EHM The Blue Line

I was just thinking more towards the future do they not think they would be able to fill 7000+ seats in say ten years time?

Maybe, but it's a financial risk (for whoever funded the rink) to incorporate, especially when the Devils currently only get 2,000 spectators (And probably when this was designed they averaged 1,300).

Anyway, who knows what will happen in 10 years time, there might not even be a league!

For Manchester fans, it's a case of what could've been. They've been stuck in the same rink as Cardiff for 10 years now. Unlike Cardiff who are getting a super nice twin-pad 3,500 capacity arena, it looks as though the Manchester rink will basically be a refurbishment and making the structure permanent (it was built as a temporary structure). It's a real shame unfortunately, PI/SB seem to design rinks on the cheap (they are a business, afterall) and in particular seem to consistently design in poor sightlines for the spectators (the new Leeds rink is the same).

That's another one 1500 seats the city has a population of 760,000 to me it just shows a lack of ambition

So, apologies to Arch: Seems that Nick Poole has un-retired to play for MK Thunder...after I assured you he'd effectively retired for good a few Database-updates ago...

In other news Stevie Wall has joined them as well, so some good Brit net-minders about at that level now.

Watched MK/Bracknell at the weekend. How Bracknell are staying as competetive with the squad they've got I don't know. They played really well with limited resources. Mettam and Antonov really stood out, with Spearing doing the dirty work to try to break up the play. 'Safe' 4-2 win for MK in the end (though Bracknell shot themselves in the foot pulling Mettam for a 6-on-4 PP at 2-1 down to gift MK an EN goal, they scored their second after the PP expired).

Also watched Oxford v Thunder Sunday. No Poole or Wall for Thunder, so finally got to see Villem-Henrik Koitmaa who put on a clinic behind an almost comically short-benched Thunder (apparently Poole was there but not icing as Koitmaa was taking up the import-slot on ice). At one point so many minor 10 min pens were awarded each team had 3/4 players in the box and this left just a backup netminder and one skater on the MK bench! Koitmaa looks a decent Netminder, too good for this level really but not sure how he'd fare at EPL level. 3-1 win for Thunder but Oxford looked tired and Koitmaa really had to keep Thunder ahead.

22 goals in a game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGcSIQh ... e=youtu.be it was all a bit farcical....

Also, a bit more UK KHL news.

MOSCOW, February 6. / Corr. Arthur Kutuev TASS /. Continental Hockey League (KHL) has no plans to send Moscow "Spartak" for friendly matches in China and Wales. This Tass said a board member of the CHL Roman Rotenberg. Not confirmed earlier information that appeared, and the first vice-president of the red-white Alexei Zhamnov.
Earlier, the media reported that "Spartacus", who could not get into the playoffs championship KHL, in late March should go to a tournament in China, and approximately 8 and 9 April will hold two friendly matches in Cardiff (Wales). It was also noted that in a tournament in China can take part in other KHL clubs, who could not get into the playoffs.
"As far as I understand, was originally the plan, but today there is no official information If there are exhibition matches, we will notify Today no such plans.." - Commented Rotenberg.
"I have in this regard is no information," - TASS Zhamnov said.
The president of "Spartacus" Andrei rope on requests for comment Zhamnova asked to address the issues.
In the regular season CHL "Spartacus" will hold another two meetings on the road - with Minsk "Dynamo" (16 February) and the Finnish "Yokeritom" (February 18).


Подробнее на ТАСС:
http://tass.ru/sport/2645279

and

KHL is meeting with investors from China this week, if everything goes according to plan, expansion process will officially launch.
When that happens, KHL will appoint independent watchers, who will attend to games in ''expansion countries'' and that means UK
Watchers will evaluate many different aspects of hockey and the way it operates in said countries.
If meeting in China has a positive ending, league's representatives are meeting their partners in the UK to discuss sponsorship.
Source has suggested that Gazprom is willing to give helping hand to Beijing and UK/London.

Team GB (just) won thier first game in the Olympic games qualifiers against Netherlands Need a much better performance if they want to beat Italy and get to the next round

Saw the game on Premier. Was a bit of an 'old fashioned' game with the teams taking turns to score almost.

Hopefully they'll be a bit tighter against Serbia and peak just in time for Italy!

Come on Team GB. Good to see Lyle getting a game and back-stopping a win as well.

I think they'll need to up their game to beat Italy. I'll be on a plane so I won't be able to follow it live

That's exactly my thought. I think defensively we're very hit and miss. The fourth Dutch goal (wide-open in the crease) and the first Serbian goal (poor give-away) were as a result of our poor defence. Actually I thought many of the Serbian chances were caused by us giving the puck away. The Dutch game was a good result for us but the Serbian game feels like a poor result despite the scoreline. Maybe we'll step up against Italy; otherwise I think it'll be a comfortable victory for Italy.

By the way, that was some really poor officiating in the Dutch game. Our physical style of play doesn't really suit the Olympic style of officiating, but the officials in that particular game were plain bad. On the plus side, I thought we did really well on the PK. Employing a Penguins-style of offensive back/forechecking seems to work well for us.

I'm loving all of the misspelled names in the TV graphics! They seem to have all of the names backwards too. I thought maybe it was just a European thing, but the scoring summaries have all of the abbreviations the wrong way round; e.g. Colin Shields is listed as S. Colin instead of C. Shields!

I think we should make a drinking game out of Aaron Murphy's commentary. A shot of something every time he says "stanza", "oh baby", "whisky" and "biscuit". Also, a shot for every minute he spends commenting on the officiating (although I did agree with many of his comments on the officials in the Dutch game)...

Is there a way I could watch some of these games? Just curious and bored here.

It's broadcast in the UK via Premier Sports which you have to subscribe to (I get it via a satellite TV subscription). The BBC had live coverage of the previous games and so you might find it here but it'll be either text commentary (a bit like EHM! ) or possibly audio. But I'm not sure they allow people outside of the UK to listen. It seems possibly that people are streaming it online...

Good golly miss Molly

Ah, yes. The country restrictions. Well, I guess I can go without.

"Pitter-patter lets-get-atter"

"Top shelf...where you keep the good whisky"

"He's tougher THAN A NIGHT IN JAIL..."

God we'd get absolutely bladdered...

Cliche-bingo!

Same old story by the sounds of it, not enough offence and too many penalties

Italy was firmly in control of the match for the duration I watched (half of the first period, and all of the third). One cannot win a match if they only generate scoring opportunities while on powerplay.

marksbros6 wrote:"Pitter-patter lets-get-atter"

"Top shelf...where you keep the good whisky"

"He's tougher THAN A NIGHT IN JAIL..."

God we'd get absolutely bladdered...

Cliche-bingo!

Its almost as good as Eddie who does the Panthers game commentaries. He has some proper crackers.

Cardiff - Nottingham for the challenge cup final. Should be a good game.
I was thinking of going again this year, but it looks unlikely now.

marksbros6 wrote: Also watched Oxford v Thunder Sunday. No Poole or Wall for Thunder, so finally got to see Villem-Henrik Koitmaa who put on a clinic behind an almost comically short-benched Thunder (apparently Poole was there but not icing as Koitmaa was taking up the import-slot on ice). At one point so many minor 10 min pens were awarded each team had 3/4 players in the box and this left just a backup netminder and one skater on the MK bench! Koitmaa looks a decent Netminder, too good for this level really but not sure how he'd fare at EPL level. 3-1 win for Thunder but Oxford looked tired and Koitmaa really had to keep Thunder ahead.

I'm off to London Raiders - MK Thunder this afternoon, looking forward to seeing Koitmaa Raiders are in a massive slump and have been missing Chong (who is probably their best player) recently

Koitmaa isn't even playing MK have 11 skaters and 1 netminder

Steelers are now joint top with Cardiff in the EIHL after Steelers beat Dundee last night and Coventry beat Cardiff

It's going to be a tight finish to the regular season

MWE wrote:Steelers are now joint top with Cardiff in the EIHL after Steelers beat Dundee last night and Coventry beat Cardiff

It's going to be a tight finish to the regular season

It's certainly looking that way. After Devils beat Steelers last Saturday, I was expecting Devils to win the league relatively comfortably.

In the EPL it looks like Bison have one hand on the league title. They need 6 points from 5 games to win the league.