Mark Duell (@hockeybhoy) returns with talk of British cheer and Welsh tears.
Since the bombshell over Steven Goertzen’s departure to the West Midlands has been consigned to the annals of old news, we’ve had a double Brit core signing and news is breaking about problems elsewhere with one of our fellow EIHL clubs.
Normally it wouldn’t have been the time and place for me to blog about that but it does have a loose connection in Steelerland – so I will do. Anyway I hope you are all well and dandy, and are like me in counting down the days until September comes around.
Well, they always say that a good team needs its homegrown players and we are no exception here in Steelerland are we? Re-signing and coming back for more are Jason Hewitt and Jonathan Phillips. Both guys have been here for what seems like an age but now consider the Steel City as their home as opposed to the cities they born in. That’s the appeal of Sheffield with its hockey; once you leave you will soon miss it and be full of regrets.
Both Hewitt and Phillips have got testimonials coming in 2016 and 2017 respectively, and it’s fair to say that both men deserve them for some sterling service for us. Last season Hewy was a bit more like the Hewy that was a winner the last time we got silverware, snapping at opposing players and getting under their skins whilst chipping in with the odd important goal here and there. For two seasons previous, he’d been more like a puppy than a Bulldog but I think he’s got his hunger back and wants to win again. Now the season’s over though Jason, you can get rid of the beard.
Jono Phillips is like Hewy, a GB internationalist but also one of those players who always goes out there and gives 100 per cent in every shift he has. Twice Jono has had a season cruelly hindered by injury but both times he has come back and proved what an asset he is in a Steelers uniform. When on a line with Hewy and someone else who plays the same way they do, this third line (which it usually is) is like a wrecking ball line guaranteed to put the opposition on the back foot. Cardiff can only wish they had a player like him still in the red of the Devils.
And conveniently enough, that takes me onto my next subject – Cardiff Devils. The loose connection there which I referred to at the beginning of this being Mr Ragan and of course Mr Whistle. It came to my attention recently that a lot of the Devils players have allegedly not been paid for the month of March, which goes to prove possibly that the problems surrounding that once proud hockey club have not gone away.
Perhaps this might be why Mark Smith and Ben Davies (two guys I’d like in our team) left for pastures new (Blaze and Clan respectively) in 2014-15. PR has massive issues there in the principality, and they won’t fade in the distance – I mean have they actually started work on their new rink yet because they’ve gone quiet on that too. Us in Steelerland have been pretty lucky I think with what we have now.
To close, I still think that anyone doubting G’s lack of rushing into signing is nothing more than a panic button pusher. G knows what he wants and he is doing it his way. Sure there will be changes from last season’s roster but that’s to be expected. It is reported to be two more Brits in before the imports fill the remaining spots.
To me that means a back up Brit netminder and if there is a two-way young Brit then we would expect Phil Hill not to be involved. Doyle’s back-up could read Joe Myers (Matt’s brother) who was also a victim of the PR/BP circus cost-cutting exercises last season if Geoff Woolhouse isn’t over his injuries and is someone that shares a mutual respect with our head coach. As for the two-way deal, that’s interesting.
Whatever G chooses, he gets my backing still and should get everyone else’s too. Ciao for now, and still bleed orange.
Cheers to Mark again. Discuss it with him on Twitter @hockeybhoy or with us @FrozenSteelBlog or on the Frozen Steel Forum
No comments:
Post a Comment