What a week in BIH!

 

Well people what a week we have had in the world of British Ice Hockey. As the short term future of the Sheffield Steelers seems to be secured as they have announced new investment, we have lost the Hull Stingrays. This has also resulted in the cancelling of the 20/20 Hockey-Fest tournament. 
 
For the Steelers this is a start but we are still a club in trouble while we are under the current ownership in my mind. Hull is a huge loss to the league especially with us so close to the start of the season. This is not however the first time we have seen a Hull side go to the wall and it has being a struggling franchise for many years. On a personal level its a big disappointment as Hull is a good road trip for Steelers fans. One can only hope that we will see a pro team emerge in Hull at some point in the future. As for Hockey fest I’m almost glad it will not be held on Bank holiday Monday. If the Elite league think it was a good time to hold it they are very blind. Having spoken to several people who went last year I know immediately that from a Sheffield point of view it would not be as popular as last year and we host it. If they are so determined to do something on August Bank holiday then play the charity shield then. The truth of it is that many people go away that weekend for obvious reasons and you would only get die hard fans in attendance.
 
Else where we have seen today that Belfast have completed their roster and it would seem that they are the paper favourites for the Elite League Title. They came very close last year and took the Playoff crown. Doug Christiansen Has come in and added some solid players to what they already have. If the likes of Shields, Murphy, Peacock and Benedict can replicate what they did last year and the new guys live up to reputation then they should be champions come the end of March. Also up in Braehead they have released a couple of Brits which has raised a few eyebrows considering they never got to play for the Clan. They have also signed up J.F. Perras as their starting goalie. This will be very interesting to see how he performs. A star in Edinburgh, a flop in Coventry. Different clubs with very different types of pressure. Now Braehead and again the pressure will be different. I fancy it will be more favourable for Perras than what was expected of him in Coventry. Its the Clan's first season and despite the fact the Coach and Ownership will have targets nobody really knows what would be a successful campaign for the Glasgow club.
 
On a final note, a positive for us in Sheffield as we our new coach arrives on Monday and the club have stated that he could announce his first signing and complete the clubs roster. Rumours are in abundance and it seems the most popular of them is that we will be getting Sylvain Cloutier after the demise of Hull. If this is true i would be a little bit gutted. Cloutier has had a great career but is past his best and we have experience in the likes off Munn, Tait and Simon himself. What we do need is a proven point scorer to compliment Legue and Talbot.
 
Thanks for reading.

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