New Season
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Stats Centre
We are working on an archive of matches, stats and players from BIH in the past few years.
Goodbye! You're going to be missed
For my 40th blog for BIH, again I have decided to do something different. The GM one is still progressing, I’m actually releasing the next update on it within the next fortnight but this small feature is about people bidding farewell. No, it’s not me (as much as some would like, joking aside) but names that we are looking likely not see on the rinks of the Elite League next season.
First on the list is Coventry Blaze’s American talisman Dan Carlson who has now officially retired from the game over here after the play-off quarter final loss to Belfast last Sunday. A superb centreman who can score and create in equal measures, Dan will be sorely missed in the Blaze locker room and in the Sky Dome by the Blaze supporters. His final game ended on a sour note as he picked up a slashing minor just less than a minute left in overtime. This meant he could not take part in the ensuing shoot-out, and I am sure he would have been probably one of the names on the list for Thommo to take a shot. I really do hope that the Blaze honour him in the right manner by formally retiring his number 26 shirt. It’s the least they can do for such a great club servant.
Love him or loathe him, this season also looks like the end for another number 26 at another Elite League team. Yes everyone’s friend Bradley Voth of Cardiff Devils is also “going home” and bidding farewell to the Elite League which he has been playing in for the last six seasons. The former St Louis Blues draft pick from 1998 is getting married apparently in the post-season and this is allegedly why he is not coming back to Cardiff for a seventh successive campaign. The Calgary native has averaged around 278 penalty minutes a season, therefore building up a burgeoning reputation as what some would say a “goon”. Not the most popular player on ice with opposing fans, he’s quite the opposite off it as I can testify myself.
Also retiring, well so he says, is Sheffield Steelers defenceman Steeeve Munn. Munn has been a pivotal point in the Steelers title winning campaign, and scored a brace in the definite game at home to Braehead Clan which clinched it. Ironically, the last season he played in this country for Sheffield before a year in Japan saw Munner pick up a League and Play-Off double and he’s on course to do this again this season with just a small matter of the Finals to go this weekend. Team-mate Jason Hewitt has publically challenged the defenceman to stay on for another season, which would be universally approved by the Steelers support (myself included), but Munner says he’s still retiring. With this one, expect a change of mind could be in the offing should a winner’s medal in NG1 be acquired.
I know it’s not Elite League and on the opposite tangent, but there are two players I cannot overlook who are like a Duracell bunnies who seem to go on and on. One, reading his book he said he retire after the 2007-08 season, but his hunger is so much there that he’s still playing at 43. Step forward “Sir” Tony Hand of the Manchester Phoenix. A guy I admired so much at the Steelers when he was there, Tony is quite simply Mr Great Britain Ice Hockey as far as I am concerned. I am sure the Phoenix’s recent title win has given him the zest to keep on playing for as long as he can.
Also still playing, and he’s just clocked up his 50th birthday at the start of this month is Basingstoke player-coach Steve Moria. When you see that Chris Chelios was still playing at 48 in “The Show”, Moria’s achievement is something special. Yet he looks still as good as he did back in his heyday when he was at Cardiff, still scoring goals and racking up the points. One of the most celebrated imports ever to be ever playing in British hockey, and an all round nice bloke to boot. The word legend really can be applied to him.
Hope you enjoyed this little effort as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Normal service to follow soon…
Follow me also on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/hockeybhoy
Mark
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1-4 |
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4-4 |
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2-4 |
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| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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4-1 |
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5-2 |
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3-7 |
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1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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- 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
