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.
Back to the Land of the Giants
Blog from door 19!
So the tension is building, the first home match of the season is mere days away and there have been several major developments in the world of EIHL hockey. Firstly I just want to say that so far I'm really impressed with the new team that Doug Christiansen has put together, the incredible talent that shall be donning the Aer Lingus Belfast Giants jerseys this season. The reattainment of Brandon Benedict was a fantastic decision, however I must say that it's a pity we didn't get Jeffrey Szwez back for this season.
Although Sean McMorrow gets a bad rap from 50% of the Giants fans it would have been nice to see him fighting for us this season instead of fighting against us! He has launched a Facebook campaign to play in the Bruins match against Chara, lets see if he'll be able to go toe to toe with the NHL tough men or if our 'multi-dimensional' enforcer Hoffman will be iced. However the announcement of the coaching staff for the Bruins match fills me with little more than dread; Dougie is fantastic and has proved that he can put together a great side, I think that Gerard Adams can handle high pressure and has proved with his coaching of the Devils that he is more than up to the job. The dread literally comes in a Paul Thompson shaped package, yeah his team is successful, and yeah they won the league but come on give someone else a chance. I mean it'll literally be Paul Thompson selects under the guise of Belfast Giants selects. I'm literally counting the days until October 2nd until I can experience the once in a lifetime atmosphere at the Odyssey! It'll be exciting to see who's selected for the Belfast Giant's selects, the ten foot bill boards in the centre of Belfast is creating a massive hype around the event!
We got to go meet the team last week and you could not meet a nicer bunch of guys! My husband had great fun discussing the Tampa Bay Rays and the New England Patriots with Jeff Mason while I smiled and nodded, my knowledge of NFL extending as far as last years SuperBowl and a Green Bay vs Colts match I watched last week. We were however rudely interrupted by someone calling Mason 'Rich' and asking for a photograph. I'm pleased to say that after a few trips to the Odyssey box office and phone calls to and from the Giants office I've finally got a preferred seat and not in the third circle of hell aka Door 8 anymore.
Anyway, as this is my first blog of the new season I will just give a run down of the new players. Rich Seeley, the D man coming from a two year stint in the Austrian league is a big guy who can put up the points as well as keeping the Giant's net safe. First impressions is that he's a bit of a character, and that in his own words he's glad to be here he 'missed HP sauce!' Jeff Mason; the second new addition to our defensive side, is an offensive defender who was hired based on his stats, his points are impressive for a D man and he has a wealth of ECHL and NCAA experience. Jon Gleed is a hard hitter reminiscent of Mike Burgoyne's style of play from two seasons ago, lets just hope he makes as much of an impact on the franchise as Burgoyne did!
Mike Hoffman is joining the Giants as an enforcer that can also put up the points and play well on the ice, playing for the Florida Everblades a team that also gave us defence legend Tim Cook and with AHL and ECHL experience, lets just see if he can put a dent in McMorrow. (again) Mark Garside,a young British player who followed Dougie across the water who is as promising in his hockey career as he is in his musical ambitions. However my first of impression of Garside is a strange one, he was signing at the Belfast Feile and found a photo of Kevin Phillips and signed it as Kevin! Looking forward to his gig as well that he's hinted towards in Rockie's Sports bar.
Mike Bayrack, the new HMV sponsored player has a wealth of AHL and ECHL experience and had a career high of 78 points from 66 matches played for the Texas Wildcatters in 2006/7. he is hard looking and can hit hard too a welcome addition to the squad. The Hemmingway brothers are an impressive acquisition to the squad; Colin having played for Doug before in the Caps colours and Brett having a huge amount of ECHL experience. Their points speak for themselves and they could be important play makers for the 2010/11 side. Josh Prudden is a skilled play maker coming from the Fresno Falcons, a team that gave us last year's stay at home D man Tommy Walsh, he has high points and as commented on by Doug he had been picked up to be a real team player and to assist his team to possibly win the league this season. Last season's Cap Danny Welch is a character and a half, wearing a Minnesota Twins hat and going around introducing himself to everyone, a real class act. A forward who is versatile enough to play defence, he is a welcome addition. So I'm counting the days until Saturday, the first home match of the season, we beat the Chavs for the Charity Shield and lets hope we can build upon our 3 point weekend from the Panthers and the Devils. More to follow, lets go Giants lets GO!
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| 11th February 2012 19:00 | ||
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| 11th February 2012 19:15 | ||
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| 12th February 2012 00:00 | ||
6-2 |
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| 5th February 2012 18:30 | ||
4-5 |
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2-4 |
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| 5th February 2012 17:00 | ||
6-1 |
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| 4th February 2012 19:30 | ||
4-1 |
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| 4th February 2012 19:00 | ||
6-2 |
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| 4th February 2012 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belfast Giants | 41 | 33 | 8 | 3 | 167 | 83 | 69 |
| 2 | Nottingham Panthers | 40 | 30 | 10 | 2 | 182 | 87 | 62 |
| 3 | Sheffield Steelers | 35 | 30 | 5 | 0 | 133 | 77 | 60 |
| 4 | Coventry Blaze | 40 | 25 | 15 | 1 | 153 | 113 | 51 |
| 5 | Cardiff Devils | 39 | 20 | 19 | 10 | 124 | 112 | 50 |
| 6 | Braehead Clan | 39 | 22 | 17 | 2 | 146 | 127 | 46 |
| 7 | Hull Stingrays | 41 | 11 | 30 | 4 | 107 | 165 | 26 |
| 8 | Edinburgh Capitals | 38 | 11 | 27 | 3 | 89 | 170 | 25 |
| 9 | Dundee Stars | 40 | 7 | 33 | 5 | 95 | 163 | 19 |
| 10 | Fife Flyers | 39 | 7 | 32 | 5 | 79 | 178 | 19 |
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| 8th February 2012 19:45 | ||
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| 11th February 2012 17:45 | ||
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| 11th February 2012 18:00 | ||
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| 11th February 2012 18:30 | ||
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| 11th February 2012 19:00 | ||
3-0 |
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| 5th February 2012 18:30 | ||
4-2 |
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| 5th February 2012 18:00 | ||
6-3 |
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| 5th February 2012 17:30 | ||
6-8 |
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| 5th February 2012 17:30 | ||
3-0 |
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| 4th February 2012 19:30 | ||
1-3 |
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| 4th February 2012 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guildford Flames | 38 | 26 | 12 | 3 | 172 | 111 | 55 |
| 2 | Manchester Phoenix | 39 | 24 | 15 | 3 | 145 | 123 | 51 |
| 3 | Slough Jets | 37 | 24 | 13 | 2 | 167 | 117 | 50 |
| 4 | Sheffield Steeldogs | 38 | 22 | 16 | 4 | 119 | 101 | 48 |
| 5 | Milton Keynes Lightning | 37 | 22 | 15 | 1 | 116 | 99 | 45 |
| 6 | Basingstoke Bison | 38 | 21 | 17 | 2 | 135 | 126 | 44 |
| 7 | Swindon Wildcats | 39 | 15 | 24 | 5 | 126 | 134 | 35 |
| 8 | Bracknell Bees | 37 | 13 | 24 | 8 | 107 | 142 | 34 |
| 9 | Peterborough Phantoms | 38 | 14 | 24 | 2 | 123 | 164 | 30 |
| 10 | Telford Tigers | 39 | 9 | 30 | 2 | 106 | 199 | 20 |
- 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
