The last time I was back over the Christmas/New Years period of 2008 the Giants were in the thick of a title fight and that was much the same this time. Actually, having just checked what I wrote about that visit in December 2008, it appears to have been very similar. Here is what I wrote:

“In the two games I seen over the period I have been back in Northern Ireland the team picked up two points from a game that wasn’t a classic and lost the game that was actually fun to watch.”

This time up I once again took in two games, one was poor and one was entertaining, though they lost both this time and I was quickly shepherded out of the Odyssey and told that I was not the kind of bad aura they needed around the club. My time had been and I could bugger off back to Canada and continue to curse the Toronto Maple Leafs. Apparently they had been playing really well up to this point and winning games and now here they were 0-for-2 in my visit and slipping off the top spot in the table. True to form the Giants won the next game they played while my flight made its way across the Atlantic Ocean.

Much like in 2008 I had been looking forward to putting faces to the names I had been hearing about from the current seasons team. Only 3 players remained from the 2008/09 side (Colin Shields, Graeme Walton, Nathan Craze) and just 1 from the 2007/08 team (Walton) which was the last team I watched with any great frequency. But for all the player changes it was still nice to see that some things hadn’t changed. I seen many of the same faces in the same places, I seen Todd Kelman continuing to run a slick operation, Rob Stewart assisting behind the bench and a Giants team running whoever’s turn it was to challenge them for the championship, close. What I also enjoyed was the Odyssey atmosphere. It might sound strange coming from someone now living in Toronto, but mark my words, there is more noise in the Odyssey Arena than an average night in the Air Canada Centre. Certainly more than at a Marlies game in the AHL, or Majors game in the OHL where fans seem content to sit on their hands and demand the entertainment be provided to them while they watch a lower standard of hockey than their beloved Leafs. (Or so they think!)

Now, 17 days into the new year, with me safely lodged back in Canada the Giants have got back to their winning ways. In an unusual fixture set-up the Giants had three straight games against the Nottingham Panthers in league action; one on the road and two this past weekend in Belfast. The Giants came from behind to win the road match, they then came from behind late to force a shootout in the second game which they lost but stole a point, and then cleaned house in the final game sending Nottingham back to Robin Hood land with their tails between their legs with a 7-2 thumping.

But the Giants are far from coasting. Their little Christmas blip, courtesy of myself, left them chasing the Cardiff Devils and requiring their latest title opposition to somehow find a bad slump of their own to allow the Giants back into the title race. As it stands the Devils lead the Giants by three points but have two games in hand. And let’s not forget one of the Giants oldest rivals when it comes to battling it out for a title – Sheffield – for they are just two points back on Belfast with three games in hand. We’ll need a few favors and we’ll need to make sure we beat both these teams when the chance comes along. These three appear to be the title contending teams leaving Nottingham on the fringes and Coventry – a perennial title contender in the EIHL era – already thinking about next season, or perhaps the playoffs.

At the bottom end things haven’t changed either as Edinburgh bring up the rear and have seemingly thrown in the towel with a league record 18-1 battering from the Steelers and relatively close by comparison 10-2 loss to Hull. That’s 28 goals against in two games and the kind of numbers not seen since my BB U12 football team went on a tear over the 92/93 season. It’s left some wondering whether the EIHL needs to insert a mercy rule as seen in U14 girls baseball here in Ontario. I hope they sort it out quick because continued basement dwelling is bad enough for the fans, but results like that will see them gone quicker than Sean Berens upon releasing a CD about whichever city he happens to be in at the time.

Still, it was great to be back and I hope its not two full years before I’m back again, but like all the things I mentioned that are still the same, one of the most typical is that the Giants are not just in a title race, but making sure they have it anything but easy. It’s the Giants way to drag it out, keep us on the edge of our seats and then either nick it or blow it. Nicking it will ensure a playoff collapse, while blowing it will confirm an April victory at the final four in Nottingham. You decide what you’d prefer, but if you really want the league title then you had better get me some plane tickets to Cardiff, and quick.

Ten years has went by in the blink of an eye when I think of my time following the Belfast Giants. I seen two league titles, copious amounts of great players, had away trips to Ayr and Edinburgh and the Continental Cup finals in Lugano, Switzerland. I seen a playoff championship followed by serious financial hard-times, I seen numerous playoff weekends in Nottingham both with and without the Giants team and I seen scoring standards set by players for the club that made us a team with a history. I bought various team jersey’s, went to awards dinners, contributed to bucked collections for banners, met some great fellow fans and missed just a handful of games over 8 years until I finally upped sticks and moved off to Canada. I even got so infatuated with the team that I started a website in the early years, which quickly transformed into a site dedicated to the history of the club and here I am, ten years in, sitting in Canada writing about the Belfast Giants. I’ve seen NHL games, NHL games and OHL games and while I’ve enjoyed them all I have still failed to find a team that pulls on the heart strings in the same with the Giants have, and still do.

What the Giants will look like in ten years time is anyone’s guess but when I first went to see them in December 2000 I never thought that by the end of the decade they would still be pleasing crowds and even icing a group of players born and bread in Belfast. I could wish for league titles, playoff championships and world class players in the coming decade, and that would be nice, but most of all I want to be able to fly home in ten years time to visit friends and family but also pop into the Odyssey to watch the latest Giants team doing their stuff.

Happy New Year to everyone, may your decade be a good one and may it also run hand in hand with the twists and turns of the Belfast Giants.