From Abu Dhabi to Edinburgh

Dougie signals a 'T' meaning ten goals please

After almost two years away covering the Abu Dhabi hockey league I have returned to the UK for a flying visit before trekking on to the United States to work on an expose on the dangers of hitting to the head in the National Hockey League but why, we, as a blood thirsty society, love to see someone 'get their bell rung' anyway.

Abu Dhabi was a hell of an experience for those 600+ days I spent with my toes in the sand. The hockey out there is a different breed altogether. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it is indeed the toughest hockey league in the entire sport - you wouldn't believe how hard it is to skate in sand ... actually, maybe you would.

Anyway, on my flying visit to the UK I'll be in Scotland to watch the Belfast Giants take on the might of the Edinburgh Capitals. The last time I took in a British Elite League game involving the Edinburgh Capitals, it was against Nottingham, and they were shit then too, though they still beat Nottingham. So it comes as no great shock for me to see them rooted to the bottom of the EIHL table with a record so bad they make Justin Bieber's latest record look good.

15 points in 45 games with the kind of scoring record that not even a Jewish prostitute in my beloved Abu Dhabi would be proud of ... and I would know. They are conceding an average of 7.13 goals per game which should make them about as serious of a threat to the Belfast Giants this weekend as Brad Voth is to the fair play award. Their 580 penalty minutes as a team combined are the kind of numbers Paxton Schulte would put up in a passive season by himself.

Anyway, Giants head honcho Doug Christiansen is taking them serious with the knowledge that the Giants fans will be calling for his head if his team fails to notch up double figures in scoring.

"We won’t be taking them lightly, despite their short bench right now. We want to get in there and go to work, just like we would any other night," he claimed to a pack of respected, top quality journalists and myself, while eyeing each of us to see if we were actually buying what he was trying to sell.

In all the Giants will face the Capitals and Stingrays on the road this weekend were anything but four points, twenty goals and two cases of Tennents will do.

***

The British Elite Division?

For the production of this blog entry I had to study the league table on the Elite League website. While on there I noticed a few strange notes that have me wondering if their is a new side to the Elite League that has sprung up since I left for the Middle East? According to their website a team with an 'X' beside their name have clinched a playoff position, while a team with a 'Y' next to their name have clinched first-place in the division.

The division?

Hold up! While Sheffield, Belfast and Cardiff are battling it out for the league title I wasn't aware that in winning it they were simply taking the divisional honours. Would I be wrong in assuming that there is therefore another table full of teams making up some parallel division? In winning this division is there promotion to some higher division? Or maybe there is some parallel universal division? I don't know but the implications are mind-blowing for one who until moments ago thought that those in the table on the Elite League website were the only teams in the Elite League at all. That the EIHL website doesn't mention the other division is odd, and something I may have to return from the United States in a week or so's time to investigate.

A Message To You Blackie

It takes a lot to wake the Snow Plough from hibernation. I mean even the hilarity of Andre Payette being made a coach in Sheffield wasn't enough to bring us out of our nice warm bed.

But then something was brought to my attention, A hilarious letter to Neil Black dictating how the Panthers fans are unhappy to still be in the top half, nay, top four of the league table, in the Challenge Cup final and more financially sound than the countries own economy.

So in the spirit of letter writing;

Dear Mr Black,

It is with regret that I feel it necessary to contact you directly to outline my outright adulation at the situation at Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey Club. If you wish to discuss any aspect of this letter with me personally you may not do so as I feel this to be only a sporting opinion held by myself, I have no means to claim it to be the opinion of any other fan across the wider UK hockey world and by no means consider myself to be any sort of a spokesman.

Whilst I have written this letter personally I have also asked if any other fans agree with the points I have made to indicate that agreement via the petitionsonline.co.uk website. This bares no onus on the content of the letter, nor provide any weight to the theories placed in the letter, however, for your own amusement you can see the results via the following link: http://tinyurl.com/sexyneilson

I am unsure you are aware of the current strength of feeling of a large majority of the fans across UK Hockey, I certainly don’t, as I have said already I do not consider myself any form of a self appointed spokesman. I do personally feel, however, that the club cannot move forward unless both Corey Neilson and Gary Moran are relieved of their duties at the club.

For this reason I implore you to retain their services indefinitely.

With reference to Corey’s position I do not think it can be denied that he is a dedicated man who has given the Panthers many years of loyal service, my thoughts, though long established, do not tarnish my belief that Corey has tried his best at every juncture both as a player and as a coach. That said it is clear something, as we stand now, is very wrong. The results, and moreover the performances on the ice show that to be the case.

However as fans of sporting clubs you are expected to ‘take the rough with the smooth’, a theory lost on many who seemingly believe in a divine right to glory. The purchase of a game ticket provides you entry to a period of sporting entertainment. I am not so naïve as to deny there to be an element of emotional attachment; however in the last few weeks you will have encountered many fans who have mistaken this attachment for a means of over-inflated involvement, expectation and outright demand for improvement at not only an on-ice personnel level, but more outrageously a business level also.

I was present in Belfast when Nottingham players, broke the curfew set for the entire roster. I believe this showed a complete lack of respect for us the fans, their teammates but also, more worryingly, a similar lack of respect for Corey. This took place in a public bar among a large selection of Panthers fans, who I myself witnessed purchase drinks for the players and encourage them to continue their fraternisation beyond said curfew time. Other fans present, who subsequently complained about the situation at hand, made no attempt to question the players judgement, or challenge them on their activities prior to a big game.

While I will not attempt to patronise you on the internal discipline methods of the Nottingham Panthers, and not expect, as some have, a public flogging that would satisfy a small selection of the teams own fans, while highly entertain myself and possibly the wider community, I would ask that you continue to run the club in the manner you see fit.

It is clear there have been requests from within your own fan-base to relieve Mr Neilson from his position forthwith, subsequently “sending a message” of a changed culture. I would, again, implore you to allow these pleas to fall on deaf ears. You are an experienced business man and one who is aware that rule by committee, especially in this case, can be disastrous. You need only look toward St James Park, and the initial changes made at the behest of the fanbase that were a contributing factor to the demise of a once great football club.

As much as a similar demise would entertain, the joy provided by, what has been seemingly dubbed, in social network circles, as #SexyNeilsonHockey is one I believe, would provide a greater good to all.

A more controversial belief but one some genuinely hold is that Gary Moran is a huge part of the reason the club is not achieving the success its resources should elicit. I personally find this quite a poor attempt to undermine not only the current internal business model of the Nottingham Panthers, one that has reportedly seen your team become one of the more ‘profitable’ teams in the country, but also a direct slight on your own recruitment machinations. They seem to feel your own business approach to recruitment unfit for their needs. What right they have to hold this I am wholly unsure, but to pay any attention to the overly emotional ramblings would be an utter mistake.

The media output from the club is, in my opinion, awful for a club with the self-moniker as ‘the biggest in the league’. This is not surprising however to continue in this vain and retain the high attendance numbers the NIC regularly sees shows that something is going very right in the organisation. Either that, or there are a lot of very gullible people in Nottingham, prime for the milking.

There is also a huge level of annoyance amongst the fans at the perceived ‘spin’ that is applied to anything which comes out from the club. Wholly understandable given recent events and results. To purvey a negative club status would be ridiculous if the aim is to bring in new fans and new revenue streams. Another fact missed by the spokesmen who believe themselves to be acting on behalf of the entire NIC faithful. Which of course they do not.

Ultimately the success of the Nottingham Panthers off ice, and the relative success on the ice, with the recent demolition of the Newcastle Vipers, a means to waltzing into the Challenge Cup Final, has not seemed to be enough to those "loyal fans" who believe they are entitled to more of a say in the running of a club they merely pay a ticket to watch.

Though the ultimate prize of a league championship evades the Panthers organisation, the hard work done to keep it as one of the countries few ice hockey franchises in the black (if you pardon the pun), in a sport that loses teams to financial obscurity on a regular basis displays utter pomposity, a delusion of grandeur and most of all a misunderstanding of what sport is.

Were I in your shoes Mr Black, should a campaign be successful in retrieving high numbers of Panthers fans looking for a change at board level in order to gain what they believe to be success, I would leave them to it and focus my finances above the border, in a team who are already grateful to exist, a fan base who understand what sport is and how lucky they are to have the opportunity to watch it, and most of all, will not turn on the organisation, its board and its coach even when the team is enjoying success that other franchises can currently only dream of.

Please do not contact me if you wish to discuss anything, whether contained in this letter or not, in more detail.

I wish you luck.

Yours Faithfully,


Derek White