So after a terrible start to the year and a 16-game winning streak that pulled them from bottom to top, the Giants have gone back into free fall of late. A new losing streak has seen the boys slide down to forth place thanks to a huge Panthers win against the Bison last night. The Giants are now set to finish outside the top two places in the league for only the third time in their eight year history. The last time they finished forth was under Rob Stewart back in 2003-2004 – The first year of the Elite League – and Stewart duly lost his job. Read More»

A big win or a predictable win over the Belfast Giants on Sunday night – call it what you will – sealed the Elite League title for the Coventry Blaze for a second year running. Definitely hard to swallow for the Giants fans who certainly have a bit of a rivalry with Coventry and also because it was their defeat to the Blaze that confirmed their position as Britain’s best team. Coventry have lead the league from start to finish and made everyone comfortably second best. All the Giants can do – bar looking to the playoffs – is to look to competing from the off next season.

So as it turns out this was the final Giants game of the year in the Odyssey Arena. Unfortunately the Giants could not send the biggest crowd of the year – a sellout crowd – home with the victory. The Nottingham Panthers took the win. With the league long gone this game was a squabble over playoff match-up positioning and with every opponent set to be a tough one if you’d offered me the two points or the two fight wins, I think on this occassions I’d take the fights!! Thankfully Lewis and Moran did the job with their fists and at least sent the fans home with something to talk about.

What is it with the Giants and not playing well in front of a big crowd.

Still, it was nice to see such a huge crowd to end another season of hockey in Belfast.

Once again Todd goes out of his way to respond to our worries and fears about Dundalk and the playoffs. Cant say I’m not still angry about it but I guess my anger has turned more to the Elite League and even more so the Odyssey Arena but I’ll rant on that a little later.

Let’s just go straight for the bone on this one. The Giants are playing their one and only (that’s a rant for another day) ‘home’ playoff game ‘away’ in Dundalk. Is this thanks to the Elite League or is this a mess up in scheduling by the Belfast Giants? Who cares? Either way the loyal fans of the Belfast Giants are being expected to travel 60-miles across the border to watch what in hockey is supposed to be the most important game of their season.

Yep, the Giants won’t be holding that big playoff game in a packed Odyssey but in the 1,500 seated Dundalk Ice Dome. The Giants have already played four regular season games in Dundalk this season and will now also play the final home game and their big playoff qualifier in Dundalk. Read More»

It appears the Steelers are moving into their own little ice pad, 7-miles up the road in Rotherham that is. Read More»

For a bit in the first period I had this worry that it was going to be like Thursday. Well maybe not qute as bad but the Vipers came out, typically with a physical brand of hockey and seemed to have an edge on the Giants. They even score the first goal of the game to silence the Giants crowd after a scoreless first. However the Giants this time stuck to their game plan, hit the Vipers back and gradually worked their way back into the game.

It was probably the second largest crowd of the season so far. Probably only a few hundred seats shy of a sell-out crowd. It was great to see and the crowd were entertained to a good game of hockey. Ok so it wasn’t the most slick and skilled game you’ve ever seen but they never are against a rugged Newcastle. To beat Newcastle on the scoreboard you must first beat them in the back alleys. They always bring a physical game and if you aren’t prepared to match it then you’ve no chance. Read More»

There’s strong rumours going around the Ed Courtenay is playing hurt. Rumours strong enough that it is pretty much common knowledge. He’s been sitting out of games, keeping himself on the bench and up until Thursday night not even taking a regular shift. The problem with this is that it is showing throughout the rest of the team. With Ed Courtenay playing hurt – The Belfast Giants play hurt.

You don’t need to have a keen eye to notice the kind of game Courtenay brings to the ice. He has the vision on the ice that most players in the league can only dream of and it feeds off on his line-mates. I’ve blogged about this a number of times over the season about Ed and his line mates – no matter who he has paired himself wth the player has got the goals and looked like one of the best in the league… Read More»