You don’t need to have to think back far to remember the Giants season without Stevie Lyle. It was only about 42 games ago and the Giants season was in turmoil and changes needed to be made. Ed Courtenay went out and brought in Stevie Lyle to tighten up the goals and at the same time picked up Pete Campbell to add to the scoring. It turned the Giants fortunes 180 as the team started to win games and climb up the table. MORE»

So after a terrible start to the year and a 16-game winning streak that pulled them from bottom to top, the Giants have gone back into free fall of late. A new losing streak has seen the boys slide down to forth place thanks to a huge Panthers win against the Bison last night. The Giants are now set to finish outside the top two places in the league for only the third time in their eight year history. The last time they finished forth was under Rob Stewart back in 2003-2004 - The first year of the Elite League - and Stewart duly lost his job. MORE»

A big win or a predictable win over the Belfast Giants on Sunday night - call it what you will - sealed the Elite League title for the Coventry Blaze for a second year running. Definitely hard to swallow for the Giants fans who certainly have a bit of a rivalry with Coventry and also because it was their defeat to the Blaze that confirmed their position as Britain’s best team. Coventry have lead the league from start to finish and made everyone comfortably second best. All the Giants can do - bar looking to the playoffs - is to look to competing from the off next season.

So as it turns out this was the final Giants game of the year in the Odyssey Arena. Unfortunately the Giants could not send the biggest crowd of the year - a sellout crowd - home with the victory. The Nottingham Panthers took the win. With the league long gone this game was a squabble over playoff match-up positioning and with every opponent set to be a tough one if you’d offered me the two points or the two fight wins, I think on this occassions I’d take the fights!! Thankfully Lewis and Moran did the job with their fists and at least sent the fans home with something to talk about.

What is it with the Giants and not playing well in front of a big crowd.

Still, it was nice to see such a huge crowd to end another season of hockey in Belfast.

Once again Todd goes out of his way to respond to our worries and fears about Dundalk and the playoffs. Cant say I’m not still angry about it but I guess my anger has turned more to the Elite League and even more so the Odyssey Arena but I’ll rant on that a little later.

Let’s just go straight for the bone on this one. The Giants are playing their one and only (that’s a rant for another day) ‘home’ playoff game ‘away’ in Dundalk. Is this thanks to the Elite League or is this a mess up in scheduling by the Belfast Giants? Who cares? Either way the loyal fans of the Belfast Giants are being expected to travel 60-miles across the border to watch what in hockey is supposed to be the most important game of their season.

Yep, the Giants won’t be holding that big playoff game in a packed Odyssey but in the 1,500 seated Dundalk Ice Dome. The Giants have already played four regular season games in Dundalk this season and will now also play the final home game and their big playoff qualifier in Dundalk. MORE»

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

For a bit in the first period I had this worry that it was going to be like Thursday. Well maybe not qute as bad but the Vipers came out, typically with a physical brand of hockey and seemed to have an edge on the Giants. They even score the first goal of the game to silence the Giants crowd after a scoreless first. However the Giants this time stuck to their game plan, hit the Vipers back and gradually worked their way back into the game.

It was probably the second largest crowd of the season so far. Probably only a few hundred seats shy of a sell-out crowd. It was great to see and the crowd were entertained to a good game of hockey. Ok so it wasn’t the most slick and skilled game you’ve ever seen but they never are against a rugged Newcastle. To beat Newcastle on the scoreboard you must first beat them in the back alleys. They always bring a physical game and if you aren’t prepared to match it then you’ve no chance. MORE»

There’s strong rumours going around the Ed Courtenay is playing hurt. Rumours strong enough that it is pretty much common knowledge. He’s been sitting out of games, keeping himself on the bench and up until Thursday night not even taking a regular shift. The problem with this is that it is showing throughout the rest of the team. With Ed Courtenay playing hurt - The Belfast Giants play hurt.

You don’t need to have a keen eye to notice the kind of game Courtenay brings to the ice. He has the vision on the ice that most players in the league can only dream of and it feeds off on his line-mates. I’ve blogged about this a number of times over the season about Ed and his line mates - no matter who he has paired himself wth the player has got the goals and looked like one of the best in the league… 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»

Take a look at the Powerplay rankings in the Elite Leauge to this point in the season. For those who thought our PP was bad it’ll make interesting reading and for those that thought it was good it will still make interesting reading. I didn’t think it was anywhere near as good as 23.6% but then again thats what you get with a set-up man like Ed Courtenay and guys who are willing to screen the goalie like Carlyle Lewis and Shaun Sutter.

            PL  OPP  GF  GA   Pct
Belfast     51  229  54   4  23.6
Coventry    53  301  67   2  22.3
Sheffield   56  265  53   2  20.0
Basingstoke 54  220  41   6  18.6
Nottingham  55  325  59   8  18.2
Newcastle   53  257  45   8  17.5
Edinburgh   54  302  51  14  16.9
Manchester  52  276  44   6  15.9
Cardiff     54  279  44  10  15.8
Hull        54  333  26   5   7.8

Info obtained from THF via KotG

It was one of them games that didn’t really matter other than pride and keeping some kind of momentum going. Unfortunately the Giants came away with neither dropping the road game 5-1 against the Panthers. Mark Morrison got the Giants only game in what appeared to be a night off for everyone. The Giants will now regroup as they come home for two games this coming week on Thursday and Saturday night.

The fight for 2nd, 3rd and 4th place is still alive and it will dictate who plays who come the playoffs. The Giants will need to keep an eye on that though I dont believe there will be any easy oposition and in a two-leg knockout series even a poor team can beat a good team. Thats what takes away from the playoffs for me but thats another argument for another time.

The Giants found their winning grove this weekend on the road with two victories over Basingstoke on Saturday and Manchester on Sunday. It will hopefully tone down the fears of some that the team were on the verge of a collapse with news finally breaking of Ed Courtenay leaving the team at the end of the season. As I believed this has not effected performances and the team proved it this weekend. Ed Courtenay called out some of his players in the press last week and it appears also to have done the trick.

Players like George Awada who have struggled in front of goal all season came good with a pair of goals on Sunday night to add to the one he scored on Saturday. That will please the fans to see their captain stepping it up on the score sheet as the playoff roll round.

The Giants will remain on the road next weekend with a Saturday night game in Nottingham before returning home for three home games.

Is it just me or are the Giants fans eating some kind of mind bending drug that I am not yet aware of? I mean some of the things our GM Todd Kelman has had to respond to lately, to quell the panic, are quite ludicrous. I am seriously questioning the reasoning of the hockey knowledge among our fan base more and more by the day. Thankfully however, when I talk to fellow fans that I know, my faith is restored in our fans, so I therefore ask; who are these idiotic people, where are they hiding and who is feeding them?

“I received loads of emails, phone calls and written letters over the last few days on this subject. Some of them were in support of Ed, some were questioning his commitment, some were just rants that made no sense at all. I read and listened to them all, which is why I am writing this response.
–Todd Kelman, February 15, 2008

We win 16-games in a row and then after a few slip up’s people are seriously questioning the commitment of our coach just because he is leaving? Killer should not have to come out and appease the fan’s every other week when some people start to panic that something, anything, could be going wrong.

As Todd clearly said, and a lot of us already knew, Ed was going to be leaving at the end of the year. Does that mean that suddenly now that it’s become public knowledge that he’s going to bomb the season?

Ed Courtenay is a winner, he is a professional and he is a respected hockey player. He has put up huge numbers this season - potentially record breaking numbers - he has lead us from bottom of the league into respectability. He has made the right changes when we have been poor and not been afraid to let players go who have not been up to scratch.

If Ed Courtenay was not committed to the cause, whether he is leaving or not, would he not have just quit when the going got tough back in September? I feel the man is not going to be allowed to go quietly into the night unless he brings us the playoff championship back to the Odyssey.

Seriously, who finds it beneficial to rant to our General Manager like some have felt it necessary to do so?

‘Beware one and all, Ed Courtenay is really the anti-Giant and is leaving at the end of the season!! He is taking us all down with him. Jump ship while you can!! Todd, how can you let something like this happen?’

Man, have I just woke up in some alternative reality?

Calm down, don’t panic, talk to the sane - hear what they have to say - All is still well and Courtenay is still onboard, steering our ship.

As I said a few days ago and I will say again - Ed Courtenay has done us a favour. Unlike the year when Tony Hand decided to walk away - he kept the organisation hanging on, wondering and waiting before rejecting a contract and leaving us searching at the last minute for a coach to build a team in a month. (Thankfully that all worked out perfectly, but it could easily have been oh so different).

This time we have a General Manager who has all the time in the world to find the right replacement for a man who has been a great coach - and that is due in part to Ed being up front with the club from the start.

I just hope some others finally wake up and send Courtenay off with the credit he deserves.

“When the cow is down, the butchers are plenty”

I’m not sure who said that, but I heard it for the first time about another hockey team somewhere else in the world at some point during our 16-game winning streak and for some reason I instantly thought of the Giants fans. I remember saying to someone, “I dread the moment this streak ends, someone or something is going to be a fall guy . . . There will be hell to pay. In Belfast nobody is satisfied”. A good thing or a bad thing aside, it is the bare facts. MORE»