New Season
The hockey season is back, and you can follow it all with us right here on BIH.
Stats Centre
We are working on an archive of matches, stats and players from BIH in the past few years.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
To paraphrase the lyrics of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”, but it can be applied in a hockey sense too. Just over a week has passed now since Ben Simon quit the Steelers and Ryan Finnerty came in as the replacement. So the lyrics apply in a sense that, the new boss (Finnerty) is the same as the old boss (Simon) as both are player-coaches and not out and out head coaches such as Paul Thompson of the Blaze is. What follows is an appreciation of Ben Simon, and then what us Steelers fans can look forward to with Finnerty now at the helm.
When Ben Simon arrived at the House of Steel nobody, and I repeat the word nobody, knew what to expect. Here was a former NHLer taking on his first ever role as a coach, and the first time his career had taken him outside North America apart from a one season stint in the DEL with the Iserlohn Roosters. He was inheriting a side that he had not signed up, but as soon as he arrived he was making the right noises which after a summer of discontent (life in Steeler land is never easy) was what we needed.
Unlike some sides in the EIHL, Steelers didn’t have a pre-season of sorts so were pitched straight into the red hot atmosphere of a League campaign back in September against Cardiff. That first night showed Simon was not here just for a quick buck, his will to win attitude manifested itself with a series of bone shuddering hits which rocked the Devils and set the tone for what we were going to see a hell of a lot of as the months ticked on. It also underpinned a great team performance which saw us come off the ice on opening night 5-1 winners.
Simon’s consummate professionalism transmitted itself off ice. Nothing seemed to be too much trouble for the American, which gave respect back from the fans. Simon hockey was entertaining and with a tremendous work ethic, something that other coaches couldn’t match. I suppose that’s the NHL effect for you. If we played rubbish, like the 7-1 home loss to Cardiff in January, Simon didn’t hide and offer excuses - he just told it as it was. “We stunk.” was his damning verdict on that loss, and you can’t find faults with a coach who admits things like that. He felt pain at losing as much as we do as fans.
Yet when the chips looked down with a little wobble, Simon got his team back to being focused and even though we only won the league by more regulation wins - he delivered the league for us. Even though we couldn’t do a slam, we got the “Big One” and that’s what means most of all to us. He made players better, Jason Hewitt for one had a career season. Tom Squires will become a better player as he develops thanks to the Simon influence, and it’s just a shame we couldn’t keep him (Ben). He will be missed by his “Barmy Army” for sure – we wish him all the best.
So with Simon gone, who was to be the replacement? Two days later, we got an answer - in steps former fan favourite Ryan Finnerty who had spent the last season and a half in the colours of Cardiff. A person who like his predecessor, has that will to win attitude, he seems the perfect fit to be honest but the sceptics out there will need to be convinced. It’s the Canadian’s first job as a coach but then again Ben Simon hadn’t coached a team until last season.
My own gut feeling is that if Finner has the perfect back room team behind him then there should be no reason why he can’t do well. Simon had Ashley Tait (also re-signed recently) and Neil Abel to bang ideas off and I suspect Finner will be wanting more of the same. He’s certainly making a good start with last season’s Brit Pack all re-signed with the exception of the departed Robert Dowd (huge loss that is) and Squires – who I’m led to believe is “very” close to putting pen to paper. All good signs so far.
Finner probably has an idea of squad he wants to see on ice 2011-12 already, and we now await to see who are the next names on the roster. Life as a Steeler has never ever been dull, and summers are rarely uneventful. This latest close season is proving to be no exception at all. I do wonder what shirt number the new “boss” will wear if as expected Squires signs, 61 again as he can’t have his favoured 16. Answers on the back of a postage stamp.
Follow me also on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/hockeybhoy
Mark
blog comments powered by Disqus0-3 |
||
| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
||
| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-5 |
||
| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
||
| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
||
| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
||
| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
5-8 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
- 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
