Rødovre Mighty Bulls of Denmark have signed contracts with Bobby Robins and Paul Deniset. Both were stars on the Giants team last year and leave a huge hole in the forward positions that Thornton must now try and fill. The move comes pretty early in the off-season so Thornton has plenty of time to make the right changes.

Steve Thornton today spoke to Sky Sports News about his plans for next season. As well as telling them that his new season has already begun he noted that he hopes to retain most of the players from last season though does seem confined to losing star player Paul Deniset to a team in Europe.

Claiming that he wants to keep the majority of players that helped the team win two trophies in his first year as a head-coach was interesting considering General Manager Todd Kelman recently said in an interview that he would like to see an overhaul of the side.

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It is no great surprise really that Paul Deniset walked away with the major trophies at this year’s end of season awards dinner. He picked up MVP, Players Player and the best forward awards. Evan Cheverie was voted in a coaches player while Davy Phillips getting the most improved player. Hard to argue with any of them. For all the nights winners click for more. Read More»

Ten games have passed since I last updated all the statistics and features on the site but I’ve spent the last hour fixing that together and at last caught up with were the Giants are at. Just for interesting reading here is how the Giants have gotten along over the last ten games which have made up the month of February:

10 games played,  7 wins, 3 defeats, 41 goals for, 35 goals against, 4.10 goals per game, 3.50 goals against per game.

During that period there were some milestone moments to go with the seven point games by Martin and Deniset. On 18 February the Giants beat Manchester 2-1 at the Odyssey arena. The victory marked the 300th win in team history. Three days before on the 15 February Stevie Lyle helped the Giants beat Coventry 7-4 and overtook Mike Minard in games played as a Giants goalie with 94.

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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.

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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.

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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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I don’t think I ever gave this much mention even though the news has been out there for quite a few weeks. If you are reading this then you probably already know all about the Elite League all-star game but just in case you didn’t know who had been selected the following is the line-ups for both teams.

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Ahead of tonight’s home-and-home with the Basingstoke Bison the Giants got some bad news that top points scorer Paul Deniset will be missing for at least weeks with an injury to the same groin muscle that kept him out of the line-up earlier in the season. This is a major blow for the Giants following a defeat to the Sheffield Steelers during the week in a game that moved the Steelers into an even more comfortable position a-top of the standings.

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There was something interesting about Paul Deniset’s hat trick in tonights 8-1 victory over Manchester. Not only was it his third hat trick of the season but his third against the same team. Yep, Manchester have been the result of three heavy defeats to the Giants and on all three of them occassions Deniset found the net three times. One in a 6-3 win, another in a 4-2 victory and again in last nights 8-1 demolition.

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