SWINDON, UK – With just over a week to go now and the Steeldogs put up another persuasive performance, this time against their Elite neighbours, so the gauntlet is firmly down for the rest of the EPL.
While both sides publicly regarded the game as a less than a flat out exhibition bout, and the Steelers actually referred to it in the local press as a ‘glorified training session,’ but the media saw it a tad different and with a little bit more candour described the Steelers’ effort as, ‘a less than convincing performance,’ suggesting not so much that their players weren’t really trying, as they were!
Either way, the Steeldogs were two down fairly early in the first period but seconds into middle stint were back on equal terms thanks to Janis Ozolins and Edgars Bebris, the pair that did the opening damage in the previous encounter against the Stingrays. Then, well slap my thighs and call me Shirley, the Steeldogs took the lead and were more than a bit unlucky not to claim another draw, losing it just five minutes from the end and keeping the bridge-building intact.
So that’s two games they have come from behind, and taken the lead against ‘superior’ opponents, and there are many who will take convincing an Elite League side, or any side for that matter, aren’t a little miffed to go a goal down against a weaker opponent even if no one is supposedly really trying.
But the big question is was all this a flash in the pan, or are the Steeldogs going to be able to sustain this level over a full season? After the game Coach Andre Payette said, ‘I wasn’t surprised how well we played against them because we have a good, fit, young team that is very committed.’ So perhaps it is true then that Payette ran his own anger management course over the summer on Rockall in the Atlantic and spent his days flaying his young charges with wet rhubarb and feeding them only raw cockles to encourage aggression. Whatever the answer, it is going to be exciting finding out.
One team finding our soon will be the Phoenix who join battle with the Steeldogs next weekend in their War of the Roses campaign. The Phoenix, currently 2-0 in the series, lost Greg Wood, Pavel Gomeniuk and Ben Morgan to Sheffield in the summer and of course Payette himself earlier, while Ryan Johnson moved in the other direction. These games, rather than the Elite League encounters, are probably going to be a clearer indication of the pecking order in the pen.
Coach Hand, meanwhile, at the Phoenix said again that all teams had improved and went on to actually comment on eight of them, adding, ’I think the quality this year will be higher, and that’s good for the league.’ He went on to say, ‘A lot of British guys are a lot better than people give them credit for. A lot of young guys are maturing into very good players.’
That, of course, is a great assessment for the sport although, intriguingly, it has been league-leaders Phoenix who have most often counselled us to be prepared for a higher standard this coming season and warned of the difficulty, but not impossibility as they point out, of retaining their crown. Reading between the lines would it being doing them a disservice to wonder if this suggests a little disquiet in the air? I mean, without wanting to get all psychological, don’t they say those who speak most vociferously on a subject have the most to hide.
The following day, however, Coach Poole at the Lightning added his voice to the body of comment suggesting the EPL is going to be a lot tougher this year, suggesting, ‘…there are going to be no easy points this season, and more points will be taken off the top teams.’ All provocative stuff, of course, and the sort of thing that makes us fans wring our hands with glee. To add to the Lightning’s chances of improving this time out they signed Slovakian forward Juraj Gracik, who has yet to play in Britain, and as Poole said his import assemblage was now complete that must mean no place for Swede Monir Kalgoum.
Coach Gareth Cox at the Bees was also cautious saying, ‘It’s our goal to make the play-offs, and with the changes we’ve made it should be a realistic target.’ What isn’t doing him any favours, mind, was a late report that his visit to Basingstoke for the four-on-four tournament on Saturday would be definitely missing two, and possible all four of his imports.
With their absence the Basingstoke tournament probably didn’t provide a lot of useful information for Cox. Rob Lamey, James Galazzi and Matt Foord were all amongst the points, but even though the Bees managed to get to the final it was on goals scored rather than straight wins, and against the eventual winners, the Bison, they really didn’t throw a great deal. However, as Bison boss Steve Moria said, playing with a short team means more ice to cover, more time on the puck, so a good work out if nothing else even if your imports are missing.
But as far as the Bees are concerned in the case of new boy Sergejs Louskins, their Latvian D-man brought in to plug the big hole in last year’s defence, the news was doubly troubling because Cox admitted, ‘We’re not entirely sure what to expect of him.’ Well, knowing he is well versed in defending is a good start, I suppose, but however he turns out, whether he bites legs to get at the puck or just purrs seductively you can’t deny the improvements Cox has made, and while not yet having formally announced a full roster, he must be close.
One team that did call it a day, though, was the Tigers. In a final flurry of activity they re-signed D-man Mike Jones and brought in backup netminder Josh Nichols, a product of the Tigers junior system and recently with the Coventry ENL side, and, last but not least, D-man Ryan Selwood also from ENL Coventry. So with the roster now standing at twenty, the Tigers became the fifth club to close the book.
In another flurry of business, the Wildcats announced also three more signings. Eighteen-year-old forward Loris Taylor, who has already some respectable experience under his belt, re-signed and Steve Whitfield, who played a few games for the senior side last time out, signed on the dotted line, which in his case is a blue one, from the Wildcats ENL side. Joining them will be netminder Graeme Bird, who has toured around the ENL a bit and recently signed for the Bristol Pitbulls from Flintshire Freeze, so presumably will play as backup to Tom Murdy.
Over at the Phantoms the big move of the week was not a player but director Jon Kynaston who has been appointed to the new position of Head Technical Coach of England hockey where he will join the recently formed National Teams Committee and be responsible for the development of the sport at all levels. ‘The game is in good shape,’ he said, ‘but there are things we can do to improve it.’
With almost a last look around the EPL it would appear just a few places to fill. The Lightning and Phoenix both have a couple to go, as they have said, and the Wildcats in comparison to the rest still look like they are one short, and that could be it.
But to finish the week, we turn to a mystery, or the solving of one, I should say. It turns out Phoenix’s Andrew Sharp has finally found a berth. He has signed for the profligately named Thetford Mines Isothermic based in, well, Thetford Mines, actually, in Quebec, Canada. The team is part of the LNAH, or in English NAHL, although not THE North American Hockey League. This is from whence he came to join the Phoenix from an equally extravagant sounding Saint-Georges COOL-FM in a league reputed to be the toughest in the world with an average in excess of three fights per game. So, as my old Grand-pappy observed: ‘When you see 3-2 it isn’t the goals scored, it’s whose winning the fights.’
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Contact Bill.Collins@prohockeynews.com
