Posted on Friday, September 10th, 2010 at 10:19 am
Saturday Night will see our new look Aer Lingus Belfast Giants in their home opener against the Coventry Blaze. What a start to the season for us this year! With Hull dropping out of the league and then coming back in under new ownership, the fixture list got a bit mixed up and to ensure all the teams fulfilled their home dates for their fans, the league powerhouse teams all ended up facing off against each other over the first couple of weeks.
Usually we try to ease into the season and save a few of the biggest games for key points during the year, but if you look at our start, it couldn’t have been made any harder for us. We started our season by being the ‘victims’ of two of the best teams in the league in their home openers. Nobody wants to be the team to play the Panthers or the Devils in their home openers, but we were both those teams last weekend, so to come away with 3 out of 4 points on a tough road trip like that was impressive.
Doug and I spent a lot of time this summer analysing where the Giants have historically slipped up and the more we looked into it, the more we realised the toll that travel, early morning flights, additional games and scheduling plays on the guys bodies and minds. Traditionally, the Giants play a game on a Friday or Saturday night finishing around 9:30 or 10pm. The next day, they can be up as early as 5am to get to the airport or the ferry terminal to start a long day of travel to an away match. Those travel days are tough before you consider that the guys slugged it out on the ice the night before.
This year, we looked into later flight times and lucky enough for us, with Aer Lingus as our new title sponsors, we were able to shift most of our travel to more convenient times to allow for more sleep after a game for the guys. We also doubled up a few away games on back to back nights and added in a couple more home double headers. This eliminated an additional 6 road trips – 6 less early mornings, 6 less long days of travel, you get the picture.
We also decided to double up our first round of the Challenge Cup games, again eliminating an additional 6 games (3 home, 3 away). Finally Doug decided to train later in the day on Tuesdays in order to give our guys 24 hours of rest and recovery after returning from a road trip on a Monday morning. Our idea is that if we can give our guys the best travel possible, give them ample rest during the week, keep them fresh for the games we have, eliminate extra midweek Cup games and maybe this pays off in the end.
If this gives us one more victory, or prevents one guy getting sick or injured then it has been worth it. In the past, we have fell victim to nagging injuries and wear and tear that affects all teams, but with all the travel, it has always been worse for the Giants. Hopefully, all the extra thought and preparation will pay off in the end.
Todd Kelman
General Manager
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