We Must Control Our Own Destiny Starting With A Win Against Eninburgh

Posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 3:47 pm

We are running out of games at the minute which makes this weekend even bigger than usual. A good weekend means that we are in contention for the league title and a bad one means that our title hopes will be finished.

We showed a lot of character last weekend by fighting back twice to deny Sheffield the victories and to keep our trophy hopes alive. It was nice to see our powerplay start firing a little bit especially away from home last Saturday in Sheffield. We took six out of a possible eight points in Sheffield this year which is a big accomplishment as despite where last season’s ‘double’ winners sit in the standings, they do have a very good team.

On Saturday night we face the Edinburgh Capitals who we still have to play on three more occasions this season. They are a very skilled team, good on the powerplay and have the ability to beat you one on one. Edinburgh coach, Doug Christiansen has done a great job there and has his team playing on the same page night after night. We want to play the game in their end of the ice and put as much pressure on their goalie as possible. We also have to be aware of who we are out on the ice against as their top guys are very dangerous and will hurt you if given any opportunity.

On Sunday we head to Coventry to try and redeem ourselves after a real tough loss there last time. They are finally going through some adversity as over the last two years they haven’t played many games with a short roster or missing key guys. Last year we averaged two injured imports per game which was usually to our top line players and we have also had some key injuries this year that has forced my old bones back into the line-up a few times too many! Coventry didn’t have any injuries last season and as soon as they picked up a knock this year they brought in replacements players immediately in Allen and Cruikshank. It is a great opportunity to put some pressure on them to close the deal as we don’t want to gift them the league title. If they are going to win it this year we have to make them earn it and we need to play physical in their building and play with more urgency.

The battle starts on Saturday night though as if we want to control our own destiny, we have to beat the Capitals.

Steve Thornton
LBM Belfast Giants Player/Coach