It’s been a seven year wait for the hundreds of Giants fans that take themselves to Nottingham year-in-year-out looking for their team to deliver the goods, but at long last and for the first time since 2003 the Belfast Giants can call themselves Elite League Playoff Champions again. I wasn’t there this year, but if 2003 taught me anything it is that when the Giants win this trophy the weekend becomes one of the biggest and best parties of the year and no doubt it was great times in Nottingham again last night and this morning plenty of sore heads. The Giants turned around a poor first two periods of play while throwing away a two goal lead to put in a fine effort in the third, a strong overtime and then a tight and tense shootout to win it. A playoff final should never ever be decided by the way of a shootout, but that’s how it is in Britain, and while I don’t agree with it, in this case, I’ll gladly deal with it and revel in the moment that my team are the Champions again, even though I never got to see them in person this year.

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I thought it worth pointing out that the two minute minor for holding at 16:56 by Evan Cheverie in Sunday’s game against Coventry tied the all-time most penalty minutes in a season in team history and 31:03 Pat Bateman’s two for hooking broke it. The Giants now have 1418 penalty minutes on the season with the old record having been set way back in 2003/04 at 1418. Below is a look at the penalty minutes racked up through each season so far with no doubt more to come this season.

2000/01: 1155
2001/02: 978
2002/03: 1246
2003/04: 1414
2004/05: 1079
2005/06: 1369
2006/07: 1385
2007/08: 1045
2008/09: 1170
2009/10: 1418

That wasn’t the only record broken this season, so far. Colin Shields 101 points on the season broke the all-time marker previously set by Jason Ruff and Theo Fleury at 94. Then there is Jeff Szwez whose incredible 17 powerplay goals and 8 short handed goals are new team records and he has also broken Curtis Huppe’s record of goals per game ratio by scoring in unbelievable 0.85 goals per game. On top of all that there are his 39 goals, which have edged ahead of the previously all-time high of 38 in a single season by Jason Ruff (03/04) and Paul Deniset (08/09). Not half bad for a guy who joined the team quite a way into the season. Colin Shields is on 38 goals also and with games to come they could be fighting it out for that record.

And finally you have Stephen Murphy who smashed the single season record for shutouts. He is currently on 8.

With anywhere from 2 to 4 games still to come for Shields, Szwez and Murphy there is opportunity to build on these records and so I’ll wait until after the season to write something in depth on each guy and their record breaking seasons. If 09/10 is to be remembered for anything, it’ll be for players setting new individual high’s in club history.

The Giants awards dinner took place last night and for the 4th time in team history the club MVP weas a goalie (Mike Bales, Martin Klempa and Stevie Lyle were the others). Stephen Murphy won the fans vote for his part in leading the team to a second place finish in the league title which included him racking up a club record 8 shutouts over the course of the season. On the night, Murphy also announced he would be returning next season which is a welcome early piece of news for next years line-ups.

The other standout awards was the Coaches player and players player awards, both won by Brandon Benedict. I remember Dave Matsos once said, upon winning the players player of the year award in 2003, that it means that little bit more to get voted as the best player by you’re follow team-mates. For Benedict to win both the players player award and coaches player award says a lot.

Below is a list of all the awards and although I didn’t see any games this year in person, going by the reaction of some fans I have talked to, nobody is too upset with the outcome.

Award winners:
Fans MVP — Stephen Murphy
Leading Scorer — Colin Shields
Fan Favourite Award — Sean McMorrow
Best Defenceman — Tim Cook
Best Forward — Colin Shields
Unsung Hero — Michael Jacobsen
Most Improved Player — Craig Peacock
Coach’s Player of the Year — Brandon Benedict
Player’s Player of the Year — Brandon Benedict

All-Time team MVP:
2000/01 — Shane Johnson, D
2001/02 — Mike Bales, G
2002/03 — Robby Sandrock, D
2003/04 — Jason Ruff, LW
2004/05 — Martin Klempa, G
2005/06 — Theoren Fleury, C
2006/07 — Jason Ruff, LW
2007/08 — Stevie Lyle, G
2008/09 — Paul Deniset, C
2009/10 — Stephen Murphy, G

The British Hockey team coached by Paul Thompson will head to the Division One World Championships in Ljubljana, Slovenia next month with seven Giants players in the squad. The tournament takes place between 17 and 23 April and Britain will be in a group with Croatia, Korea, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. The tournament will be preceded by two warm-up games against the Netherlands on 10th and 11th April in Nottingham and Sheffield respectively.

The following are the Giants players who have made the cut: Stephen Murphy, Nathan Craze, Shane Johnson, Kevin Phillips, Graeme Walton, Craig Peacock and Colin Shields.

It’s a strong squad overall and one that must feel somewhat confident about picking up some wins and who knows, maybe even promotion.

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I got the recent edition of the Elite Stats Weekly e-mail into my inbox this evening which is packed full of information on teams and players across the Elite League. I had a skim through and even used some of the numbers to help me get the site back up-to-date but also seen some interesting statistics that I had a closer look at.

Colin Shields is leading the Elite League in points scoring with 81 in total, five ahead of Jade Galbraith (the leagues primary set-up man with 57 assists in 49 games) of Nottingham and nine up on Greg Chambers of Coventry. Shields is on a torrid pace and if he keeps up the current rate of scoring he should finish the regular season having played 64 games and scoring 45 goals and 101 points, smashing any previous Giants records for goals and points in a season. He is second in goal scoring with 36 to Coventry’s Luke Fulghum who sits on 40 goals.

Jeff Szwez is another Giants player leading a category with six short handed goals, one ahead of Jeff Legue of Sheffield. David Clarke of Nottingham leads the league in powerplay goals with 14. Evan Cheverie is Mr. Clutch for the Giants with five game winning goals – Adam Calder leads with eight.

Then there is the physical side of the game with penalty minutes and Sean McMorrow of the Giants leads that category also with a massive 344 in total, 40 ahead of Brad Voth of Cardiff who sits on 314. Third place is ex-Giant Jeff Hutchins all the way down on 197. At this current pace Sean McMorrow looks set to hit 458 penalty minutes for the year which is a staggering number considering the all-time record by a Giants player in a season is currently Paxton Schulte with 424 from 2003/04.

Between the pipes the Giants come out top again through Stephen Murphy who leads the league in save percentage with a total of .922 ahead of Peter Hirsch of Coventry on .919 and Michel Robinson of Newcastle on .914. Murphy also leads in goals against average with 2.30 ahead of Kevin St. Pierre of Nottingham on 2.80 and ex-Giants tender, Stevie Lyle now of Cardiff on 2.82.

So what about team stats?

Ask any Giants fan and they’ll tell you the penalty killing is pretty good but the powerplay is awful and the stats don’t lie. The Giants have the third worst powerplay in the Elite League with a 17% hit rate compared to the leagues best of 23.4% from Sheffield. It’s surprising that considering the Giants are actually second in the standings with Sheffield second last. Shorthanded the Giants are much stronger coming in second best in the league on 83.9% behind Sheffield who sit on 84.4%. Very very strange Sheffield leading both powerplay and shorthanded categories yet struggling so much in the standings overall.

In goals per game the Giants are always high on the charts. Ever since the teams inception in 2000/01 the team have always been known as an offence first team and one that has been high up, if not leading, the goals per game ratio. This year is no different with the team currently second in goals per game with 3.9, just 0.2 behind Coventry who lead on 4.1 goals per game. At home the Giants are averaging an impressive 4.5 goals per game - not bad from a Giants team who some fans believe are lacking up front.. For what it is worth the Stingrays bring up the rear with a poor 2.5 goals per game. The Giants also lead the shots on goal totals with an average of 37.6 per game and sit second last in penalty minutes per game with 22.7 dispelling theories that the referees in the league are anti-Giants or that the team are ill-disciplined.

Voting is complete for the starting line-ups for the EIHL all-star game on 27 January at Ice Sheffield and the announcements of who has made the team, especially from the Giants, has raised some eyebrows, but reminded us the risks involved with fan votes.

Stephen Murphy, Colin Shields and Jeff Szwez all made it, and rightly so, but Sean McMorrow, enforcer for the Giants and a fan favorite, has also been voted onto the team and while McMorrow is great to watch, even he would admit that he is a little out of place on an ‘all-star’ team in that sense of the word.
But then again, this is a popularity contest among EIHL fans and people want to see McMorrow and while he won’t fight or even hit, no doubt he’ll be entertaining in some capacity.

The Elite British All-Stars, coached by Sheffield’s Dave Matsos, will be back-stopped by Stephen Murphy of the Belfast Giants. Patrolling the blueline will be Coventry’s Jonathan Weaver and Stevie Lee from the Nottingham Panthers. Completing the line-up are forwards Colin Shields (Belfast Giants), David Clarke (Nottingham Panthers) and Lee Esders (Hull Stingrays).

The Overseas All-Stars, will be coached by Nottingham Panthers’ Corey Neilson. In-between the pipes will be Peter Hirsch of the Coventry Blaze, while defencemen Dominic D’Amour (Nottingham Panthers) and Adam Knight (Hull Singrays) have been selected at the back. Belfast Giants’ enforcer Sean McMorrow and team-mate Jeff Szwez will be joined by Panthers’ leading goalscorer Jade Galbraith to complete the line-up.

— eliteleague.co.uk, 6 Jan’10

Some fans will be frustrated about fan voting making a mockery out of an all-star game, but lets face it, this isn’t a serious game – it’s a gimmick – so why not have some fun with it by indeed letting fans vote. The rest of the teams will be selected by the respective coaches and I would expect the import all-stars to win pretty comfortably.

By the way, is there a skills competition?

Normally when you win 3-0 all the attention is around the goalie for picking up the shutout and while nothing will be taken away from Murphy for another fine performance between the pipes, all the talk will centre around new boy Jeff Szwez and his two goal debut performance. He only met up with his new team-mates earlier in the week but seems to have settled immediately as seen by tonights showing. Not only did the result come against the Panthers, but against the league leading Panthers and was enough to jump the Giants to the top of the Elite League table. Thank you Jeff Szwez. Read More»

I say this each year when the Giants sign on Graeme Walton or one of the local players, but I cannot believe he is heading onto his 7th season. Back in 03-04 when he made his nerve filled debut for the Giants I barely expected him to see out that season never mind be here at the end of the decade. Wally has played 346 games for the Giants in his career now and that is good for 3rd in the all-time list. Amazing.

Also being announced was another new signing and another new British one at that. Goaltender Stephen Murphy. He replaces Stevie Lyle who last week chose to sign in Cardiff despite having a year left on his Giants contract . . . whether he was released or walked remains to be seen but the Giants were quick off the mark to replace him with a fellow Brit.

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