BELFAST, UK – As I sit here waiting for my flight back to the mainland, it gives me time to think about what I have witnessed this weekend, because it is not every day you get a team from North America come over to play a game of Ice Hockey over in the UK, never mind a team of stature like the Boston Bruins roll into town.
Representing Pro Hockey News, I had the opportunity to see first hand, what an NHL team is all about. My only experience is watching the games on ESPN America so to see them in the flesh, and see how they operate, would be different to anything that I had ever experienced.
With this in mind, I came to Belfast very open minded about how the show was going to be ran. Todd Kelman has done a pretty good as General Manager of the Belfast Giants, but this would be the biggest gig he will have ever taken on. How would he handle the pressure of hosting such a well known hockey team?
Another big question was how the city of Belfast would handle the occasion. Everyone knows the history, but everyone also knows what they have done over the past ten years to rectify the history, and show a new image of Belfast, this was a fantastic opportunity to show the viewing world, what Belfast had to offer, what would the world say afterwards?
I and the group of friends I was in came into town on the Friday, and because of the hockey-apparel that we were wearing, the talk from the taxi driver was straight onto the Bruins game. He mentioned that around 60-70% of the pick ups from the airport were all over for this one-off game with the Bruins, and what also impressed him was the different locations that people had come from, ranging from Newcastle to Milton Keynes.
Walking around the city centre, there was a genuine buzz around the city, with a number of shirts from different clubs dotted around the city centre; it has created a carnival feel to the weekend, the kind of atmosphere that you would see at a major sporting event with a classic example of a massive banner outside the Odyssey complex welcome the Boston Bruins to Belfast
Going to the pre-game skate on the day of the event, it was fascinating to see how the Bruins prepare for a game, training sessions in the UK will have one coach running all the drills, with the Boston Bruins, we had 3-4 coaches with the head coach ensuring that everything was done as per his instructions. As we all know, the NHL is of a higher standard than normal, but it was an eye-opener to see the speed the players were putting into the session, trying to re-create the intensity you find during the game. With players still to be cut before the opening games against Phoenix, none of the players could afford slipping up in any session.
Leading up to the game, there was the opportunity to interview the head coach of the Bruins, Claude Julien, and the atmosphere was relaxed. Amongst the questions from the press across the pond, in relation to the way Boston have been playing during the pre-season games back in Boston, the British and Irish press asked about their stay in the UK. Julien could not hold back his praise of the hospitality of Belfast, saying that they had been treat like kings, and appreciated all the help that they had received, as they could tell that people had gone out of their way to give the Bruins what they wanted.
Everyone left the arena to get ready for the evening, and when walking to the rink, the numbers of jerseys that were around the city centre had increased, and so did the buzz. I spoke to some of the fans on my way and the excitement beyond anything I have ever imagined I would ever experience at a game at a UK arena/rink. The prospect of seeing a bona-fide NHL team in their own back yard was something plenty of people never thought would happen, but in moments it was about to.
In part two – we talk about the game itself – and the moment, Zdeno Chara led his NHL team, onto Elite League Ice.
Contact the author Dave.Grant@Prohockeynews.com

SHEFFIELD, UK – Two weekends into the new season, and are the wheels already coming off the Coventry Blaze wagon? You might think it’s a bit too early to think this considering they have only played three games, and admittedly against Nottingham and twice against Belfast, but as league champions, at least a single home win would be expected. With Brad Cruikshank, Jon Weaver and now Russ Cowley out injured, things are not looking good for Paul Thompson’s men, however what a better time to get back on track than a double header against Midlands rivals, the Nottingham Panthers. If Coventry can get a couple of positive results out of this, then not only will they have finally got onto the board, but also it will bring some confidence back to the team, and in that rink – a confident Coventry is a dangerous thing.
 
What is looking impressive is the Nottingham Panthers. After a tough opening weekend, they had a relatively easier task, with Cardiff and Dundee being the opposition. After making hard work of turning over Cardiff, they made up for this by putting 9 past Dundee. To offer solid title credentials, it’s as important to dispose of the ‘weaker’ sides as the teams you’re competing for the title with and one of Nottingham’s faults over the previous years as been the inability to finish off lower placed teams, and drop ‘easy’ points. What they have to do is to continue their impressive run, and they already have a win against the Coventry Blaze under their belt. This weekend could be a cracker for Midlands’ hockey.
 
Last Saturday saw my first opportunity to see the Dundee Stars, and in particular Sean ‘The Sheriff’ McMorrow, and although better late than never, it was good to see Dundee back on the top table of British ice hockey. It’s clear that this team has not been put together to win the title, but to compete and entertain, and they certainly did that, with the team throwing hits and be willing to step up to look after their team. What I can see though are a few changes to turn the team from also-rans to someone who could possibly make the post-season play-offs. If they were to achieve that – then I believe that ice hockey will be well established back into the Dundee public, and if anything, that has got to be their main objective this year.
 
Last week saw Edinburgh and Newcastle face-off over the weekend in ‘exhibition’ games, when their league season starts this weekend, and a part of me thinks that this is wrong. Braehead and Hull have justifiable reasons for starting late; exactly what are Newcastle and Edinburgh’s? Was it to save money? If a team like Dundee, can get a squad together in time for the first weekend of the season then surely two established teams based in the Elite League can do so as well. Last season the preparation of the Gardiner Cup, gave Edinburgh a justifiable reason for starting late, I’m struggling to find one this year.
 
This weekend also sees the first league fixture of the Braehead Clan, when they go up the road to face Dundee. There has been some positive marketing coming out of the club on the west coast of Scotland, and I hope that this franchise is a success. With the west coast missing out of hockey since Ayr sadly left us, it’s a chance to re-engage with the fan base there.  In Bruce Richardson, they have a coach who will drag his team through games, with the sheer determination that his play exuberates. He has assembled a team to reflect this, and I think they will shock some of the teams, if the Clan are lacing them up in a rink near you, it might be worth going down to see what they are like.
 
Steel Night Live will once again be covering the Sheffield Steelers home game, however instead of myself commentating, we have enlisted ex-Sheffield Steeler Neil Edwards to commentate for you all.
 
You can find a link to the commentary here http://steelnightlive.wordpress.com
If you have any comments/feedback on this and other comments, then please e-mail in on the address at the bottom, if I get some good stuff, they will find themselves in the next article, I am very interested in what you people think.
 
Until next week.
 
Big Dave  Contact the author Dave.Grant@Prohockeynews.com

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 3^rd 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

SHEFFIELD, UK – The recent news over the holding club of the Sheffield Steelers going into liquidation has taken the fan-base by surprise. If you are not aware, the main part of the statement released by the club onto the official website is as follows:
It is with regret that the Sheffield Steelers confirm that they have had to call in liquidators to one of their associated companies, Yorkshire Sports. These actions are being taken to ensure that the future of the Steelers is not affected going forward into next season and beyond. Season ticket holders can rest assured that their monies have been ring fenced prior to the start of the season and all season tickets are fully protected and will be honoured. This will not have any adverse affect whatsoever on season ticket holders.
A former sponsor  from 2008-09 who reneged on their sponsorship payments has put the company in an untenable position, in addition to this we have suffered additional financial losses due to one of last seasons sponsors also being unable to meet their financial obligations to the company. The club has taken detailed, expert legal and financial advice to help us at this difficult time and unfortunately we have been advised that Yorkshire Sports has no real alternative but to ask for liquidators to be called in.
As explained above, one of the main reasons as to the liquidators being brought in for Yorkshire Sports is the non-payment of sponsorship money from two sponsors of the club over the past two seasons. Of course we shall not be speculating as to who the companies are, for obvious reasons; however what is clear, is the damage it has, and no doubt will have done to the club.
Unless the funds can be found to cover all the debts owed to the different companies that have been affected by this, then potentially the new ‘holding company’ will struggle to negotiate favourable terms with suppliers and other companies that are needed throughout the coming months, because even though the new holding company will not be called Yorkshire Sports, they will still have the Sheffield Steelers association that will come with it.
Not only from a business perspective, will this potentially have done harm towards the fan base, and in particular, those who do not go on a regular basis and their only outlet of ice hockey news, is the local press. The Star has given the incident extensive coverage over the last weekend, and although the content of which has been reported merely describes the situation; it is as ever the headlines which catches the attention of people. I personally have received calls from people who watch the Steelers occasionally asking me is it true about the club folding.
Was The Star right to put the headlines out that it did? Who knows? Although they have given the Sheffield Steelers extensive coverage over the years, their main objective is to sell papers, and with that sort of headline – it will do, but did it help put the correct ‘image’ across to the readership about the situation? Could The Star have chosen a different headline? Should The Star even have this amongst their considerations?
What is also of worry is the receipts of Season Tickets already purchased by supporters for the 2010/2011 season, and that the money that would normally be used to boost the recruitment for the new season, but to plug the debts from the previous holding company, therefore giving David Matsos a reduced budget to recruit from, and potentially have another season as the one just gone.
The club have gone on record on their official fans internet forum to say that the money collected from sales of Season Tickets are safe, and will be used in its primary use. This will assure the vast majority of the fans, but there will still be a fair percentage that will hold back in putting their hard earned money into the club. This is not helpful to the club, but it is something that you cannot blame Ice Hockey fans, after what happened with the Manchester Storm/Ayr Scottish Eagles fans and their Season Ticket money when these two clubs folded.
So how does the club go forward, and regain the lost ground caused by this story. Firstly it needs to go out into the readership area of The Star and put out a massive marketing campaign to ensure not only that the Sheffield Steelers are still out there, but also to encourage the community, both the fans and the business community that the club is one that they can do business with the club and have full faith in the product that they are investing in.
It also needs to re-assure the current fan base, because these sorts of stories will obviously put seeds of doubts amongst the fan base. Not only does the club need to reassure the business community it also needs to reassure the fan base that there is still a ‘feel-good’ factor amongst the club in preparation for the up and coming season.
Are the club doing this? Of course they are, and no doubt, they will continue to do so, ensuring that the message coming out the arena is one of positivity, and that it is ‘busy as usual’. Can that message be successfully come across to all strands of the fan base? Well lets hope so – because the club needs the fan base to be behind the club more so than ever – but that also needs to be earned, and not just as a given.
What I believe is required from the fan base, is a period of calmness. It is never good news to hear when your sporting club is flirting (in anyway shape or form) with financial difficulties, especially with a club that, unfortunately has gone through enough difficulties over the history of the club. What people need to do is to take a step back and think before making comments, either at fans meetings or on internet forums. Let me stress this is not based on any particular comment made by anybody in particular, but I know as much as anyone, how the heart will rule the head when it comes to talking about something as emotive as a sporting club, but before we act, lets think if what we’re doing is right and proper, and not just emotions getting the better of us.
That is not to suggest that everything is doom and gloom, nor is it to suggest that the garden is rosy and in full bloom – however what I am certain is that, with the right levels of efforts from the club, in ensuring that the corporate side of things and the supporters are still onside, and that the supporters back this by acting in the right way – I am certain that the club will come out at the end of this in a better shape, and one that will be ready for the new season.
Contact the author David.Grant@Prohockeynews.com