Giants-History.com » Sky Sports

Giants v Devils in EIHL Playoff final, live on Sky Sports 2

Richard Blayney — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:09:09 +0000

Starting now, for the first time ever, is live TV coverage of the EIHL playoff final and it’s between two non-English sides, the Belfast Giants and Cardiff Devils. I’m off to retrieve one of my chilled beers and ready to enjoy the big game. I wish I was there and if I was I would doubtlessly be drunk, but if you can’t be there, getting to see it live on TV is the next best option and I’m glad Sky Sports have come through. This is the Giants second ever playoff final with their previous one being in 2003 when they beat the London Knights.

The show has just started and one of the analysits is Steelers coach and ex-Giant Dave Matsos. The year the Giants won the trophy in ’03 he scored one of the goals.

Enjoy.

Playoff semi-final matchups

Richard Blayney — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 02:29:16 +0000

Next Saturday the final four weekend beings and below is a look at the two semi-finals that will take place at the NIC in Nottingham. The four teams competing were the top four teams in the league this season so no upsets and it’s set to truly be a battle of the best.

Coventry Blaze v Cardiff Devils @ 1p.m.

Belfast Giants v Nottingham Panthers @ 5 p.m.

And great news folks, the final itself will be live on Sky Sports 2 at 5 p.m.

Kelman talks about the Theo days

Richard Blayney — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:38:55 +0000

In an interview with SkySports.com Todd Kelman has talked about the year that Theo Fleury came to play in Belfast, how he acted like an obcessed fan rather than a regular team-mate and how Theo would tell them all stories and get them going in games. This is the first part in a two part interview and is well worth the read.

Thornton has begun his 2010-2011 season already

Richard Blayney — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:56:28 +0000

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.

Personally I like the idea of keeping the core. The Giants had quite a huge re-build last summer and while it was the right time to do it then, doing it every year is not productive. You will always lose players but if you can maintain a core then it will certainly help you in the long run. You only have to look at the Giants early years when they were able to keep a core that included guys like Paxton Schulte, Colin Ward, Rod Stevens, Curtis Bowen, Todd Kelman and Shane Johnson and note the success they achieved in them early years.

I’ve heard it said that you should always look to change 15% of your team to keep things fresh and to keep improving and that is ok. The Giants will likely have 15% of their guys who do not want to return anyway, but maintaining a core is key.

Ignore those that say keeping the majority of this team will only mean another forth place finish. Last year seen a lot of new faces and chemestry takes time to build. Not to mention an injury list of a length that I have never seen before in Elite League Hockey. Maintaining a core of players from last season would mean instant chemestry amongst players from the off and the chances of having such an injury plagued season again would be highly unlikely. Add those together and a year of experience for Thornton as coach and you can see why this team could make a lot of noise next year.

Core players to try and lock up for 09-10 (not including Thornton who is already signed on as player-coach): Colin Shields, Paul Deniset, Evan Cheverie, George Awada, Mike Burgoyne, Andrew Martin, Malcolm MacMillan, David Phillips, Shane Johnson.