playoff fever...

Currently listening to: Xavier Rudd - Messages

The other weekend we joined about 10,500 people at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham for the elite league's playoff final weekend.

Jo, Raj and I headed over on Friday so that we'd not miss any of the games, the first one was 3pm on Saturday and the hotel rooms are never ready for us to check into on time.

We checked out the shops on Friday, and didn't do much but drink coffee and eat burgers!

Later on shiny Sarah, Bill, Lu and the rest arrived. We had some very nice pizza from Amigos, a few drinks in the Pit and Pendulum laced with Nigel's legendary Berry juice and then we were off to bed.
"The Pit" is a fantastically gothic little establishment near the city centre of Nottingham. They had an interesting addition to their washrooms this year, a singing guy dispensing soap and singing songs that he made up like "freshen up, freshen up" and "hygiene is top banana". It was true class, you just slip him a quid or so and he sprays your hands with some spray soap then offers you some kitchen roll followed by a choice of aftershave. The guy sang some more explicit songs, but I ain't posting them for all to see!

Saturday we got up and went to get our usual feed in Squares, (a nice sports bar in the city centre). Shiny Sarah had no ID and so we couldn’t get in to buy lunch. Thing was we were a clear hour and a bit early to buy alcohol so I don’t see what the problem was. We headed off down to the Hard Rock Cafe instead, then off to the arena.

Sheffied Steelers were playing the Cardiff Devils. It was a draw, but Sheffield won on penalties. You can see the last one go in below:

(for the video, click this link)

The Belfast Giants played the Newcastle Vipers later that day. It was nastly. Nuff said.

We all went out after defeat for more pizza, and off to bed after discussing neighbours and many other things.
The Giants were out of the playoffs, we found ourselves in a quandary: who do we support for the final?

Traditionally speaking we would have supported the Cardiff Devils. Their fans were always of good humor and supported us in previous playoff finals. The Steelers were being coached, just for the playoffs, by our former coach Dave Whistle and their fans seemed to have had a personality transplant (for the better).

We ended up supporting the Steelers. It felt dirty and wrong, but we were doing it for coach Whis and not for the sake of their scummy general manager who takes digs at our guys on a regular basis in the press.

Long and the short of it was that the Steelers lost in the final, Newcastle Vipers clinched it.

I was a little underimpressed to watch the final as an event. The hockey was ok, but the atmosphere was not really there, there was no "big show" feel to the event like there was in the old days when Dave allen or Elia Montgomery and I were involved. Don't get me wrong, I don't know if I could have done better, but it felt to me like there was no real build up. The games started all weekend without any real pizaz. (if that is even a word).

The music was inappropriate at times. (they played 'Danny boy' as our national anthem!) The support wasn't really there even though there were lots of bums on seats. There was no carnival atmosphere, probably due to the lack of "playoff village" that has been there in years past. (That was just was just a collection of stalls and good natured hockey folk trying to make you part with money for their dodgy merchandise.)

The one thing that didn't fail to impress me though was the Giants support. Even though we were given an early bath the Giants folks partied hard. We took defeat graciously, we supported an old arch-enemy, we stuck with them even as they lost. We all went to the pub and made Nottingham a more exciting place for a while. (I hear one of them even streaked through the lobby of the hotel we were in!)
On Monday we all had the playoff blues. We missed shiny and Lu going off early for their flight, dragged ourselves through the day and were kept alive with coffee and cake.

We nearly missed the flight home as the 10-or-so-seater taxi turned up very late. We did make it home eventually though, and now the long hockey-less summer begins.

Time to start rumors again. lets see: Jimmi (the owner) told me in the strictest confidence that he will employ dancing girls for the locker rooms next year. (honest, no really).

Eesh, that will be the most sensible thing i'll make up. Cue random hockey people coming to me and saying, as if it were gospel, that something totally unbelievable will happen like, i don't know, an NHL allstar will be signing for us next year. I guess stranger things have happened!

(time taken to post - about 2 weeks)