Watching from over the pond

by Seanna Murdock

Blog from Door 19

So...I've finished my essay and decided to get back on this whole blogging lark. October was a quiet month in the Odyssey - with mostly away games thanks to the overblown and over-hyped EMA awards and various other pointless events to avoid. The Giants had a hard battle ahead of them but I would have to get updates from afar....I was headed Stateside to see my beloved Devils and the fantastic New York Islanders.

The Prudential Centre was like nothing I'd ever experienced; as soon as I walked through the doors the security staff, the shop staff and the arena helpers were all chanting 'Lets go Devils,' the atmosphere was amazing and I was really glad to have pencilled in the trip. To just see Brodeur in the flesh and Parise leading his team to a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes was a true dream come true. The whistle stop tour of New York culminated in a trip to the Nassau Veteran's Coliseum to see the Islanders take on the Tampa Bay Lightening.

It wasn't as new as the 'Rock' but there was plenty of character in the building, in the staff and even in the local $9.50 beers on sale. It was worth the Long Island Railroad trip and the bus-full of scary, mental people-to get there and see Tavares and Parenteau both score in the 5-1 win. The chants for free chilli after the Islanders scored three are still resonating in my ears.

I still kept an eye on how the Giants were doing on the road; beating the Caps and the Stingrays, not surprised in seeing Campbell getting game for a sucker punch - no matter where you are in the world some things never change.

It was a nice surprise when I returned home to see that the Giants had beaten the Blaze 5-2 with a well deserved hat trick from big George Awada - sticking two fingers up to the people that doubted him and were very vocal about resigning him. We also lost McBride at this point with a lower body injury; he had been an integral part of the Giant's campaign leading in scoring, and becoming indispensable on the ice.

On the 15th October the Giants made the trip to the Blue Tent and proved that they deserved their league leadership. Jon Pelle scored a hat trick, sort of rubbing it in the face of his former team that he had moved on to bigger and better things. We got 'on the ball' and booked our away trip for the first half of the season. Plane, hotel and match tickets booked, I could look forward to the 5th November and my first ever trip to Glasgow and my first of many trips to the Braehead Arena.

Three days before the long awaited next home match against the Dundee Stars came the blow that LeBlanc had to leave for personal reasons and head back to Canada. LeBlanc had become a favourite in his short time as a Giant and made a big impact on the ice, and he will be missed. Enter his replacement ECHL veteran Aaron Clarke, he got straight here and stuck into training along with the injured Rebek.

The home game against the Stars was an angry one. There were plenty of scuffles and goals galore(from the Giants anyway) It was great to be back at the Odyssey after nearly a months break, to sit down with a pint and watch the Giants continue their winning streak. Doucet scored two in the first and a rare good call from Hicks resulted in a delayed penalty, Murph skating off, and Pelle sneaking a goal past Whitley to end the first 3-0 to the home side. This year there have been tough games against teams that last season were walkovers. Its good that there are no guaranteed wins or losses this season, it keeps things interesting and unpredictable. There were no goals in the second period however in the third Pete and Seanna Murdock sponsored Craig Peacock was amongst those who scored in the third, along with Pelle and Dowd. The Stars replaced their netminder and Dicko got a chance between the pipes. Ex Giants legend Hutchins dropped the gloves with AK47 to get the crowd going just after Darryl Lloyd rounded off the scoring for the Giants. The final score ending 7-1 and the crowd were elated; however there was the niggling thought-the Chavs were heading to town.

The Chavs came and spoiled the party, shutting out the Giants 3-0 with scoring coming from Guthrie, David 'I celebrate like a Panther' Phillips and Luke Fulghum. David Phillips made an unwelcome return to play the team that gave him a leg up for his career and he was unrecognisable on the ice, he was never a dirty player but he was chopping and hitting and antagonizing, and when he had pushed Keefe too far he couldn't back up his actions. The crowd turned on him shouting 'chicken' which was a great estimation of what he had become.

The Giants next match was with their bitterest rivals; the Panthers, and it was too close to call, away at the NIC, a new player; as Clarke made his debut and it was always touch and go whether or not the Giants would beat them or not. However it was Aaron Clarke who netted the third goal and the ultimate game winner tying the score at 3-2. The funniest thing about this match came a few days later when I was emailed an article from this is Nottingham.com when Corey 'the moan' Neilson had a 3 fold reason why the Panthers lost. 1. They had an arduous road schedule......ahem......the Giants are on a different land mass, they had to fly and sail every week, they had no home games for nearly a month, but diddums the big bad Panthers were tired...boo hoo..... "Player-coach Corey Neilson bemoaned the tough October schedule for his side that saw them play 11-games, including seven in 15 days, culminating in their 3-2 defeat to the league leaders Belfast."

His second reason was that the Giants were midgets. They were working Lord of the Rings style magic to bewitch their opponents and somehow win...I mean God forbid that he would acknowledge the Giant's skill and ability to gel well as a team, "But they also took advantage of the fact they are small – very small. "They are also very fast and worked us hard. It was a good test for us but it didn't get done. "I'm not making excuses. We lost the game in those first two periods. But it is a fact that it is difficult to play hard against players who are always falling over. "Unfortunately, we always seem to get a lot of penalties against small teams." The big massive tall Panthers apparently felt clumsy around the child sized Giants and therefore they lost...um....how has this guy still got a job?

The third reason and the weirdest reason of all is the cutest of all the reasons. The fact that Pelle is just so gosh darned cute means that not only his height, but also his looks made the refs feel sorry for him if he got hit or fell over and the Panthers got penalized. "People often ask me 'why don't you hit more?' But experiences tells me and dictates that if I hit and play physical, someone like Belfast's cute little (Jon) Pelle falls down and I take a penalty.

"We have that same guy in Leves (Marc Levers). He draws a lot of penalties because he falls down when he gets hit." In fairness Neilson shouldn't have worried about drawing penalties because he had, according to himself, his own little hottie Marc Levers. Judge for yourself, I had to laugh http://bit.ly/uDap1P.

Anyway....I was looking forward to the Braehead trip, Rebek would be back, but Dowd and McBride were still out, it would be tough but there were over 200 Belfast fans making the trip. I hate boats, the boredom and the seasickness and everything about the general experience so we headed off at 6am to get our plane and head to Glasgow, Misfits on my ipod and my jersey round my waist I explored the beautiful city when we arrived. Braehead arena was easy enough to get to and after a gingerbread latte we headed in and were given a lovely welcome. Grabbing a pint we went and found our seats in front of a lovely family who we had a good laugh with throughout the whole match. The match ended 4-1, the Braehead goalie was amazing, stood on his head, we had no chance but I enjoyed the game and the Clan fans organized a party for us afterwards, the fans that could stay had a ball, drinking and dancing to 5,6,7,8 by Steps, good silly giggly fun. A brilliant away match experience, even though they lost- but it was Challenge Cup... and we got a point from Cov the next day...all eyes are now firmly on the Fife and Devils home double header.

BGFL

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Cardiff	0-3	Basingstoke
12th March 2006 19:00
Coventry	5-3	Sheffield
12th March 2006 19:00
Edinburgh	4-5	Belfast
12th March 2006 19:00
Newcastle	1-4	Nottingham
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Basingstoke	4-4	Cardiff
11th March 2006 19:00
Newcastle	2-4	Coventry
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	Club	GP	W	L	OL	GF	GA	Pts

Chelmsford	5-8	Telford
19th March 2006 19:00
Hull	5-1	Wightlink
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Romford	4-1	Milton Keynes
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Slough	5-2	Swindon
19th March 2006 19:00
Solihull	3-7	Bracknell
19th March 2006 19:00
Sheffield	1-1	Guildford
19th March 2006 19:00

	Club	GP	W	L	OL	GF	GA	Pts

	Club	GP	W	L	OL	GF	GA	Pts

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