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.

MORE »

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. MORE »

The Giants found their winning grove this weekend on the road with two victories over Basingstoke on Saturday and Manchester on Sunday. It will hopefully tone down the fears of some that the team were on the verge of a collapse with news finally breaking of Ed Courtenay leaving the team at the end of the season. As I believed this has not effected performances and the team proved it this weekend. Ed Courtenay called out some of his players in the press last week and it appears also to have done the trick.

Players like George Awada who have struggled in front of goal all season came good with a pair of goals on Sunday night to add to the one he scored on Saturday. That will please the fans to see their captain stepping it up on the score sheet as the playoff roll round.

The Giants will remain on the road next weekend with a Saturday night game in Nottingham before returning home for three home games.

It was not the best 11-goal game you will ever see, in fact it was distinctly average but the Giants got the job done once an 11-man Bison line-up tired. It’s become a sign of the times of UK hockey of late when certain teams are icing 11-12 man rosters at times and cannot afford to fill spots if players go down injured. It certainly takes away from the spectacle of what normally makes a 7-4 win great, especially when you come from 2-0 down which the Giants did on Thursday night.

The Bison line-up and the sign of the times of the league was something the Giants could do nothing about however, they had to get the job done and baring the blip at the start they eventually took control as Ed Courtenay put in another top performance along with Trevor Johnson who arguably had his best game in a Giants jersey.

Trevor Johnson added a goal and two assists to spark the Giants come back and put them on the front food - they never looked back.

The win moves the surging Giants into second place in the Elite League with a road trip this weekend. A win on Saturday night against Sheffield would give the Giants 9-wins in a row, tying a club record. For a team that was once sitting last place and losing every game they played it has been quite a turn around.

Towards the end of the game with the Giants comfortable they pulled Stevie Lyle and gave young Adam Cree his first run out in the Odyssey. The young netminder looked nervous at times dropping two goals on his first four shots, one a wrist shot from behind the blue-line. He did settle in however in the final minutes and the Giants took the vital win.

Shaun Sutter hit two goals on Saturday night and the seasons first hat trick on Sunday night to total five goals and help the Giants on their way to back to back wins over the weekend. It keeps the Giants in touch with the top teams as the season revival continues. The weekend also seen the long awaited return to the ice of Roman Gavalier - shaved head and all. He’s added a bit of much needed depth to the Giants defensive corps allowing Todd Kelman to go back to were he feels he belongs - In his suit, up high looking down on the action like a true G.M. Joining him in the ‘box’ up in the rafters was Trevor Johnson . . . Still not completely healthy.

Anyway, a strong, comfortable performance against Hull followed up by a shoot-out win against the Bison was just what this surging Giants team required. The lines finally seem to be gelling and everyone settling into their roles. The top line of Lewis - Campbell - Courtenay looks a threat every shift with Ed’s play making abilities, Campbell’s sniping and Lewis’ physical approach. Lewis’ ability to plant himself in front of the opposing goalie on the power play is also something we haven’t seen since the departure of ‘goalie screening expert’ Paxton Schulte back in 2004. The ‘checking line’ for what of a better word of Awada - Cameron - Sutter have been outstanding. Not to mention Sutters goals, Cameron brings an exceptional amount of skill and speed to the line and with Awada and Sutter on his wings willing to spend the entire game fighting for the pucks in the corners and around the opposing goal. Then we have the ‘energy line’ for what of a perfect word to give energy and allow the import boys a breather on the bench. Jamieson - Moran - Morrison have been in great form and have an uncanny ability to keep the puck in the opposition zone for prolonged amounts of time at times.

The Giants get the week off of action until this Friday when they face the Blaze in what really will be a bench mark game - A game that will really let them know where exactly they stand in their hopes of turning the season around.

Unfortunately I won’t be at it so no doubt I’ll miss a classic.

It was a meaningless Challenge cup game for some and in the end I guess it kind of was because the 1-1 tie on the final buzzer meant both teams were eliminated from group qualification. But for the Giants team it meant a heck of a lot more. A 1-1 tie against the runaway league leaders with 5 star players out injured sent a message throughout the league that the once bottom of the league and struggling Giants were back. It was a boost of moral to both the players and the fans as the Giants icing just twelve skaters took the game to the Blaze. MORE »

An article in the Belfast Telegraph has GM Todd Kelman claiming the GIants are clean with regards to the player signing of Peter Campbell and Stevie Lyle from Basingstoke last week. Basingstoke have been doing a bit of moaning about how their players were approached but Kelman is not worried.

“This is a dead issue as far as we as a team are concerned, that is how it should remain.”

~Todd Kelman

Basingstoke have made their feelings felt to the media the past week as well as to the EIHL. It’s not yet known whether the Elite Leauge will take any action.

Maybe Basingstoke ought to stick to worrying about their finances rather than other teams signing up their players which in the end did free up some salaries for them which for a team in financial problems can only be a good thing.

Well this weekend has been a long time coming. I’ve been as far away from the Giants as possible all week while player changes have been made and the team got its new look and spent parts of the weekend logging on to check the scores and how we got along. Imagine my surprise when yesterday I logged on to see we had won our second game of the weekend to put together two back to back wins for the first time this season. It has moved us well clear of the foot of the table, up to 7th in fact and only a couple of points back of likes of the Nottingham Panthers. MORE »

It’s quite the heading but the rumours were true. The Giants indeed did snap up Stevie Lyle and Campbell upon their leaving of the Basingstoke Bison. The good news of depth to the squad was hampered with the news that top goal scorer, Scott Cameron has a broken foot and will be out for a number of weeks.

Theres a saying that when your luck is out, it’s really out and that is the case with the bottom of the league Giants. Three major injuries to import players in three weeks will mean the Giants will continue to play short benched even with these three signings. Campbell and Lyle will add some much needed depth to the team. MORE »

This summer may already feel like winter but it’s not quite hockey time yet.  However, with the season only a few weeks away and without knowing how much blogging time I will have I guess it’s about time to look into the season and preview each othe teams with as much knowledge as I actually have of them anyway!  First up its the Herd: MORE »