after the ex-Telford sponsors pulled out without warning. This has caused a spectacular mix of schadenfreude and much hand-wringing on the forums, mainly over how bad it is that it's happened twice. Of course, you get some league zealots on both sides trying to put the "see, people only care when it's a big-league/the EIHL will eat itself now" arguments, which quite frankly are tired, repetitive and if nothing else, bloody boring to read every time anything happens with any club in either league. They're now the Field Electrical Steelers as mentioned last week...

Nope, no typo there:...not the Sheffield Steelers-as officially any semblance to a place-name has been dropped by the Yorkshire club. All I shall say about this, not being a Steelers fan but well aware of the need for an identity for sports teams, is that if Coventry ever become the "insert company here" Blaze, with no mention of my (adopted) home town*, then this blog will suddenly see a lot more fire-and-brimstone

*for those of you who're bothered, I'm half-Kentish, and despite living in Coventry since...well, ever, have something of a southerner's pride for my roots in the Garden of England-more so than the Sky Blue City, if I'm honest...

Speaking of pride...: The Blaze shirt designers appear to have put theirs on the shelf for this season...they're cheap, cluttered and the so-called "anniversary" jersey for the Blaze's 10th year is a (very) cheap Penguins rip-off, with only the fortuitous coincidence of the Pens jersey also being on a base of sky-blue allowing the Blaze PR to claim it's a "Coventry-inspired" jersey. But enough of my ranting-judge for yourself here

And that's a lightning blast through the major news of the past few days..