The Giants officially announced George Awada as club captain today after coach Steve Thornton had tired a number of players out in the roll to see who fitted best. In the end it came down to a player vote and Awada won the decision by a long shot. It’ll be George’s 4th year as captain of the Belfast Giants and it was a roll I felt was only a matter of time before he got it. Awada has been an excellent leader over his time in Belfast and while at times his points production could be questioned his effort never could.

He is by for the longest serving captain in team history and should the Giants win silverware this season, especially the playoffs, he will be arguably one of the best. Until now only Paul Kruse has captained the Giants to playoff glory.

Bobby Robins, some peoples tip for the captaincy, was awarded an ‘A’ along with Paul Deniset and Mark Morrison. Mo will wear the other ‘A’ on home games with Deniset wearing it on the road. That should keep everyone happy.

If it is not bad enough that the Giants are playing these days without two of their import players due to injury they now could face a very stiff suspension to coach Steve Thornton if the EIHL has anything to say about the incident in tonights game. To see if for yourself click here to view the Vipers post game highlight show - an excellent package I must say - and decide for yourself. To be honest, it doesn’t look good for Stevie and the way the league has set a president of late he could be looking at quite a bit of time off.

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The big question going into tonight’s game with Newcastle with the Giants was how the Giants would react to their first defeat of the season. After their best ever start to a season at five straight wins, they lost last night in Newcastle. Tonight they remained in Newcastle for the second game of a double header but cast any doubts of a potential slump aside with a 3-1 win. Two of the three goals came on the power play which to date in the season had been so strong but had let them down the night before. Newcastle of course showed us they cannot lose with grace and threw the toys out of the pram in the final moments of the game. The win keeps the Giants up at the top of the Elite League.

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The boys are back on the ice in Newcastle at the moment as part of a double header. Following last weeks thrashing of the Vipers the Giants were expected by some to repeat that performance in Newcastle last night. It wasn’t to be however as they crashed to their first defeat of the season after six games. Newcastle promised revenge for what they thought was the Giants trying to embarrass them last week but they kept that revenge for the scoreboard. They still took quite a few penalties compared to the Giants two, but the Giants power play was off its usual form and they couldn’t capatalise and went down 4-3.

Tonight they will look to bounce back and it’ll be interesting to see how this team responds to a defeat for the first time.

The Giants are perfect so far to start the season. It is time to start getting carried away. Indeed the Giants for the first time in a long time possess a young, fast and talented roster with a combination of skilled imports and high end British players. I said ‘for the first time in a long time’ but I scratch that. The Giants have never had such a combination that has had the fans so excited going into the early part of the season. The facts of that argument being in the 5 game winning streak to start the season — far and away the best ever start to a Giants season. But hold on, slow down a minute some people will rightfully tell you . . . The Giants have yet to face the big three that are considered their biggest rivals for the title: Coventry, Sheffield and Nottingham. Indeed a fair point, but still, these are exciting times for the Giants faithful and I have chose the time to be over on the other side of the world making a new life for myself and scrambling to watch what I can on the live, free and top class webcasts.

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The service has been going for a year or two now but this is the first time I have ever tuned in to watch a Giants game live on the internet when the game is being played in the Odyssey. Worryingly as I type the service has just went off air but with 10-minutes or so until face-off here is hoping things come back again. Yes the Vipers are in town and the Giants are looking to win their first three games of a season for the first time in their history. Yes folks, a win tonight and the Giants will be off to their best ever start. Then we can really watch some people plan the parade route! MORE»

This week all the talk on message boards have been about incidents in seperate games involving Hull and Cardiff. Hull enforcer Rick Kozak was handed down a 10-game suspension for beating up on Levers before kicking his blood in an act the EIHL described as a travesty of the game. Then there was Devils captain and tough guy Brad Voth who got a 12-game suspension for slashing an opponent and then sucker punching him. Here is what the Elite League had to say on the incidents and the suspensions. MORE»

Yes, I mentioned in the article earlier that the Giants by winning tonight could win their opening two games for only the second time in their history. The last time was back in 05-06 and tonight they did indeed make it a second time with an impressive 4-1 victory over an Edinburgh Capitals team that last night beat one of the season favourites and defending playoff champions, Sheffield Steelers. The Capitals who have had to play the opening two games of the season without their number one goalie after his visa didn’t arrive in time will be satisfied to get out of them two games against two top teams with a win and a defeat.

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The Giants were 4-4 on opening night games in their history and had won 4 of the last 4 going into last nights game but a slick, fast and young new line-up made it 5-4 and 5 in-a-row with a fine victory over Cardiff Devils. Of course this is all hearsay for me as I didn’t get to see the game but by all accounts the reports are the same that indeed this team is younger and faster than many before them. MORE»

The Giants new season has been delayed by an hour or so due to a lack of officials. I’m not sure what exactly is going on as that is all I have read. So instead of the new season starting in 27 minutes it will get underway in about 1 hour, 27 minutes. Ironic though that they were considering two referee’s per game for a while and now they cannot even get one to the Odyssey on time.

Yes it is that time of year again, the time of year when fans of 10 teams all have reason to be hopeful, when everyone starts from even and has a chance at Elite League glory for another season. Yes them hopes fade within about two weeks for at least half of them 10 teams fans but right now we’re at the optimistic point of the season. Everyone is making their predictions but in reality, nobody really knows what to expect with all the new players arriving at all the clubs. Everyone has their belief that Coventry, Sheffield and Belfast will be strong but this weekend could shatter some of them beliefs. Indeed, this is opening weekend of the Elite League, the 6th Elite League season and the 9th season of Giants hockey.

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Well it was two tight games this weekend for the Giants but in the end they edged out the select team of the Hawks and Bulls 10-0 on Saturday and 9-1 on Sunday. Everyone was chipping in with goals and assists as the Hawks/Bulls goalie topped up the tan on the back of his neck every time the Red light came on. At the other end Stevie Lyle and Nathan Craze took turns between the pipes and spent more time eyeing up the woman in the stands than saving shots.  Still it was an exercise that allowed Steve Thornton the chance to see his players in a game situation, were hits could be thrown and penalties taken. It allowed him to try out line combinations ahead of the real action this coming weekend when the season gets underway.

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People often ask me what my favourite Giants moment of all-time is. Now the Giants have been going for Eight seasons now so it is difficult to give a straight answer of one particular moment without some serious thought. But usually I just give one of many moments I have enjoyed watching the Giants over the years and that one of many moments changes each time I answer the question depending on what moment springs to mind first. But with my impending move to live in Canada only three days away and the fact that I am going to miss the start, middle and likely the end of the Giants season for the first time in their history I have been starting to think of the good times myself and wondering what some of my favourite moments ever have been between 2000 and 2008? The next lot of days are likely to be busy ones for me but if I have the time and if I can over the coming days or possibly weeks, I will count down my own personal favourite 10 moment as a Giants fan starting at 10.

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»

One of the Giants most popular players of all time and one of the original Giants of 2000 is back on the payroll of the Giants and this time as assistant coach. Rob will patrol the Giants bench while coach Steve Thornton continues to ice and so Rob will provide an extra pair of eyes on the ice for Thornton and assist him at practice. Stewart will also provide a link to the history of the Giants for what has become a new era of Belfast Giants players with so many changes in this off season. MORE»