SWINDON, UK – The big news of the week has to have come from the Jets with the shocking news former Coach of the Year Pete Russell’s services are no longer required. Let’s not forget Russell is the GBU20 head coach and in his two years in Slough has brought success to the club with a playoff championship and the EPL cup.
However, the signs were there despite little of coming from the club. For a start, with everyone else team-building it was the Jets and Wildcats who specifically did not refer either directly or otherwise to their coaches’ return. Ryan Aldridge in Swindon, who ironically replaced Russell mid-season three years back, had to be assumed safe because there was plenty of talk involving him, while the atmosphere surrounding Russell was quiet by comparison. Then there were the management changes and player moves that just screamed out for some reading between the lines.
Resorting to rumour, as I have been wont to do on occasion if for no other reason than my old grand-pappy used to advise, ‘If you can smell something on your boots that doesn’t bring roses to mind, don’t go poking around with a finger to find out because you are probably right.’
And the smell? If I say Adam Calder, Doug Sheppard and Jan Krajicek and hastily add that I mean that in the nicest sense of the word in that there are two possibly significant rumours doing the rounds. The former, it has been claimed, is searching for an Elite League position next season despite contractual clauses set to trip him up, while Canadian Sheppard is on hand with a wealth of Elite League coaching experience under his belt, and can even still skate a bit which brings it all down to money. Maybe it is stretching a point but Krajicek is a great player and one of the most productive D-men in the EPL who moved to Slough last season because they could offer him the accommodation package the Wildcats couldn’t. He was released in May so you have to wonder if the same issue was resurrected, and stretching things almost to the point of snapping and getting a whack between the eyes but this can even be linked as far back as Blaz Emersic’s questionable departure last season and rumbles then in the management.
In the end, it was Sheppard who has been appointed to fill Russell’s boots, but probably more importantly the Jets announced they would definitely be in the EPL next season, which has to be good news and squashes another rumour. Strangely, some have gloated at the turmoil in Slough which makes no sense because it ain’t easy keeping our heads above water these days, and the EPL is no different. What are we to do if another team folded – laugh it off and just keep playing until two remain and contest 54 games between them? No, all who love this wonderful sport and league should cast a weary eye over such worrying news and say a prayer for survival, and maybe take a look at the Tigers.
Swindon came clean and confirmed netminder James Hadfield was on his way to, oh yes, they never said, so we still don’t know if it is the Flames while the Wildcats’ other back-stop, Chris Douglas, was also confirmed as en-route to ENL Oxford Stars. Coach Aldridge said he wasn’t surprised Douglas was on the move having been ousted to some extent last season by young GBU18 international Hadfield and a head injury, and for the coming season by the already-signed Tom Murdy and thought Oxford could offer him the starting place he wanted.
Aldridge also became another coach who has expressed the view the EPL has improved in standard over the last couple of years and in particular, his own forward line and starting net slot. ‘Our ‘D’ may not be as strong,’ he added, ‘but we really under-performed in defence last year.’
One step ahead of the Wildcats, and everyone else for that matter, is Canadian boss Chris Allen at the Phantoms who declared his side complete. Well, maybe, adding, ‘…there might be one more signing on defense if the budget allows,’ but in any event said, ‘I am very pleased that we completed our roster-building so early in the summer.’
Someone of a contrary position is Coach Tony Hand at the Phoenix who has always advocated a wait-and-see approach but who this week announced the re-signing of a formidable pair of Brits in the shape of Steve Wallace and James Archer who both finished last season in the Top Ten British Goal Scorers Chart.
The Flames have also adopted something of an approach of attrition to their rebuild with still, like the Phoenix, a long way to go but added one name to the roster with the return of forward Ben Campbell for his second term after three in the Elite League.
Another pair of British forwards also noted for their Top Ten Chart positions were re-signed by the Lightning in the week. Michael Wales, ‘affectionately’ known as ‘Muzzy’, according to the club, is back on board for an eleventh time in Milton Keynes while Grant McPherson returns for his sixth. While both players have probably fluffed up their cushions and stuck their names on reserved seats in anticipation of a long stay in the bad-boys’ box, it is McPherson who occupies the EPL number three spot as the baddest, while Wales is almost lagging behind at number ten in the Brit Chart.
The Lightning also put paid to another rumour by announcing that after fighting off competition they had secured the return of Slovakian forward Blaz Emersic for what will be his first full season.
Having started the Roundup with news from the Jets, we might as finish with them with the question of what will become of Pete Russell? Seeing as we have already paddled in rumour waters then it would be easy to believe he is headed back to his homeland north of the border and the Elite League.
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Contact the author Bill.Collins@Prohockeynews.com
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