Hockey Soapbox - Season 2 Week 17 - Happy results and awful decisions

As always there are quite a few topics to discuss in Steelerland this week, as we take in two games against the Caps in the cup, and an important and controversial one down at Ice Arena Wales. We won the least important ones but lost the one that really counted – and that’s the background for this week’s soapboxers Fergus Wright, Andy Roberts and Mark Duell to comment on this week.

So let’s have your five word summaries from those two games:

Saturday:

Seven up and semi-final

Happy result vs decent team

Liam Kirk scores another goal

Cup game. Don’t really care.

Sunday:

Best side lost the game.

Beer league referees once again.

Schmejkal is an awful ref.

Lost league points. Awful decisions.

Did we run the score up on Saturday or just keep on playing against a team that had given up?

• Fergus - I think a mixture of both us running the score up and towards the end them getting tired lead to that result, Edinburgh looked like they were never gonna start scoring and we looked like we'd never stop. Happy days!
• Andy - I have a feeling it was a bit of both. We didn't switch off after getting in front which was pleasing to see after the last couple of weeks. Rather than not being bothered I think the Caps were more gassed than anything else. Vorobyev, Hertl and Fyodorov never seemed to be off the ice. That must take its toll eventually.
• Mark - From what I saw on the highlights, and from I was told: we did what they call a professional job against a team that has caused us many problems beforehand. You have to keep going even if the team in opposition has conceded defeat. If we had let our heads drop and stopped playing, Edinburgh might have gained fresh impetus and caused the score to be closer.

Lots of controversy again on Sunday- thoughts?

• Mark - We used to bemoan both Hicks and Pering but unfortunately Mr Schmejkal is now becoming a bit of a thorn in our side. He's certainly not going to be in Gui Desbiens' Christmas card list, nor anyone in Steelerland's. He has made just one decent decision in the last 120 minutes play when we've had him in charge. Granted I'm all for letting games flow but the Hotham-Nelson incident was not one of them. Games like Devils-Steelers, Panthers-Steelers need a strong referee in charge, someone like Darns. Mr Schjemkal is sadly not at this level yet and someone will get seriously hurt if this continues to be a staple requisite of his style of officiating games (Editor: Assuming Hagos hasn’t already been seriously hurt) - and that's not what we want to see especially when the league is looking to grow and enhance its reputation worldwide as a more than decent European league.
• Fergus - As per usual what could be a very important game has been influenced by the lack of officiating ability within the league, funnily enough the same ref as vs Belfast. Hmmmm. It needs sorting quickly before this league loses all its talent as the threat of injury isn't worth playing here.
• Andy - Can't comment on the game as a whole but from clips I have seen we can feel hard done by. What I have seen from the Giants game, and certain clips of this game, is that we have a ref (hat off to him for stepping in the rink with a stripey top on) that is hopelessly out of his depth. How the league could think it was a good idea to have him reffing this game is beyond me. This is where the league should bite the bullet and get a 4 man system in. This gives refs like Schmejkal a chance to ref with experienced refs like Darnell, Smith et al and learn. With the current style there is a real chance of a serious injury, line brawl or bench clearance as players take things into their own hands instead of relying on the ref to police the game.
• Editor – It was a game that many Devils fans thought they were lucky to win, Desbiens lost his head, the referee made some bizarre calls, and non-calls, and the second goal was especially egregious - but to be a championship winning team we still need to get those results. We need Thommo to motivate his troops, and get their heads right rather than fuelling their frustrations with his outbursts -and I'm not sure he helped get that balance right on the night. It’s only November, so we’re not out of the title race, but we’ve got to have some change in fortune against the Devils to threepeat.

Thought on rumours about Jace Coyle return - is that what we need?

• Andy - Depends on which way you look at it. We are short of Forwards at the minute through injury so you would think we would be looking at forwards to cover the void. However, we have at least 1 D man, possibly 2 (Ratchuk and O'Connor) who could play up front and then Coyle can play a similar role to either of them at the back. His stats were decent last year and as he has played for us before therefore there shouldn't be many settling in issues. If he was replacing a D man I would be less happy as I think if we were changing the D we need a more Stay at home, Steve Munn type. Wonder if we can kidnap him when he comes over??
• Mark - This is a strange one. I know we are two imports down with Hagos and Valdix, but it's a move out of left field as they would say. Was the plan always to bring Jace back at some point of the season if one of the import defencemen didn't pull up the proverbial tree? Over to Thommo for that explanation.  Anyway it probably allows Ratchuk to be used as a winger, and use his pace and creativity to good effect. Jace will probably slot into the defence slot that Mike's temporarily vacated. A reasonable move but sadly dictated by the unfortunate injuries.
• Fergus - Really not a fan of him and wouldn't have had him back personally but I think Jace can be a good player when he wants and his stats for us last season agree with that, but we cannot afford to pair him in the D with Ben O'Connor, that just cost us too many goals last season.
• Editor – I like the move as an extra player as he’s a good addition to the defence, allowing us to use Davey or Franzon more sparingly – however I think we’d have all liked a big body at the back rather than another attack minded flyer. I hear Hendrikx is available all of a sudden…

That’s all folks. Hope you enjoyed reading our thoughts, and we’d love you to get involved too.

Help set the agenda for next week with your questions, or even better get involved and give your views as one of the panel. We would love different views and different participants each week. Please contact Mark @frozensteelblog or Tony @Disgu15ed, or find us at the game.

Brief Bios of those panellists you’ve just been listening to in the series so far :

• Alan is @frozensteelmnl for match night updates and @AwkwardGinge for everything else. Has been watching Hockey for many years, and given half a chance will regale you with tales of the London Knights. Catch him on the Breaking the Ice podcast too.
• Amanda is @ajt1971 and the other half of @NJT75Owl and she doesn’t mind Sweet Caroline!
• Andy is the big man with the big horn (or VuVuzela if you prefer) who can be found at most home and away games, and propping the bar up afterwards. Andy is @ic3creamman.
• Bethan represents the younger end of the fan base, and has loved the team ever since being dragged along to her first Steelers game in 2007. Follow her on Twitter at @bethan_4
• Eric is a season ticket holder and can be found shouting encouragement to our players and scorn at the zebras alongside three generations of his family in block 115. Views can be found @greenbunch257
• Glynn can be found @glynnm76 has been watching the Steelers on and off since ‘91. Massive Ron Shudra fan and owner of an EIHL League Championship medal.
• Kevin and Fergus are a Father-Son duo that grew up watching and playing ice hockey in Europe (mainly Germany) who are both very opinionated and can be heard from block 115. Twitters are @SedgyFergus and @KevWright65
• Mark is one of the main men behind the Frozen Steel blog, being the Editor and Podcast pundit, and has watched the club since its inception. Find him at @hockeybhoy
• Nathan and his Mrs have been going to games since Feb 2014 after getting fed up with football. Another season ticket holder in 115 who tries to get to away games and refuses steadfastly to join in with Sweet Caroline. He’s @NJT75Owl
• Nicki is a keen Robert Dowd fan, who’s been following the Steelers from the start. Transported by fate to live just outside Glasgow, and thus has to split herself between the Steelers and Clan. You will find her singing and shouting in RTB218, Section N, and via @owlsteeler
• Robert is chief architect of http://steelers-stats.com/ the go-to guy for Steelers history from days gone by, and the man behind one of the big White House spotlights! Robert is @steelersstats.
• Sam is the one sat in 106 not partaking in Sweet Caroline and praying it's not played the following period. When not not doing that she can be found on @Sam_26
• Tony has been watching the Steelers on and off since Tony Hand arrived, and has been a regular for the last ten years or so. Enjoys contributing to the blog with his weekly five things and can be found @Disgu15ed

Elite Report - Week 14 Preview

Making an early start this week we are with the predictions. That's because there's the small matter of a midweek game to contend with. The last two weeks haven't been so bad, will this finally be the week that we get past the 40 per cent success rate. We can only but hope right?

Wednesday night:

Cardiff Devils v Nottingham Panthers: Surprising though it may sound, I think Panthers could actually turn up and do something here. So I'm going for them to win in overtime.

Saturday night:

Braehead Clan v Dundee Stars: Dundee have been improving each week, just as I thought they would. However, Clan need to get the home fans happy and they will do with a regulation home win.

Cardiff Devils v Edinburgh Capitals: My banker for Saturday, honestly can you see anything more than a regulation home win for the Devils? I can't.

Fife Flyers v Belfast Giants: This could go either way, Giants were disappointingly poor in their last away game despite having the ability whilst Fife are good on home ice. Giants in overtime methinks.

Manchester Storm v Coventry Blaze: Blaze need points to haul themselves away from trouble but Manchester isn't the easiest place to get them. Sorry Blaze, another loss beckons and in regulation too.

Sunday night:

Coventry Blaze v Manchester Storm: A home and home series for these two, and I reckon Blaze faces can be smiling away this time as a regulation home win gives them a split weekend. They'll like that.

Dundee Stars v Braehead Clan: Another home and home series this time between the Stars and the Clan. It's a tough one to call because Clan are more than capable of winning on Tayside. But Stars will be victorious on Sunday; after overtime though.

Edinburgh Capitals v Belfast Giants: Giants are in the rink which is proving to be an awkward place to get a decent result, and Caps will fancy their chances of slaying their opponent. They will do, in regulation as well.

So there's my predictions, what's yours - I'd love to hear them!

       

Thanks for reading everybody. Remember if you want to be a part of Frozen Steel you can get into touch with us on Twitter or find us on our Facebook Page, remembering to like us and leave a comment. We will then get back in touch:

@FrozenSteelBlog

@FrozenSteelMNL

@hockeybhoy

@DISGU15ED

Don't forget to listen to our weekly podcast  Breaking The Ice

It's available on iTunes to listen and download, also on Soundcloud

Or drop us an email to Frozen Steel Blog

From The Editor's Chair: Edition 14

It's a European special this week in edition fourteen "From the Editor's Chair". Blog Editor and Podcast pundit Mark wasn't in the en-suite bathroom for the beating of the Edinburgh Capitals, he was elsewhere. Here's the continential edition, especially for you all.

This trip was planned as soon as we, Steelers, had lost to HV71 in the Champions Hockey League. As I was away in Ireland with my girlfriend at the time of the away encounter in Sweden, I knew after the CHL game that I had to make the trip to Jönköping this season and experience a bit of SHL hockey; enhance the hockey education more after watching it in the States, Latvia, Estonia and Czech Republic. The SHL is probably the best, some say, league for hockey in Europe eclipsing places like Germany. Here is my story.

 Jönköping

Well it all began at the unearthly and probably stupid o'clock hour known as 4:45am on Friday morning when my alarm went off. I'd been working until 7:30pm the night previous and finished doing the packing at 10:00pm. For once it was not with any panic, I'd even got my passport, Swedish Krona and travel documents with me and unlike some recent adventures abroad, it was as smooth as you could get. The train to the airport was on time, arriving there at twenty past seven. Check in was also smooth, even enjoying great banter with the young lady behind the check-in desk. 

However the queues to get through security control were incredible, they were that long - people were standing outside. Good job I didn't book a later train! But we got through fine, my jeans didn't fall down even when the belt had to be removed. Looking at the boarding pass, I was sat on row 32 of the plane which I finally boarded the flight - was the final row of seats and in the far top corner of seats as if you were looking at the seat plan from when you get on. That was a first.

The flight itself was comfortable, I even had a beer at 10am because I kinda felt like I needed one. However the weather approaching Stockholm wasn't great, and we landed about 25 minutes late at 1:25pm Swedish time and it was teeming it down with rain as I disembarked the Boeing 737/800. Border control and baggage reclaim was like clockwork, and then onto the airport shuttle bus into the centre of Stockholm arriving there just after twenty to three. With my coach to Jönköping not due to leave until a quarter to five, I had plenty to grab a sandwich from Subway and make a courtesy call back to Sheffield which kinda surprised Mam completely.

I should have known something was not gonna be right with the coach travel, as soon as they called us passengers for it - a family of five (and I believe their origin was East African) started to push their way forward trying to get their baggage onto the coach first. That infuriates me even back home here in England, when these type of human beings try the same trick on buses and trams. Don't they know what manners are? Safe to say, these five were getting some really annoying looks from my fellow passengers. We were to set down and pick up at the following points Nyköping, Norrköping and Linköping. The coach had not long since left Nyköping on the E4 which is the motorway that connects all the above towns/cities with Stockholm, when pop!

One of the coach tyres suddenly popped and you knew something was seriously wrong. I had never been on a coach that had had this misfortune added to it, but I can imagine this was like when you see it happen on F1. It certainly shakes you up, but the driver managed to control the vehicle expertly and reduce the speed so quickly so we limped along for a few extra kilometres before it became nigh on impossible for us to continue. A two hour delay followed whilst they sourced a replacement vehicle. Luckily I had enough on my mobile to call my hotel and inform them of much delayed arrival.

I arrived at the hotel eventually at just after 11:00pm, 2 hours behind schedule. But the hotel, even if I hadn't contacted them before, were so understanding about everything. They even said I could help myself to a couple of free sandwiches and bottles of Pepsi Max to relax with, you don't get anything like that in some UK hotels I've stayed in over the years. Arriving in my room, I was amazed how spacious it was. It certainly was ticking all the proverbial boxes. I switched on the TV and immediately found the closing stages of the San Jose Sharks and New York Islanders game; hockey fix pretty much applied straight away.

After an excellent night's sleep, and some said it would be noisy staying in the absolute centre of Jönköping, I had breakfast and then chilled out again until about 3pm by listening to some of the music I have stored on my external hard disk drive or the internal one on the laptop. Despite the temperature being just a shade over 3 degrees Celsius, I was dressed in my 2011 Robert Dowd Steelers shirt (when me and Mam sponsored him) and a pair of shorts, something that made the locals look on in sheer amazement. It's not the first time I have done this, just ask Lee or Alan about Latvia 2013 if you don't believe I am that mad. 

I got the rink at around 3:30pm, 3 hours before face off. Nothing new there, I'm usually found having a few calming drinks in the pub and watching Jeff Stelling on Soccer Saturday with Gibbo when it's a Saturday night home game. Took a few pictures, and was in awe as I walked around the outside of the rink. It certainly gave the expectation that this was a hockey rink designed for hockey, and nothing else. 

 Outside the main entrance to the Kinnarps

After this, I got talking to a guy who originally came from Edmonton, AB. As soon as he spotted my Steelers jersey, he was amazed. Turned out he kinda knows both Thommo and Jerry, bit of a small world eh? So we went off for a beer in the hotel across the road from the rink which looked proper swish. I was surprised they let me considering what I was wearing but considering they were making money from the drinks I don't think they really cared. It was then when I got some directions to the North Bank Supporters Bar, so we headed over there. And what a welcome we got; especially when again the Steelers jersey was spotted. I was given the best hospitality I have ever had in all the years I have watched hockey. It was amazing.

By 6:00pm we were still drinking with the game just 30 minutes from starting, so Ronnie (one of the HV71 fans) said let's go and finish our drinks en route back to the Kinnarps - well it was only about five minutes over the bridge and along Stefan Livs gata (the street named after the popular former HV71 netminder who was tragically killed in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash in 2011). I picked my ticket up, 140 Swedish Krona (basically about £13 at the current exchange rate) and watched a great game from the North Bank (a standing area) with the guys from the Supporters Bar (they're a noisy bunch equivalent to Rock The Block but even more vocal). Even in between period break I was chatting away and drinking more beers with Ronnie and some Luleå fans who had made the long trip south. A brilliant experience.

I got my HV71 shirt too which is now part of my jersey collection, I really wanted the special edition yellow one that I had been told so much about pre-game. As stated above, the game was a fantastic one with both Fredrik Petterson-Wentzel (the former Flyers draft pick) for HV71 and 18 year old Filip Gustavsson (drafted 55th overall by the Penguins this year) having stellar games, Gustavsson especially was awesome and mark my words he's going to be brilliant if he plays like this. Luleå took a second period lead through Anton Hedman and they looked certain to get the points until former 400 game NHLer Erik Christensen (Penguins, Thrashers, Ducks, Rangers and Wild) forced overtime with just 1:39 left. The crowd went nuts! No further scoring happened after that including overtime so we had a shootout. Only Christensen could score and Petterson-Wentzel shut the door on the Luleå shooters to complete a two day double (HV71 had won 3-2 in Luleå the night before).

More beers, definitely in celebration, followed until it was time to lock the supporters bar up for the night and me to catch the bus back into the centre of Jönköping. After grabbing a lovely pizza from the takeaway across the road, I finally went back to bed exhausted at 1:00am Swedish time. Six hours later I was up again to start the journey back to Stockholm. Thankfully this time, we had no pushy people and problems with the coach but I did see some snow. We took off in a snowstorm too, at 5pm Swedish time but made good tracks to arrive back in Manchester at a quarter past six GMT. It had been an incredible weekend, one I will never forget and one I want to experience again. Thanks to the HV71 fans who helped make it so, you made one Steelers supporter feel like a king.

And that's the story of FSB went to Jönköping and had a proverbial ball. Sorry it's a bit long, but I couldn't really do this in two parts and leave you in suspense at the end of part one. Well I could have; but that would have been so cruel.  

 

Thanks for reading everybody. Remember if you want to be a part of Frozen Steel you can get into touch with us on Twitter or find us on our Facebook Page, remembering to like us and leave a comment. We will then get back in touch:

@FrozenSteelBlog

@FrozenSteelMNL

@hockeybhoy

@DISGU15ED

Don't forget to listen to our weekly podcast  Breaking The Ice

It's available on iTunes to listen and download, also on Soundcloud

Or drop us an email to Frozen Steel Blog

Elite Report - Week 13 Review

We had a decent week in week number twelve. However would week thirteen be as unlucky it always purports to be? Time to find out then. 

Well it was a case of, for the majority of the games, normal service being resumed as soon as possible.  That means obviously we draw a lot of blanks in the games that were played. Only a bit of luck on the Sunday prevented it from being a complete blank out.

It started on the Friday night as the Panthers took on the Belfast Giants. Panthers did win as we predicted them to do so; but it took a penalty shootout win to secure Corey Neilson's men a much needed two points. We'd gone for them to do the business in regulation time as you will recall if you read back.

Saturday wasn't much better either as we again failed to get one right. The Giants got blown away and slain by Omar Pacha's much improved Manchester Storm side, but both Clan and Cardiff both won their games which we expected them to do so. Sadly for us and our predictions, Clan recorded theirs in regulation as opposed to overtime, and Cardiff did the same in Coventry. 

Sunday and we improved. We managed two correct out of three which is very pleasing. The good eggs so to say were the Panthers and the Stars, although we're reliably informed that once more Panthers were not exactly fluent in disposing of Fife: Alex Nikiforuk (surely the best player they have at the moment) sparing the NIC crowd of less than 5,000 another session of overtime.

Therefore two out of seven this weekend gone, and three out of seven the week before. Overall we're at 37 out of 95, and a percentage of .390! We've not hit the .400 barrier but we're improving slowly as you can see. Maybe week fourteen is going to be that week, well one can only but hope so.

Thanks for reading everybody. Remember if you want to be a part of Frozen Steel you can get into touch with us on Twitter or find us on our Facebook Page, remembering to like us and leave a comment. We will then get back in touch:

@FrozenSteelBlog

@FrozenSteelMNL

@hockeybhoy

@DISGU15ED

Don't forget to listen to our weekly podcast  Breaking The Ice

It's available on iTunes to listen and download, also on Soundcloud

Or drop us an email to Frozen Steel Blog

We've got a Cup Semi but a League Flop - Five things I learnt w/e 27 November

There were three games played since last weekend, but only one mattered, and that one ended up with more referee controversy and another disappointing result. More down than up in this week's five things:

1. Cardiff champions elect already - It's a bit early to throw in any towels, but if we can't beat them, we can't put too much hope in anyone else doing it for us. Lost two at home and one away in league so far - we've played well, we haven't had the puck bounce, but it's points and not performances that win prizes. With their new rink, and increased player budgets, they were always going to be a tough opponent - and it seems Lord has got a great spirit in that group, and keeping himself on the ice and Bordy off it is reaping rewards. 
2. Schmejkal - With the Hagos incident last weekend, and the cloud of controversy in Cardiff this week, I think we can conclude that Jan's match craft isn't where we need it to be. If the players had any respect for him, I think that has dissipated, and I fear they will increasingly take it into their own hands in his next game. The lad needs help not hanging out to dry - get in quick before he's destroyed Mr Kirkham - and thank god he's not on Twitter. 
3. Valdix and Hagos out - After only having about five minutes with the team being back to full strength, we've lost another two to injury. Both courtesy of Belfast. The obvious solution to losing two forwards is obviously to bring in an attack minded defensemen such as Jace Coyle. Bizarre but true, and I guess we should be glad we've still got three solid enough lines, which should be enough against most teams other than Cardiff. 
4. Liam Kirk - Two goals in his debut season, after less than 20 minutes combined ice time. That must be the best goal:shift ratio in the league! We can look forward to seeing him flourish. 
5. Cup semifinal - in the games we didn't care about we got a draw and an easy win. If the semifinal is on the season ticket I may bother watching it.

One final thought to leave you with is how will we run an eleven team league next year? I half expected the last EIHL board meeting to drop a few hints, but after radio silence we will have to guess. So i'll start - to even out the games, whilst keeping the two conferences my guess is we'll make the cup and league groupings the same and have some doubled up cup/league games in the larger group, and MK and Belfast will join the Erdhart for Cup and League. Any better guesses - maybe MK to Erdhart and Belfast to Gardiner as an alternate?

Thanks for reading everybody. Remember if you want to be a part of Frozen Steel you can get into touch with us on Twitter or find us on our Facebook Page, remembering to like us and leave a comment. We will then get back in touch:

@FrozenSteelBlog

@FrozenSteelMNL

@hockeybhoy

@DISGU15ED

Don't forget to listen to our weekly podcast  Breaking The Ice

It's available on iTunes to listen and download, also on Soundcloud

Or drop us an email to Frozen Steel Blog