Tag: Coventry Blaze

For the first time, I have never seen a team with more enthusiasm and grit then the Coventry Blaze this past week and a half.

Too bad it’s come at the end of the season.

I don’t know if it’s the fact the Soderstrom is out of the picture or if it’s Lefebvre’s ultimatum of the players having to play for their jobs but for the past two games, the Blaze have come out of the gates hungrier then ever. They say a change does you good and it certainly proves true with this club.

After another big win over the Braehead Clan, the focus now shifts to playing more as a unit. The defense needs to come together and help out goaltender Mike Zacharias or else they’ll be completely screwed come playoff weekend. Being able to control your emotions the way Ryan Ginand did with Chris Frank is a big attribute to have this late in the season. Frank suffered a three game suspension for his cheap shot, not a bright move.

Whether or not the Blaze are playing their hearts out is because of a change, one has to wonder if newly appointed head coach Marc Lefebvre has what it takes to lead this group past the end of playoff weekend. Will he do enough in this small amount of time to earn himself a complete full schedule next year? I’m not sure. I don’t know if the Blaze brass was looking at this as a short term solution or a long term investment.

However, whatever he’s did the past two games seem to be working. It could be fate that the powers that be will let this season end on a positive note. Lord knows it’s been nothing but bad news after bad news for the mighty blue. When the off season comes around, where do you start looking? What do you need to add to compliment your core players, that is if they even stick around?

The more moral may be at an all time high for the 2013/2014 season. The long term championship goal however seems light years away.

The Coventry Blaze weekend road trip to Braehead and Sheffield ended in losses with their second and third in 8 eight games. Those losses end up knocking them down a notch in the standings to 8^th position. As the sadness continues, fans have taken up arms to decide whose fault this is and why this season has been such a disastrous one.

If there’s one thing we can take out of this season is the Blaze’s ability to adapt to the situation when things take the down slope. I’ve seen teams come out way worse with the injuries and politics that Coventry have endured. That being said, where do you start pointing the finger? Do you point it behind the bench at Matt Soderstorm? Do you point it at the brass? Do you point it at the players themselves? It’s a combination of everything one would think.

However, I might be a little naïve but it’s only one season. The 2012-2013 season might have been under different circumstances but the Blaze did finish a very respectable 4^th in the league standings and ended up 3^rd in the playoffs. That’s not a shabby finish I’d say. So what if things have taken a bit of a downfall? After this season, there’s nothing to do but regroup, take a look at the good and bad while making the appropriate changes.

Do I think Matty Soderstorm is right for the job behind the bench? Given the hand he’s been dealt, I can’t really make a fair assumption. He’s doing what he can with what he’s got. It’s only his first season as Head Coach. Give him a bit of a break.

While I agree that there’s no reason why a team like the Coventry Blaze should be that far down in the standings in the 8^th spot, come next season, they’ll turn it around. You’re not the Edmonton Oilers for crying out loud.

Being a resident of North America, I have never had the chance to fully enthrall myself with the hockey of the EIHL. I knew it existed, players from my hometown have excelled there (I.E. Jeff Legue), and it’s one of the better leagues on the planet. Thanks to the power of modern technology, I have been able to catch a few of the Coventry Blaze home games. While most of what I watched is talented and entertaining hockey, a very frightening percentage of it was just god awful.

Now, I might go out on a limb here and say that this season is probably not a usual one for the Blaze. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but I would like to think the Blaze ice a pretty competitive team. I also like to think a series of unfortunate events have led to their immediate downfall.

A 5 game losing streak at the beginning of the season may have attributed to goaltender Mike Zacharias and his ensuing Twitter scandal. May have been a lot on his mind. That being said, he has seemed to return to form but a lack of strong defence is what is keeping pucks in the net.

This is hockey and unfortunately injuries do happen. Sometimes they happen at the worst possible time as well which seems to be an unadulterated plague to the Blaze. Benn Olson missed 17 games with a broken finger. (Which has since forced him to drop the 2014 campaign). Gerome Giudice missed 8 games from what I can only assume was a concussion. However just when they seemed to be down and out, they emerge with the signing of fan favourites Mike Egener and Shea Guthrie. Finally, a ray of hope seemed to beckon down on the faceoff circle at the SkyDome.

Unfortunately that spot of sunshine didn’t last too long. Guthrie broke his own finger and at the time of writing is still a couple weeks away from return. Kevin Harvey also decided to give his notice and head back to his native Canada. A very untimely decision but sometimes the cards don’t fall the way you want them too. Upon taking all of this information in, you can just imagine the moral of the team and how that would affect statistics. Shockingly, goals for and goals against are neck and neck. On the other hand, it’s no surprise that the Blaze are the most penalized team in the league. Frustration mounts over time.

That being said, from here on in the Coventry Blaze need to start playing defensive hockey. Not that they haven’t been before but it’s time the defence core turned it up a notch and delivered. Yes, there’s a gap to fill with Olson gone but it’s possible with the caliber of defencemen on this team.

I’d like to say that the forwards need to step it up but they have. Ryan Ginand is the leading the league with 71 points. In fact, the Blaze have 3 scorers in the top 15. The only other team that matches that is the league leading Belfast Giants.

There’s plenty of time left to mount somewhat of a comeback and recapture the season. There’s not one person to blame for the plunging in the standings,  so don’t even start to point fingers at Matt Soderstrom as he was dealt a lame hand. It’s a combination of things. Thus the Coventry Blaze and the Series of Unfortunate Events will enter a rink near you.

By Ed Kimberley
Coventry, England

The Coventry Blaze went crashing out of the Challenge Cup race on Wednesday following a 5-2 loss  to the Hull Stingrays. It was a reverse of the score line that saw them down Hull in the league competition. Ryan Ginand scored twice in both games but it was Ashley Tait who was the star of Sundays meeting with a 5 point night.

Sundays game was also the last for Blaze Defenceman Sean Erickson who  announced he would be leaving the club shortly after the game. In fairness to Erickson, who never looked totally settled in Coventry, he stuck with the team through their injury crisis which ravaged their defence. It was a shame that Erickson has left the club as his 3 point night and generally solid defensive play was indicative of what the American had done while playing in Tulsa of the CHL. However, likely because he was never entirely settled witht the Blaze, he didn’t live up to many fans expectations. Although the Blaze are searching for a replacement it has been stated on a BBC CWR interview that there wasn’t much out their suitable. This seemed an interesting comment as at the same time the Nottingham Panthers secured the signing of Finnish Defenceman Tuukka Makela. Erickson is heading back to the Central league with the Rapid City Rush.

Wednesdays game was won by the Stingrays largely thanks to their special teams. They went 3 for7 on the powerplay and they also tallied shorthanded through Jereme Tendler. Their performance on the penalty kill was terrific. They killed 6/7 powerplays and the Blaze lack of secondary scoring cost them; both goals came from Ryan Ginand, his 20^th+21^ST goals of the season.

The Blaze 1^st line of Ginand, A. Henrich and Tait have combined for 90 points this year however secondary scoring, and production offensively from the Blueline has been sparse. There are rumours of further changes in the Blaze camp, many speculating that Erickson will not be the only player to leave in the coming weeks. Erickson’s replacement, in my mind needs to be a player in the mould of Mike Schutte, who iced for the Blaze last year (and went 12+46 in 57GP), an offensive defenceman who can make and finish plays. This would hopefully kick-start some secondary scoring for the Blaze.

By Ed Kimberley
Conventry, England

It has not been a happy 3 weeks for the Blaze. Following a big 6-2 win against the then league leading Dundee Stars, things looked good for Matty Soderstroms boys ahead of a tough schedule. The Blaze have since been hit by injuries to key members of their blueline which has tired out their defence and caused some critical mistakes leading to other teams scoring. Unfortunately, they have been their own worst enemy and it has been soft goals conceded that have led them to lose games.

For instance in Nottingham, (after the Blaze lost 6-1 the week before), they took a 5-3 loss to the defending champions in their own barn. The result could have been a tied game. A give away by Mike Zacharias led to a Panthers goal and with the first shot of the game a soft shot slipped under his pad. Zacharias stood on his head, and was ultimately MVP for the Blaze on that night including a great pass that led to the Blaze first goal, but had it not been for those two goals, the Blaze could have been level and sent the game into overtime.

The other similar result was against Cardiff on Saturday. The Devils struck twice shorthanded through Ben Davies following a give away by Zacharias almost identical to the giveaway he gave versus the Panthers the week before. Mike Devin was beat on his own blueline by Matt Myers who converted the play. Every goal scored was a special teams goal. A Ryan Ginand hattrick left the game tied had it not been for the Blaze giving up two shorthanded goals. Continue reading “Coventry extend losing streak to 6 but add Gerome Giudice”