This past weekend the American Hockey League in the form of the Toronto Marlies and Hamilton Bulldogs rolled into Edinburgh and it taught the two EIHL teams it came up against a hockey lesson in the inaugural Gardiner Cup. Fortunately or unfortunately the Giants happened to be one of the teams at the wrong end of the scorelines when they got shutout and taken apart handily by the Hamilton Bulldogs 6-0. It shouldn’t effect the Giants long term, and in fact they seemed to put it to the back of their minds the following day when they beat the Edinburgh Capitals in the 3rd place game/Challenge Cup match. Inevitably the Marlies and the Bulldogs ended up in the final against one another with the Bulldogs taking the victory and the cup with it.

While the results were pretty lopsided, it was great for the EIHL as a whole to have such high quality opposition come in to play in the tournament and form what I heard from those organising the competition in Edinburgh they hope that this is not a one off thing and that next year four more teams will play for what looks like a fantastic trophy. It may not be the biggest goal in the eyes of the Marlies or Bulldogs this coming season, or for the Giants and Caps for that matter, but winning a cup is never going to hurt and it’s a handy way to get your season underway.

Now that I live in Toronto I am hoping to get along to quite a few Marlies game this season. I doubt they’ll ever replace my support for the Giants but having them come across one another in the same tournament even if they did not match up against each other, is a nice way to pass the proverbial torch from one team to another I’m hoping to get into and get supporting. You might ask why if I live in Toronto I don’t go along to Maple Leafs games. The simple answer is ticket prices but 99% of the hockey I’ve watched live has been minor league hockey so I doubt I’ll have much trouble adapting to another minor league even if it is pretty dam major compared to the Giants and Capitals as they found out this past weekend.

On the subject: Edinburgh Capitals, Gardiner Cup, Hamilton Bulldogs, Toronto Marlies | ALL SUBJECTS |

............................................................................................................................................................................