Over on the KotG message board I noticed a topic running that had fans debating and listing their all-time worst five Giants players. It’s thrown up some interesting names as different people have varying opinions on who didn’t impress in the teal and white. Some obvious names have come up though for every couple of obvious candidates there have been some strange choices. Someone even named Mark Dutiaume and another Matt Reid. But, anyway, to round up every Giants player with all their different positions, styles of play, attributes and rolls on the team and pick the worst five is not easy and can only really be done by deciding which players least lived up to their own individual roll within the team. The easy choice for many was the enforcer types like Angelstad and McMorrow but I haven’t included them because within the roll assigned to them, they did well enough.

McMorrow cannot be judged as bad because he didn’t score much, just as Kory Karlander cannot be judged as bad because he couldn’t fight. If we’re going to call Terran Sandwith bad because he could only score a goal against the British team in a friendly, then we have to call Ed Courtenay awful because he never blocked a shot. (Note: He may well have blocked a shot, but you get what I’m trying to say).

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This coming weekend the Giants will take to the ice for their one and only home playoff game and when that game comes to an end, so to will the playing career of Shane Johnson on Odyssey Ice and when the Giants finally finish their season (with a Playoff Championship, we hope), Shane Johnson will finally hang up his skates for good and the Giants will be left, for the first time ever, without at least one player who was on the ice for their first ever game back in September 2000.

Shane Johnson will be awarded a testimonial game next year to thank him for his glorious career with the Belfast Giants as well as to lift this number into the rafters along with the #27 of Paxton Schulte and retired for good.

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The British Hockey team coached by Paul Thompson will head to the Division One World Championships in Ljubljana, Slovenia next month with seven Giants players in the squad. The tournament takes place between 17 and 23 April and Britain will be in a group with Croatia, Korea, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. The tournament will be preceded by two warm-up games against the Netherlands on 10th and 11th April in Nottingham and Sheffield respectively.

The following are the Giants players who have made the cut: Stephen Murphy, Nathan Craze, Shane Johnson, Kevin Phillips, Graeme Walton, Craig Peacock and Colin Shields.

It’s a strong squad overall and one that must feel somewhat confident about picking up some wins and who knows, maybe even promotion.

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Todd Kelman, GM of the Giants, has spoke for the first time since news broke this weekend of an indictment from the United States out against team enforcer Sean McMorrow for trafficking drugs across the Canadian/US border between 2005 and not surprisingly the Giants are backing their player.

“We’re backing him 100 per cent until we find out otherwise,” said Kelman, who had yet to speak directly to McMorrow as of Sunday afternoon.

“He’s innocent until proven guilty in my eyes, and until I hear differently then I’ll back Sean. I know him well enough to know he’s an outstanding guy and has been great for us in the community.

“He’s been an outstanding individual and a great part of the team. I’m sure it’s been a shock to him as well, it came out of nowhere from our end.”

— Todd Kelman talking to Sky Sports

I’m glad to hear this and I hope McMorrow is able to clear his name sooner than later and get back to playing though at this late stage in the season, who knows if he’ll make it back in time for the playoffs or not?

Whether McMorrow has flown back to the States already or whether he is in communication with his lawyer from Northern Ireland is not known though Kelman did seem to hit that McMorrow was talking to his lawyer from Belfast.

Reports have suggested that Sean McMorrow has flown back to the States to try clear his name after news broke yesterday that he had a criminal indictment out against him, accusing him of trafficking drugs. McMorrow who activly interacts with his fans on Facebook, had the following message this morning:

Sean McMorrow is accused of nasty, untrue allegations – number one priority is to clear my family name – I am shocked and very upset about this…thanks to everyone for their support and patience for me to clear my name of this

No word as of yet from the Belfast Giants though I would assume they will stand beside him while he is still innocent until proven guilty. When or if we seen McMorrow again I would assume will come down to how quickly this process runs.

I wish him well and hope he does indeed clear his name. It just seems so strange that allegations from over five years ago have suddenly come out now.