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Elite Ice Hockey League


Zanetti

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THF has a weird obsession with, and bias against, the Eihl. Worth posting on but a fair few oddballs who seem to wear the minority status of hockey as a chufty badge.

Saw Solway put 15 past Nottingham on 82 shots last Saturday. Lions refused to put the back up in. If I was back up to a starter who had shipped 15 goals and couldn't get any ice time, I reckon I'd hang up the pads.

First Clan game in ages tomorrow night.

Mannheim 2 weeks today for a couple of DEL games, including the Sonderzug.

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The Caps are certainly swimming in some murky waters right now.

Following the liquidation two weeks ago season ticket holders have been asked to switch their direct debits to a company 100% owned by George Ferdinando, who previously held a 7% stake in the Caps. I fear many fans will opt not to. What future Scott Neil has in terms of his legal right to be a director is still uncertain. The other main shareholder in the previous Capitals company, Mathew Tailford (11%), resigned as director a few days before the liquidation notice.

But the new man behind the scenes is Roman Dubov. He failed in a bid to buy Bournemouth but successfully took control of Portsmouth FC and dragged them to the precipice. Shortly afterwards, his business partner and fellow PFC director fled the country after an arrest warrant was issued by Europol for asset stripping a Latvian bank.

The investment was revealed by Vorobyev in an interview with the Russian press in the post-season. Despite Dubov's company, Total Sports Investments, advertising the move on their website (along with other Capitals related news much of which has yet to see fruition)  it was denied by Scott Neil in the Evening News.

All the above is in the public domain. There is of course much behind-the-scenes gossip about related issues, the sort which surround any club going into admin/liquidation. It doesn't take much familiarity with such processes to guess at what the effects of liquidation might mean to the day-to-day running of the Capitals.

Of course, on the ice things are looking very poor. Shegalo, who has been dreadful between the pipes has yet to be replaced, and the club are still three imports shorter than they began the league season with. There is huge apathy amongst the fanbase who mostly want this season to be over.

If the Caps are to salvage anything from 2017/18 the new operating structure needs to be put in place sharply and new, quality, players need to be brought in.

I have my doubts.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Two months too late. It was quite clear he was incapable of turning things around. I doubt anyone at the club or in the stands will miss him. Ainars Podzins has signed, nothing special by the looks of things and a former team-mate of Upitis, but bodies are badly needed at the moment so nobody will be complaining.

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On 18/12/2017 at 22:38, DiegoDiego said:

Two months too late. It was quite clear he was incapable of turning things around. I doubt anyone at the club or in the stands will miss him. Ainars Podzins has signed, nothing special by the looks of things and a former team-mate of Upitis, but bodies are badly needed at the moment so nobody will be complaining.

There was nothing he could have done differently. The Caps are a mess of a club and nobody could be expected to do anything whilst they were such a mess.

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I was on the sonderzug trip on Sunday from Mannheim to Dusseldorf. An absolutely fantastic experience.

Train left Mannheinm at 6:52 on Sunday morning. The train was a bit of an old ramshackle thing - the carriages looked like something from the late 70s - but it had been chartered by the Adler Mannheim Fanprojekt and filled with around a thousand crazy fans. It took the longest route possible between Mannheim and Cologne. As a fan charter train it was diverted onto freight and local rail lines instead of the main direct routes. That just gave the fans longer to appreciate the 2 onboard disco carriages, complete with DJ and lighting. 

Got off the train at Cologne and proceeded to sing songs abusing the city and their hockey team (Sharks) that the locals took in good nature.  We massed on the steps of Cologne cathedral to indulge in a little more noise and colour before walking down to the river docks to catch a boat to Dusseldorf.

The boat trip to Dusseldorf took a further 3 hours but the Fanprojekt had arranged for a special guest to provide the cruise entertainment. Austrian DJ Lorenz Buffel had a Euopop hit with the song Johnny Dapp and he performed his hit a few times, as well as doing a couple of DJ sets, on a party cruise that was absolutely bouncing. More alcohol was consumed, including some weird Cologne beer served in 200ml glasses that was sold in orders of 10 glasses at a time. 

We had 6 busses waiting for us at Dusseldorf river docks to take fans to the ISS Dome for the game against Dusseldorf EG. Unfortunately the busses were slow returning to the docks for their 2nd pick up and we ended up with a police escort (full siren) to the ISS Dome in order to make it to the game before face off. We cleared security with a basic pat down and were in the rink with barely 10 minutes to spare. After the game we walked a couple of miles to a local train station in order to catch a chartered local train back to the main station where we got our Sonderzug special home to Mannheim - a journey that took 5 hours as we finally got home to Mannheim around 1:30 AM.

It was just absolutely mental. I've travelled with the Clan to Belfast, Sheffield, Nottingham, Coventry and Hull and had great trips but nothing compared to the sonderzug. The scale of the trip was awesome. The planning and organising that went into it was crazy. The atmosphere on the journey and in the rink was electric. Anybody who has even a passing interest in European hockey would do well to take in a sonderzug trip at some point.

As these videos show:

 

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Just now, DiegoDiego said:

Poppycock. There was plenty he could have done differently.

How does the coach stop players walking away because they weren't paid on time?

How does the coach find more money to sign better players?

How does the coach force Scott Neil to pay tax?

How does the coach give fans clarity on the utter clusterfuck that is the Edinburgh Capitals?

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1 minute ago, BallochSonsFan said:

How does the coach stop players walking away because they weren't paid on time?

How does the coach find more money to sign better players?

How does the coach force Scott Neil to pay tax?

How does the coach give fans clarity on the utter clusterfuck that is the Edinburgh Capitals?

Nobody's said the coach could change everything about the club, which is, of course, an omnishambles, but to say he has no effect on performances is ridiculous.

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1 minute ago, DiegoDiego said:

Nobody's said the coach could change everything about the club, which is, of course, an omnishambles, but to say he has no effect on performances is ridiculous.

When you're relying on Shegalo as your goaltender? Mike Babcock would struggle to get a performance from the team.

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Just now, BallochSonsFan said:

When you're relying on Shegalo as your goaltender? Mike Babcock would struggle to get a performance from the team.

He's obviously a big part of the problem. If management hadn't been so slow in trying to make a change, therefore missing out on targets and being somewhat stuck with him, then Khristich might still have a job. Unfortunately results suffered and it became clear that Khristich had no idea how to turn things around or improve morale, his post-game interviews become more exasperated with every week. The players leaving actually helped the club as they were (mostly) the ones who weren't up to the task (not that I blame them). I got the distinct impression that Khristich lacked man management skills. Rumours that training since his departure have been far happier affairs seems to reflect that.

I'm not expecting a massive improvement in results under Hay/D'Orazio but hopefully a team with a little more heart. D'Orazio has been excellent with engaging the fans, often the only player to come up to the bar after games, and has been very frank at times. Fixing the shattered bond between club and fans is probably more important than results right now and there's more chance of that happening with D'Orazio than with Khristich still at the helm.

There's a strong likelyhood that Scott Neil will be barred from Caps involvement at board level for five years. If there is a Capitals next season it's likely to be a very different one.

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Wasn't sure if I should start a new thread for this or just hijack this one. Anyway, what do guys on here think about fighting in British hockey? Is it a big reason you watch ice hockey?  Would you still watch if it was taken out of the game? I ask because lately I've been watching the videos uploaded to UK Hockey Fights on youtube. The Elite League fights for the most part seem be spontaneous genuine fights caused by bad hits etc but some seem staged and unnecessary. A lot of the NIHL fights on there seem quite pathetic, lets take off our helmets and skate to centre ice to throw bad punches at each  other while our teams team mates get too close and bang their sticks on the ice, it seems to play well to the fans at that level though.

My main point though. Fighting in UK hockey, good? bad? don't care? 

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23 hours ago, Torpar said:

My main point though. Fighting in UK hockey, good? bad? don't care? 

Don't care. Though in the EIHL I'd take more skill than more fights any day of the week. A lot of it stems from poor officiating. We'll see if a four man system helps (if it does actually go into action as promised).

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On 30/12/2017 at 15:35, DiegoDiego said:

Don't care. Though in the EIHL I'd take more skill than more fights any day of the week. A lot of it stems from poor officiating. We'll see if a four man system helps (if it does actually go into action as promised).

Four man system in the Dundee- Braehead game tomorrow. Toby Craig and Neil Wilson taking charge. 

 

Anyone questioning fighting in hockey should watch the Ice Guardians documentary. I'm all for it. 

 

 

 

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On 30/12/2017 at 22:17, invergowrie arab said:

I enjoy it. I don't recognise any staged or pre-planned fights in the EIHL 

There used to be plenty. I found some of the EIHL characters five-ten years ago embarrassing to watch. Guys like Stefishen and Voth were great entertainment but I didn't know any fans who saw the point in Andrew Sharp. I quite like the balance at the moment.

15 hours ago, invergowrie arab said:

Why is that?

Seems a bit weird to have it in some games and not others.

It's in all games now, a consequence of the Goulakos/Fretter debacle.

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