Some musings…

Well, it has been 2 whole months since I subjected you all to my ramblings about our beloved club. So, what do I have to say now….

Early season blues…..

I think we would all agree that the season hasn’t exactly started in the manner in which we have become accustomed. For whatever reasons, the team just has not seemed to ‘gel’, despite being predominantly the same as the previous years. For my money, this can be at least partially explained by a couple of things: Injuries and changing lines.

Injuries are something you just can not plan for. We haven’t been the luckiest club with injuries to begin this season, and most certainly miss James Archers energy on the ice. All the club can do about this is ride it out until all the players are fit enough to play.

And changing the lines. I honestly believe that combined with the injuries, having to switch between ‘EPIHL’ lines and ‘Challenge Cup’ lines hasn’t helped the team gel. In an ideal world, we would have played all the cup games against the NIHL teams in the first 3 or 4 weekends of the season, allowing the EPIHL lines to settle into a good, unbroken run of games to help bed the new players in. This hasn’t been the case, and I’d bet cold hard cash it has had a negative effect on the guys on ice performances.

Of course, poor performances bring out the worst in some fans. If you believed the official forum, then the end is nigh! We are a ‘rubbish’ team, and there must be ‘something going on’ that has turned us from Champions to 8th out of 9. or it could just be, you know, bad luck. These things happen, and I long since accepted this fact about watching sports many, many moons ago. Now, don’t for 1 second believe that I’ve got my head in the sand regarding our poor start, or that I’m just trotting out the ‘club line’ as folks seem to want to believe. I most certainly am not. I’m just a realist. Shit happens, and there is nothing as a fan that I, or anyone else for that matter, can do about it. I honestly believe that if you are a fan of a team, you will support them in good times and bad.

Now, if the team is still in the same spot come New Years, then i most certainly will be expressing my concern, but right now, there is plenty of hockey to be played, and things can turn around. We won’t win the league, but dragging ourselves back up to the top 3? More that achievable. 6 points (or 3 wins) separate us from 3rd place Guildford as I type this. Easy enough to make up over the remainder of the season if our form picks up (and I believe it will).

Storm warning…

Something else which has popped up in recent days is mention of the Storms 20th anniversary. A small, but vocal, number of posters over on the official forum seem to want the Phoenix to play in an old Strom jersey, but with the Phoenix logo on it. Now, my personal opinion on this is we should not do so. Given that Neil Morris now apparently owns all the releveant rights regarding the Strom name and logo, I’d much rather see a reproduction of the original Storm jersey. The original was produced without a sponsors logo for a time, so could easily be replicated, with a 20th Anniversary crest added to either the chest or sleeves.

My main bone of contention with this concept though is the attitude displayed by some folks over it. According to some, the Phoenix is the Storm. It isn’t, and it pisses me off royally that some people still want to cling to this notion. The Phoenix might own the old Strom images and name rights, but the club is not the Storm under a different name. To say it is, in my mind, disregards all the hard work put in over the past decade by the volunteers (and employees) of the Phoenix to help establish the Phoenix brand.

So, to be unequivocal about it one more time: The Phoenix is NOT the Storm.

Another irritant from this debate was the assertion that all Phoenix fans are actually Storm fans! Really? Maybe 10 fucking years ago, but certainly not now. I’d guess maybe 50% of the current crowd never saw the Strom play a single period of hockey, and have no affiliation or link to the name. To claim otherwise is naive in the extreme. Sure, there are plenty of us who were Strom fans (and some who still claim to be Storm fans, who are supporting the Phoenix only in the Storms absence…. well, I think they might have a loooong wait on that front), but ther days of pining for the Storm name to be resurrected are done with, at least to me anyway.

As for the complaints about the Cup games and Season Tickets… I really am not going to get rolling on that issue as no matter what is said, someone takes umbrage over it. Suffice to say, I highly doubt the cup games featuring NIHL sides will appear on next seasons list of ST games (should the cross over element of the cup be retained).

Robb.