Love, war, work and ice hockey

I’ve never made a secret in this blog of having another sporting love apart from ice hockey – football. I grew up in Sunderland-supporting territory so it was only natural that they’d become my team of choice. We’ve been through thick and thin together, me and Sunderland – promotion, relegation, 15 point humiliation, sacked managers, golden boot legends, a new stadium, derby games, Roy Keane...and for one mental season I had a season ticket despite living 200 miles away, working full time and studying for a professional marketing qualification – all at the same time. Highs that would give you a nosebleed and lows that literally made me swear I’d never set foot in the stadium again (about a fortnight before I bought that season ticket).

So it’s been a long and very full-on relationship. But I have been unfaithful. I’ve been sneaking out on a Saturday night, to see my new love. There have even been times when I’ve missed the second half of a Sunderland game because I’d arranged an assignation. That’s when it got kind of difficult to hide my fling. But it wasn’t just a fling any more – soon after we started seeing each other, just over a year ago, it was like flicking a switch – on Saturday nights I couldn’t wait to get down to the rink for the game.

I came clean about my relationship with ice hockey, and it became an ‘open relationship’ between me, football and hockey. My friends and family have to put up with the fact that Saturday nights are reserved for going to the rink, and social appointments are rarely booked without me checking Lightning’s fixture list first. And as my friends will testify I’m as likely to blather on about how the weekend’s hockey as I am about football or F1 these days. My replica shirt is now a Lightning one, not a Sunderland one.

Football got too far up its own backside...a “working class game” where players are paid more in a week than most people get in a year, their every move is captured in celeb magazines as much as for the sports pages, players publicly slag off supporters who spend a fortune following them, and you can have an English club without a single Englishman on the pitch, and an England team without an English manager.

In contrast, you don’t need a second mortgage to buy a match ticket for ice hockey, budgets are capped, supporters help pay players’ salaries, the number of foreign players is limited, and the game in general gets so little media coverage that you could pass players in the street and not even know it (although I did see Nick Poole in M&S last summer remembered quite quickly where I’d seen him before...even without all the padding and helmet!) And hockey arguably does more to get close to its supporters – ‘Meet the Players’ pre-season and the end of season awards dinner where supporters and players mix, as they do in the bar after games – how often does THAT happen in football?

One of my longest-standing friends told me recently, “You’re married to football – ice hockey is just a passing flirtation”. Sorry Drew – wrong. In mid-December, football and I decided on a separation. It’s amicable though and we’ll still see each other for a catch-up occasionally. What prompted the move was my relationship with Lightning taking a step forward. Whilst I’m a relative newcomer to ice hockey, I’ve been involved in marketing for a long time. A recent headline in one of the local free papers made me see red; for a sport where the number of bums on seats is crucial in relation to the income available for team development and even survival, a negative headline can be downright damaging to the club’s profile. I’d been mulling it over for a while then got in touch with the club and offered to help. My day job involves marketing and PR for an industrial manufacturer – while it pays for shoes and handbags and I enjoy working out what makes people buy, the subject matter’s not what you’d call exciting...at least if I can apply the same skills to promoting Lightning and their image I’ll be dealing with a subject I love!!

When the confirmation came that I was on the team, the work started immediately – Nick challenged me to get a press release out previewing that weekend’s game against Phoenix. Big game, big challenge – but after a lot of research, wondering how many Christmassy clichés I could reasonably include, and a late night at my laptop it was done, approved, sent out to local media two days before the game and up onto the club website (thankyou Mary and Karen!)

On the lunchtime of that match, I sat in the hairdressers hearing how the Manchester area had been deluged with snow overnight, and tapped some text for a ‘game cancelled’ press release into my iphone to email the club for approval, in case Phoenix didn’t get to us for whatever reason. The Met Office said the MK area would only get snow flurries from the edge of a snow belt that would trouble the M4 corridor far more - but better to have a statement ready and not needed, than need it and not have one. It turned out to be time well spent as six inches of snow was subsequently dumped on MK in five hours and the game was called off. (There was, however, a ‘virtual’ game on the MKIH forum where Lightning beat the Mancs by about 9 million goals, Pucky scored three hat-tricks from the crow’s nest and Smults had to wrestle Dubbsie out of the zamboni after running over Joy Tottman).

So my first few days on the MKL team was a bit ‘tales of the unexpected’, but as the saying goes, if you love what you do, you never have to ‘work’ again and I’m looking forward to more! Admittedly as someone who was recently stressing because I couldn’t understand some of the rules, I’ve got a lot to learn in a very short time – it’s going to be a rollercoaster, but Let’s Go Lightning!!

Past (and present) imperfect

I’ve not made a secret of the fact that I’m a relative newcomer to watching the beautiful game of ice hockey – and my pen name kind of gives that away. My other half and son have been watching hockey in MK since the Kings days, our boy getting into it in an even bigger way when he saw some games in Austria. I still can’t explain why I was the only one of the three of us who never got into it, but since I fell in love with the game last season I’m regretting not doing it sooner. I’d love to have seen the birth and rise of Lightning to the stage they’re at today. I’d love to have the knowledge you get from years of watching the game. But I know I can’t turn back the clock, all I can do is keep watching and learning, and lean on the experience of those who DO have the knowledge already.

In some ways I don’t help myself. While I’m nowhere near blind as a bat and can survive without them, I can see much better with my contact lenses, especially at distances (like from one side of an ice rink to the other......) But for last Saturday’s game against the Wildcats I totally forgot them after a mad dash from an afternoon out with the girls and our friends Mr Pinot and Mr Grigio. It just meant that action and players at the far end of the rink were a bit fuzzy...and I’m not just talking about Monir’s stubble.

On the way into the rink I bought my copy of Topshelf from Clive, who issued me with a challenge: my next column (ie this one) should include an assessment of the ref, Blaine Evans. Now me doing an assessment of any ref would always be one hell of a challenge, mostly because I struggle to spot a lot of infringements and twig what any given penalty or stoppage was actually for, let alone whether or not it was a fair call. And that was the cause of most of my frustration on Saturday: partly because of the fuzzy vision and partly because I’m still getting to grips with the game and rules, I still couldn’t understand some of the stoppages or just didn’t see them. I know why Muzzy and Foord ended up in the penalty box but didn’t catch who started it, or if there’d been any niggling before – if you’re trying to follow the action where the puck is, how do you keep an eye on off-puck niggling as well? Assessment of the ref? Not a cat in hell’s chance!! (Although I now know there was more to it than just the 'challenge' as some peeps had had a sweepstake on how late the game would finish - it seems our ref that night has a reputation for not exactly allowing a game to flow.....)

By the final period what was really bugging me was some of the rules. Yes I’m a girl but I do understand the hockey offside rule (if they’d stop tweaking the football equivalent, I might stand a chance). And I just about understand icing – even though apparently it doesn’t apply when your team is short-handed. Or if certain other players touch the puck at some point. Or if there’s an ‘e’ in that day of the week and/or a new moon. Actually I thought I understood it the other week until those “icing infringements” were given out. I’m told it was something to do with one of the linesmen saying it wasn’t icing so line changes were started, then the ref said it WAS icing and spotted the line change, so applied penalties. In which case why didn’t the ref confer with the lino?

But where I really got confused were a couple of incidents in particular. One was when Muzzy headed to the penalty box, proud owner of a 2+2 after his spat with Foord, followed shortly afterwards by Jamo for high sticks. But when I counted shortly afterwards, we had four players icing, rather than the three I’d expected, and the penalty count-downs I’d expected to see on the scoreboard weren’t there. How on earth’s a newcomer supposed to understand it when, on the face of it, the rules certainly look like they’re applied fairly randomly?!

The other strange thing was when it looked to me like Mettsy was being taken off, so I expected Barry to go on. Wrong!! Apparently (stop me if I’m wrong) it’s because the oppo have made an infringement but Lightning were in possession – the oppo wouldn’t touch the puck because the ref would blow for a delayed penalty, so Lightning took advantage by swapping our nettie for another player. Is that right? Or has my mind totally mangled that? Surely the oppo weren’t going to back off completely for long enough for that player change to (a) be considered, (b) happen, and (c) make a difference? (Haha, Nick, Smults and Carrsy with their coaching and skipper's experience have precisely nothing to fear from me and my tactical knowledge!!)

I probably drove both my other half and the boy mad with all my questions, particularly in the third period (Andy can’t have been THAT mad at me, he just started laughing at me at one point...) Hubs said even though he’s been watching since the Kings days, even he doesn’t understand some of the rules, he just enjoys the game for what he DOES understand and doesn’t worry about the rest of it. And talking on Saturday to someone very closely involved with the club, even HE said he doesn’t understand some of the game! So maybe there’s hope for me yet. Trouble is, my usual way of doing things - and what I do at work (another male-dominated, very technical environment) is to get ‘under the skin’ of what I’m learning about and try to understand as much as I can. So it’d be really frustrating to just accept that there are some rules I don’t understand, ignore them and enjoy the game ‘for what it is’.

But back to what actually happened in the game (technicalities aside – if you want proper match reports written by people who know what they’re talking about, see the MK Citizen or Topshelf fanzine – just finish reading this bit first!) Grant wasn’t icing but looked quite happy and animated on the bench. And unless it’s my fuzzy eyesight, he’s starting to remind me of Matt Bellamy from Muse. Swindon scored first (boo!), Britts equalised then Farny got us ahead with his first goal of the season (yay!) The second period seemed to go a bit scrappy, neither side seeming to want to put their foot down and pull away – everyone woke up when Muzzy and Foord dropped the gloves for the best scrap we’ve seen in a little while – Tony Sargeant took some brilliant photos which will hopefully be on the team website soon (technology issues afoot, apparently). Carrsy got two goals in three minutes in the last period, one of Lukas’s many shots from the blue line finally went in, and Monir scored as well, to make it 6-2.

Sunday afternoon and the lads took a trip up the A1 to Peat Bog Horror. Unnoticed by me at least, Gary Clarke retired injured late in the game on Saturday and managed only 10 minutes of the warm up on Sunday before conceding defeat to his injury. I didn’t make it to the game but the fact that the final score was only 2-1 in Potty’s favour suggests to me at least that whilst Lightning couldn’t take the points, they didn’t exactly lie down and make it easy for Morgs and Co. A big disappointment for the lads to lose to our local rivals but it wasn’t a rout by any means. Every cloud...etc etc.

Remember it's a back-to-front schedule at the Thunderdome this week, and fingers crossed for another home win to rattle Randall and the Bees! They put up more of a fight than we were expecting last time they visited, so hopefully the lads can stuff 'em good and proper this time. Let's go, Lightning!!

Ice cold emotions running red hot

Ice hockey’s never struck me as a sport to get particularly ‘emotional’ about – it’s about big, rough ‘n’ ready, ‘built-like-a-brick-sh*thouse players’ (Messrs Poole, Kalgoum, Smulter and Zatopek may wish to ask their UK counterparts to explain that phrase), shoving each other into the plexiglass and trying to hack the opposition's legs off using hockey sticks. An undoubtedly physical game yes, partisan and passionate - but emotional?

Ice hockey in Milton Keynes has had its fair share of dramas, back in the days when MK Kings folded/morphed into the MK-Solihull combo, and the subsequent birth of the team we all know and love, MK Lightning. In the summer Sheffield Scimitars folded then re-emerged as the Steeldogs; but as anyone who’s attended any of their home games will have seen, paying supporters aren’t exactly attending in huge numbers. They're obviously going to be paying Andre Payette in chocolate buttons.

Using Newcastle as an example, in a city where some 50,000 regularly pay £20-£30 to watch their team in the top tier of English football, their team in ice hockey’s top tier struggles to get a decent number of supporters to pay £13 to watch the game we love, played at warp speed.

Here comes the history lesson: In the 1980’s, Durham Wasps were massive. I lived in the north-east until ’86 and although I didn’t follow the sport, even I knew what a huge reputation the Wasps had. Formed in 1947, the team pretty much dominated their league for most of the 80’s. In the 90’s, Sir John Hall – the then owner of Newcastle United – decided to form ‘Sporting Club Newcastle’, comprising United as well as the city’s rugby and basketball teams, as well as Durham Wasps. As local sporting allegiences go, if you live in or near Durham it’s pretty much 50-50 whether you’d support Sunderland or Newcastle – so to many Sunderland supporters like me, there was a feeling that Sir John was cheeky buying the Wasps to bolster his evil Geordie empire. To this day there are some former Wasps fans who want nothing to do with the Vipers.

They moved to Sunderland temporarily then to the brand new Newcastle Arena; a subsequent combination of problems with the ice plant, a lack of available ice time, and huge fees charged by Arena management prompted a move to Whitley Bay nearly 10 miles away, which as I’ve mentioned previously isn’t the most modern or accessible venue.

Now, the Vipers’ problems are really coming home to roost, and THEN some. They’ve struggled badly this season in the Elite League, currently second from bottom having won only 3 from 21 and conceded a massive 109 goals. Consequently, support and related income have fallen. This prompts the vicious circle that they can’t invest in quality players to help them to wins, or maximise sponsorship to boost income.

Current Chairman Paddy O’Connor issued an emotive statement on Tuesday that leaves you in absolutely no doubt how bad their situation is (I won’t churn it out here, but have a look on the Vipers’ website). They are in real danger of going out of business – O’Connor says he can’t continue to pump money in as he has, and is actively seeking new backers or even new owners. He admits that whilst some of the problems are of their own making, others aren’t – accusing the Elite League of failing to police the league salary cap and removing the gate receipts levy intended to provide financial assistance to teams, which he says puts Vipers at a massive disadvantage.

I was genuinely shocked at the strength of Paddy O’Connor’s statement. The death throes of ice hockey in the north-east? Much as my hockey allegience is first and foremost to MK Lightning, I’d be really sad to see top tier ice hockey in the area disappear if the Vipers go under. I even feel bad for not going to their game when I was in the area recently. I had a feeling times were tough for them, but I had no idea it was SO bad.

It really brings it home what a minority sport ice hockey is in the UK – and I bet none of us really understand why. If Newcastle Utd were on the brink of going bust, it’d be all over the national news. but the Vipers’ bombshell didn’t even merit a mention on north east regional news programmes. Here in MK we have a hugely successful ice hockey team, reigning league champions that have won multiple honours - but I don’t think we EVER feature on the local news, whilst MK Dons are on regularly. Just think what a bit of exposure could do for door receipts (and I’m not talking about naked ice hockey. Oh hang on, there’s an idea.............!!)

What the Vipers’ problems also highlight is the importance of us ALL doing our bit to help keep MKL in business. Vito, Harry, Nick and the guys and gals on the inside at MKL can’t keep the club going on their own. Newcastle don’t feel that their trust in EIHL has been repaid but all we can do is hope that the EPL will do its best for its member teams – and then get down to Planet Ice as often as we all can, taking new supporters with us where we can, to cheer on the boys and keep the money coming in to help strengthen the team for the future.

Let’s go, Lightning....and fingers crossed for the Vipers!

Better late than never

It can’t be just me that finds life getting in the way of hockey occasionally - especially at this time of year. I found myself on a Christmas cupcake decorating course recently just outside MK, having to find a way of getting back and to the Thunderdome in a way that didn’t involve me having to take the cupcakes into the rink with me through lack of time (the friend I did the course with suggested if I had to take the cakes in, I could use them to smooth over any roughing in the game: ("now now, boys - stop hitting each other, have a cupcake and be friends, hmm?") That was the Basingstoke game when Grant and some 6ft 4 hulk had a ding-dong right under my nose, and I don’t think cupcakes would’ve smoothed that one over.

Last Saturday I was in Brum on a Christmas shopping trip – something else I’d carelessly thrown myself into without thinking about the possible impact on my hockey attendance (how do I end up doing all these twee girly things? I’m not generally a ‘girly girl’, honestly – a weekend involving any combination of ice hockey, formula one, football and some beer, and I’m happy!!) As it turns out, not much shopping was involved, but a long lunch at an Italian restaurant and some lovely, cold Peroni Gran Riserva beer, followed by nodding off in the cinema were much nicer alternatives to joining my colleagues at the Battle of New Street. I confess to a fleeting visit to Selfridges though. What’s not to love in a shop that’s got a lifesize bull made from jelly beans?!

The down-side of all this was not leaving Brum until 6.15, so I knew I’d be lucky to catch any of the first period at all. The iphone was a gem yet again, letting me follow the action via updates on the MKIH forum (honourable mention to Skinny#49 for match updates week in, week out!) Good to hear that Baz was dressed for us, albeit on the bench, and that Grant was icing again after two games out. To be fair, we were ‘only’ playing the Bees – rock bottom of the league and struggling, so we could’ve probably let G-man have another game’s recuperation, but it’s always good to have him playing and if HE said he was fit enough, it’s probably difficult to say no to – he’s been on fire since Dave Slimes’ “code” drivel, and a joy to watch.

Arrived back at the rink hoping it’d still be in the first period break but as I ran down to the ticket office I could see players on the ice...not only had I missed the first period but the first three minutes of the second – ah well, better late than never. I’d joked with The Boy, to tell the team not to score until I got there so I wouldn’t miss anything, and when I saw that after 24 minutes of play it was still 0-0, I wondered if he HAD actually told them as they skated on – I was going to start jumping up and down and going “oy, you can start now!” but they’d have wondered who the mad woman was, and I didn’t want to unsettle them.

So I finally turned my attention to the game. The Bees came to MK propping up the league, with a measly two wins from 19 games, having conceded an average six goals a game. Faced with facts like that, I can’t have been the only MKL supporter who thought we’d see an easy victory. So how come we were in the second period without a score?

There were shots aplenty from Lightning so it wasn’t for the want of trying, that’s for sure. The Bees’ nettie, Carl Ambler, was outstanding – he saved and covered so many shots that it was pretty obvious, even to me, that he was going to get their MoTM award. The first ever hockey game I saw, I remember wondering how much of a mentalist (or Chris Kamara) do you need to be, to WANT to be in goal? But Ambler did a superb job, considering the 47 shots our guys fired his way. Mettsey, in comparison, had a relatively easy game with a relatively meagre 21 shots coming at him. So whilst the Bees’ weren’t firing on all cylinders up front, they seemed to have stepped up their defence to give Lightning such a hard time. Finally, Lukas helped Smults find a way through to bang home a fantastic top shelf goal with only five minutes of the second period left. I didn’t care that I’d been up and around and mostly in the cold for over 12 hours, I was jumping up and down and cheering, absolutely ecstatic!!

The Bees equalised early in the third but our advantage was quickly restored when Captain Carr got our second, assisted by Nick and Smults. Bracknell equalised again but within seconds, MKL’s advantage was restored thanks to Monir and Britts setting up Clarkey for our third. Bees called a time out with less than two minutes left and it was a nailbiting final 90 seconds or so, but our boys held their nerve and bagged the two points.....better late than never.

Sunday finally saw a deserved lie-in for your correspondent, whilst Lightning had a trip to the exotic surroundings of Swindon to look forward to, and a trip to the local stray cats' home. Like the Bees, the Pussies are also tail-end Charlies, going into Sunday’s game having won only a quarter of their 20 games. Whilst Lightning were battling to break down the Bees on Saturday, Swindon were getting a proper stuffing (9-3) courtesy of our friends in Manchestoh – with a nice, tiring, three hour, late night journey back to Wiltshire to lick their wounds.

And it looked like normal fantastic Lightning service was resumed, Clarkey on the score sheet after only seven minutes, set up by Monir and Lewis. The guys doubled the score shortly afterwards when Monir set up another, this time for Britts. The guys put their foot on the gas to pull away in the second period thanks to goals from Lukas and Jamo, before the moggies scored. Were they going to put up a fight? Britts got his second of the night but the moggies came back with another, to make it 2-5 at the end of the second. But whilst that was the last that MKL’s goal saw of the puck, Swindon’s goal welcomed it twice more in the final period, courtesy of Messrs Carr and Zatopek. Final score Moggies 2, Lightning 7 – so it took until Sunday to get the convincing win, but better late than never – another four point weekend in the bag, four points that help us stay within sight of Basingstoke.

On Saturday 4th we play the Moggies again, and hopefully the lads can get into top gear a bit quicker than they did against Bracknell – please, lads, I’m trying to grow my nails not bite them all down!! Sunday 5th sees a road trip up the A1 to Peet Bog Horror, who we’re pulling away from in the league after they lost three of their last four games. They’ve beaten Lightning the last twice we’ve played at their place, so lets hope Sunday sees us put an end to that pattern – better late than never J

Joy (Tottman) Division - "She's lost control"

No, you haven’t accidentally selected a music review blog - as the major talking point from last Saturday’s game was a certain Joy and the split views of supporters, the title above seemed apt. Some MKL supporters were very anti the calls she made, some said the calls were right but she just missed too many against Slough.

I couldn’t get to last Saturday’s home game as I was in the north-east - and I now hate it if I can’t be at a game. If I’m up north I sometimes go to Vipers games for a hockey fix, but on Saturday the choice was either Vipers v Stingrays (again), or a meal with hubs at a restaurant by Durham riverside – and the hot date won...just couldn’t face another evening in Whitley Bay, and it was lovely to have some ‘time out’ (Ha! See what I did there? Hockey terminology I can use pretty much in context!!)

But time to ‘fess up: my iphone was on the table all evening, MKIH forums page loaded, refreshing every 5-10 minutes for updates – and knowing the guys were struggling isn’t good for your digestion! Yes I know I’m sad – and that I have an incredibly understanding husband. As soon as I saw that Joy was reffing I could practically hear the cursing from 200 miles away, not least from The Boy. Unless an infringement happens almost under my nose, I’m still getting my head around realising it’s happened in the first place, let alone know what the penalty for it is - but I know Joy’s not a Lightning favourite. I’ve stuck up for her in the past on the basis that us girls have got to stick together in a male dominated sport, and I’m proud there’s a high profile female ref - but she takes a lot of stick and you start to think that it can’t ALL be unjustified whinging, surely....?

I’m not going to do a Dave Slimes and make a judgement from what I’ve heard rather than seen, so I’ll settle for saying that the general consensus of opinion suggests Lightning were on the back foot in the first period, before coming back in the second and third, giving the oppo a right ding-dong battle in the end, and unlucky not to take a point. The major talking points seemed to revolve around apparently debatable penalties Joy gave against Monir for high sticks and against Nick for slashing. Surely if a player sustains a facial injury then surely that was evidence there’d been some sort of stick/fist – face interaction, and it’s unlikely he did it to himself!! Even as a relative newcomer that makes sense to me, unless I really AM missing something basic...(answers on a postcard please!!) Did Slough take the term “face off” a bit too literally?!

Travelling back from the north-east on Sunday we broke our journey at iceSheffield for the Steeldogs v Lightning game. The only sport I've seen in Sheffield previously was a United vs Sunderland pre-season friendly, and until now I thought the best thing about the place was Meadowhall (I have a 2:1 in Retail Therapy from the University of Life), but iceSheffield isn’t half bad either. Two ice pads! Two zambonis! But only seven fans. Or was it eight? They kept moving around... Either way, until just before the game started, MKL fans weren't far off outnumbering Steeldogs supporters. Something else missing until face off was atmosphere – we get music during the warm-up, but in Sheffield, nothing – it only started when the teams skated out. So given my inexperience of away games, is that par for the course? Are we spoilt brats, with our fancy dan pre-game music, or are Sheffield just ice hockey paupers?

But onto the game. No Grant or Baz again, but we did have Mettsy back netminding and little Archie Hollyhead up in the stands, I’m told! Given that Lightning have spanked Steeldogs in their last two meetings back in MK so far this season, I don’t think anyone was expecting anything different this time – even in the Steeldogs’ own nice plush kennel. Despite Sheffield scoring early on a powerplay, Lightning equalised shorthanded 20 seconds later thanks to a brilliant second liners’ goal scored by Carrsy, aided and abetted by Nick and Smults.

See, I now know who our lines are! (Well, thanks to a fellow forum-er, anyway, heheh!) But what I don’t know are tactics you can use the lines for. Errr, if that’s what happens?? Incidentally I confess to buying ‘Powerplay’ to pass a bit of time at Sheffield (I won’t make a habit of it, I promise, I was just curious.) On the plus side it does have an interview with our very own Mr Poole about coaching, where it mentions MKL doing so well by playing the game “the hard-nosed ‘North American way’” – what’s THAT all about? Is there a softy British way to play? Is that anything to do with how you use your lines? Or am I just analysing this waaaaaay too much?!!

Two more goals followed in the first period courtesy of Matty and Clarkey, and Lightning looked firmly in control without having to exert themselves too much. Radders ‘the shorts thief’ helped the ‘Dogs to a second, but Smults gave us a fourth soon afterwards. Towards the end of the third, Sheffield called a time-out (which always makes me think the team calling the time out are panicking!) then briefly pulled their netminder...paving the way for our final goal of the evening, courtesy of Jamo. Final score Steeldogs 2, Lightning 5 – and a fantastic remedy for the previous evening’s defeat.

Some MKL supporters have commented that it was SO easy for our boys that it wasn’t exactly riveting, but as I’m still in the first flush of love with ice hockey, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was on a little post-match high for the two hour journey back to MK!! Admittedly though it was SO one-sided in the third period that "one way traffic" was an understatement, and unless I’m mistaken I saw Mettsey doing a crossword, taunting Sheffield’s mascot about the answer to three down (geddit?? Three down?!)

This Saturday sees us host bottom of the league Bees – so fingers crossed the guys can lock out complacency and get a convincing win. Yes, it might make for another less than riveting game for the hardcore supporters, but if we can end the night with two points and the lads full of confidence to carry through to Swindon on Sunday, that’ll do for me!

Life vs Hockey

Just a quick aside, and one I'd be interested to get feedback on.

If you've read my last blog entry about cupcakes and icing infringements, you'll know that I had a very genteel, twee and fairly mumsy afternoon learning how to make festive cupcake decorations. And then headed to the rink to shout and scream a lot. It only occurred to me the night before said cupcake course, that it wasn't due to finish until 6pm - the problem being, it was 20 minutes' drive from Planet Ice and our house a bit further on. Okay the game doesn't face off until 7, but I usually try and get there about 6.30 or thereabouts, as The Boy needs to be there in good time.

Cue frantic theoreticising (is that a word?) about possible scenarios, ending with me deciding to abandon cupcake course just before the planned finish time and hot foot it back to MK, swap cupcakes for hockey shirt, and still get to the rink in good time. Luckily it worked - cupcakes were all duly completed when I left the course only 10 mins early, jumped into car with lovely hubs at the wheel, and replica shirt was donned in good time for face off.

Even in the short time since then though I've started to think about other possible episodes of life getting in the way of hockey. I'm sure its not just me that finds weekends filling up rapidly with socialising in the run-up to Christmas, but how are you supposed to combine socialising with a new found ice hockey obsession?!

A forthcoming work Christmas shopping trip means I'll almost certainly end up skidding into one of the next home games midway through the first period, trying frantically to find a vacant space near the plexiglass (tricky, I know...might have to settle for a seat) and craning my neck to see the scoreboard to see I've missed anything yet.

Then there's the party I've been invited to. Now I genuinely love the hostess to bits, but admit it crossed my mind after I accepted the invite, about if it'd be rude not to turn up til about 9.30 so I can go to the game first. Luckily a double check of the diary revealed it's not a home match night.....phew!

So in only my second season of following Lightning, I've gone from being happy to drop The Boy off at Planet Ice for games then going off to enjoy the peace - to getting a little bit obsessive about being available to go to matches myself. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this?!!

Cupcakes and icing infringements

At the time of starting to write this it's barely an hour since the final buzzer in MKL's game against Sheffield Steeldogs, I've just eaten for the first time in 10 hours, cracked open a cold beer and I'm just starting to regain feeling in my fingers (I know ice rinks are supposed to be cold! But tonight it felt extra cold. Or was it just me?)

Like last weekend, this weekend is going to be a full one - hence why I'm writing this right now because Sunday's going to be a tad busy. First up today, Saturday, F1 qualifying for the most important race of the season; tomorrow's race will decide the driver's world champion. Then this afternoon a three-hour course in decorating cupcakes for Christmas. Couldn't help thinking how bizarre it was to be doing something so genteel , twee and mumsy but by 7pm I'd be at the Thunderdome, shouting and cheering and being anything BUT genteel and mumsy! Even left the course slightly early so I could get home, wash off a covering of food colouring and glitter, and put my hockey top on.

The friend who accompanied me to the course joked that if I cut it TOO fine for getting to hockey, I could take my newly decorated cupcakes in with me and perhaps use them to help smooth over any roughing in the game ("now now, boys - stop hitting each other, have a cupcake and lets all be friends, mmm?") My personal plan was to use them to get into the changing room - say that Nick had ordered them as a post-match treat for the guys, and I was delivering them personally....!! (Incidentally if ever the team DO want cupcakes - Christmassy or otherwise - their wish is my command, if I can deliver in person, LOL!)

And I would absolutely love to be a fly on the wall in the dressing room in a period break - I'm intrigued by the dynamic, what's said, what happens - do Carrsy and Nick lay into them if it's not going well or is it just an uplifting motivational team talk to encourage everyone?

Anyway on to tonight's game. When the Steeldogs last rocked up at the Thunderdome a month ago, Lightning had a 4-0 shut out without appearing to try too hard - despite being missing Christie, meaning Carrsy had to drop into defence and our lines were unsettled a little. Lightning even managed to kill a 5 on 3 powerplay without too much trouble and the whole thing didn't seem like much of a chore for the guys at all.

So in comparison to last week's blockbuster game against Bison, a match against Sheffield didn't hold as much promise of a real battle - a thorough pasting, possibly - but not an epic game. Adam Radmall came back to MK in defence for the Steeldogs after a brief period with Nottingham - and got a warm welcome when the teams were announced. The Steeldogs also fielded Adam Brittle's brother Stuart.

The first period felt like we let Sheffield have far too much time on the puck; I kind of expected Lightning to be showing them who was in charge, right from the first face-off but it looked like the Puppydogs of a month ago weren't prepared to be bossed around again. By the end of the first period we were 3-0 up with a superior shot count, but I couldn't help feeling we'd let them have too much time in possession (even though they'd done so little with it) and frustrated that we weren't showing them who was in charge, right from the start. Was it just me?

I felt we really improved in the second period and sure enough more goals followed, and the Steeldogs looked a little less settled. By the third period, Lightning were well and truly in control , and our game was a lot more flowing and even more goals followed. Infact we were so in control that we were able to give Mettsy a rest and let Christopher Gill, netminder for MK Thunder, take over and get a bit of seniors experience for the last three minutes or so.

Although as a whole there were none of the major fireworks that we saw in last week's game there were far more penalties, which was frustrating - including two for icing infringements (which made me smile, having spent the afternoon up to my elbows in the stuff). And having said in my last blog how none of our imports spend much time at all in the sin bin, Lukas was first in there tonight after only two minutes!! No major fights for me to fret over tonight, just a late Sheffield attempt at dropping the gloves which wasn't taken up, and a fair amount of very minor pushing and shoving - including Nick having angry-looking words with Stuart Brittle for trying to lodge his stick up Nick's nose. Speaking of Nick, I was starting to worry that in the first two periods he seemed (to my untrained eye) to be spending more time on the bench than on the ice and looked a bit knackered when he headed off. The same thing occurred to me last week, which got me wondering if he genuinely IS a bit knackered (no, 37 years old isn't ancient by a long chalk and there are older guys than him still playing - but most of the rest of our team have a good 10 years on him). Or was the recent shoulder injury still niggling? Or did he just prefer to get a wider view of the game from the bench? Encouragingly though when he's off, he always looks like he's itching to get back on again. I thought it was funny a few weeks back when he served a penalty, that he spent most of it standing on the sin bin bench peeking over the plexiglass, really craning his neck to see what was going on! Thankfully he spent much of the final period tonight icing (no, not cupcakes), racing around, battling at every turn, as influential as anyone else. On another very positive note Jacob Heron and Jamie Line both seem to be growing in confidence practically by the minute, and I hope we can hold onto him for the future.

But try as I might, I just couldn't get 'into' tonight's game - whereas I was bouncing like Tigger on e-numbers before, during and after last week's match. Felt myself 'watching but not seeing' the game. Was it "it's only Sheffield" syndrome? Was it that Lightning, perhaps justifiably, didn't feel the need to push into top gear - or wanted to keep something in reserve for Sunday's game at Flames - which felt to me like an anticlimax after last week. Was it just me?

Overall I'm mighty chuffed at a 7-2 win and two more points in the bag to push us up to fifth in the table with four games in hand - although even if the guys keep playing in the fine form they're in, knocking either Phoenix or Flames off their current perches will be a hell of a task. And points will be harder to come by in the next two games - away to Flames then home to Jets (which I'm going to miss and I'm gutted!). It'll be touch and go whether or not I get to the home game against the Bees, but believe me I'll be pulling out all the stops to make it happen.

I think the frustration of being a newbie is getting to me - I had NO idea what the flip those icing infringements were until The Boy explained afterwards (and it's nothing to do with getting stray bits of glitter mixed in with your cake topping) and I missed why half the penalties were called. I still keep forgetting which of our players are defenders and which are forwards, and there's no way on God's earth I can remember at the moment who our various lines are. I think what I need is a willing victim - errr I mean volunteer - to stand with me during matchesand tell me what the flip is going on sometimes!! Anyone?!!

To fight or not to fight?

I've mentioned in previous posts that most of my live sport-watching has been at football grounds, and the 'culture shock' when I started watching ice hockey was pretty immense. Obviously football is supposed to be a non-contact sport (although there are players who regularly choose to forget that...) As a newcomer to hockey it took a lot of getting used to seeing players being pushed towards the boards and pushed around in general but it's mostly legal and expected. Similarly with roughing and fights - they're so rare in football that it takes a lot of getting used to them kind of being part of the game in hockey. It still makes me laugh, that term "roughing"...approximately translated as "trying to kick seven bells out of someone"...

The news this week that Elite League players Andre Payette and Sean 'The Sheriff' McMorrow are looking for new clubs has provoked some intriguing responses, primarily because I gather both players are known for not exactly shying away from the rough stuff.

I may be still getting to grips with ice hockey but I get the impression from what I've heard and read that the self-styled Sheriff (loves himself, much - giving himself a moniker??!) rarely walks away from a fight. He only signed for Dundee Stars in August, but inside three months it was announced that he was leaving "by mutual consent". It wasn't difficult to read between the lines of the club's official statement: "We felt that both the club and Sean would be better served by this decision". In other words, it's not working out and the sooner he's someone else's problem, the better.

Dundee Stars are currently one place off the bottom of the Elite league with only five points from 17 games. From the 13 games he played for Stars he's already spent 70 penalty minutes in the sin bin. Now even with my limited knowledge of the game, that strikes me as a lot. Something's obviously gone horribly wrong for Dundee to want rid already. So where now for the sheriff?

At the time of writing, Sheffield Steeldogs have been mooted as a possible home for him, despite doubts about how they'd pay his salary (or how any EPL team would pay him, for that matter). Steeldogs' coach Matt Darlow seems to think hiring McMorrow would make his side appear less of a pushover; but would you really want an influential player spending so much time in the sinbin serving penalties for roughing when he could be making his presence felt by scoring goals? Or are you hiring him to scare the opposition and get their players sent to the penalty box too?

Some views from the MKL forum point to not wanting too much fighting in the EPL game (should Payette or McMorrow sign for Sheffield this week, they'll be coming to the Thunderdome this weekend) and you don't want to be shorthanded on the ice too often. But there seem to be equally as many opposing views which say that 'agitators' have a valid role, fighting is part of the entertainment...entertainment equals paying punters through the doors....which in turn means an improved atmosphere - so if you have a player like our G-Man - or Messrs Payette/McMorrow - then it's all part of the gameplan. He might rack up penalty minutes but he'll annoy the oppo and might also score the odd goal, and the supporters will be relatively happy.

Back in the EIHL, Newcastle Vipers are having a very tough time of it (I saw them play on home turf a few weeks ago and they were awful...dreadful scrappy game that we couldn't wait to get out of. I got to wondering what the difference between EIHL and EPL was, because based on that game, the answer definitely wasn't the quality of play). After an 8-0 stuffing at the weekend the Vipers' management have promised player changes to stop the rot. On their Facebook page, one supporter remarked that they could do without their imports, because they have enough skill from their home grown players. Personally I think that's rubbish; in the case of MKL, yes there's a massive amount of skill in our Brits - but Monir, Smults, Lukas and Nick bring a huge amount of experience gained in the overseas game, which can only help. You only have to reflect on the games that Monir missed recently, and how much more of a cohesive unit we looked when he was back, to see how important he is to us. And none of our imports spend much time serving penalties.

All of which raises another issue: with restrictions on the number of imports you can have in an EPL team, is there a place for a player like McMorrow? Yes, 10 years' skills gained overseas will be beneficial - but if he's going to spend so much time in the penalty box (whilst also potentially being a big drain on the wages bill) - possible new employers need to decide on their priorities.

As far as MKL are concerned, I wouldn't contemplate swapping ANY of our imports for an overly-combative player like Payette or McMorrow may be perceived as. Even if Nick decided to pack away his boots this weekend to concentrate on coaching, I'd rather replace him with another skillful, workmanlike import, not someone who's up for dropping the gloves at any opportunity.

It's going to be interesting seeing where these two end up.

Sorry lads that was all my fault :(

So on the first weekend of November, Lightning found themselves with a double-header against Basingstoke Bison to look forward to.

Although I'm still getting used to the relative merits of the EPL teams, I knew Bison were in a similar league position to ourselves and that they'd put 12 past Sheffield Steeldogs the previous weekend. I also know that Steeldogs aren't playing the hottest hockey at the moment (understatement alert!) and are probably not happy with their league position either. Even so - Lightning did their to batter them a few weeks ago but even we couldn't put 12 past them, so kudos to Bison for doing just that. Couldn't wait for Saturday evening to arrive and was really excited about this particular game. I knew the omens were good when, whilst buying my copy of Topshelf on the way in, Pucky gave me a hug....!!

Lightning were reassuringly back to full strength with Monir and Lewis back with us, and Nick's shoulder/neck injury looking less of a hinderance, so I had everything firmly crossed that Bison's goal count wouldn't be anywhere even remotely close to 12 when they came to the Thunderdome the day after Guy Fawkes night - but still expected/hoped for a few fireworks ('scuse pun). And fireworks we got: right from the first face-off, it was fast and furious stuff and you just didn't dare take your eye off the game. Bison were scrappy and looked like they would've been happy scoring any old how, but Lightning - even to my partisan eye - looked the much more skillful team. Top knotch passing all over the rink, the guys weren't afraid at all to hold the puck where they needed to, if it meant a more targeted and productive pass and a better chance of a goal.

There were also fireworks in the form of roughing. Grant was challenged to a spot of fisticuffs just along from where we stood at the plexiglass to watch the first period; nope I can't remember the name of his sparring partner but I do remember he was so much bigger than G-Man. The Bison bigger bugger looked at Grant and challenged him, Grant responded and the punches started flying. For a period (and I suspect he'll hate me for saying this cos it'll sound a bit like me being an over protective mum. Not *his* mum, but an over protective mum nontheless) I was worried because Grant looked very vulnerable, and he went down first.....then got up and really started fighting back. The Boy just laughed when I told him and said I really shouldn't worry, 'agitating' is Grant's job so to speak, he can stand up for himself and probably even enjoyed it!

In the third period, what looked like it was going to be Lukas thumping seven bells out of one of the oppo quickly changed when Nick stepped in to do the honours - arm pulled back ready to land a punch.....then held back by his own team mates. I'm told that Nick doesn't get into roughing and fights too often, so when he does you know there's a very good reason.

Bison skipper Chinny was largely ineffective and didn't take half the barracking he did when we played them last season - and not a fraction of the abuse that James Morgan did when he came to MK recently. The result of a frenetic 60 minutes' effort was a fantastic 5-0 shut out for Lightning, and two points in the bag - and I went home exhilarated - what a fantastic match!! Thoroughly enjoyed watching that game and I absolutely LOVE watching from right next to the plexiglass. Despite the after-effects of a heavy cold, I shouted and cheered more at that game than I have for a while!

Sunday 7th brought the away leg at Planet Ice Basingstoke. PI Basingstoke had had problems all week with their ice plant - and whilst that may have paid benefits in a Bison team unable to practice all week prior to their meetings with us, their rink management declined to confirm whether or not the game was on until about the time most Lightning supporters - and certainly the team - would've wanted to be on the road. Mind games?

But a confirmation of 'game on' was issued on Sunday late morning. Had it not been for a prior date at Williams F1 HQ in Oxfordshire for a late afternoon grand prix watching session, I might've tried to persuade hubs that a trip to Basingstoke was in order. But my lifetime love of F1 (I've been watching on and off since the mid 1970's) won out - and the fact that we'd each paid quite a lot for the privilege of VIP treatment.

I love my iPhone for many reasons, one of which is the ability to surf the internet while you're out and about, so towards the end of the grand prix and during our drive back to MK, I kept checking the match scores on http://www.eplupdates.co.uk/ and updates on the MKL forum. After the second period we were 3-1 up and I started to get twitchy. Bison absolutely wouldn't want to lose to us for the second time in two days, and this time on their own patch. Could the lads hold on to their lead? Yeeeeah, course they could!

Pulling into our driveway after an 80 minute journey up the A34, M40 and A43, the MKL forum updaters posted that there were 15 seconds on the clock and I said something about us pretty much having another four point weekend in the bag. Cue shouting from hubs and The Boy about how hockey just isn't like football and anything can happen in 15 seconds because the game is so fast. I obviously haven't learned my lesson: several years ago I was at a football match where my hometown team Sunderland were 2-0 up on Spurs within 10 minutes, and texted a couple of Spurs supporting mates to wind them up. We lost that one 3-2 and boy did I get the abuse all straight back, with interest - since then I'm almost always been too superstitious to gloat about a score until it's final. Until this fateful Sunday evening. To cut a long story short, Lightning conceded 2 quick goals for Bison to level up, and we lost in overtime.

If it's any consolation I felt SO bad on Sunday evening, I really feel like I jinxed it. As a few people said on the MKL forum, if anyone had offered us 3 points out of 4 for the Basingstoke double-header, most of us would've taken it - but at 8 o'clock on Sunday night, 3 points felt a bit of a let-down to some of us, and I guess the team must've been gutted - so close and yet so far. Sorry lads.

So there you go, it's all my fault (ish). Please don't set Grant and Nick on me to exact the team's revenge - I won't open my mouth like that again I promise - I really HAVE learned my lesson!! :-o

So here we are

Hello there! My blog is inspired by a young lady called Katy who writes one about her new-found support of Newcastle Vipers. I used to write for an online football fanzine about Sunderland (I'm a northern girl originally, exiled to Buckinghamshire, but proud to say I support the same team as Messrs Carr and Farn). The brief given to me then was to give "a girl's view of being a Sunderland supporter". Times change and I no longer produce that column, but inspired by Katy's courage to admit a lack of knowledge - but growing all the time - about the game of ice hockey, thought it might be fun to have a go myself, from an EPL team supporter's view.

Like Katy, I’m a relative newcomer to ice hockey. My son is a volunteer member of the matchnight team at MK Lightning (an English Premier League team). For several seasons, hubs and I would drop him at the rink on Saturday evening, then go off and do our own thing for 2-3 hours (either go home and enjoy the peace, go out for a meal, or hit the supermarket while it was relatively quiet at that time of the evening). The sort of boring things parents do...

My family still live in the north east, and I’d been to a Vipers game with hubs and our boy a little while back, when Vipers were based at Newcastle Arena. They’ve since had a little contretemps with Arena management and moved to the less salubrious surroundings of nearby Whitley Bay rink. Whatever you may think of the Thunderdome occasionally looking a little ragged around the edges, if you compare it with Whitley Bay's rink, our boys play in a palace.

I can’t fully remember what made me think I should take in a Lightning game instead of disappearing off home/to eat/to Tesco’s, but I suspect enjoying the atmosphere at the Vipers must’ve had something to do with it. The ‘Americanisation’/commercialisation of hockey is something than many football supporters would hate...but I love the way the music before the game and in breaks from play builds the atmosphere, how some players have their own songs, and I love how friendly people are at games and on the MK Lightning forum. Some football supporters can be very hostile, even to each other - and certainly in my online existence I found that there's a relatively large amount of suspicion and hostility towards women even daring to know what they're talking about. I began to think that life was just too short to put up with that much grief from keyboard warriors, and gave up the writing.

And so began my relationship with MK Lightning. From my first game in the 2009/10 season I was very quickly hooked, and my one night stand is quickly developing into a meaningful relationship.

I’m very lucky in that my son (so as not to embarrass him, let’s just call him ‘The Boy’, as me and his dad have long called him) knows exactly what ‘s going on in the games – so most weeks, he’s my point of reference. And he notices SO much – both on and off the puck, and I hear the full story later. One of the first things – if not THE first – that absolutely blew me away about hockey is how damn fast it is. You get used to Premier League football....and in my case even Formula One – and think you can cope with a fast sport. But they’re nothing compared to hockey. That announcement to “keep your eyes on the puck at all times” completely underestimates how long it takes to get used to the speed of the game!! I completely missed Michal Pinc's off-puck cross checking of Nick Poole the other week, which rendered our player-coach less effective for some weeks with a neck/shoulder injury - because I was trying to follow the on-puck action. How on EARTH can you follow it all?! If the puck is anywhere near one of the netminders, why would you be watching players heading off for a line change?! Incidentally, line changes and the rolling 'substitutions' are something I still haven't got my head around, so if anyone would like to enlighten me please feel free :)

It also helps that The Boy knows a lot of the characters in the EPL game and also in Lightning’s team in particular - who's likely to be trouble, who's got past form for wanting to beat seven bells out of a particular other players, etc. If it wasn’t for The Boy, there’s no way I’d have a full picture of an average Saturday night’s game and things/characters to watch out for.

So I’m still getting to grips with rules and regs, knowing where to look and when, and also things like songs associated with players. Even if you hear “Pigbag” played every week but don’t realise that people are singing “da daaaah da dah, Graaaant McPherrrsonnn”, how are you supposed to know that it’s “his” song? See, I really AM still a relative virgin to all of this!! I did, however, click very early on about the humour used in music played when someone's heading to the sin bin....brilliant! Always puts a smile on my face when I hear "Sit Down" by James...

Until recently I’ve been wearing a borrowed, match-worn Jo Wiklander shirt to games, and The Boy speaks very highly indeed of him, I think he used to look after Jo's skate guards during games and has ambitions to visit his bar in Stockholm. So many people wear MKL hoodies or replica shirts at Lightning games that I felt a bit ‘out of it’ without suitable attire. But I am now the incredibly proud owner of a 2010-11 season home replica shirt with Poole #91 on the back. I’ve been told about Nick’s history with hockey in MK and his involvement with the change from Kings to Lightning (one of hubby’s friends doesn’t agree with Nick’s involvement in all that, but I’m not getting into politics - as far as I'm concerned hockey in MK is where it is now, at least partly because of Nick Poole and for this we should be grateful). I was torn between a few names for my first shirt – but settled on Poole because of his long-term involvement with the game in MK. He won’t always be playing for us, and when one day he hangs up his boots (hopefully not for a long time) I hope we'll still see him on the bench - so he’ll always be a Lightning legend, hence my choice.

So that’s me. If you’ve been going to Lightning games for years and will get irritated easily by the ramblings of someone less informed than yourself, this blog probably isn’t for you. But if you have a little more patience and might occasionally be willing to help (politely) inform me and enhance my knowledge of the game, then please stick with me and I'll try not to bore you too much!!