What an opening weekend

Wow ladies and gentlemen how good is it to be back.
 
Well if you’re a fan of the Steelers or the Panthers it was a fantastic weekend. If you’re a Belfast Giant it was a good weekend. However Coventry and Dundee fans have to be happy just to be back and if you are a Cardiff fan it was not a good weekend.
 
Talking of Cardiff Gerad Adams can't be happy on the first Monday morning of the season. Now opening night in Sheffield was never going to be easy but with all the uncertainty around the club and the fact that the Steelers were 2 skaters short and had a fan as backup goalie! Well this was as good a chance as Cardiff would have for an early 2 points. Well to be totally honest I have rarely seen a Cardiff team play worse. Now quite a large part of this is because the Steelers played so well. They pressed Cardiff from the off hammered them early and realistically the game was over when the Steelers went 2 goals up. Cardiff will never win the league. Why? because Gerad Adams sets his team up to play at home. Now this is a good ploy for a team that wants to qualify for the playoffs. For Cardiff however who want to take the next step and genuinely challenge for the title it isn't good enough. You need a team that can win regularly on the big ice in Belfast, Nottingham and Sheffield. Also you need a top goaltender and to be honest unless you have a top team in front of him Stevie Lyle will never take you to a league championship. He was average on Saturday and that is being nice. To be fair his defence didn't help him out much either.
 
From a Steelers point of view things couldn't have gone better. Right from the off we hit people we pressed and pressured the Devils and they wilted from that pressure. Four minutes in Ashley Tait was back and broke through and scored. A goal from Joey Talbot made it two nil then a controversial moment. Cardiff's Jon Pelle and Jason Hewitt were behind the Devils goal as they came out I am told that Hewitt gave Pelle a slash across the back of the knee. Andy Carson clearly didn't see this as the play went on with the Devil down on the ice. The Steelers then went on to score. It was only this that stopped the game even with Pelle still down. Now Carson makes a call on the word of his Linesman. He gives Hewitt a 5+ game for slashing and cancels the Steelers 3rd goal. Now I’m sorry but Carson is a joke. You cannot make calls of that importance when you haven't seen what actually happened. This was just the tip of the iceberg as Carson make awful calls all night for both teams. Now I know we don't have an abundance of officials in this country but if this guy is one of the best we are doomed. Year after year he never gets any better and after his efforts on Saturday i would say he has got worse. Anyway the Steelers did make it 3-0 with a home debut goal for Jerramie Domish. Jeff Legue scored early in the 3rd then Cardiff pulled a goal back from Scott Matzka. Robert Dowd finished it off by making Stevie Lyle look foolish as he rounded him with ease and put the puck in an empty net.
 
All in all it couldn't have gone much better. We followed this up with a huge 6-0 win in Dundee on sunday. Goals from Simon, Talbot, Clark, Tait, Phillips and Hewitt means that every single forward has scored on the opening weekend. Ervins Mustukovs has being very impressive just conceding the one goal and has the first shutout of the year. Now I know most people expect Dundee to finish nearer the bottom than the top of the league but to go there on that long bus drive and win by 6 goals after the performance the night before! That's not half bad. We are still to be joined by Rob Globke and Derek Campbell. Globke will be here no problem but Campbell is having serious visa problems and may not be here at all. Strange for a man who has played in this country for the last 4 years. The rumour is that his visa has being rejected because of an off ice incident while he was in Newcastle. Yet he was allowed to come over and play in Coventry last season? Who knows but Ben Simon has publically said he is keeping his options open as regards to replacing Campbell should he not make it across the pond this year.
 
Well that's all for now thanks for reading.

• EL
• PL
• NL1N
• NL1S
• NL2N
• NL2S

• Adam Walker
• Alex Birch
• Andy Pierce
• Chris Gent
• Christopher Beal
• Craig Simpson
• Dave Simms
• Elliott Stanley
• Gareth Chalmers
• James Broughton
• James Gordon
• Katy Madgwick
• Luke Catterson
• Mark Briggs
• Mark Duell
• Mat Young
• Patrick Smyth
• Promotion
• Russ Morrell
• Seanna Murdock
• Stephen Dowson
• Stewart Roberts
• Tom Forster
• Vicki Smart
• William Lyon

British Ice Hockey

• About Us
• Advertising
• Contact
• Write for BIH

Elite League

• Belfast Giants
• Braehead Clan
• Cardiff Devils
• Coventry Blaze
• Dundee Stars
• Edinburgh Capitals
• Fife Flyers
• Hull Stingrays
• Nottingham Panthers
• Sheffield Steelers

Premier League

• Basingstoke Bison
• Bracknell Bees
• Guildford Flames
• Manchester Phoenix
• Milton Keynes Lightning
• Peterborough Phantoms
• Sheffield Steelers
• Slough Jets
• Swindon Wildcats
• Telford Tigers

Partner Information

If you are looking for the best online bingo rooms online, look no further! Here at www.123bingoonline.com you can enjoy of the best bingo games for free!

Only at the best online casino you'll be able to enjoy over 100 casino games for free!

Learn how to place risk free bets on any ice hockey match and convert online bookmakers free bet offers into guaranteed cash using the risk free matched betting technique.

All the online bookies best Free Betting offers and free bets.