Marty, Dave and John are back, without Aaron once more who has jetted off to Milan this time to sample some of the local baked goods…
This time around, there’s plenty to chat about, with the EIHL heating up as the mid-point of the season approaches, the NHL starting to get into it’s swing…unless you’re in Arizona… and internationally; Canada and the US have some serious thinking to do in the run up to the Winter Olympics.
As always, we want to give you an idea of what we chat about in each recording, so have a look, have a read and have a click through to the sources of our ramblings!
EIHL and NHL Standings
EIHL League Standings
Conference Standings
Challenge Cup Final Group Standings
NHL Eastern Division Standings
NHL Western Division Standings
Belfast Giants Highlights
The Giants fell to a 3-0 loss at home in the first of a forgetful weekend of games…
Before heading to Dundee looking for redemption, only to be sent packing scoreless and pointless, suffering a 2-0 loss in Tayside.
The Giants started to show signs of improvement however the following Wednesday as they just missed out, but took a point against the Panthers at home in a 5-4 OT loss.
Finally however, the funk was broken in dramatic fashion with a 9-3 home rout of the Manchester Storm.
Local News
The EIHL meanwhile was reeling from the issues surrounding the Fretter/Goulakos debacle and decided, thankfully, that change was in order.
The League, following an emergency board meeting, decided to retain the services of Lyle Seitz, former NHL linesman, who along with the Player Safety Committee (PSC), had been caretakers of DOPS for the weeks running up to this following the departure of Simon Kirkham.
As well as this, the League announced sweeping changes to the procedure for the second round of the Challenge Cup competition as the top seeds will choose their opponents from the bottom seeds…it’s funny though, we could’ve sworn we heard someone talk about something similar before…
Meanwhile, the Sheffield Steelers were making their own team history by bouncing back from an early defeat to win their next two Semi-Final games in the Continental Cup to secure a place in the competition’s Super-Final. The Steelers now plan to attempt to bring the final to home ice in the Sheffield Arena. Can they do it?! Check out Sheffield Steelers TV for highlights of their Conti Cup games…if you’re so inclined!
Meanwhile, at the other end of the Elite League spectrum, the Edinburgh Capitals find themselves in potentially dire straits as a co-director steps down and the parent company is wound up in the city’s courts. We await more information this week and will try to update.
International News
Across the pond, rumours abound at the possibility of yet more expansion or franchise moves as NHL Commissioner Bettman meets the billionaire owner of the Houston Rockets in what could be the first steps to bringing hockey to the city.
Is there ice hiding under the Rockets’ boards?
In a happy ending to a former professional rivalry, Canada’s former Olympic captain Caroline Oulette and US Olympian player Julie Chu, who faced off against each other in 2014 (yet were teammates in Montreal) celebrated the birth of their bouncing baby girl. Congrats from D14!
Chu and Oullette welcome baby girl
Nockey News
The road to the Winter Olympics is well and truly upon us, as we discussed last episode too, and for the USA and Canada, that may not be such a great thing, as they found out during preparatory duties in Europen action, as both teams fell to woeful results. The impact of the embargo on NHL superstars competing looks like it’s going to have a big impact on how things play out in South Korea.
Are Canada and the US looking weaker for the lack of NHL stars? Yup!
We took the time to catch up on some stories that have come up over the last few episodes, and with the help of some listeners – started to get some answers! Big shout-out to Jo and Ian who helped us get some clarity on the issue of Guildford and their lack of jerseys for fans. Good luck with the end of season auctions you crazy Flames fans!
Matthew also got in touch with us following the departure this week of Matt Bissionette from Belfast, asking us how we thought the Giants would look to recruit. Great question and we were looking forward to discussing it, but those pesky Giants foiled us with a surprise that none of us saw coming, in the shape of the return to the fold of fan and Door 14 Hockey favourite, David Rutherford!
Thanks everyone for the input, we really appreciate it and look forward to discussing more of your points in later podcasts so keep it coming!
3 Stars
The lads got stuck into their three stars, this time around all picking players. This week’s EIHL Player of the Week, Steve Saviano of the Belfast Giants, was of course the worthy recipient of Marty’s star too following his 4 goal, single handed demolition of Manchester on Sunday night! Dave went for the Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyck, having slated him for weeks – but forgiving all in the face of a shutout! John meanwhile went for the often lauded on social media, yet somehow overlooked for Man of the Match twice now after hugely impressive games for the Giants both against the Panthers and the Storm, Darcy Murphy. Robbed he was…robbed!
Aaron chose the pizza he was munching on in Milan…that’s all we heard from him during recording!
Penalty Box
In the world of the Penalty Box Segment, we found nothing worthy of chat from the EIHL (at last!!!) but an incident from the NHL was certainly worth a look…but brought back memories of a similar incident from early in the Elite League season which ended up in no action being taken by the ‘old’ DOPS. We discussed how the new look system may have reacted, and decide for ourselves whether we think the NHL got the call right or not, not to mention getting the title for our episode too! What’s your opinion on the incident between the Flyers’ Gudas and the Jets’ Perreault?
Overtime
To wrap things up this time around in Overtime, John brings up the stellar career of Giants legend Colin Shields as he prepares for his testimonial game in Belfast and we look ahead to the teams competing this weekend at the 3rd annual Friendship Four tournament, and put our significantly influential weight behind the competition and voice our hopes for its continuation for years to come!
As always, we want to hear from you all out there! Get in touch with us via the website by commenting below, or find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
