I’m too old for all this – a review of the Elite League Play-off Weekend

And so it all came down to this: one weekend, four teams, a shedload of hockey fans and one hockey novice, about to get her stripes. Please forgive the lack of clarity in this blog post; a couple of weeks back, I was informed by a rather wise friend of mine that I would take my first experience of play-off weekend to the grave. I had been looking forward to it for a while but I didn’t fathom quite how good it would be, and quite how right said wise person was. This is the story of how it all went down, from start to finish – if it goes even a quarter of the way to summing up what an amazing weekend it was, then I’ll have done my job.

It began on Friday night with a visit to a few of Nottingham’s fine drinking establishments (funnily enough, where the majority of the weekend was located) with the strong contingent of Vipers fans who had made the journey south. Spirits were high and fans mingled, old friends and new from all ten of the Elite League clubs preparing for a weekend of hockey-based goodness. Vipers fans were given an extra boost when news reached the Bunkers Hill Inn that Danny Stewart had won the Coach of the Year award at the Elite League awards dinner across the city. We all went nuts. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of an award and it’s testament to the extraordinary hard work that he and all of our amazing team put in all season. I’ll save it for another blog post, but it’s funny how quickly you can fall in love with something, and I was truly proud to say I was a Viper at play-offs, despite everything that went down this season. It felt like a badge of honour to be associated with such an amazing club and group of players, staff and fans. But I digress…

So THAT’S what hockey’s supposed to look like

Saturday morning saw another first for me, as I braved a trip inside a bookies for the first time ever, to put money on the two teams I believed would make it to the final. I was quite proud of myself, and quietly confident I had backed the winning horses. Then it was time to get down to business. Hockey fans from across the UK took their seats in the National Ice Centre/Capital FM Arena/whatever it's called, and the excitement built on all sides as whether or not their teams were involved, all the groups of fans were ready to have a good time. It was quite something to see so many fans from different teams side by side in an arena, and reminded me again what an excellent sport ice hockey is. The whole experience was quite over-whelming and had the Vipers by some miracle made it to that stage of the competition I think I would have been a bit of a mess around that point.

The first semi-final was between Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers, the much-vaunted local rivalry about to be put to the test. It was generally agreed in discussion with other fans that the second semi-final was likely to be the better of the two, however we were forced to eat our words very quickly. The first period kicked off in style. It was fast-paced and unforgiving; Sheffield scored two early goals but the Panthers were in no mood to roll over and they dug deep, hitting the Steelers hard. Rob Bellamy amongst others had a great first period, and both teams landed some of the hardest hits I’ve seen in the Elite League all season. It was a very tasty match-up and the Panthers hit back in style with some fantastic attacking hockey (they base themselves on the Detroit Redwings don’t you know) and they pulled back two swift equalising goals.

The game was chippy and threatened to boil over but a solid refereeing performance from Mike Hicks ensured that proceedings remained tough but clean. One of the season’s remaining mysteries was also cleared up for me as the announcer provided a full and frank explanation of how to pronounce the surname of Panthers forward Daniel Tkaczuk (you know I just had to check the EIHL website three times to get the spelling right there and I’m still not sure about it!). Apparently you just sneeze. Good to know. If you haven’t got a cold at the time, just call him Dan. The announcer caused quite a few raised eyebrows over the weekend for misheard calls and later on in the game I'm quite certain that Derek Campbell received a two minute penalty for cooking.

Bless you!

Things simmered down in the second period as both teams were a little more cagey, neither wanting to make a mistake and both netminders staying solid. It lacked the intensity of the first period as perhaps players as well as fans started to feel the effects of the night before. The fans of the two teams involved were surprisingly quiet, adrenaline finally giving way to nerves, but the Cardiff Devils fans more than made up for them with some exceptional renditions of Delilah and Don’t Stop Me Now, which were enjoyed by all present. Vinnie the Viper also turned up to rapturous applause.

Throughout the game the Panthers seemed to be suffering from a potent strain of a disease well-known to Vipers fans this season of ‘forgetting we’re on the powerplay-itis’ and they failed to capitalise on some golden opportunities, but the Steelers weren’t much better and we moved into the third with the game in danger of fizzling out and once again failing to live up to the potential that a so-called local derby should provide. However there was more drama in store as Panthers gave away a penalty shot which Steelers player coach Ben Simon proceeded to miss. There was also a moment of light relief from Panthers' 45 Stephen Lee as he attempted a hip check on a Steeler only to miss entirely, bash the boards with his bottom and almost fall over. Comedy gold. The game picked up tempo again thankfully, and Jeff Heerema scored a breathtaking goal seemingly out of nowhere to pile the pressure back onto the League title holders. They were unfazed however and the equaliser came almost immediately from the stick of Ben Simon, making up for his earlier miss and bringing us back to stalemate.

It seemed almost inevitable at that point that the game would go into overtime and that it did. All eyes were once again on two of the most talked about netminders of the season, Craig ‘K-Wall’ Kowalski and Ervins ‘Moose’ Mustokovs. Perhaps this tie would be decided by at outstanding display of goalkeeping. But it was not to be. Instead, despite an incredible season, a rare mistake from Mustokovs was what eventually split the teams, the pressure finally causing his demise, promising British youngster Rob Lachowicz firing home to finish the tie less than two minutes into overtime. The Panthers went crazy. The Steelers would have to be content with the small matter of the League title.

Oh, and in case you were wondering – that was my bet scratched, already.

Selling the Vipers, and Belfast’s demise

Following the match we visited The Castle pub, which was home between matches for the weekend and discussion turned to the Vipers’ future, yet more uncertainty surrounding our beloved club thanks to a controversial article in one of the local papers in which former owner Paddy O’Connor claimed still to be in charge of the club. After a healthy debate we decided to take matters into our own hands and approached Sheffield and Cardiff owner Paul Ragan to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Kev would buy him a pint, if he bought the Vipers. It seemed like a fair compromise all round and we were seconds away from inking the deal when we realised it was time to make tracks for the second semi-final, but watch this space. The man’s clearly got his head screwed on, and who wouldn’t be swayed by the offer of a chilled beverage in exchange for ownership of clearly the most passionate club in the country.

Everyone was psyched for the second semi-final as it featured possibly the two most exciting teams of the season and promised to be a fantastic match-up. It seemed to be universally agreed that whoever won this game, would be carrying the support of all but the Panthers fans in Sunday’s final. I was torn over who to support on the night; I felt that the Devils deserved something from their storming season, but I have a soft spot for the Giants after my trip to Belfast. The Devils drew first blood however; a shocking defensive error from one of the Giants D-men (whose identity escapes me) as he back-passed across the face of goal allowing Tylor Michel to put the Devils on the scoresheet, and this proceeded to light a fire under Cardiff’s collective behind. They quickly went on and scored a second goal, short-handed, and it looked ominous for the Giants who just hadn’t turned up at all. It seemed as though it could be a rout as Devils launched wave after wave of attack, whilst their netminder Stevie Lyle was a rock at the crease, stopping everything Belfast threw at him. They were flying and Belfast were clueless as to how to get around them, despite deploying Mike Hoffman as a forward at one point, or so it seemed, the strategy nearly working as it was about the only time when Belfast seemed to wake up. For all the talent in their line-up something just didn’t click for them on Saturday and it is hard to pick out any particular offenders although Josh Prudden had a bit of a nightmare, and not one forward line packed any punch. They had no end product, despite having 5 on 3 on more than one occasion, although it may be testament to the Devils’ effective penalty kill. There was no shortage of star men for the Devils but Captain Ryan Finnerty just stood out above the rest; he comes across as a real heart-on-sleeve kind of player, and he never stopped working for a moment. Craig Weller also showed his class on the day.

A picture paints a thousand words. One of them is 'steady'.

Cardiff did not take Belfast apart in quite the way many expected after their dominance in the first period, but they were always in control and Belfast never really threatened to come back into it. The game sadly did not live up to expectations, but confidence was high for the final as it was to be fought out between the two teams who had provided the most entertainment during the weekend thusfar.

The Final Countdown, and The Aftermath

The final day began with an under-19 international between England and Scotland. The number of empty seats spoke of the celebrations that had gone before and we made the most of the space by moving next to centre ice for a fantastic view of the action. There was interest in the Panthers section of the crowd as various Panthers players passed in and out of the rink, waving and signing autographs like the minor celebrities they clearly are in the Nottingham area. The game itself started out slowly but England were always on top. Support was muted despite a spirited effort from the rambunctious Braehead Clan fans who made their presence felt all weekend. Local interest for Vipers fans centred on Callum Davies, the Northern Stars forward who iced for our team a number of times towards the end of the season and put in a sterling effort. His Stars and Vipers team-mate, Elite League Defenceman Dan Pye (DAN PYE!) was present to support his colleague and took a fair amount of good-natured abuse from certain members of the Vipers crew throughout the weekend, but he took it all in his stride, so good on him.

Once England started scoring there was no stopping them, and they finally racked up double figures just before the game drew to a close. It had been an entertaining contest with some good episodes of play from England, some great shows of talent from a few individual players and a good dose of conflict also.

And so we had a few hours to kill before the final game of the season would be upon us, and the atmosphere was building in and around the rink and its surrounding drinking establishments. I’d love to give you a blow-by-blow account of the final but I’ll be honest, everything was a bit of a blur by then. The atmosphere was great – being right next to the Devils’ block we really felt like part of the action, although it has to be said it felt very, very wrong chanting another team’s name, so I reverted to clapping only, but I was with the Devils all the way. The presence of the Sky TV cameras was felt and not in a good way, as the so-called ‘prompt’ 4:00pm face-off was delayed by around 20 minutes, presumably in order for them to lever in a good selection of ad breaks, leaving the players standing around waiting and the hapless rink announcer struggling to fill the time. Sky: selfless dedication to ramming themselves firmly up the rear end of otherwise perfectly successful sporting events and jumping up and down shouting ‘look at us’ for the last twenty-odd years. Thank you VERY much. Just so long as you can shoehorn in one last round of Go Compare, eh, chaps.

The final featured high quality hockey from the outset and had no shortage of thrills and spills. A monumental hit on Angel Nikolov by Brad Voth was wrongly called for interference and is one that demands to be watched again on the replay. Voth himself was subject of one of a number of play-off rumours that floated about across the weekend as the gossip train did the rounds of the hockey pubs. Apparently after six great years with Cardiff he will shortly be on his way back home to hang up his skates and become a farmer. I must stress however that that rumour is as yet unconfirmed. Although I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the image of him in a straw hat, leaning on a fork chewing a piece of hay and patting a nice firm cow on the buttocks. Ah, Bradley.

Cardiff took control of the game early on as they had against Belfast, striking twice in the first period with a single goal from Beauregard coming in reply for the Panthers. But the Challenge Cup holders did not let Cardiff build up too much of a head of steam and they sneaked back into the game, ending the second period trailing by just one goal. It came down to the final period to decide who would lift the trophy and once again it was up to the two netminders, but in a cruel twist of fate after his heroics in the semi-final, Stevie Lyle was found wanting, as K-Wall came into his own, shutting out the Devils for the full final period, and in turn allowing his team to go on and score two goals, one of which was caused by an error from Lyle, in order to take the lead. Despite the Devils’ best efforts, they were thwarted in every respect, Scott Matzka receiving a game misconduct as he lost the plot with just over two minutes to go, and Devils' talisman and player of the weekend for me, Ryan Finnerty, being sent to the bench for the final minute of the match. It was the final straw and took the wind right out of the Cardiff's sails, and the Panthers were able to stand firm and power through to take the trophy.

Danny Meyers: Winning at Playoff Beards

It was a disappointing result for many of the fans in the arena with no love lost for the big-spending Panthers and their annoyingly successful departure from Sexy Neilson Hockey, but they deserved their celebrations on the day and as Danny Meyers lifted the trophy for the victors, having been one of the three key men for his team in the match (after Kowalski and Beauregard) and also lifting the Parles Cup for most impressive play-off beard in a weekend that had so far sadly lacked in general beard-age (Mike Prpich would SO have shown this lot of part-timers what was what), we filed out and back to the pub to dissect the game that was, and to engage in a number of raucous activities in no small part sponsored by fermented apple products. I couldn’t possibly go into detail about the events of that night (mainly as I can’t remember most of them) but highlights include a late-night press conference, dropped pints, switching of team allegiances, Sambuca, much love from all the clubs to the Vipers and back, and countless rounds of highly amusing and at times mildly offensive chanting with the hockey fans of the UK, all of whom came together to enjoy one final night of banter and good times to say goodbye to the season that had been.

And so on Monday morning we said goodbye to Nottingham with heavy hearts, eyelids and suitcases and made our way home, uncertain in the knowledge of what the future may hold for our club or for British Ice Hockey in general. The hardcore among us made our way to the pub for a final drink or three before staggering home to reacquaint ourselves with our own beds, and early nights. This hockey season has been one hell of an incredible journey and I can safely say that I am not the same person at the end of it as the one I was at the beginning. I started the post with a quote from one wise friend and I’ll end it with one from another: ‘hockey is the best and worst thing that will ever happen to you’, and that is something that I can completely relate to now. It's taken over my life, trashing its way through my heart, soul, mental health and bank account, but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. All I can say with any certainty is that whatever happens, I will be first at the bar at next year’s play-offs. See you all there, and hopefully many times in between.

Only playoff weekend could end with a head on a tray. Goodnight everybody!

Game photos courtesy of Paul Lynch Photography

Head on a Tray photo courtesy of Kevin Pope