The way thean Giants have been playing lately makes me think what they could have done to the league this year had all the players stayed healthy throughout the season. I am absolutely sure that they would have walked over this league, even considering how well Sheffield have been playing. With players still on the sidelines the last few weeks the Giants players that have been able to play have been showing exactly what they can do when they play some real run-and-gun hockey.
Tonight the Giants put eight past Hull to go with the five they put by Basingstoke 24-hours earlier. On Wednesday past they put another eight past Basingstoke as Paul Deniset grabbed five goals and two assists for seven points tonight to match line-mate Andrew Martin’s two goals and five assists for seven points on Wednesday night. Both guys now join Theo Fleury for the most points scored in a game as Giants players. Deniset joins Shaun Sutter with five goals scored in a single Giants game.
Well if you like your goals and were in Basingstoke tonight then you had a great time. Well maybe not if you were a Basingstoke fan! As I sat on the dentists chair the Giants were doing their thing against the leagues worst team by racking up eight goals in a match that seen the red light come on thirteen times in all. Andrew Martin scored two goals and had three points for a big five point night while Paul Deniset had a goal and three assists for four points.
Basingstoke clearly showed why they are the leagues worst team and the Giants showed what they can do when things come together for them in front of goal. Shane Johnson had a short handed goal and they scored two on the power play out of five chances. Evan Cheverie who grabbed a loan goal in the contest managed to pick up the man-of-the-match award.
They also did it without Rushton, Robins, Sample and Thornton, making it even more impressive.
Sunday was more like it from the Giants after struggling to beat the Bison in overtime. The Giants ran up the score to get back to proper winning ways. Jason Rushton picked up the Gordie Howe Hat Trick on the night with his first goal and assist as a Giants played to go with his second fight in two nights.
The Giants are perfect so far to start the season. It is time to start getting carried away. Indeed the Giants for the first time in a long time possess a young, fast and talented roster with a combination of skilled imports and high end British players. I said ‘for the first time in a long time’ but I scratch that. The Giants have never had such a combination that has had the fans so excited going into the early part of the season. The facts of that argument being in the 5 game winning streak to start the season — far and away the best ever start to a Giants season. But hold on, slow down a minute some people will rightfully tell you . . . The Giants have yet to face the big three that are considered their biggest rivals for the title: Coventry, Sheffield and Nottingham. Indeed a fair point, but still, these are exciting times for the Giants faithful and I have chose the time to be over on the other side of the world making a new life for myself and scrambling to watch what I can on the live, free and top class webcasts.
Last year I done a season preview of each team but to be honest I just don’t have the time right now as well as the knowledge of each team. It has been such a busy summer that I have only really been able to follow the Giants progress and if other teams is anything like the Giants, their line-up’s will have changed so much that any honest assessment would be useless until I had seen them all play. Teams who finished bottom last year could well be near the top this time out and vise-versa. That is the beauty of ice hockey though. The standings are never easy to predict and especially with the Elite League where the majority of teams are on one-year contracts teams can change so much between seasons. So the following is just a flash guide to the season with just a little bit on each team and what you MIGHT expect to see from them. Of course in 7-months time you could read back on this and see it as nothing more than rambling gibberish. Read More»
