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Hello Doug, thank you Steve

Hello Doug, thank you Steve by Seanna Murdock

 

Blog from door 8

I'm back again! The laptop cable arrived yesterday and I was dying to get back online, I had a text at 7.35am to check belfastgiants.com and there was a monumental announcement, Steve Thornton, my ex quiz buddy and the winning-est Giants coach was stepping down and moving back to Canada. I got a huge sinking feeling, he had led the Giants to three trophies and titles; 2008-09 Knock out Cup Championship title holders, 2008-09 Challenge Cup title holders, and 2009-10 Play off Champions, so he ended his career on a high note. My mood elevated somewhat when I saw who his replacement was: Doug Christiansen, the very vocal omnipresent coach of the Edinburgh Capitals. I was always impressed with the sides that Christiansen had put together, pulling seemingly obscure players as if from nowhere and putting up a strong fight.

It was no secret last season that the Capitals had struggled for funding and this impeded the signing of certain players, the support of their loyal fans in fundraising to pay Perkins' salary last season shows how much faith the fans had in their coach and his judgement. He put together a fantastic team last year, Fussey, Lambert, Garside and Hutchins were my stand out players, and it certainly will be telling how much of an amazing team he can put together with a bigger budget.

So at 7.30 on Monday evening I made my way to Rockies sports bar in the Odyssey, the second time I'd been to the Odyssey in a week, the WWE Revenge tour on Friday and Christiansen's meet and greet on Monday, the lack of hockey was torturous in the off season but it was exciting to meet our brand shiny new coach. Grabbing a Kopparberg I found a seat beside the Wayne Gretzky stage area, and tried not to look like a geek with my little pen and notepad. Kelman came in first and gave an impressive reference for our new coach, Doug was standing nervously outside until he got his cue to enter, the standing ovation may have steadied his nerves as he pulled on a Giants season ticket jersey, he looked good in it, like he already belonged.

Christiansen began with praising the departing coach and how there was massive pressure on him taking over a championship winning side, and how he had massive shoes to fill, every time he said this I couldn't stop looking at his shoes which were bloody huge! He spoke about the fact that he had surgery on his knee in February and it was healing well, he would be injury cover for the team, technically he wouldn't be a player coach, but as the inevitable injuries occur he could step up to fill the import deficit. He also confirmed that there are now eleven import slots for each team, and he also addressed rumours of Milton Keynes joining the Elite League, while he couldn't confirm or deny this he said that it made sense to have ten teams, and when the Play Off qualification occured the bottom teams would have something to fight for, and wouldn't lose money if eight teams could qualify instead of the proposed six.

He was asked would he be bringing any of his Caps over with him, of course there was a rumour that Simon Lambert was coming across for next season, Doug joked that he was only hired on Friday and that he hadn't time to think about players yet, Tim Cook was confirmed today on UTV news and was announced officially by our new coach. Doug also commented on the fact that he already had his eye on some new fresh faces, even holding an open training day to see any local undiscovered talent, and also scouting Brit players from the EPL, which is where Roby Brown will be going for a year to gain some game experience.

He also praised the University of Ulster programme and how it has been instrumental in bringing fantastic players across. Doug also commented if he had to bring one player across with him from the Caps it would be Owen Fussey, 'he's a born leader with a great work ethic' but he was massively impressed with Brandon Benedict and Colin Shields. The makeup of next season's team will depend entirely on the Brit signings, as it is widely known that the new coach likes to nurture local, home grown talent. Of course the predictable question came up about improving the power play, I sighed, it was only a matter of time before someone asked a question about something they didn't understand, the umbrella formation the Giants adopted on their powerplay last season was a legitimate play used in the NHL and AHL, Todd took great relish in announcing that the Giants finished second in the league marginally behind Sheffield. Christiansen also was non committal regarding the Boston Bruins coming to Belfast, Kelman however said that he had been to Boston a few times this year and to 'watch this space.'

After the Q and A Doug was able to mingle, he had a pint of the black stuff in his hand was honorarily Irish for the night, I introduced myself and arranged that I woould be doing a personal interview next week, he was genuinely one of the nicest people I have ever met and I look forward to seeing what he can do for Belfast.

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