It was the biggest two games of the year for the Giants, a home-and-home against their biggest rivals for the Elite League title, the Coventry Blaze. Two wins here would go a long way to erasing the games in hand the Blaze have over the Giants that if won would put them in a comfortable position atop of the table. Unfortunately for the Giants they could do no better than coming away with just one point to their name after losing the away game of the two in overtime. It’s a big blow, but it isn’t even Christmas yet and with plenty of games still to be played, including quite a few against the Blaze themselves the Giants have to remain positive, though the Blaze are now the big favorites to win the title if they weren’t before.

Both games were close but the telling factor might well have been the injuries to key personnel, namely the Giants coach Steve Thornton who missed the games and couldn’t even make the trip to the away fixture because of his injuries. The short bench was never going to help, especially against a team like the Blaze and so these game came at the worst possible time. The Giants will now lick their wounds over the Christmas period and look to get back on track heading through the festive season and into the new year.

Indeed George Awada was the face of the Giants hockey team in the EIHL era but now his own era as a Belfast Giants might well be over for good following the announcement that he is done for the season due to and injury to the rotator cuff in his shoulder which will require a surgery that carries a 5-6 months rehab period.

At 34-years of age it is hard to imagine Awada getting himself back into the Giants fold eleven months from now though if he does managed to work his way back to fitness you would like to imagine there will always be a place in the team for the captain.

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In one of my latest posts I mentioned that without injuries this season the Giants could very well have won the league and I personally believe they would have. Of course what I base that on is game reports and talking to those who go to the games week-in-week-out. Naturally though injuries is not a valid excuse .  . . Everyone would do better if they had zero injuries and it comes with the territory of the sport. Still, this year in particular the Giants have been very unlucky with injuries and I’ve done some digging into the stats to come up with the evidence.

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Well, a 3-2 overtime defeat at the hands of the Steelers has pretty much eliminated the Giants chances of winning the Elite League title this season. I hate to make excuses and I rarely do, but there is little doubt that injuries have been the key reason to the Giants title charge falling apart. On paper they probably have the best squad but as people always say, ‘Hockey isn’t played on paper’ and when you shake out the injuries and eventually take to the ice with such short benches throughout the key times of the season you will inevitably come up short.

That is to take nothing away from Sheffield, who now baring a monumental collapse of proportions of which we haven’t seen before, will walk away Champions. It is a testament to the coaching ability of Dave Matsos, the best coach in the league. He lead his team to the Playoff title last year and now it looks like he has taken them to the league championship. How long such an up and coming young coach remains at the British level of hockey remains to be seen.

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The Giants will be without four key players this weekend as Paul Sample and Andrew Martin join Bobby Robins and Paul Deniset in the treatment room. The Giants hit the road to face Cardiff Devils tonight and then a top of the table clash with Sheffield tomorrow. It is going to take one heck of an effort just to get points out of the weekend never mind all four. I don’t really like the term ‘key’ players because at this level were benches are short enough as it is and imports are limited and ice time high then every player is key. Playing without four them them is a nightmare.

People are going to wonder what is wrong; Did we sign injury prone players, is it just severe bad luck or is it the fact that there are so many games with the short benches and players playing big minutes which takes its toll on the body? I tend to wonder if it is the latter because we aren’t the only team in the league having problems with injuries. As import levels go down, the ice time and responsibility on the imports signed goes up.

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