I started last year’s players rankings with the line, “It’s been a roller-coaster season for the Giants”.  I guess you could say the exact same thing this year.  Unfortunately I could then finish the sentence with the line, “The team crawled across the finishing line in first place in the league”.  That wasn’t quite the case this year as our bad form was a little to much to repair.   Still there was many up’s and downs throughout the year.  From the losing months in January and February, to one of our greatest winning streaks ever and from the hammering at the hands of Coventry to Killers testimonial, Walton’s first goal in the Odyssey and that great road trip to Edinburgh.  Again the team came up a little short in the playoffs but the right core is there to build around that should help the Giants go that one step further next year.  Here’s our websites rating of each player this season.  MORE »

Jason Ruff the recently voted MVP of the team for the 06-07 season has also won the Giants-History.com three stars contest following up on Theo Fleury who won it last year.  The competition carries with it no prises and is run by myself out of interest for anyone to follow.  I take the North American approach and pick the three stars of each game (going by games I’m at and reports I read from games I cannot attend).  First star picks up five points, second three and third one and it’s tallied up throughout the year. 

It’s definately got some value to it considering the last two winners have ended up as team MVP’s.  Below is a list of the top 5 in the contest with the points scored at home, on the road and in total.

NO.  PLAYER            POS   TOT  HOME  AWAY
--------------------------------------------
17   Jason Ruff        LW     91    47    44
41   George Awada      RW     83    30    53
71   Jeff Hutchins     C      50    33    17
14   Mark Dutiaume     C      50    13    37
77   Roman Gavalier    D      38    26    12

For more on the contest, click here.

So there comes to end another Giants season and although the fight at the end was a good one, it’s been a trophiless one.  Still it didn’t dampen the Giants fans mood in Nottingham as yet again they made noise all weekend long and surely cannot have fell to short of drinking the place dry!  When you stand back and look at it all from a far of course you think of the bad spot in mid-season that cost us the title, but in reality a second place finish in the league and a semi-final shootout loss to the eventual winners isn’t what you would class a bad season and should be taken a positive to build upon for next year.

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We’re only ten minutes away from hitting the road for the playoffs 2007.  It’s extremely unlikely that I will get the chance to update the site, firstly I wont be near a computer and nor will have the wish to be near the computer.  It’s a great weekend and if you’re going have a good one and heres hoping we come back with a trophy!

Updates, game reports and stories on the weekend coming up when I’m home on Monday night.

Go Giants!!!

Jason Ruff has been breaking all sorts of records this season and he set another one on Tuesday night at the Giants end of season awards dinner by becoming the first player in team history to win the MVP award for a second time.   He previously picked up the honour in 2003-2004 and has won it again this time out after another excellent season by the big powerforward.  Only last weekend Ruff became the first man to score 100 goals as a Giants player adding to his acheivment of become the teams all-time leading points scorer earlier in the year.

Many tipped Roman Gavalier as the man to beat for the MVP award but there wont be many arguments agaisnt Ruff who has again been a force on the ice for the Giants.  He may be slowing down a little with age but there is no doubting his leadership he brings to the team as well has the plus a point per game average he continues to score at.  Should he decide to come back next year, nobody will complain.

In other awards… MORE »

Jason Ruff’s goal at 10:17 of the first period in the Giants second leg playoff game against Basingstoke marked his 100th goal as a Giants player - the first player to reach the milestone.  It’s taken 7 years for someone to get there and finally it has happened and who else but arguably the greatest player of all-time in team history - Jason Ruff.

Ruffles also leads the team all-time in assists and points and this season has put in yet another top performance and will be looking to help lead the team to playoff glory.  Whether Ruffles will be back next year or not remains to be seen.  Still, it’s a great achievment for a great player.

Coventry [1], Belfast [2], Cardiff [3], Nottingham [5] have all qualified for the final four 2006 meaning the Giants will go head to head with Cardiff Devils.  As the second ranked team in the semi-final they will play the evening fixture while Coventry play Nottingham in the afternoon game.

More to follow>>>

Bison 3, Giants 5 (Giants win 8-4 on agg.)

The Giants booked their place in the EIHL playoffs final four weekend in Nottingham tonight with a convincing 5-3 victory over the Bison in Basingstoke.  It put the Giants through 8-4 over the two legs.  It’ll be the third time in the teams seven year history that they have made the final-four having won it on one previous occasion in 2003.  Giants goals came by way of Jason Ruff, Jeff Hutchins, Marc Levers, George Awada and J.P. Morin.  Awadas goal was his first of the playoffs but he also added two assists to make it four points in two playoff games so far.  He leads the Giants in playoff scoring, really stepping it up for the playoffs.

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The title says it all for the position that the Giants find themselves in going into tonight’s game against Basingstoke.  After a gritty, physical and scrappy game last night the Giants came away with a 3-1 lead going into the second leg.  With a simular game expected tonight the Giants just need to play it smart against a team that only managed a 7th place finish in the Elite league to book their place in the final four.

Make no mistake, it’s never been easier to make it to Nottingham with only two games standing in each of the top 8 teams way and with one of them games now out of the way it’s looking good, but as the Bison will tell you - it’s only half-time.

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