jolly old england

just thought i would check in since reading through these threads in the brit board brings back fantastic memories of my semester abroad in london
i never did get to a london knights (it is the knights, right?) game, but did see a few snippets on television in pubs

i used to stay up til like 3am to watch nhl action on channel 5 (i think it was channel 5) and did get to see canada beat down on the us in the gold medal game

the one thing i did notice in the little british hockey i saw was that the game was much more wide open
how has the british league been doing? growing in popularity or merely chugging along? i would think with all the continental european influence that the league should get a good deal of support
who are the big stars in the league?

It was the Knights, but they've taken a one year absence from the league, with the chance of a return for the 2004-05 season.

Yeah, the hockey's still on 5. Last night we had the 2am face-off Detroit vs Columbus. The show's still as wooden as ever, sadly.

Hockey's gotten less open here from what I've seen this season. We had quite an eventful summer this year, and hopefully things are going towards a healthy future for the pro leagues and Britain as a talent producing nation. Most teams are full of 'dutiful' players, but they're are only a handful of game breakers, along with some excellent goaltending. Hopefully this is transitional though. Although the EIHL (kinda the equivalent of the Knight's old league) has a few more Scandanavians it's still a North American style that dominates.

A few stars are: Jim Craghead, ex-Canucks enforcer who is scoring very well at Nottingham. Manchester fans seem to like George Awada, their captain, but to my mind goalie Jayme Platt is their star. Sheffield and Belfast are still the top-2 clubs, and Mark Dutiaume and Jason Ruff lead those teams. Ashley Tait is the leading Brit, with 10+9 in 20 games.

Nice thread title BTW.

Liam

mark dutiame, theres a name that catches my attention
i'm pretty sure he was a sabres prospect in the mid 90s

are the better players paid well? or is the renumeration modest even for the best?

i've got to get back to london- a city that i think is miles ahead of NYC
i'm not a big city guy, but london broke the mold