…for any hockey fans living in Belfast. A comeback effort against Coventry that fell short on Friday night was followed by a shutout defeat to Newcastle on the road last night. It hasn’t been the best of starts for the Giants team, a team which by all accounts, that come directly from the fans at the games since I do not get to games myself anymore, the Giants have been very poor. Some fans even said the team look well behind the standard of last years team which only managed a 4th place finish in the league. Read More»

You’ve all seen the videos by now or at least if you haven’t seen the video you have surely heard of the incident. If you haven’t seen the video it’s worth a quick look but the camera angle is terrible and you don’t see the violence that brought the game into such disrepute that the infamous ‘Travesty of the Game’ penalty was handed out to two players. Brad Voth and Adam Knight went at it behind the players benches on their way to the dressing rooms after being ejected from the game for an on ice brawl moments earlier. Everyone tried to wade in by climbing the plexiglass behind the benches as punches were traded and even a stick thrown in spear like fashion from ex-Giant Curtis Huppe. It dragged the game into the gutter and the EIHL have handed out bans like they were going out of style.

The following is the statement from the EIHL: Read More»

Steve Thornton has spoke up about the Giants powerplay so far this season and his thoughts on special team unit has not been good. And no wonder, the Giants are 0-25 with the man advantage through four games and if you look at average conversion rates of powerplay goals to chances the Giants have given up scoring a potential extra 4-5 goals. Given that the team sit second in the league in the early going it isn’t a disaster, yet, but it will effect results if the team do not improve quickly. Giving up a potential goal per game because your powerplay is poor will catch up with you eventually.

Theo Fleury is continue with his hopes of returning all the way back to the top of the hockey world after a four-year absence by attending the Calgary Flames training camp, the team were he started his NHL career and won his one and only Stanley Cup ring twenty years ago. Reports suggest he turned up to camp in the best shape of his life proven by the fact he had a Vo2 reading of 60 and an 8% body fat count. When he took to the ice the Calgary players seen what the Giants fans knew from a few years back, Theo still had the hands for the game as he impressed all before him. Read More»

Giants single season legend Theo Fleury is coming back to hockey and at the highest level. That news hit the press last month but today Theo was officially reinstated to the NHL by commissioner Gary Betteman and can now go about trying out for a team who might be interested in his services. Read More»

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. Read More»

Ten times now the Giants players have been getting themselves ready for another hockey season. Ten times now the fans have been revving themselves up for professional hockey in Belfast with all the hopes and dreams that come with it …

When you say it like that …

It’s hard to believe where the years have gone on first glance at the words ‘Ten’ and ‘Years’, but the longer you sit and think about it the more the memories of a decade come flooding back into the conscience and the more you remember what has made this team a special one, if even only in the eyes of the faithful who follow it. But there have been so many good times, and plenty of bad that given a bit of time are all special to look back on and there is no reason to believe that the teams tenth season out on the ice won’t create more of the same.

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