I am a 22 year old Coventry Blaze Ice Hockey fan that regularly travels to home and away games. Throughout this season I will post monthly updates on the club and a diary of my travels including.
THE SEASON SO FAR
After mixed results pre-season, including a disappointing Charity Shield loss to Belfast and a good win against the impressive Dutch League Champions, Tilburg the 2010/11 season started poorly for the Coventry Blaze with 4 losses from the opening 4 games. There were some very worried Blaze fans due to team strength/depth (see below), individual/team performances and of course results. Added to the on ice problems, some (me included) were questioning how much the Blaze's takeover of the Hull Stingrays would drain the club's finances, time and resources.
However in every sport one game or performance can turn things around. In late September the struggling Dundee Stars visited The Skydome and it proved to be a turning point for the Elite League Champions. The Blaze issued a 9-2 hammering to the Leagues newest addition. Although with all respect to the Stars it was against arguably the League's poorest ever side it seemed to install the belief into the club's players, management structure and supporters that we could not only win but demolish a team once again.
Ever since that night the team has gone from strength to strength and despite losing two in the Cup the team have achieved a club record 10 straight league wins. This is not only down to the new sense of belief at the club but also down to the players finally gelling as a team. We have been playing well the majority of the time such as the emphatic wins against The Devils, Vipers, Capitals and Steelers. During this time even when we have been poor such as the Shootout win at the Clan and the 3-2 win against the Stars we have managed to grind out those wins which we couldn't do a few weeks ago. The best win of all came at the Skydome against the table topping Giants. Blaze were 2-0 up but backs to the wall and 6 Giants on the attack due to Murphy being pulled. The team's D men excellently withheld a 20 minute 3rd period onslaught where the puck rarely ventured past our Blue line and out of our defensive 3rd. The team achieved a shut out and this was down to excellent defending by amongst others Weaver, Zanon & Lee and very good glove work by Jaeger.
ARRIVALS
As I mentioned previously the team took several games to gel with numerous new players arriving in the Summer. These included: Sean Selmser, Brett Jaeger, Brad Zanon, Owen Fussey and Jeff Smith who were all followed by the October addition of Rob Farmer.
Once gelled the new signings have shown that they are all worthwhile additions. Farmer, Selmser and Fussey have lived up to expectations. The same can be said for Smith who before his current knee injury was proving to be the most feared and imposing D-man in the league clocking up countless penalty minutes. However of the newbies two have stood out above all the others. Zanon has been consistently strong at the back & going forward and is yet to have bad game. The other is netminder, Jaeger. In the Shootout win at Braehead he pulled off numerous point-blank saves in regulation & overtime and two outstanding stops in the Shootout. One night later at home against Dundee, Brett pulled off a save that some are saying is one of the best ever seen in any league (NHL included). I know its early days but in my opinion he is as good, if not better than previous Blaze keepers Jody Lehman and Trevor Koenig.
DEPARTED
Key departures from the Blaze bench were: Long serving duo Tom Watkins & Danny Stewart and charismatic netminder Peter Hirsch, all three were major losses for the team. Without any doubt though our biggest loss was Adam Calder - Blaze skipper and the all-time highest goal scorer for not only the Blaze but in The Elite League too. Adam very rarely scored an unimportant goal. An example of what kind of player he was, was last season away at The Capitals in the penultimate game of the season. It was simple, if the Blaze won they won the league, a loss would mean a title decider against The Giants 24 hours later. A goal down with just 28 seconds left AC stepped up to score his 2nd of the night to take it into overtime. In overtime he was there again with a hatrick goal to win the league. This is what he did best. When he scored it was normally when no-one else in our team could. So far this season there has been numerous occasions when the team have been lacking someone like Calder to score that pressure goal, save the game and send it into overtime.
RETAINED
I now feel all of the players retained from last season, apart from one individual (mentioned below) are improving game by game and are now consistently showing us why we won last years title with regular solid performances. One in particular, is Matt Soderstrom. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that towards the end of last season i was worried for him and I didn't think he would be retained. Although he was worth a place in the team no-one, Matty included would have had much to complain about if he had been cut, but so far so good for Matty this term. Most players of his age struggle to keep performing at the same level year after year. Matt isn't staying at the same level, he's actually improving! He has more than proved that Thommo and Peasey were right to keep him on board.
The individual I briefly mentioned earlier is Greg Chambers. Sometimes Chubbs has been a little bit inconsistent this season taking too much time in front of goal on several occasions, thus wasting goal scoring opportunities and tending to lose the puck too easily in the neutral zone. However he has been subject to unfair comments by many supporters. More often than not he has shown us what he can do. What most supporters don't see is what he brings to the team when he is not in possession of the puck. His movement is very good and gets himself into positions that he has no right to be in. I believe he more than deserves his place in the side and if I was a player I would sooner be playing alongside him rather than against him.
THE BLAZING TRAVELS PLAYER OF THE SEASON SO FAR IS....
Equal Votes for Zanon, Soderstrom and Jaeger
IN SUMMARY
After a shakey start we are now a force again but cover is needed for Smith.
NOVEMBER FIXTURES
Braehead Clan - 7th (Home)
Hull Stingrays - 13th (Away)
Hull Stingrays - 14th (Home)
Edinburgh Capitals - 16th (Away)
Nottingham Panthers - 20th (Away)
Braehead Clan - 21st (Home)
Liepajas Metalurgs - 26th (Away)
Cracovia Krakow - 27th (Away)
Rouen Dragons - 28th (Away)
MY SEASON SO FAR
BEST PLAYER
Brett Jaeger
BEST TEAM PERFORMANCE
Blaze 2 - 0 Giants - 24/10/10
MOST DISAPOINTING PERFORMANCE
Steelers 4 - 1 Blaze - 23/10/10
BEST AWAY TRIP SO FAR
Clan - 30/10/10
MILES TRAVELLED
1,569
COST (TICKETS, TRAVEL AND FOOD & DRINK)
£490