Shame. My second and last game of the 08-09 British Hockey season ended in defeat for the Giants. 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. But the scores aside it was nice being back in the Odyssey, nice to see old faces, a good attendance and a nice shiny new and very effective pre-game show. MORE »

After losing for the second time in a row for the first time this season the Giants went on the road to Sheffield looking to get back on the winning trail against one of their major rivals for the title this season. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and the team fell to its worst defeat of the season being shut out 5-0 to the Steelers. Yes, you can now call it a slump. MORE »

There hasn’t been a shootout in the Odyssey for a while but the controversial skills competition was used tonight to settle the game between the Giants and the Steelers for who would take home the two points. Thankfully for the hometown fans the victor was the Giants. They had to work hard for their spoils however as they twice came from behind to force overtime and then the shootout. In the shootout the Giants scored twice (Martin and Cheverie), the Steelers scored once (Talbot) and missed twice to hand the win to Belfast. MORE »

Giants fans have gone a while without a good home game of hockey. Especially if you consider the last game of hockey they seen couldn’t be classified as ‘good’ when they went down 6-3 to Hull. tonight Sheffield are in town followed by Edinburgh tomorrow night and coming off the back of two wins last week against Nottingham and Manchester, both good teams this year, confidence must be high. MORE »

It is not often you play a two-legged contest with both games away from home but I figure the Giants didn’t feel it worth hiring out the Odyssey for another night for a tournament that ranks lowest in their list of priorities this season. Still, they took the game serious enough to draw the first match and win the second to progress to the next round. MORE »

It isn’t a league game so it’ll be a welcomed break for the Giants but it is the Knockout cup and so over the next two games against the Steelers we’ll find out whether the Giants will progress forward in yet another bid for silverware. To be honest I’m not sure why they have this trophy but it exists and the Giants have a team this year capable of winning more than one piece of silverware so why not? MORE »

It has been a busy weekend for me. Over here in Canada it is the thanksgiving weekend and so that has largely kept me away from the computer and locked into heavy Turkey eating. I cannot complain. It has also been a busy weekend for the Giants though as they played three games in four days. Two in the league and one in the challenge cup but they won them all. The final one had them going all the way to a shootout against Cardiff who they also beat on Thursday night but they took the victory and as well as the cup win against Sheffield at home on Saturday the Giants remain top of all leagues.

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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 Sheffield Steelers are the 2008 Playoff Champions. Dave Matsos, an ex-Giant, is a playoff winning coach after winning the trophy as a player for the Giants back in 2003. The weekend was a beer filled, hocked packed hoot as per usual and maybe once I have fully recovered, counted the losses financially and tried to remember as much as I can I will write some kind of story about Nottingham Playoff weekend 2008.

As for now . . . Well done Sheffield.

After two defeats in a row the Giants are looking to get back on track in time for the playoffs starting tonight against second place league finishers Sheffield. With Dave Matsos behind the bench for Sheffield - the man the Giants are aparantely targeting for their new coach next season it’ll be a great chance for the Giants players to put themselves in the shop window for Matsos should he end up in Belfast. If anything else it’ll be just good to see the Giants try to find some form. MORE »

It appears the Steelers are moving into their own little ice pad, 7-miles up the road in Rotherham that is. MORE »

The Giants sunk to their worst defeat of the season on Thursday night when they took a 6-1 hammering by the Sheffield Steelers. The team looked like a squad that has lost all confidence since their 16-game winning streak was snapped about a month ago. MORE »

Not much to say about that one. Better off forgetting about it. The Giants were poor and the Steelers wanted it more. Should I go into detail? I’m not so sure I could be bothered but maybe when running this website it’s kind of a responsibility! With the league clearly out of sight before the game began I think some players are taking their foot off the pedal with a long stretch of games coming up before the playoffs.

The other belief, and the more realistic one, is that some guys are playing hurt - and I think it’s showing. The defeat last Saturday to Coventry has got to be a major blow and has taken the wind out of their sails. A big 16 game push to get in contention only to blow it over one weekend. MORE »

It was pointed out this morning on the KotG forum by my fellow contributer to the Kingdom of the Giants, Patrick Smyth (DWD) that Steelers goalie Jody Lehman and his wife had a baby girl. Very sweet isn’t it? Normally I wouldn’t pay this sort of thing much attention on this blog but it was the post made by a Steelers fan on the news of this event in the Lehman household that Patrick refered to that caught my attention and sent me into histerics.

Yes, some Steelers fan is pinning the Challenge Cup defeat to Nottingham mid-week on Lehman not being availble. Sure, they may have won with him in the line-up but this crazed fan is angry that Lehman’s wife Raquel choose to have her baby at this time.

Brace yourselves . . . Phsyco’s do roam among us:

“Disgraceful? tough! sorry to hurt such sensitive souls. If you are joe public then fine, family comes first, if you are a pro sportsman who talks about wanting to win trophies you have to walk the walk, I’m sick and tired of nice losers at the Steelers I want winners.

I have no problem with jody having wanting to have a family, how about timing to have them in the off-season or at the very least at the start of the season it’s not rocket science.”

I fear, I really do.

The Giants have tied the club record set between 3rd December 2005 and 7th January 2006 of nine wins in a row with a 6-1 hammering of the Sheffield Steelers. The Giants current streak of nine wins in a row runs from the 16th December 2007 until tonight. Fingers crossed that the record will be broke tomorrow night against Cardiff. The Giants got a hat trick from Peter Campbell who also added two assists on a five point night, while Mark Morrison scored for the second straight game. The defeat to Sheffield adds pressure to an entire team currenly playing on two weeks notice from their owner after a run of poor form.

Giants hit Cardiff tomorrow night before returning to the Odyssey for a game against Newcastle on Wednesday.