SHEFFIELD, UK – Well we’re back; I hope you had a good summer, and that you’re ready to put your colours back on. I personally changed roles from writing about the sport to playing at the UK Forums All-Stars weekend in Cardiff, but we’ll mention that later on.
However after the first weekend of the Elite League season, the question to come out of it is ‘Crisis, what crisis?’ at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield. With the well documented summer of discontent, Sheffield hit the ice against a Cardiff team that you knew would be nasty, tough and aggressive given that the coach is Gerad Adams and captained by Ryan Finnerty – and in fairness, a fair number of the home fans would have thought the worse……. How wrong were we all? 60 minutes of hard hitting ice hockey, with a tempo not seen for some time, blew away the red army.
Ex-NHL’er Ben Simon appears to have swept in a new ethos of hard work and an up-tempo approach to their performance, one which given last season, was a joy to watch. Ben Simon has a tough job, to not only put a team onto the ice that will compete in the league, but also to entertain the fans and put the fun back into games at the arena.
What is vitally important is that it’s great having this type of performance on the opening night; you’ve got to have this game in game out. If Ben Simon starts to win that battle, and puts out a team that will put in this performance night in night out, then we might start to see the crowds in Sheffield start to rise. The opening night crowd against the devils was over 3800, taking into consideration that the opening night crowd the year before (and as League and Play-Off champions) against Coventry was just over 3200 then there are some positives to take from it, however it is crucial that more work is done, to ensure that the numbers not only stay as they are, but increase.
This season is probably the most important in the clubs 20 years of existence. After the summer the club has had, where neither side of the dispute has come out of this with any real victory it was more than possible that the fans would have decided in numbers to not attend this season. Each and every one of the fans in Sheffield will have searched their souls, and majority of them taking a side within the civil war.
What is needed is the club to protect the bridges that still exists, whether it is current/future sponsors or the volunteers/off ice officials, but more importantly the fans, and do it’s best to entice them back, but in return the other side of the bridge needs to do its part by getting behind the team, in whatever capacity they can – once they see the club do its part within the ‘relationship’. If this was to happen, then I can see the team and club recover.
Would this be seen to be ‘backing’ the current management – I’m not sure it is. The support that people would be offering would be towards the team. Of course any financial support would go to the management, and for them to spend as they please – however given what has happened during the summer, I can’t see them not spending/re-investing it into the club and team. The overall riding factor to it all is this – if those off the ice can show the same passion and energy supporting the ‘team’ then I have a feeling that the team will give back with their performance on the ice.
To move from a team who’s future looks rocky, to one which is very stable, the Nottingham Panthers came out of a potential tough weekend with 2 wins out of two. A home shoot-out win against Belfast in front of over 5,000 fans plus the live sky camera’s followed by a demolition job away at league champions Coventry showed what they can do this year. Corey Neilson has recruited differently, but has retained the principle of having an abundance of fire-power from the back through. With himself and Jonathan Zion, they have a defensive pair that will bag some serious points, and then there is the forwards, and you can pick any player, and they have points in abundance in them with Galbraith, Clarke and the return of Beauregard. Them five players alone, they will have near enough 350-400 points between them. However this Nottingham team looks a younger, much hungrier collection of hockey players.
But it is not just the star players – as last weekends efforts showed, they have some grafters who are prepared to go the extra yard, from the graft of Ian McDonald to the ‘protection’ of Alex Penner, this is a team that could finally end the long wait for that league title, which has haunted them since 1956. In fairness this has been said previously over the recent times, but I think this team has a bit more to it than previous squads. To beat two title contenders on the first weekend shows that their credentials might have league champions written all over it, however this is a marathon, not a sprint; it will be interesting to see if they can continue this run of form, especially through the Christmas period where the title hunt normally ends.
However the major talking point was that live ice hockey was once again on Sky, and it looked fantastic. The highlights put together looked fantastic, and top marks to those who have put this together. The only fault that was picked up was that there was no power play clock, but I am sure given time, this can be addressed. But forget the minute thing that the point above is – I can’t stress how good it is for the game in this country that we had live camera’s back at the rink. A great crowd to show on TV, a great game which had everything, goals, fights and a bit of controversy, something to get the average viewer hooked.
What will be interesting, is the highlights program that is shown in-between the live games, that we’re being told is in the form of “Match of the day”. I hope that this comes across very well, and that this will continue to raise the interest within the sport. It’s clear that some effort has been put in to put on live games and a proper highlights show, so credit where it is due to everyone involved. Here is one hockey fan who is grateful for your efforts.
Week 2 of the season will see the Elite League’s new boys, the Dundee Stars roll into Sheffield, with the Sheriff Sean McMorrow leading the parade. I for one have great memories of our recent game in Dundee, and it is a few years late, but at last it’s great to see Dundee sitting at the top table. Hope we see a number of you down in Sheffield.
I mentioned that I played this Summer, well Cardiff hosted the 3rd UK Forums All-Stars weekend, with fans of the game from around the UK venture to the Welsh capital. Four fantastic charities were represented, with the Devils Community Foundation beating the Dreams Come True team in the final. A fantastic event, that has raised a fair penny, the exact figure to be announced within the next few weeks exclusively on Pro Hockey News.
Till next time
Big Dave!!!
Contact the author Dave.Grant@Prohockeynews.com
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