One Month In

Just over a month in to the 2007/8 season, how are things shaping up so far.

Ryan Shmyr seems to have set out his stall early on and appears to be dropping the gloves at every opportunity. It gets some criticism is some quarters for his hugging style, yet on numerous occasions has really opened things up and given us fight fans some great action. He tussle with Brett Clouthier may have ended with both players being tied up but started with both guys swinging quite freely. Shmyr's tilt with Jeremy Cornish was one of the best fights I have seen in a long time, a classic toe to toe battle. And just this week, Shmyr went toe to toe with Adam Stefishen. (see below) If he can keep this up Panthers are certainly in for an entertaining season and the rest of us can mark their visits to our rinks in our diary's as must see games.


Of last years other top tough guys, Clouthier and Cornish have been relatively quiet while the usual suspects of Voth, Payette and Cruickshank have also been amongst the action. From the new comers, both Stefishen and Lewis standout as most expected and will no doubt be in the mix of things come the end of the season when we are all discussing who have been the top enforcers. It's still early days however, but hopefully things will continue like this over the coming months.

From the hockey side of things, Coventry again seem to be setting the standard and are the early pace setters and team to beat. Behind them there appears to be a lot of parity with both Newcastle and Manchester getting off to great starts while Edinburgh, Basingstoke and more surprisingly Hull all showing considerable improvement from last season. Perhaps the biggest surprise so far is the poor performance of Belfast and Cardiff. In Cardiffs case, being down on players is probably the biggest contribution while in Belfast the general under-performance of many of the team sees them helping Cardiff prop up the table. Indeed many Giants fans would like to see numerous changes including an almost complete overhaul of the defence and netminding.

NHL Premiere - London 2007

Like many hockey fans in the UK, I got my hockey fix this weekend not watching my own team, but at the O2 in London where the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks kicked off the 2007/8 season against the LA Kings.

First, what a great cross section of fans not only from all over the UK but from all over Europe as well as those from the Canada and the US. The majority were there as neutrals, keen at the chance to see some of the worlds best players live in the flesh rather than on a TV screen in the early hours of the morning, which led to a rather strange atmosphere. Out of the rest, the Ducks had a much bigger following than the Kings.

As far as the hockey went, two decent games of hockey. Saturdays match saw the Kings take the honours with a 4-1 win. The Ducks were the better team when both sides were at full strength but failed to make the most of their chances, while Kings Rookie goalie Jonathan Bernier was impressive in his NHL debut. The Kings looked good going forward with some inventive play in the offensive zone and unlike the Ducks took their chances well. Mike Cammalleri was the standout player and well worth his 1st star selection.

Sunday saw a reverse of the previous night with a 4-1 win for the Ducks. The game started a little scrappy with the Kings looking a shadow of the team from the previous night. The Ducks took their chances better than the previous night and were 4-0 up in less than 25 minutes off just 11 shots, Corey Perry standing out with 2+1. Mike Cammalleri pulled one back for the Kings but Ducks rookie goalie Jonas Hiller stood firm as the Kings played more like the team of the previous night.

The biggest cheer of the weekend came part way through the second period. Having had a few minor scuffles that had quickly been broken up by the officials throughout both games, George Parros and Scott Thornton decided to give the fans the entertainment they had been waiting for. A good tussle in which I'd give Thornton the edge.

As a venue, the O2 is superb and other than a small hitch with the lighting before the first game, did a great job of hosting the games. The choice of quality restaurants in the venue is superb, though clearly some better communication is needed somewhere as the restaurant I ate in on Saturday had huge queues and tables not in use because they didn't have enough staff as they didn't think they would be that busy. Perhaps they thought 17000 hockey fans wouldn't be hungry before the game.

For me there was only one negative aspect to the weekend (other than the problems with London's tube system) was the number of empty seats. In the upper tier there were just a handful, to be expected as things like illness do happen. However in the lower tier there were rows of empty seats in prime locations. I would guess these were corporate tickets where people chose not to turn up. Their loss in my opinion as it was great hockey, great venue and an all round great weekend.

The Cornish Conundrum: - Part 2

Before passing judgement on the value of Jeremy the hockey player, I feel it is important to understand two key points in the setup of the EIHL. They are import levels and wage cap.

Teams are limited to ten import players, the rest of the team must be made up of players who played the game at a junior level in the UK. As a general rule teams will use up all ten import slots due to the relatively small talent pool of quality British trained players. However, there are a handful of Brits who can more than hold there own with the top imports in the league. Typically teams rely of the imports to be their key players with the Brits taking lesser roles usually on the third line, as a 5th defenceman or back-up goalie. However, if you have a top Brit on your team, you have the luxury of having one of your key player slots taken without the use of one of your ten import slots. So you can have a top notch import on your third line rather than an average Brit.

But wait, remember I said there were two key points to look at. Remember teams have a wage cap, a maximum amount of money they can pay out in players wages. Now if you were a Tait or Longstaff would you be willing to play for the same money as an average third line Brit or would you want similar money to the key imports in the league? So if the top Brits are paid like imports (only fair) that means you can either play an import down or get a lower budget import for the third line. Taking the second option is likely to mean you get someone who won't be lighting up the red light every night or making dazzling end to end rushes or Gretzky like passes. Your far more likely to a role player. Does the basics well and fills a role within the team. A player such as Jeremy Cornish.

So, for a team like Sheffield where they have two quality British forwards in Ashley Tait and Jonathon Phillips the option of a third line, role playing import is a reality. For those that say it is a waste of an import slot, I ask you this. Assuming the money is available for a higher quality import (unlikely but lets pretend it is), would a higher quality import be happy playing a role on the third line when they have the talent for the first or second line? I believe this was one issue Steelers coach Dave Matsos had in filling that slot, players didn't want to play on the third line, except Cornish.

Remove one of the top Brits from the line up, then yes I would agree it would be a waste of an import slot as it would mean using an average Brit on the top two lines with the expectation of scoring more points than they are likely to. You have to remember ice hockey is a team sport and its the best team that wins championships, not necessarily the best players. So despite not being the best hockey player, if Cornish can play a role that makes the team a better team, then surely he is worth his import slot. For those of you still not convinced, take this hypothetical scenario. If Tait were an import and Cornish a Brit, would Cornish be worthy of a place on the team? After all, if the team is playing well, as long as teams stick to the import limits, does it really matter where the individual players are from.

So, we've established that despite his limited hockey skill, on the right team Cornish can fill the role of enforcer. And while I'm sure there will always be plenty of disagreement of how good and enforcer/fighter he is, he certainly adds to the entertainment value both on the ice and in the discussion that takes place off it.

The Cornish Conundrum: - Part 1

Two words bound to bring up a discussion that will nearly always lead to two very distinct camps when mentioned on most hockey forums on the internet, Jeremy Cornish. When discussing the Steelers enforcer there seems to be very little middle ground. Fans seem to either huge admirers or vocal detractors. But why?

As this is a fight site, it is perhaps best to start off with what Jeremy is best known for, his fighting/enforcing ability.

It is perhaps in this area of his game where the difference in opinion between his admirers and detractors is very little, but still enough to cause some heated debate. His admirers would sometimes have us believe that he is a near unbeatable enforcer, capable of beating anyone and everyone with his lightning fast fists. His detractors focus on his losses, which although not many, have been at times brutal. And while they rate him as one of the better enforcers in the league they feel he is overrated. So which is the real Jeremy Cornish? For that, I feel we have to find that middle ground.

First off, the negatives. There aren't really that many, the main one being his chin. On more than one occasion Cornish has had to pick himself up of the ice after being TKO'd by his opponent, perhaps most notably last season when he was found wanting by Robin Gomez twice in the same match. Another blot on his copy book would be against Shawn Skiehar, hardly noted as being a great fighter but another TKO against Cornish. Losses to Mel Angelstad and Wade Belak also mark his card, but both of these players are in a different class to the majority of enforcers to have played in the UK, so Cornish shouldn't be marked down too much by this and his loss to Ryan Shmyr has been somewhat made up for in their subsequent fights. Clearly from these loses we can see he is very beatable by top enforcers and caught with a decent shot he can be put down. But then he's hardly the only one. Even the best come up short sometimes. Dennis Vial was dropped in dramatic style by Mike Ware only for Ware to be dropped twice by Vial in the rematch. So if can happen to two of the best enforcers we have had in the UK, surely it can happen to others too. Even Bob Probert lost a few times in his career.

So Cornish has had his fair share of losses, but given he has around 40 fights under his belt in the UK at times when the likes of Belak, Angelstad, Brett Clouthier and Eric Cairns have also been playing that would to be expected. But what about the rest of his fights? The general consensus seems to be that he wins the majority and while when you look through the names there may not be that many top heavyweights, most of the big name enforcers in the UK are on the list. And as the saying goes, you can only beat what is put in front of you.

So, where does this leave us. Clearly Cornish is beatable and has been on numerous occasions, but for the last three years he has consistently beaten the majority of his opponents. So while he may never have be top of the pile for enforcers in the UK, he has certainly always been up there with the best.

In part two, I will look at Cornish the player and ask whether or not he is worth an import slot in the EIHL.

Fight Night in Sheffield

My first fix of hockey action of the season was last night when the Nottingham Panthers came to town. A great game of hockey which ended 4-2 in favour of the Steelers, plus two fights, Munn V McAslan and Cornish V Shmyr. Videos of both are below, but I was sat near the back so not great. I am guessing the footage Sky will have tonight will be better.

New Season Kicks off with a Bang

Well, this time last week, I had planned on putting together some form of season preview only for work commitments to get in the way. To do one now, given we have had the first weekend of competitive action seems a bit silly. So instead I'll give a quick breakdown of what I plan for the site this season.

First, I won't be compiling fight logs again. This process can be quite time consuming to keep everything up to date and I can't guarantee being able to keep it up to date and would rather do nothing than make a half-hearted attempt.

I will be continuing to put the old fight cards and logs on to the site and where possible provide video footage for these fights to serve as an archive of sorts. On top of this I plan to add any video footage of this seasons fights to the video vault section that get posted on the various video sites and forums.

Finally, I will post my thoughts on the season as it goes with a focus on the more physical aspects of the game for you all to digest, pull apart and disagree with however you see fit.

So to kick things off, here are some links to some of this weekends fights. Plenty of action from the big boys with most of the top names in action at the weekend.

08/09/07 - Shmyr V Clouthier
08/09/07 - Lewis V Stefishen
08/09/07 - Cornish V Voth
09/09/07 - Payette v Shmyr

Enjoy!

Darby V Cornish - 17/02/07

In Sheffield, Regan Darby took exception to a hit on Dan Tessier from Jeremy Cornish and the two decided to dance. Good on Darby for stepping up to the plate, though Cornish seemed rather disinterested in fighting for the most part, leading to a relatively poor fight. See below.

(Video by YouTube user lockedandready)
Also, in Hull, the Stingrays hosted (and pasted, on the scoreboard at least) the Giants. Fight wise, Gomenyuk V Awada and Demone V Skiehar.

Site Update

You may have noticed the site looks a little different, a bit strange since I am no longer updating it.

Well, I had some time recently to try and get things a little more how I had always wanted them, and this is the first update. There is still quite a bit to do. The fight cards are currently missing as I am giving them a re-vamp which is quite a lengthy process and I don't want to upload any until they are all done. The fight logs are on-line however including managing to get some of the data that was lost when the old forum crashed making 2004/5 complete.

The biggest change is the inclusion of video for fights where I have it. Just look in the fight logs and click the link next to the relevant fight. Also check out the "Video Vault" where there are videos of fights which weren't called as such by the referee.

The forum still links to the hockeyfightsuk forum so if you haven't already joined, click the link and register, the more the merrier.

There will be more updates though exactly when I can't say as the time I have to spend on the site is limited. I am planning on adding comments options for each fight video along with polls to vote who you think won plus of course getting the fight cards updated and putting the Hall of Fame online. Please be patient.
If you think you have anything you can contribute to the site, please get in touch through the forum (my user name is IceWars, now there's a surprise), particularly if you have any video's or interviews I can use.

One last note, the search box on the left works perfectly well for web searches, but in the short term won't find anything through the site search until Google re-indexes the site. Hopefully this will happen relatively soon.