EHM The Blue Line

Posted: **Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:05 pm**

All rosters updated

Posted: **Sun Sep 05, 2010 9:45 pm**

Hockey is back

Panthers and Steelers start out with a 4 point weekend each, Giants get 3 and Devils, Stars and Blaze get 0 points each. The rest of the teams start their fixtures in a couple of weeks I think.

Posted: **Sun Sep 05, 2010 10:36 pm**

How did the ref miss this one?

Posted: **Sat Sep 11, 2010 2:11 pm**

The EIHL now have a weekly highlights show on Sky Sports 2 at 8pm on Fridays, a great slot and great news for the league.

Last season's 'as-for-live' games dragged a bit and I think 1 live game a month with a weekly highlights show is the way to go. I'm tempted to get Sky just for it

Newcastle, Edinburgh & Braehead start their season next week as does the EPL so hockey really is back in the UK

Posted: **Sat Sep 11, 2010 4:11 pm**

Lucky for me I have Sky+ HD. The highlights program is a good idea as I tried to watch some games but couldn't get into them.

Posted: **Sun Sep 26, 2010 12:23 pm**

Am going to the Manchester game tonight, will be the first EPL game I've watched (I missed all of last season after moving away from Manchester); should be interesting to see what the quality & entertainment is like compared to the EIHL

Posted: **Mon Sep 27, 2010 9:57 pm**

Calv wrote:Am going to the Manchester game tonight, will be the first EPL game I've watched (I missed all of last season after moving away from Manchester); should be interesting to see what the quality & entertainment is like compared to the EIHL

Came back pleasantly surprised with the game; will be looking to get in a few more games this season.

In bad news Rob Farmer gets released from his Ottawa 67s contract

Posted: **Tue Oct 12, 2010 9:29 pm**

Farmer joins the Coventry Blaze.

Guillaume Lepine gets banned for 4 matches for checking to the head, whilst Cruikshank gets a 1 match ban for 3rd man in (I think). Derek Campbell also gets a 3 match ban for abuse of official (allegedly he bit a linesman, although I would expect a heftier ban if that was true) and another 1 match ban for something he did in Australia.

Posted: **Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:08 pm**

I was at the Manchester Phoenix v peterborough Phantoms and finsihed 4-2 to Manchester. Scottish legend Tony Hand with 3 points in the game but still didn't get man of the match. Decent game of hockey but manchester looked comfortable. Good crowd there actually more than half full. The sightlines are are quite bad but putting in the screens was a big help. It is a shame they are no longer in the elite as they were always very competitive in midtable hopefully they can get a permanent facility and make the step up again.

Been to see Braehead a few times this season and they started off well but on a terrrible run now and have a big week with 2 games against Dundee and a trip to Edinburgh. Might try and make the trip to Edinburgh as I havn't been there in a while. I have soft spot for Dundee as I'm up there quite often so took in their game against Nottingham weekend before last as was a close game and yes Nottingham won the match but Dundee deserved something out of it and they must feel they can have a real go at making the play offs after a horrendous start to the season.

Posted: **Wed Nov 24, 2010 10:49 pm**

I also look out for Dundee as well, they're may favourite team in the EIHL at the minute; I think they're close to putting together some good results especially now they have Latulippe & Kinos.

I went to see Nottingham v Cardiff at the NIC recently, very good physical game that ended in a shoot out with Cardiff winning.

I also hope Manchester go back up when they get into their new rink, obviously it depends on whether they've burnt all of their bridges and most importantly their financial position. Losing £70,000 last year and £84,000 the year before isn't a great position and I'm sure the debt is racking up, even though we are apparently paying off the debts. Still a few years away from going back up though.

Posted: **Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:52 pm**

Bench Clearance!!

Posted: **Sun Dec 05, 2010 1:12 pm**

A later incident from the same game, the Panthers had been running the Blaze netminder Jaeger repeatedly. This video is after the above incident and Jaeger has been replaced by Murdy in net.

Game/Penalty Summary: http://www.eliteleague.co.uk/stats/game ... ame_id=632

Jaeger & Lepine penalties got downgraded to game penalties only upon review so they will play tonight in their respective games.

Cruickshank got 2 Match penalties so gets an automatic 2 match ban I believe and will probably get a longer suspension. I would expect Penner would get a few matches for leaving the penalty box.

Kowalski(Panthers netminder) was injured in the incident and could be out for a while, Jaeger(Blaze netminder) was injured in the warm up but played on anyway, maybe that is why the Panthers were running him?

I also believe that a linesman and a penalty box attendant were injured in the incident

Posted: **Mon Dec 06, 2010 9:18 am**

Calv wrote:Bench Clearance!!

Haha, awesome!

But what the heck were the referees doing, throwing out a player for nothing?! (Cruikshank before he jumped the keeper)

Posted: **Mon Dec 06, 2010 5:30 pm**

He got chucked for making the "up and down hand sign" to Darnell(ref) apparently

Posted: **Wed Dec 08, 2010 7:16 pm**

ELITE LEAGUE DISCIPLINE
December 8, 2010

The Elite League disciplinary committee has reviewed the video of the match between Coventry Blaze and Nottingham Panthers on Saturday 4th December 2010 at the Skydome. The following penalties will apply in relation to the bench clearance brawl in the second period.
Brad Cruikshank (Coventry Blaze): 9 matches
Cruikshank was awarded two match penalties on the night, one for obscene gestures and one for excessive roughness. As per Elite League suspension tariffs, an additional one-match penalty is added to both offences to total four matches.
He has also been handed a five-match ban for leaving the linesman to run the Nottingham Panthers netminder Craig Kowalski after being thrown out of the game. Cruikshank will serve a total of nine games (one of which has already been served).

Aaron Nell (Coventry Blaze): 1 match
Nell has been handed a one-match ban for leaving the penalty box to join an altercation.

Paul Thompson (Coventry Blaze head coach): 2 matches
Paul Thompson receives a two-match ban as per sundry penalties in the Elite League rules in the event of a bench clearance.

Jade Galbraith (Nottingham Panthers): 1 match
Galbraith has been handed a one-match ban for leaving the penalty box to join an altercation.

David Graham (Nottingham Panthers bench coach): 3 matches
David Graham received a match penalty for failure to control the bench on the night, and an additional two as per sundry penalties in the Elite League rules in the event of a bench clearance. Graham in total receives a three-match ban (one of which has already been served).

Marc Levers (Nottingham Panthers): 1 match
Levers has been handed a one-match ban for leaving the penalty box to join an altercation.

Danny Meyers (Nottingham Panthers): 7 matches
Meyers was handed a one-match ban for excessive rough play and as per Elite League suspension tariffs, an additional one-match penalty is added to the offence.
After the supplementary discipline review, Meyers has been handed an extra five-match ban for a blindside hit on Coventry netminder Brett Jaeger and will serve a total of seven matches.

Alex Penner (Nottingham Panthers): 5 matches
Penner was handed a match penalty for leaving the penalty box to join an altercation. He was also handed a match penalty for fighting and, as Elite League suspension tariffs, an additional one-match penalty is added to the offence.
After the supplementary discipline review, Penner has been handed an extra two-match ban for having another altercation after the incidents had stopped. Penner will serve a five-match ban (one of which has already been served).

Bans handed out over the above incident.

Posted: **Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:48 pm**

Belfast Giants funny christmas vid

Posted: **Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:24 pm**

British Ice Hockey can be embarassing sometimes...

Firstly we have Newcastle Vipers, they won the playoffs in their first year but have been in a decline since then. This season Paddy O'Connor came back as chairman and promised fans a new start, no more holding companies being wound up leaving debts to creditors unpaid, the club would be playing at the nice Metro Radio Arena, not Whitley Bay Ice Rink which looks like it was built in 50's and not touched since....

Then, before the start of the season it turned out that the MRA & the Vipers had not reached an agreement & the Vipers would be playing out of Whitley Bay.

Vipers struggled near the bottom of the table & lost a few players and replaced one of them with Mike PrPich (a good player in the EIHL). Just before christmas Paddy O'Connor released a statement saying that there was basically no money left, the club was struggling to survive despite him investing a 6-figure sum and that it was everyone elses fault: Whitley Bay's for charging them too much, the big clubs for spending too much, the weather for causing attendances to drop etc..

After that there was no word from him whatsoever, he had left the club ownerless with just a few off-ice staff & the players that were still there (8 imports out of a possible 12 & a few British players). It turns out that he hadn't invested anywhere near 6-figures since he came in and he just done a runner. He clearly had no (or an extremely bad) business plan at the beginning of the season.

Since then the club has been surviving week-to-week, this may sound normal to most clubs but season ticket income will make up a large % of their total income & this money had now run out.

Other clubs have been helping them out paying for transport costs & raffling off shirts for them until the EIHL took over the running of the club entirely. This agreement specified the budget would not increase, i.e. they couldn't employ any other players to get their imports numbers up to 11/12 as is allowed in the league.

Just after this agreement was made, one of Newcastles top players Patrik Forsbacka (ex SM liiga) decides to leave the club and takes up a contract in Denmark.

After this Newcastle wanted to sign a new player, one that had just been released from an EPL team, however 2 of the clubs phoned the league to protest at this.

Since the League is owned by the clubs, it meant that these clubs could dictate what happens to the Vipers.

So now Vipers are still struggling along, occassionally winning a match but being well-beaten on most nights....

Posted: **Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:39 pm**

Part 2:

Edinburgh Capitals started the season off with a new start also, a new Bench Coach (most clubs run with a player-coach as head coach & maybe an assistant), a good mix of experienced & young players. They were never going to get into the top half of the table but their usual problems of players leaving and the fans being asked to dip into their own pockets to pay for wages appeared to be over.

Then results fell off a bit & Brad Gratton wanted to replace some players. He was told that he couldn't due to financial restrictions, so he resigned & one player went with him.

Scott Neil, Caps owner & GM, then took over as Head Coach as well, however with the bad weather (which was particularly bad in Scotland) the attendances dropped. As attendances dropped the players were told that the club would not stop them looking for other contracts.

So since christmas, the majority of Caps import players have left, they now only have 2: Martin Cingel(been at Caps for years now) & Jeff Hutchins (owns a business in Edinburgh). The rest of their team is made of young British players who (with all due respect) aren't ready to play the kind of minutes they're currently playing.

This has led Edinburgh to constantly lose games by double digits, the record so far is 18-1!!

Their netmined left, so they now play a could of young kids in net, their stats are:

Name GP Min GA SO GAA W L SOL SA SVS SAV%
2 David Jackson 2 84 16 0 11.42 0 2 0 74 58 0.784
3 Brandon Stones 2 53 12 0 13.71 0 0 0 34 22 0.647
4 Craig Holland 8 210 45 0 12.86 0 3 0 168 123 0.732

The signing deadline is coming up on Monday, and Edinburgh are looking for 2 players. One of whom is coming from the French Second Division & the other is a Belgian League backup netminder.

No disrespect to either of these leagues but they're not up to the standard of the EIHL, so I doubt their results will improve at all.

So now with about 7 or 8 weeks left of the season we pretty much have 2 teams that will not win any other games (except when they play each other!).

Firstly, this makes the league & the sport in general in the UK look like a complete farce. What is more farcical is that the League offered to bail out Edinburgh as well so they could get a few more imports (similar to the Newcastle bail out), however Scott Neil refused help since it meant he would've had to give up a % of ownership to the league.

Secondly, this situation is driving away fans from fixtures involving these clubs. Fans of Newcastle & Edinburgh don't want to go and see their club get beaten every weekend & fans of other clubs don't want to watch one-sided games.

One of the wealthier owners of the EIHL Paul Ragan has said that both clubs may or may not take part next season. It is as likely that there will be 8, 10 or 12 teams next season apparently. However something needs to be done by the league to ensure this situation doesn't happen again next season & all teams are relatively competitive.

Posted: **Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:42 pm**

The perfect timing for Edinburgh to sign said players and release some good news about investment

Caps to showcase two new players tonight

29th January 2011
Capitals have signed netminder Jens Van Poulke and Canadian defenceman Blake Royale. The ITC cards were cleared late last night. The Capitals have also had good news on the investment front with a investor and shareholder to join the Capitals. We have set a target to properly prepare going forward and are confident that we can reach it and get new people on board.

This is a difficult period but there truly is a lot of good things happening for the future and I hope you can support the team until the new structure is in place. It is anticipated that this will be complete within the next 3 to 4 weeks.

A Spokesman went on to say "The last week has been very stressful and with SIHL blocking the Capitals from signing any more two way players in Scotland it has left us very short of bodies. I am appalled at their decision and especially the one that prevents the team from signing players up from our own Edinburgh Capitals SNL team which the Senior team has underwritten for the last 8 years. This restricts these players to 1 hour of practice time per week as they can not even practice with the Elite team". The Capitals will be seeking legal advice on Monday to protect the interests of the club and players.

They further stated "I believe we are caught up in the petty politics of the sport at the governing body level as the actions of SIHL make no sense for the development of the sport and has no support from any coach in Scotland that I have spoken to.

There seems to be people working behind the scenes with a specific agenda and one that is clearly not in the interest of the sport or players".

Below is a copy of a message sent to SIHL from one of the players appealing for the decision to be reversed. Unfortunately this has still been declined.

I would like to take this chance to e-mail you in regards to the 2-way contracts previously arranged with the Edinburgh Capitals .When I had first been approached about this by my coach, I was very excited at the possibility to further develop my ice hockey abilities, as this type of opportunity does not come along often. I have previously tried to apply for Elite League teams, when they have been looking for players, but have never even had a response. I feel that with a lack of experience at that level this has hindered me, so being part of a 2-way contract with an Elite team would have been the perfect chance to gain some knowledge which I could use in the future. I looked further into the contract scenario to ensure I would comply with the rules and regulations set out by the SIHL, and was indeed eligible for this opportunity. Due to the type of work that I do, I would also be able to train as well as play for the team which, again, would only improve my skill levels. However, I have since found out that the 2-way contract I signed has been blocked by the SIHL. I have been advised this may be due to issues they have with the Edinburgh Capitals themselves but I am extremely disappointed by this as I am aware that players who signed their contracts with Edinburgh only 2 weeks prior to myself are still being allowed to play for the higher league.

The SIHL themselves have stated on their site that "It is felt that all players in this league deserve the same chance of selection." and I am a very keen and motivated player who would love to play at a higher level. I have now had this 'chance of selection' taken away from me. I thought that given the fact that equal opportunities and human rights play a huge part in our daily lives and the SIHL themselves appear to agree with this that this would make a difference but it appears not. I have checked the site again today to ensure that no changes have been made before compiling this email but there have not been, and everything stated above by the SIHL is still detailed on their homepage .I would like to appeal the decision to block my 2-way contract and hope that the SIHL would consider this. I hope you will pass this onto the appropriate parties and I will hear from you soon.
Yours in hockey

Posted: **Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:47 pm**

They could've at least spelt the players names correctly:

Jens Van Poucke, stats: http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=69912
Blake Royle, stats: http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=68855

I doubt they will make much of a difference, but at least they have double their import numbers. They are playing Cardiff Devils tonight, a team that recently broke the World Record for the number of games won consecutively, I'm predicting 11-1 to Cardiff

Fortunately it seems that the rumours that Scott Neil wasn't going to lace up his skates again (he is an Ex-GB international) are unfounded. That would've highlighted how farcical the situation has become.

Posted: **Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:16 pm**

Well I was close, it was 13-2 to Cardiff against Edinburgh, however Newcastle lost 15-0 tonight to Nottingham

Posted: **Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:05 am**

And on a brighter note the EPIHL Cup Semi Final first leg between the Slough Jets & Guildford Flames happened tonight with the Jets winning 8-4 at home. The second leg in Guildford is next Wednesday.

Manchester Phoenix & Basingstoke Bison are the other I believe?

Posted: **Fri Feb 11, 2011 1:29 pm**

Devils go to Braehead tonight, not as easy as it looks as Bruce Richardson will certain have his players up for the game and Cardiff will be without Tylor Michel who is suspended.

Saturday will be interesting to the least too, Sheffield - Nottingham, Belfast - Coventry and Edinburgh - Cardiff. We could get more twists again.

Posted: **Fri Feb 11, 2011 7:29 pm**

Scotty wrote:And on a brighter note the EPIHL Cup Semi Final first leg between the Slough Jets & Guildford Flames happened tonight with the Jets winning 8-4 at home. The second leg in Guildford is next Wednesday.

Manchester Phoenix & Basingstoke Bison are the other I believe?

Phoenix - Bison is the other semi, I think the games are happening Tuesday & Thursday next week. It could be a tiring week for Pheonix with Slough, MK, Bison, Bison, Bracknell & Peterborough on Sat,Sun,Tue,Thur,Sat,Sun!!

I was surprised by the Jets-Flames result in the first leg, I went to the Phoenix - Jets game a couple of weeks ago and Slough gave a rather abject performance...

Braehead are a pretty solid team & they have some cookies in Bruce Richardson & Kyle Bruce. I believe Weller is getting moved up to wing as well for Cardiff which could work well, when I've seen them he does have a tendancy to skate up ice and leave the 'D' a bit short sometimes.

Saying that I've yet to see anyone come away with the puck when they're battling on the boards with him, he seems immensely strong!

With regards to the Michel incident; it definitely warranted a ban, 5 games may be a tad harsh though.

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:53 pm**

Calv wrote:
I was surprised by the Jets-Flames result in the first leg, I went to the Phoenix - Jets game a couple of weeks ago and Slough gave a rather abject performance...

To be fair, the Jets were poor against the Phoenix from what I heard which is reflected in the score. So I was very surprised by Slough's win on Saturday over the Phoenix, although there was luck involved for the third Jets goal. Even more surprising was the victory again over the Flames on Sunday too!

EHM The Blue Line

The Official British Hockey Thread 2010-2011 Season