Coventry Blaze

Ian Lyons aka Spoonerdudes from The Cage Forum previews the season for the Blaze

Following one of the poorest seasons in Blaze fans memories, and certainly in the EIHL era, Youth, Desire and Hunger seem to have been the words in the mind of Head coach Paul Thompson when formulating his roster for the up coming 2011-2012 EIHL season.
Clearing the decks, getting rid of the dead wood and the loss of a Blaze legend ensured that a new look was needed to eliminate the displeasure shown by many in the fanbase in the past year.

Goalies
Unfortunately Brett Jaeger, decided to move on following a season where he emerged as one of the best goalies in the EIHL in 2010-2011, and to be fair if we had had a better team in front of him , maybe we would have done better than we did.
Returning instead as first choice nettie is the Fan Favourite, Peter Hirsch, former league winning goalie and hopefully keen to prove himself after a poor season over the pond. Well loved by the Blaze faithful, not so much by opposing fans, we look forward to see him recapturing his form that served the Blaze so well two seasons ago.
Also moving on is back up netminder Tom Murdy to a starting position in an EPL side with the blessing and good wishes of the fan base. Tom has proved many times over the past few years that he has one hell of a future ahead of him and hopefully we shall see him back between the pipes for the Blaze in the starting position in years to come. Replacing him is young Brandon Stone, former Steeldogs Player and guested a few times last season for the Caps when they were short of players. He’s young but has bags of potential and will have the experience of Hirsch to call upon as he learns.

Defence
Major changes are found this year in the Blaze defensive core. Out have gone, Brian Lee, Jeff Smith and the unsung hero of last season Brad Zanon, the retirement of Jason Robinson and with the move to the bench as assistant coach of Matt Soderstrom, Thommo seems to have gone and try to rectify the extremely poor offensive output of the ‘D’ last year. He’s brought in new faces John Gordon, a 6’ 3’’ 218lb Canadian D-man who has been playing the past few years in Holland for the Hauge Club described as a Power-Play specialist and equipped with a cannon of a shot. Good things are seeming promised from Gordon with a record of 184 points in 176 games. Former Stingray and Giants Brit Davey Phillips joins the Blaze following his successful two years in the ECHL and AHL. Judging by the comments from Thommo, fans well be seriously pleased with this signing as he has really improved with his time in the bigger leagues. Blaze veteran Russ Cowley drops back to D in his 10th season with the club after showing a good talent for this position when forced to play in it while the Blaze D core was decimated by injuries last season.
Captain Jonathan Weaver returns for his 5th season and hopefully will not suffer the injury curse that has blighted him the past few years, and with rising young star James Griffith from Swindon Wildcats, the Defence is completed with the bonus signing of former Steeler & Viper Jerrimie Domish, a fast skating championship winning D man to provide much needed transitional support and back up for Weaver. Overall a better balanced and more offensive minded D, the only possible down side is the seeming lack of a pure crease clearing D Man, but certainly upgraded and improved.

Forwards
As with the Defence, major surgery has been done to the forward lines this season. Retention of key Brit youngsters Farmer, Nell and young Starlet Ross Venus were paramount and quickly achieved. Gone are the much maligned Sean Selmser, the enigma known as Greg Chambers and hot headed Brad Cruickshank. One major failing that we suffered last year was the lack of secondary scoring in the side and especially with the loss of the hugely impressive Owen Fussey, too much was heaped on the shoulders of Luke Fulgrum and the now retired Blaze legend Dan Carlson.
Speed and scoring seem to be the way forward this year with the arrival Shea Guthrie, a 23 year old former 3rd round draft pick by the New York Islanders. Judging by comments about him He is BLISTERINGLY fast and is a very promising signing. 28 year old Slovenian ex-Viper Matic Krajl also joins the Club and should be taking the strain off Fulgrum and Fussey. The last of the ‘Stoke’ line, Greg Owen starts his third year with the Blaze and hopefully will be able to link up with the newcomers as well as he did with his former line-mates in their first season with the Blaze In my opinion the guy really tried his best last year, but couldn’t carry the line on his own as it seemed as some times.
The most unenviable task is the replacement for the true Blaze legend Dan Carlson, who hung up his skates last year, and the new player who seems to have this job is 25 year old Canadian Mike Mclean, top point scorer for the Quad City Mallards last year in the CHL and has plenty of AHL experience with 33 games. Along with stats and comments from fans and team mates, he looks promising.
The Final Blaze forward has been heralded by the club and fans as a potential fan favourite. Rough, tough and ready for battle Bryan Jurynec, The 27-year-old Illinois native has spent the last three seasons with Kalamazoo Wings in the International Hockey League and ECHL. Recommended by former team mates Ben Simon and Jason Robinson. A committed team guy and ready to get his hands dirty for the cause, his signing alone has generated a lot of positive feelings in the fan base and we are certainly looking forward to his appearances in a Blaze Jersey.

Of course this means that the Blaze are only going with 9 imports instead of the allotted 10. With Matty Soderstrom moving behind the bench as an assistant D coach, he will be on hand in case of an injury to one of the Blaze D men, or we may be trying to do a ‘Cardiff’ and find a Weller like signing when all the NHL/AHL training camps break up.

Time will tell, but certainly it looks like a very exciting line up and this vibe seems to have the Fanbase looking forward this season with a passion we haven’t seen in a while. We may not win the title this year, but it will be a lot of fun trying.

(Summary of the other teams to follow)