NOTTINGHAM V BELFAST
HULL V BELFAST
5-6/9/09

And so we have it. The first weekend of Giants Hockey 09/10 is behind us, all the good feelings are gone and we are back into the depths of another hockey season. Thornton’s first mistake of the year was allowing this teams chances of a perfect undefeated season to slip away at the very first game … how dare we lose one and lose one so early at that. Fingers were pointed following the defeat to Nottingham and questions were asked about Thornton’s goaltender selection given that Murphy was supposedly ’50-50′ to make the start just 24-hours earlier having been an injury risk and about the ice time handed to Sean McMorrow. Rational explanations such as McMorrow carrying a bit of an injury were ignored, at least until the following night when the team put things to right with a 3-2 victory over that British Hockey juggernaught, Hull.

I seen nothing of the weekends games, I read no match report that stretches past what had been written on message boards, and even that has involved wading through reports and criticisms by people who did not even attend the games. For that reason I can hardly write too much about the game myself but it does seem clear the team are starting in typical Giants fashion. Win one, lose one, get both out of the way and then settle into the season tending to win a more than you lose … at least that is how I hope they mean to go on. While some fans were casting their verdict on the 09/10 season following Saturday nights defeat I was remembering a time when the Giants played London Knights in the first game of the 01/02 season and taught me a life long lesson about season opening games.

I was sitting in a hotel in Zell am Zee in Austria that summer with my family. We had been out for the day and had returned back to the hotel for dinner and to relax a little and I took that opportunity to go to the Internet computer in the lobby to see how the Giants were opening their second full season in hockey. I logged onto ice web (remember that old timers?) and the news was terrible … they had been crushed 9-3 and it seemed at the time that I should be preparing for a long season; The honeymoon of 2000/1 was over and it was time to face the realities of an expansion team. A season of ass kicking was probably required before you just started winning everything, at least that is what the experts say, “You have to learn to lose before you learn to win”.

Then the Giants taught me a lesson I have kept with me in any sport with a team that I support on opening day: It means very little and the team with the least rust who hit the ground running first will come out on top but it won’t mean a lot for the rest of the season. Following that 9-3 demolition that had everything running for cover from the falling sky, the Giants went on a tare and by early 2001 were picking up the league championship with months to spare. If it is still true that you have to learn to lose before you learn to win then the Giants learnt very quickly that night against London and decided they had lost enough and it was time to go about the winning. You don’t see a professional sports team in just it’s second year of existence go straight to the top like the Giants did that season, but the Giants showed just what was possible with the right coach, players, management, set-up and input of money of course. They also showed me that a defeat in the first game, regardless of the size of the beating, doesn’t mean too much in the grand scheme and you only end up looking like an idiot for crying foul if come December your team have only lost a handful more and are top of the standings.

So one win, one defeat from two road games isn’t too bad to get the season underway. The key was to come back to the first home-game of the season with some points on the board and they have done just that.

On the subject: Flashback, Hull Stingrays, London Knights, Nottingham Panthers | ALL SUBJECTS |

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