Blaze/MK partnership

[pantherlee]

www.coventryblaze.co.uk/index.php/news/latest-news/1525-blaze-link-with-lightning

This is the sort of thing the Panthers should be doing to develop British talent. On top of that we've lost our connection with Lewis Hook to the Blaze.

[goon37]

Fantastic opportunity for MK and Coventry. Panthers and Peterborough seem the logical partnership in this if both teams were in the mood for a join-up.

[bruinspanthers]

This has such great potential to be huge for British development, hope to God it works and doesn't just end up being words

With GB coach involved can see them giving it a good crack at it

[team]

As I too believe this a very good move for British Hockey overall.

I just hope the Panthers get their act together and give CN & RS similar opportunity's for the club. It's very common ALL over Europe this model and look how well they are doing.

[nate24]

So they get Lewis Hook on retainer?

[kingmonkeybutt]

we should hit up telford? good short term i guess they are slaying their league but if they move up we're scuppered

[pantherdman]

We can get hook if we want, we can get any young Brit £££.
Why should the panthers care about developing players for GB? I'd rather spend the money on better imports.

[centreiceuk]

May 2, 2015 9:14:28 GMT pantherdman said:

We can get hook if we want, we can get any young Brit £££.
Why should the panthers care about developing players for GB? I'd rather spend the money on better imports.

All clubs should care quite a bit about GB player development. As discussed on one of the GB threads, success for GB gets the sport national (and sometimes international) media attention. When did the likes of CNN, IVT, BBC 5 live, BBC radio 1 etc become interested covering the sport? It was when Team GB was on the brink of Sochi Olympic Qualification back in 2013!

More recently, when did the British game hit the major airwaves again? That’s right, the Ben O’Connor penalty shot which has clocked over 150,000 views on youtube alone, became the talk of the hockey world for a couple of days.

5.5million people also watched that famous USA V Russia Olympic match-up on BBC last year, imagine what it could have been like if GB actually made it there regardless of how the results went? Enticing anything near 1% of that viewership to look up & visit their local rink/club could have been a major boon for the sport.

When do you hear about British club news on the mainstream media? When Joe Grimaldi had his meltdown attack on Bruce Graham Max Parent, and any other similar incident that perpetrates the age old outsider cliché view of what ice hockey is about. (Fighting) Even the Edinburgh Capitals got primetime BBC Sports news TV coverage a couple of years back thanks to the release of the movie Goon. (The Braehead Clan same on STV News.)

So to sum that up in a nutshell, success for GB can lead to success for the clubs. That’s why everyone should care clubs all do their bit to develop talent.

[ted logan]

May 2, 2015 10:21:14 GMT centreiceuk said:

May 2, 2015 9:14:28 GMT pantherdman said:

We can get hook if we want, we can get any young Brit £££.
Why should the panthers care about developing players for GB? I'd rather spend the money on better imports.

All clubs should care quite a bit about GB player development. As discussed on one of the GB threads, success for GB gets the sport national (and sometimes international) media attention. When did the likes of CNN, IVT, BBC 5 live, BBC radio 1 etc become interested covering the sport? It was when Team GB was on the brink of Sochi Olympic Qualification back in 2013!

More recently, when did the British game hit the major airwaves again? That’s right, the Ben O’Connor penalty shot which has clocked over 150,000 views on youtube alone, became the talk of the hockey world for a couple of days.

5.5million people also watched that famous USA V Russia Olympic match-up on BBC last year, imagine what it could have been like if GB actually made it there regardless of how the results went? Enticing anything near 1% of that viewership to look up & visit their local rink/club could have been a major boon for the sport.

When do you hear about British club news on the mainstream media? When Joe Grimaldi had his meltdown attack on Bruce Graham, and any other similar incident that perpetrates the age old outsider cliché view of what ice hockey is about. (Fighting) Even the Edinburgh Capitals got primetime BBC Sports news TV coverage a couple of years back thanks to the release of the movie Goon. (The Braehead Clan same on STV News.)

So to sum that up in a nutshell, success for GB can lead to success for the clubs. That’s why everyone should care clubs all do their bit to develop talent.

Some very good points made there. If Team GB did qualify for the Olympics, could be massive for the sport.

*It was Max Parent though, not Bruce Graham

[centreiceuk]

May 2, 2015 10:32:14 GMT ted logan said:

Some very good points made there. If Team GB did qualify for the Olympics, could be massive for the sport.

*It was Max Parent though, not Bruce Graham

Cheers for that Ted, scribbled out and corrected.

Olympic Qualification at any point for GB will be extremely tough to put it mildly under current conditions. Until the UK clubs start to take the IIHF international break periods mid-season, and we run GB camps with an exhibition match thrown in, that’s unlikely to change. (Along with more talent development.)

Making the final qualification stage is a reasonable & realistic enough goal, with some luck in the draw there isn’t any reason why GB couldn’t at least compete very well in the final group. If a Pete Russell type was in charge last time around, I could have seen us at least beating France and competing in much closer matches with Latvia & Kazakhstan even if those still ended up losses.

The format also suits our game better, one-off matches in a short span of time.

For outright Olympic qualification, the better bet is on the Women’s senior team making it at this junction.

[nate24]

May 2, 2015 9:14:28 GMT pantherdman said:

We can get hook if we want, we can get any young Brit £££.
Why should the panthers care about developing players for GB? I'd rather spend the money on better imports.

Zzzzz change the record.

The EIHL isn't a development league but developing Brits is the only way to have a full competative roster in the shadow of import limits.

[pantherdman]

It's not the panthers problem though is it?
I think the panthers play more than their part towards team GB, plenty of others who are more responsible are failing miserably.

Gb's most successful squads have included many Canadian born players. Success will breed success.
My thoughts are to try to qualify for the top tournaments in a more realistic way, ie playing the best players available. That could inspire a generation, but you will then have the problem of how they will go from seeing it on TV to actually being able to partake.

The panthers bench clearance has 300k views on you tube but this side of the game has been eradicated?

[humbucker]

No pantherdman you are absolutely spot on it is more than likely to be all of the teams problem in the end dependent upon the available amount of dosh. Not all clubs have the financial clout but that is also true of all sports I suppose, football being a quite reasonable example. Football at the highest level pulled about 5 billion quid in sponsorship but how much trickles down to grass routes development is debatable. Ice hockey on the other hand has a smattering of financially secure teams and very little interest from either the media or other sponsors with deep pockets. Development is essential fot the sport to continue and a strong GB team may encourage a decent amount of money eventually coming in. Might be a pipe dream but that, for what it' s worth, is my view and dream.

[Yotes]

Do we have an official tie up to the Lions? Or is there no connection other than the city?

[humbucker]

Hi Yotes. The answer is in the negative, zilch, none. Would that it could be more positive but it would appear highly unlikely. A link with the epl would be more likely I would have thought? I don't think there is much interest in the u20s league either in Nottingham but there is obvious interest just up the M1 but unlikely to happen any time soon, certainly not during the next season.

[humbucker]

Telford Tigers have pulled all of their junior to senior hockey into one unified club and the support for their NIHL , in which the Lions play, has ensured that the Tigers (NIHL) achieved promotion last season. In another positive move the Tigers are also abolishing their pay to play scheme and setting up a better funding scheme to encourage players to make the move to Telford. Nottingham players pay to play and cover their travel costs and innevitably lose players or sometimes struggle to recruit. The development stream in Nottingham remains strong but holding on to players sometimes proves problematic.

[bill]

May 2, 2015 9:14:28 GMT pantherdman said:

We can get hook if we want, we can get any young Brit £££.
Why should the panthers care about developing players for GB? I'd rather spend the money on better imports.

[

What makes you confident that if you throw cash at him like your suggesting then Panthers will sign him maybe it's opportunity that matters more

[Shorty]

May 2, 2015 14:42:19 GMT humbucker said:

I don't think there is much interest in the u20s league either in Nottingham but there is obvious interest just up the M1 but unlikely to happen any time soon, certainly not during the next season.

Not true at all

U20 league

The biggest talking point is why have the Panthers and Nottingham IHC both registered an interest. Obviously links between the clubs are not as good as they could be.

[tootootrain]

May 2, 2015 16:49:53 GMT Shorty said:

Not true at all

U20 league

The biggest talking point is why have the Panthers and Nottingham IHC both registered an interest. Obviously links between the clubs are not as good as they could be.

That is interesting.

An issue if both organisations got a place (though if sanity prevailed sure IHUK/EIHA would give them both a slap and tell them to enter a joint team) is ice time. Hockey is down the pecking order for ice time at the NIC, and with the Nottingham Ice Skating Academy looking to up their game (to help with GB Olympic standings...it's complicated!), I can't see there being much flex in the system. Well not without hammering rec hockey ice time...

[humbucker]

I can see that at some stage the u20s will go ahead and with Thommo involved that might be sooner rather than later. As regards Nottingham an expression of interest is a step forward but you can only go on the feelings you get when discussing issues with others that is why the 'I don't think' bit came into my earlier posting. tootootrain hit on some other reasons why their might be problems in getting this off the ground. The problems are not insurmountable but there will be losers regarding available ice time, for some I feel.

[Yotes]

May 2, 2015 14:42:19 GMT humbucker said:

Hi Yotes. The answer is in the negative, zilch, none. Would that it could be more positive but it would appear highly unlikely. A link with the epl would be more likely I would have thought?

Ta.

Can't say I share your optimistic view on an EPL tie up being more likely, if we can't even get it together enough to have all of the city's teams under one umbrella, teams that even play out of the same building, I don't really see it being likely they'll be able to get along with another professional team well enough to work together as would be required. We'll see I guess.

[humbucker]

Ever the optomist, but to date that optomism has not seen much in the way of actual development of ties between clubs, as you say even within the same building but hope springs eternal, so they say? The only reason I look to the EPL because that is normally the place players such as Betteridge, Soar, Norton, Gospel and a number of other players cut their teeth at a higher level than can be obtained in the second tier of the NIHL where the Lions presently languish. A link between the Lions and the Panthers would not produce the standard of player the pro team requires but it is a good place to find future players for the NIHL 1 and the EPL that might provide the gateway to the Elite League for a small number of players eventually, and I do mean a small number. Of course in the early days, the 80s to 90s, there was a direct link between the junior section and the senior section as they were effectively the same club and players such as Hunt, Perkins, Rhodes, Parker, Tait, Tricket,King, Twaite and others moved up through the then Trojans Team but that has been long gone. Now quite long in the tooth I may not be around to see major changes. Can but hope I suppose.

[Tom]

May 2, 2015 16:49:53 GMT Shorty said:

May 2, 2015 14:42:19 GMT humbucker said:

I don't think there is much interest in the u20s league either in Nottingham but there is obvious interest just up the M1 but unlikely to happen any time soon, certainly not during the next season.

Not true at all

U20 league

The biggest talking point is why have the Panthers and Nottingham IHC both registered an interest. Obviously links between the clubs are not as good as they could be.

Surprised no one has noticed that Sutton Sting along with Sheffield have also expressed an interest so the Midland Conference should be the lowest on travel costs.

[Deleted]

The reason this partnership has happened is because Andy Buxton (Blaze owner and GB General Manager) is obviously very close with Pete Russell (GB and MK coach).

It's not what you know, it's who you know.

[pantherdman]

How many Brits do you want? There are plenty coming through.
We've suffered by giving money away to breahead, it appears we are going to be financing a London team and now another u20 pipe dream.

I wouldn't mind so much if the first team were ripping it up.