Oh hi, hockeylings! How are you? Fighting fit? I do hope so. Apologies for going MIA, I hope you didn’t suffer too much separation anxiety and you’ve managed to successfully navigate the opening weeks of the new Elite League season without me. I feel hopelessly out of touch having returned from a long holiday and will be spending a large portion of time watching highlights videos and reading gamecards in order to get up to speed with the goings on so far. It's going to be like a combination of repentance and unashamed geekery I’ve concluded the following so far, based on my ferretings around the interweb:
- Sheffield aren’t quite as good as normal
- Hull are better than normal
- Belfast are good but could be better
- Nottingham are better than expected much to everyone’s irritation. Sexy Neilson Hockey has not yet made an appearance
- Cardiff aren’t going to have a great season
- Brad Voth is still worthy of people going without shoes
- Edinburgh are sadly going to pick up where they left off
- Fife are going to be the plucky underdogs
- Coventry are going to be good
- Dundee have been quiet but could spring a few surprises
- Braehead haven’t started yet
- Lots of people have gotten themselves injured already
- There are two people called Brock Mc-something in the Elite Ice Hockey League
- This both amuses and confuses me
Erm, I don’t like to blow my own trumpet or anything (parp), but other than the first two points where I was a bit wide of the mark, I believe I predicted all of the above in my season previews!! GO ME! Okay so it wasn’t that hard bearing in mind most of those are vague statements and there’s a long way to go, but still. Yeah so I just articulated what most people were thinking, so what. I need to feel useful, or clever or something! I don’t have my own team to be clever about anymore!
While I'm thinking of my old team, there are two key clubs to watch if, like me, you’re still reminiscing about last season’s glorious highlights through Viper-tinted spectacles. First is Amiens in the French Ligue Magnus who have added Kyle Sibley and Jaroslaw Rzeszutko to their ranks, along with Nottingham Panthers’ Angel Nikolov. Second, and my tip for ‘random place to run away to when you're feeling a bit stalk-y’ are the Missouri Mavericks. They have not one, not two, but THREE Vipers from the 2010/11 season, Charlie Effinger, Toms Hartmanis and Dale Mahovsky (splitter), and definitely have me plotting my escape from the country, not that I fancy Missouri much as a place to live. It’s a bit dull. I’m sure they’ll have a rubbish time, in comparison with the delights of Whitley Bay. I'm not jealous, really.
As for the remaining members of last season’s Vipers team, a few of the Brits have made the long journey south to the Isle of Wight, Coach Danny has launched into his career with Fife Flyers with a vengeance, throwing down the gloves once already with Panther’s Steve Lee. John Schwarz, mysteriously, has quit hockey entirely, presumably to concentrate his efforts on advanced beard-growing. And speaking of beards it appears that Mike Prpich has been abducted by his, as he hasn’t been seen since April. And our very own Sammy Zajac will make his debut this Saturday night for Braehead. And I shall be in attendance, making my Elite League debut, on the very same night.
Based on a combination of factors as follows, in no particular order, I have developed a soft spot for Braehead:
(1) Location/cost; I love Glasgow as a city and it’s not too far on the train.
(2) Craic.
(3) Purpleness of jersey.
(4) By pure chance home games don’t begin until this weekend due to an ironic twist of fate involving one of my other beloved sports, tennis. This pleases me as it means I haven’t missed anything.
(5) They made up the other 50% of my first ever Elite League hockey experience.
(6) They, like me, are only a year old in hockey terms.
(7) They’ve got our Sammy. They’d better look after him!
So I’ve decided that they will be the lucky recipients of the vast proportion of my affections this season. It’s okay, Clan fans. I understand how thrilled you must be to have me on board and I’ll give you a moment to come to terms with the sheer awesomeness of the honour I am to bestow upon your club. In time you will come to get used to the inordinate levels of rambling I shower on the object of my affection.
I jest of course. It’s not going to be a bed of roses for either of us. Okay it won’t be easy at first. We’ll have to get used to each other. Like a new pair of shoes, the fit may not be perfect, or instant, but I hope we’ll take to one another and perhaps I can earn your affections. I’ll say this. It’s not going to be easy for me either. I want to commit to a new team (see my previous post in which I rant like a loon about needing to support SOMEBODY), but it doesn’t take away the uncomfortable, squirmy feeling I get when I think about wearing another team’s colours, or chanting another team’s name. It’s like some weird communal version of infidelity.
Those of you who have read me before will know that I’m prone to the odd over-dramatic extended metaphor. Those of you who haven’t are in for a bit of a surprise. Try reading my post 'Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today…’ (Jan 2011) if you want to know what I mean. But, I'm not exaggerating when I say I’m, like, a hockey widow! It's true! My first love (the Vipers) has died, so now I'm all alone and I need some company in this big wide world, y'know? Braehead, like, basically you're my new boyfriend. Um, yeah. Wow. This post is sliding swiftly downhill and I’m going to put a stop to it right now!
See you tomorrow Braehead fans! Please don't run away, I promise I'm not THAT weird! Everyone else, I shall post my thoughts on the weekend’s action around the league at some point next week – brace yourselves! It will be full of the stunning insight that watching only one hockey match so far this season can bestow!
- Sheffield aren’t quite as good as normal
- Hull are better than normal
- Belfast are good but could be better
- Nottingham are better than expected much to everyone’s irritation. Sexy Neilson Hockey has not yet made an appearance
- Cardiff aren’t going to have a great season
- Brad Voth is still worthy of people going without shoes
- Edinburgh are sadly going to pick up where they left off
- Fife are going to be the plucky underdogs
- Coventry are going to be good
- Dundee have been quiet but could spring a few surprises
- Braehead haven’t started yet
- Lots of people have gotten themselves injured already
- There are two people called Brock Mc-something in the Elite Ice Hockey League
- This both amuses and confuses me
Erm, I don’t like to blow my own trumpet or anything (parp), but other than the first two points where I was a bit wide of the mark, I believe I predicted all of the above in my season previews!! GO ME! Okay so it wasn’t that hard bearing in mind most of those are vague statements and there’s a long way to go, but still. Yeah so I just articulated what most people were thinking, so what. I need to feel useful, or clever or something! I don’t have my own team to be clever about anymore!
While I'm thinking of my old team, there are two key clubs to watch if, like me, you’re still reminiscing about last season’s glorious highlights through Viper-tinted spectacles. First is Amiens in the French Ligue Magnus who have added Kyle Sibley and Jaroslaw Rzeszutko to their ranks, along with Nottingham Panthers’ Angel Nikolov. Second, and my tip for ‘random place to run away to when you're feeling a bit stalk-y’ are the Missouri Mavericks. They have not one, not two, but THREE Vipers from the 2010/11 season, Charlie Effinger, Toms Hartmanis and Dale Mahovsky (splitter), and definitely have me plotting my escape from the country, not that I fancy Missouri much as a place to live. It’s a bit dull. I’m sure they’ll have a rubbish time, in comparison with the delights of Whitley Bay. I'm not jealous, really.
As for the remaining members of last season’s Vipers team, a few of the Brits have made the long journey south to the Isle of Wight, Coach Danny has launched into his career with Fife Flyers with a vengeance, throwing down the gloves once already with Panther’s Steve Lee. John Schwarz, mysteriously, has quit hockey entirely, presumably to concentrate his efforts on advanced beard-growing. And speaking of beards it appears that Mike Prpich has been abducted by his, as he hasn’t been seen since April. And our very own Sammy Zajac will make his debut this Saturday night for Braehead. And I shall be in attendance, making my Elite League debut, on the very same night.
Based on a combination of factors as follows, in no particular order, I have developed a soft spot for Braehead:
(1) Location/cost; I love Glasgow as a city and it’s not too far on the train.
(2) Craic.
(3) Purpleness of jersey.
(4) By pure chance home games don’t begin until this weekend due to an ironic twist of fate involving one of my other beloved sports, tennis. This pleases me as it means I haven’t missed anything.
(5) They made up the other 50% of my first ever Elite League hockey experience.
(6) They, like me, are only a year old in hockey terms.
(7) They’ve got our Sammy. They’d better look after him!
So I’ve decided that they will be the lucky recipients of the vast proportion of my affections this season. It’s okay, Clan fans. I understand how thrilled you must be to have me on board and I’ll give you a moment to come to terms with the sheer awesomeness of the honour I am to bestow upon your club. In time you will come to get used to the inordinate levels of rambling I shower on the object of my affection.
I jest of course. It’s not going to be a bed of roses for either of us. Okay it won’t be easy at first. We’ll have to get used to each other. Like a new pair of shoes, the fit may not be perfect, or instant, but I hope we’ll take to one another and perhaps I can earn your affections. I’ll say this. It’s not going to be easy for me either. I want to commit to a new team (see my previous post in which I rant like a loon about needing to support SOMEBODY), but it doesn’t take away the uncomfortable, squirmy feeling I get when I think about wearing another team’s colours, or chanting another team’s name. It’s like some weird communal version of infidelity.
Those of you who have read me before will know that I’m prone to the odd over-dramatic extended metaphor. Those of you who haven’t are in for a bit of a surprise. Try reading my post 'Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today…’ (Jan 2011) if you want to know what I mean. But, I'm not exaggerating when I say I’m, like, a hockey widow! It's true! My first love (the Vipers) has died, so now I'm all alone and I need some company in this big wide world, y'know? Braehead, like, basically you're my new boyfriend. Um, yeah. Wow. This post is sliding swiftly downhill and I’m going to put a stop to it right now!
See you tomorrow Braehead fans! Please don't run away, I promise I'm not THAT weird! Everyone else, I shall post my thoughts on the weekend’s action around the league at some point next week – brace yourselves! It will be full of the stunning insight that watching only one hockey match so far this season can bestow!
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