Hey I'm heading to Lancaster for school in the upcoming semester
Anyone know if there are any rinks near by for any type of skating or hockey???
thanks
PM please
If there is, take your equipment.
Also, be the good hockey fan and try to get some of the locals to go with you to games, and get them interested.....spread the gospel!
How does Great Britain do internationally? Are there any British talents that NHL fans should take note of?
As far as European leagues go where does Britain stand? I've heard the Elite league is around Austria's calibre. Is this more due to the imports the teams have or is there enough local talent to back up this claim?
On a sidenote, I'm not sure if its available anywhere (might want to check out Youtube.com or one of the other video posting sites), but I did see a Passionate Eye (CBC Newsworld documentary show) a few months back about how the Belfast Giants are doing wonders to calm the tensions between the Catholics and the Protestants in the city. Weird how a sport like soccer which seems relatively tame on the field can cause such violence amongst the fans, but hockey, a sport that is inherently violent, can cause peace amongst the fans.
LOL! So true. Well the Giants are still here in Belfast though now without Theo Fluery after being his usual overbearing self. Anyways the Giants still get plenty of radio and news coverage but attendance is well down. They almost went into liquidation a few years back and for a team that was selling out every night it was a travesty. Hockey is such a great sport and was the perfect fit here, but i guess the novelty just wore off, its not in peoples blood, they didnt grow up watching it, and unless their willing to get cable etc. they will see very little of the NHL, plus barely any rinks (just 1 which is lovated outside belfast), teams, places to buy equipment etc. And also as bad as it sounds, sectarianism sells over here, just look at the popularity of Celtic and Rangers who are easily the most followed teams and yet are from Glasgow, Scotland!
But its not as if hockey is without it. The Toronto - Montreal rivalry had alot of sectarianism as part an parcel in the past with Toronto being the English Protestant team and Montreal the French Catholic team. Though i dont think those sentiments are still there today, not with the majority of fans anyways.
Personally i'm a huge hockey fan and have watched from a very young age, like most over here my fascination started with the video games and grew from there. I dont go to watch the giants very often myself i'm afraid, i just cant watch british hockey, the rinks to big, not enough hitting and the game is much slower, and theres very little talent, i know i really should be doing my bit to make sure hockey grows here in Belfast but its not the kinda hockey i'm passionate about so why should i try and get someone else to be. Its a tough situation.
Does anyone support the Sheffield Steelers. Also i live around 30mins from an ice rink.
No, although I am a big fan of Mike Blaisdell. Myself I was a Durham fan, but since they were stolen I don't really have any particular favourite. Generally I'd prefer Nottingham, Fife and Whitley (it feels wrong to write that) to win their respective Championships.
Just went to watch Cardiff-Coventry. Entertaining game.. the speed and quality was better than I expected but very little hitting. Was disappointed to see Carlon, Lewis, etc get little time on ice despite the short benches.
When talking about hockey in Britain we all tend to think league & youth/junior development. Yes we have Elite, ENIHL, EPL, SIH, leagues etc............ but we tend to forget another area thats good for prompting the game of Hockey.
Recreational Ice Hockey, Rec Hockey. Now heres a totally different way for people to get into this amazing sport. Though theres no official league as such, its still an excellent way to get people involved in the sport. Some teams have ex-league players that make up their ranks, some teams are filled with beginners who have only just learnt to skate, some games are full contact, others arent.....this all depends on the team or teams..... If the Teams are EIHA registered they can challenge other teams to games (just generalising here)
Im English born, left England when i was 8 and lived in Canada over 17 years where i learnt to play hockey. Even though i was in Canada i still knew about Hockey in the UK. Sheffield Steelers were the team that somebody who knew somebody from Canada had played for them.........or however the story goes.....................a few after years moving back to England, to be honest i lost interest in Hockey, always said i'd go and watch the Manchester Storm & never did. Watched Storm highlights..........then my interest died off in the sport.........no TV coverage, no media attention, hockey became something of a yesteryear thing. Chats to my parents in Canada, but i didnt feel apart of it, a part of hockey......
.........I apologise now that this is long winded..............but by chance i stumbled across a website............i'd been to watch my brother in Canada playing Rec Hockey.... the interest was there again............the website i stumble across was the EIHA rec section site.....I found a team, i contacted them and was offered a trial even though i hadnt played for a team in over 20 years............since then ive played in EIHA registered games now, ive travel to different parts of England to play games............its a dream come true. Laughable to some, but its true......
Im not trying to pimp the team i play for, but the Altrincham Aardvarx, they have the right attitude...........they have given so many people that would of never stood a chance to play the game, a chance to learn and have fun. Word of mouth, family & friends watching........this all helps.............ice hockey will always be an underground sport.....................but that doesnt mean it will always be
To me this is one of the best ways to premote the game..........get the interest, show them they dont have to be instant professionals, take them to a game, any game................the maybe one day we will have more rinks built, and more people with give it a go
Used to be a die hard London Knights fan, but for 2 reasons I now couldn't give less of a **** about British hockey. 1 was the way we were treated by that snake Anschutz, 2 was the way that ******** who ran the BNL conducted himself. Sad, and more interested in vindication rather than the greater interests of the sport in GB.
Went to a few Racers games to support hockey in London but it seems hockey is just not viable in this country. There's a complete lack of money and attention from up top, which makes putting my own hard earned into it futile (especially as the ISL disappeared, and with it the decent level of talent).
Sorry guys there isn't room for both football and hockey in the UK. God how I miss watching Vez, Rushy etc in the London Arena.
Not quite sure what you mean, there has been hockey in Britain since the 30s and it is as viable now as then.
There are five teams playing in your city of London at a senior level for a start, if you want to support hockey in London try one of these.
I go watch the Caps sometimes (student in Edinburgh) but I'm always underwhelmed by the experience; it doesn't compare in any sort of way to the London Arena and the level of hockey played in the ISL. I don't think it's unfair to say now the level is significantly worse and it just doesn't appeal to me. Doesn't help that most of the rinks used (that I've seen at least) are dirty and seemingly dangerous for both players and fans.
Used to be a die hard London Knights fan, but for 2 reasons I now couldn't give less of a **** about British hockey. 1 was the way we were treated by that snake Anschutz, 2 was the way that ******** who ran the BNL conducted himself. Sad, and more interested in vindication rather than the greater interests of the sport in GB.
Went to a few Racers games to support hockey in London but it seems hockey is just not viable in this country. There's a complete lack of money and attention from up top, which makes putting my own hard earned into it futile (especially as the ISL disappeared, and with it the decent level of talent).
Sorry guys there isn't room for both football and hockey in the UK. God how I miss watching Vez, Rushy etc in the London Arena.
I read this post and thought I might have done it and had a strange case of amnesia...
Only Knights season I missed was the first, watched all the way from the second to the end - never keen on the arena, way too big for us and poorly designed to boot (that roof was too high, any noise just vanished into thin air).
PS Rushforth was so overrated to be untrue! Always taking dumb penalties without even making up for it by scoring the odd goal - now if we're talking Rob Kenny....
Don't support any particular UK team as such but watch it on TV,much prefer the Hockey here in the states,we get quite a lot on NASN Europe and other cable channels.
1. We don't get cold enough winters for lakes to be frozen over
2. Ice rinks only exist in certain geographical areas in the uk (Eg the north + Scotland)
3. Too many "British NHL Fans" - Get supporting a local team!
4. We get shunned to figure skating, who get a large percentage of ice time.
5. We don't produce the quality players
dear British hockey fans:
I am a GM in the all-time hockey draft (minor league), and a player I have been looking at as a possible pick is British legend Tony Hand. I would like to ask what his style of play was like.
dear British hockey fans:
I am a GM in the all-time hockey draft (minor league), and a player I have been looking at as a possible pick is British legend Tony Hand. I would like to ask what his style of play was like.
Great Skater, incredible vision, gets an assist on every play.
is he a physical player, ie could he be put on a checking line if needed? What NHL player would you compare his style to.
He intrigued me because he dominated his competition like few players before or since have.
Excellent posts, very insightful. 
