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This is a review from the Bridge official podcast of the Belfast Giants for KingdomOfTheGiants.com.

Today's Tuesday, the 3rd of September, 2024.

My name's Patrick Smith.

We're live on YouTube, Facebook.

and on x or twitter if you prefer you also download us on apple podcast spotify and a lot

more of your normal podcast providers if you're watching youtube and you enjoy the show why not

hit like subscribe all that good stuff likewise if you listen on spotify or apple uh leave us a

rating leave us a review always like a bit of feedback on this week's show another two victories

over u.s sports opposition uh in rounds off our pre-season for the belfast giants an entertaining

weekend of hockey on we'll have a look at all the action kyle osterberg found the net at the

weekend a couple of times and he'll pop by for a chat as well assistant coach jeff mason uh there's

been a few bits of news between team gb elite league rules etc and we'll also look ahead to

the opening games of the challenge cup when we'll be joined by a friend of the show and head coach

of dundee mark lefevre before we get stuck in big thanks to neil whiteside as always giving us an

fantastic

bit new look to the titles new look to the backgrounds some new bits and pieces big thanks

to him always does incredible work um if you're watching live and you'd like to get involved

youtube facebook have live chat box and you can always get us on twitter and stuff i'm keeping

watching that at avftb delighted to be joined by my two good friends who will not want to discuss

anything to do with football with me today mr mcgymsey how are you i'm very well thank you

for asking uh how are you i'm doing great

great mate i'm a bit tired but i've got a glass of red wine and i'm feeling good

i'm gonna paint the harp have you no it's brand new looking harp that means that's clear

kids are back at school they're knackered we had a big weekend they're knackered and um

we can get back into a bit of routine mr kitchen how are you get on thank you very much patrick

um we'll see you're over in in uh in paris and we're just having a chat just having a chat before

we came live there but honestly i'm just saying i find myself watching more and more of the

paralympics and what it was of the olympics it's absolutely unbelievable mate honestly it was such

an an incredible weekend i was very fortunate to be able to bring the kids over we drove to

paris and all that sort of stuff but like the it was inspirational like some of the stuff we saw

in the swimming and the athletics like a chinese a chinese gent with with no arms who's able to

swim you know 50 meters quicker than i can do 25 you know these lads such that like some of the

the ability so the ability a lot of them have despite the fact that they are you know that

life is you know dealt them this hand it's ridiculous it's it's it's inspirational it's

wonderful and like the atmosphere around paris was brilliant let's not talk about the 50 year

old fine i got for not having the right ticket on the metro but you know that's you know that's

by the by that didn't ruin the weekend but um we had

uh yeah we had a fabulous time at a at a brilliant event and um i was glad i was able to go over to it

a lot of fun um no no i've just i've said it then it looked absolutely incredible

i don't like stade de france was full it was full and it was just do you know what was really

before i get stuck in the hockey you know what was really impressive where the swimming was it

was in wrestling 92's arena so basically their rugby arena indoors in um in la defense and in in

just like north of the sun in paris and it was only taking up a third of that arena because

obviously but that's like a full-size indoor rugby rugby stadium incredible arena absolutely

incredible huge huge but um seeing them making it because they basically they well they basically

made a swimming pool um and in the middle of the stadium i was watching a you know the way

needle does the the slow-mo thing from from the arena going from concrete the ice exactly the

thing um a few weeks ago it was

and seeing the way how the way they did that and technology these days it's just unbelievable

turning a rugby stadium or football stadium in this room was brilliant very impressive like the

whole paris was a buzz for it as well it was indeed right enough let's get on to let's get

on to the hockey a few bits of news before we crack in to the uh to the hockey itself um when

we came off our last week 24 hours later the signing of mike lee a 28 year old d-man from

connecticut who played last two years in slovakia and was also part of the vermont team in 2016 but

today this

um

was a white

um

our great club and finally zach galambos will be out of action for the foreseeable future

real unfortunate piece of news and we hope he recovers quickly um david go with you pick

anything you want there anything you want to comment on oh well i suppose galambos coming

in and the curse of last year continuing unfortunately for him he's going to miss

a little while i suppose kyle osterberg mr miss a couple of games too with a knock from the first

game so hopefully that's the that's the injuries done for a little while and uh you know we can get

back there a little bit of normality good to see mike lee coming in i thought we talked last week

about the strength of the top four day especially with missing colombo side so um that brings a nice

extra string to the bow at the back end what was the other one petr czech of course yes it was

great to see him and around the club for the last couple of weeks he's he's you know we've talked

offline about it but a phenomenal guy apart from what he can add to the hockey side of things he's

just a real nice guy to be around so that was a real nice uh thing for the happen to the club

the last few weeks is there anything else there is that i was going to go to say i was going to go

says with regards to the captaincy choices and in coops and of course ben lake jeff baum and karen

long yeah i mean it's not really any surprise i mean coops is basically the way he's looking at

a little bit on his business you know he's he uh was disappointed the way season ended last year

obviously he picked up bad injury and just after christmas and and didn't really recover from it i

think it's fair to say you know and even he when he scored the goal there last week he said it was

the injury so um you know he's starting to feel it and he's looking well and and obviously laker's

been away with gb for the last 10 days so he'll be back and ready to go this weekend but you know

jeff baum absolutely should have an ms chest all day long as uh karen long again well like

in the dressing room and and uh you know goes that extra man and even stands up

for his teammates a wee bit more often than what he used to so uh drop the gloves against

cardiff which is always good to see but uh yeah then just reiterate what david was saying pat

for the last couple of weeks he's been absolutely brilliant uh all the players love him and then you

know it's and even we we had a with a fire um evacuation at the arena like a test a few weeks

ago a couple weeks ago while he was here he wanted to do it you know just in case anything happened

while there was a game happening and to see what happened he stood on the bridge and we did a

a fake um signing session and and we had a lot of actors in and a lot of policemen acting uh their

part and they're just queuing up waiting to get a photograph for a selfie with better check

um remember waiting to be told right you've got to evacuate the building and they're all just lined

up with getting autographs for him but he's he's just the nicest guy and i was speaking to him

before he left there last thursday and he's promised us that he's going to come on avf tv

so um we just have to sort out a time and uh we'll get him on and have a bit of a chat with

him because he's patty he's just the nicest guy like real real good guy

we'll hold him to that i'll i'll put down some football questions for him

holding the sword with regards to that semi-final the challenge of the champions league in uh in

oh five anyway oh six sorry but the um anyway right let's crack on let's crack on with the

hockey boys the belfast giants had the final two games of pre-season against the uh the carlton

ravens and the alberta golden bears it was wins from both of those let's start with the game

against the carlton ravens i'll put a bit of the the highlights as we're talking about it

um carlton's goals came from castleman and bedard with for the belfast giants our guest tonight

carl osterberg with two uh pio moran with uh with a hat trick cassetti on the power play

kawaguchi last week's guest with one and picking it also um david start with you five different

scores and things seem to be working well i think what i liked about this um performance most was

i thought we jumped really well from the start with a really strong first period i thought um three

three no three one in the first can't remember just remember watching and thinking this has

been a really strong start we didn't let them get any energy into the game you know i think sam you

said they came in on a flight on the friday morning so it didn't really have you know

they're obviously flowing overnight and then they're having to play same day so that that

will going to affect their energy but from our perspective that's got to be

you jump right from the start and you don't let them get into the game don't give them

don't let them get any momentum at all and didn't think we're dead and tom mccullough

Colin played well when he needed to make saves

and I just thought we kept the foot down

the whole way through the game.

A nice, impressive performance for a pre-season game.

It was one of those that when the Giants started

to get more and more momentum,

then they just got stronger and stronger.

We were talking beforehand that you could easily say

you sports team this, that and the other,

but we've seen college teams come over here

and take wins.

They're a tough opposition.

They absolutely are.

I mean, there's players in this team from Carlton

and obviously the Golden Bears on Sunday as well

that teams around the Elite League will be looking at

if not going to sign.

So I just thought, Davey just touched on it,

we played really well.

You know, you had big performances.

Obviously, Moran got a hat-trick.

You had Osterberg, you got the team off to a great start.

Davey just mentioned Tom McCollum there.

Tom McCollum, again, last weekend,

I was busy last weekend.

I was grungy.

I didn't really get to see very much of the game

against the Cardiff Devils.

But against the weekend, I thought Tom was really good.

And again, he's just very calm and net

and sort of commands the area very, very well as well.

He doesn't really panic.

And I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do this year.

But for regards to the game against Carlton,

we're three up there.

And then obviously that goal, which we're just looking at now,

Roche just sort of turns the puck.

I thought he just got caught up on his feet a little bit.

And unfortunately for him, they capitalized on that

and came back into the game a little bit.

But we totally controlled the game.

Great to have Mark Cavill back in,

the head coach of Carlton.

And obviously, the Giants first signing 25 years ago.

But I thought we just controlled, managed, looked after the game.

Great again, a couple of kids getting a better chance to play.

I think Kel Beeley was in.

Mason Alderson was in.

And Finlay Howells.

So overall, a good workout.

And then obviously they had the Saturday off,

getting ready for Sunday against the Golden Bears.

Also good to see Dicko get a bit of time in between the posts

when the time came.

You mentioned Mark Cavill.

And if you get a chance to check out our Twitter,

Ciz did a brilliant trip down memory lane with Mark Cavill.

And of course, was about the first signing of the Belfast Giants

and had a great chat about what it meant to him.

And do you know what?

Watching this interview just brought a hell of a lot back.

What a player, what a goalie, what a guy.

And that team and seeing what it means 25 years later

that a player like that comes back in,

doing well for himself, his own setup,

but what the Giants mean to him.

And he was absolutely right.

Had the Giants faded away, they said it wouldn't last.

Had it not lasted, he probably wouldn't have been as engaged.

But he was quite obviously still engaged with the club.

And seeing how well he was doing,

we're getting on and quite proud of his role in it.

Absolutely.

And one of the things they didn't realise when I did the interview

was that Jason Wright, remember Jason Wright in year two?

Yes.

Defenseman and Chad Allen, he was year two.

Both of their kids were playing for Carleton University.

So, you know, it's basically, it's those, you know,

he was trying to explain to me after the game, you know,

he was looking forward to seeing Posey that night.

And then he seen Shane Johnson.

And on Saturday, I think it was, nobody seen Shane on Sunday.

He was supposed to come to the game on Sunday.

No chance.

So, you know, 25 years on and they're, you know,

they're talking about the times I had back then.

And it's just one of the things that he brought up in the interview about,

you know, he was saying that every time a hockey player gets a chance

to go to a city, even now, Mike Lee,

I picked Mike Lee up at the airport last Friday morning.

And I was asking him, you know, obviously,

about how Belfast came about.

And he says, well, Kiefer was trying to get him for a couple of seasons.

And I spent a bit of time in Slovakia and he was also telling me,

he says, I know a lot of players in the league and this and the other.

I think he was right.

Like there was nobody to talk to with regards to playing hockey in Belfast

for a franchise that hadn't even started yet.

And then when they hit the ice.

So it's, it's one of those ones where that first year group,

although we didn't win anything, it's a year that they'll never forget.

But the way, I mean, Paddy,

we've been through this numerous times before, yourself and Davey and myself.

If the Belfast Giants doesn't come along,

there's very, very unlikely that our paths are going to cross.

Davey's path and mine, yes, you know.

Me, absolutely not.

He's, you know, I could have been his brother-in-law,

but that's besides the point.

But, you know, it's one of those ones where, again,

it's very, very unlikely our paths would have crossed because of this great club.

And that's just the way it's all ended up now.

Absolutely. Davey, give us your take.

You obviously, you're like myself as well.

And I'm like, says you, we get a good bit of reminiscing when you see things like this.

Well, even just reading the tweet that we put out there, you know,

talking about it being a leap of faith, pretty much what Simon says there.

You talk, you know, remember we did all those lockdown interviews.

Really privileged to go back and talk to the guys that came.

It was a funny one.

Twenty-two years ago then that they took that leap of faith.

Jackson Whistle's dad, Dave, jumping in a car in Bracknell with Stewie or Killer,

whoever, and driving and getting a boat to come and look at a half-finished arena and saying,

aye, let's, let's do this.

And what that has given me as a person over the last twenty-five years,

like I often talk and we actually, was Adam on last week?

Yes, he was.

And I talked about the pride that I always have when I hear guys,

speak well of my time, Belfast born and bred, love it, cut me, you know, I bleed Belfast.

And to hear people coming and making Belfast not just somewhere to work for a while,

but then they come back and they make it their home,

the kind of Belfast wife or whatever, and the laid down roots here.

And even just for guys coming in, it might be a one year stop off.

You thank them all for making, they play for our city because we can't, right?

You know, much as I'm sure we'd love to have that ability because they have got that ability.

And, and the,

the common, yes, they're professionals and yes, they're getting paid,

but the common make my city part of their story means the world to me.

And the guys probably don't know just the extent that it means to a lot of people,

but I look at that, that caveat of you took the advantage,

Paddy, of you upgrading our Twitter there.

We're going to put out these long format videos now says you're not restricted to two minutes anymore.

So fill your boots, mate.

But I think twenty-five years ago,

he was the first guy to stick his name on a bit of paper and say, yes,

I'm going to be your goalie.

And obviously you talk about number 23,

Mike Lee coming back in and number 23,

Chad Al, number 22, Jason Wright from back in the day,

you know, and great memories, mate, great memories, lads.

You know, the funny thing was when you remember,

we talked about it last week and I brought the stick in.

So to stick around the game at the weekend,

we did the photo, I've got a photograph of it.

Did I send the photograph to you, Paddy?

You did. You did. I've got it.

So I've got the photograph when I walked into the room,

he was standing there,

just after finishing his power play and special teams meeting with the boys

before the game on Saturday night.

And I walked into the artist's dressing room,

you're standing there with the two assistant coaches,

the equipment manager and one of the physio guys.

And I walked in with a stick and I just stopped everything.

He says, that's my stick.

And I go, it's your stick, yeah.

He said, where do you get that?

And I told him how I got it.

And I said, look, I'm literally,

I'm looking for you.

I'm looking for you to sign it because we're going to,

he actually thought I was giving it to him.

And I said, if I hadn't put it out last week as a prize,

I would happily give you it,

but we're going to give it away on our podcast.

I said, we basically asked the question last season.

He said, what was the question?

I'm going, can't remember.

How many pucks were used last season by the Belfast Giants?

Watch the podcast this week and that might be able to give you an answer,

to give you the answer for it.

You might have a chance of winning it.

But yeah,

he literally took the stick and he was all the good,

the two goalies that he has on the roster.

He brought them in and go on.

That was the stick I used in this building the first game.

And they're looking at it going, how did you use this thing?

It was awful.

Half the length of what goalie sticks are.

And I plus their goalie, their big goalie was about six foot five.

So, you know, he's powering over Calvi at that point.

But yeah, he loved it.

See, to be honest, Simon,

like I get nostalgic about things like that and see if,

I thought for one minute Calvi really wanted that stick.

Like Calvi should get that stick.

I know some players will not be driven by collecting shirts or collecting memorabilia or whatever,

but 25 years ago to be the first jab and that stick from the first night.

See if he wanted it mate.

I don't think you'd find a fan there that would argue with handing it over to him.

But he's gone now.

Well, he's gone at the minute,

but he wants to come back.

And he's got two sons playing hockey and he's hoping one's going to end up here very,

very soon.

So we should find another prize then.

And there's a tweet in response to it from that guy.

His teammate and the other goalkeeper that season in Derek Wilkinson,

obviously now one of the VPs at the Charlotte Checkers in the AHL.

But there you go.

There's Mark Kavlin and Derek Wilkinson 25 years ago are starting to hand them for the Belfast Giants.

And they said it wouldn't last.

Gents, let's quickly just going to bounce ahead now because we have guests waiting in the green room.

We're going to join us.

We're going to add Kyle Osterberg in just a few minutes,

but let's have a quick chat about the other game that took place between the Stanley and Belfast Giants and the Alberta Golden Bears.

It was a 6-3 win over the Golden Bears on Sunday.

This is following their own 4-3 overtime win over Carlton on Saturday.

Alberta's goals came from Thacker Hall and McLennan, who had a one-on-one finish.

Giants goals, Cassetti, Berriga, mismatched with his first Giants goal in the PP.

Morin, Cooper got the fifth when it looked like Alberta were coming back into it.

And Kawaguchi scored an empty net, only to make it 6-3 on the night.

It was a nice little battle.

The most entertainment I got was by the name of one of the Alberta players.

Sean Chagger just leaves the night there.

What was his name?

Sean Chagger just leaves the night there.

Listen, one more time here.

Sean Chagger just leaves the night there.

Okay.

Says he'll start with you on this one.

It was a good battle.

Yeah, I think they sort of woke us up.

You know, scored, it was a 30 or 35 seconds in, and then would be genuine.

He just started playing.

We didn't really have another chance for the majority of the first period.

Again, another game where I thought we controlled the play.

I thought we had had a chance.

It took them on a lot of occasions.

Still could have scored a few more.

But the game was good.

Again, this team, you know, there's some big boys in that unit.

There's some, you know, big lads from Saskatchewan and Alberta, and they're strong boys.

And I thought they did very, very well.

But again, team management, again, playing short-handed.

We had Max Stewart getting another goal and an assist, I believe.

I think he picked up a point or two points in that game.

And certainly won't do him any harm of, you know, getting noticed again, whether it's the Belfast Giants or Milton Keynes that he's playing this year.

So another game that we just got to get used to.

We just controlled.

And the bottom line is getting through these four games over the pre-season, two weeks of making sure we're getting through it.

And hopefully, again, we're ready now for, it's all coming down to getting ready for this Saturday night against Dundee.

I'm going to get, I'm going to bring Kyle in in a second, Davey.

But before we do, just give us your take.

You know, what did we learn from this game?

Not much to add, Paddy.

This is a good fitness session, if nothing else.

You know, we think we're short benched pretty much.

We've maybe 14 skaters.

Or something on the night.

So, you know, we'll have wanted to have cleared that defensive zone in that first play of the game.

And, you know, from then we settled down and got, Simon sort of covered it all.

You know, I thought we carried the play for most of the game.

Yeah, there's a couple of little defensive mental errors here and there.

And that's the second, second game of the weekend, playing short bodies.

So nothing, nothing too much to worry about.

Nothing too much to get too excited about.

A good, a good end of what's been a decent enough pre-season.

And boys getting decent ice time spread about between everything.

So, lots of, lots of positives to take from it.

Let's not keep our guests waiting any longer.

Absolutely.

Let's bring in a man who scored two goals on Friday night against Carlton Ravens.

And scored, has been scoring across pre-season.

Please welcome back to View from the Bridge, Kyle Osterberg.

How are you doing, Kyle?

Gentlemen, thanks for having me.

I'm doing well.

Thanks for coming back on, mate.

Let's start by talking about this weekend.

Let's talk about the opponents that you had.

You had two goals yourself against Carlton.

You know, what do you think that you and what do you think that the Belfast Giants learnt from this weekend?

In the, in the battles we've had?

Well, first and foremost, it was nice to make a full weekend of not having an injury.

But overall, I thought, I thought our group did extremely well.

Like Kitchy was saying, that second game, we kind of got off to a bad start.

But if you look down the bench, there is no worry from anybody at any point.

I mean, it was 30 minutes or 30 seconds into the game.

But all of us knew, I think, deep down that what we're capable of as individuals and kind of getting that chemistry that we need as a team to bring us into the season.

And I think that's only going to be good things coming down, whether it's in the month of December or these early games coming up this weekend.

Kyle, for the little knock you took there on the on the first weekend, how have you found camp?

And games and stuff so far?

Have you been enjoying the setup in the city so far?

Honestly, I love it here.

This is probably I've probably said it to everybody throughout the organization, maybe just to the random stranger that's come up to me.

This is by far the best year I've ever had, being a professional hockey player, from my family to myself.

Every day going to the rink is so enjoyable.

And I think all of that translates over onto the ice.

you're if you're happy away from home if you're happy at the rink everything just kind of falls

into place um going into that injury uh it was just such a fluke thing um obviously nobody wants

something like that to happen and it just did happen um when it did happen I kind of lost all

my balance all my strength whatever I had going on at the time my ears were ringing I couldn't

really understand what was going on but then it took me like 20 minutes and then I finally was

like ah yeah that's right Bo Bo took a slap shot from the blue line I was able to get out of the

way a little bit and uh but we're all good now so uh and then last weekend obviously it was good to

have a full weekend back to playing um the boys did really well uh obviously being undefeated in

the preseason and uh we're looking forward to going into Dundee and Fife this weekend

Austin you just touched on Dundee and Fife this weekend two rinks that you've played a lot and

obviously the Fife Ace Arena you're being in there

in a different uniform this weekend you must be looking forward to a challenge

oh for sure but uh obviously I'm I'm more excited to be wearing the Giants head um and wearing the

Giants logo that's the one thing I wanted to be doing uh going back into Fife hopefully uh

I don't have too many boos on my side but I understand if I do but also I hope that I can

sneak a couple past Shane Owen um so I can have a little bit of bragging rights and then uh as far

as I can see I've had some good success there um but overall I think uh this weekend's just going to

be a good stepping stone for our team just kind of figure out where we are we've only had really

the one game with Cardiff and they only had um a limited line because a lot of the guys were with

GB over in the Olympic qualifying so uh this weekend will be a fun test for our group to

see what we can bring to the table and how we can uh kind of push forward on to this season

um you you touched on there that you've um you know you've had some success on Dundee scoring goals

you scored a few goals in Belfast last year I mean I could have choked you at one point you scored

three three um shootout goals we've already talked about it during training camp but um again you

know you certainly know where the net is and uh hopefully hopefully you can start uh putting them

in the onion bag this weekend yeah uh this weekend was really nice just to kind of get the monkey off

right um you know uh PO and uh Gooch were my line mates this weekend uh the first weekend it

wasn't that way but uh this weekend it was PO and Gooch and uh we kind of just uh found some

good chemistry early on and I think that first game all of us were on the score sheet at least

scoring uh PO had a hat tricks um he's got the bounces all over the SSC arena right now it's

crazy um I wish I had that luck but uh yeah it was nice to get uh at least a few

in the back of the net to kind of grab that confidence here quick and early and then hopefully

uh going along um like you said obviously I have good success at the SSC arena um I love playing

there I love playing in front of the crowd um it was so so so fun to be back in that kind of

atmosphere of a professional um atmosphere where it's an arena where it's big the the lights are uh

bright uh the crowd is noisy and it's

not not added pressure but it's added enthusiasm um just to to go out and perform

some really great feedback coming in from the guys who are watching watching online and they're

saying you know they're enjoying watching you play um the uh from banana man oh from fight I

was wondering what that was Tony Gordon it's great that Cal's a great player glad to see

you go from a banana man to a giant I've just realized what that is five well done Tony well

done the uh how's the atmosphere in the room coming into the start of the new season getting

you you know these games against Dundee and five is you know this is the real thing this is the is

the how is the um how is it how's the atmosphere what's really laughing the tanny dropper says sir

we're going we're going we're going straight into the the actual competition challenge Cup has

changed a little bit but ultimately we're still playing five we're still playing Bray Brayhead

where am I Glasgow and uh Dundee uh are you just looking looking to kick in the

proper games next yeah obviously uh um from the start of the season the ultimate goal is to go for

the treble right um and that starts this weekend with some of the Challenge Cup games but um

the way I've always kind of looked at it and um the way I think our team sees it it's just taking

it weekend by weekend not trying to think too far ahead not thinking about stuff in the past we had

a great weekend but it wasn't um

um teams in our league so now we're going into this weekend even though it's Challenge Cup and

not season um it's a chance for us to to get a step in the right direction to try to do something

good towards going after one of the trophies that we want this year um but as far as the

chemistry in the room it's it's just great we have so many guys that it doesn't matter who or

what uh chimes in in in the locker room um everybody's respected and uh

it's kind of been that thing that I feel has been missing in my personal career the last couple years

where you have a room full of leaders instead of a few leaders and everybody else follows

um that was the one thing I wanted to do while coming here is to go into a championship

environment and since day one from uh Kiefer to Kitchy just to everybody in the organization you

can just tell everybody wants to win and it's really fun to be here so far and you can just see

the locker room and yeah just like I said we're so excited to get this weekend started

the fantastic to hear me but listen we'll not keep you any longer thank you so much for joining us

good luck this weekend good luck with the trip back to the Fifice Arena and uh and hopefully

you can't sneak one one or two past you know and best luck this weekend man thank you thank you

thank you appreciate it guys big thanks to Kyle Osterberg for joining us we're going to batter

straight ahead there's a man waiting in the background it's uh we're going to be talking

with uh later in the show we're going to be talking with with

Mark Lefebvre but first up the assistant coach for the Belfast Giants a man who normally when he

comes in this show wears a Boston Red Sox cap but given their trials and tribulations in the wild

card race he's not doing it this week how you doing miss you know what the uh I'm straight

from kids hockey tonight and uh the Red Sox hats are upstairs so I I picked up I think two new ones

when I was back in Boston so that's not the season for the Red Wings season sorry for the red for the

Red Wings you know wild card race isn't working out huh I said I'm always a fan always a fan no

absolutely give us your take they're not very good but I'm always a fan absolutely well that's

what that's sport mate you can't have it always your own way um give us your take on the weekend

from the behind the bench you know the the two games against the uh against the youth sports

teams and on what you and the and the coaching team learned from what we faced you know I think

uh you know we knew that they were gonna have full lineups they were gonna come hard their teams

that worked very hard and they did that I thought you know obviously we get out to to early success

on Friday night and and you know carried the play you know the majority of the time and weren't

really tested but did it you know saw some good things from a number of guys and um you know

obviously we're got some good uh good play from uh you know our two-way guys that had come in to

help us out which was which was really encouraging to see and then the game on Sunday

uh you know we were extremely short um for a number of different reasons and you know wanted

to see the guys compete and and everything but you know kind of you know with the intention of of of

getting through the game and um you know but still wanting to play well and win and I thought we did

that I thought that you know even you know the intention was to have the guys maybe maybe hold

back a little bit more and you know kind of pick their spots a little bit more but you know the

rest of this group they were they came out flying and obviously they you know not a great start

getting scored on 30 seconds in or whatever but uh you know it was a good good response from the

group and and a lot of good things uh you know some things we'd like to clean up defensively

from that game and you know gave up probably a few more grade A chances than we would have liked

on Sunday but Tom came up big uh as he has all pre-season when we needed him to and um you know

it got the win which obviously it's pre-season and and wins don't matter but you know

seeing a group come together and you know you have to learn how to win and and so there's a lot of

encouraging things over the course of the four games uh and you know over the course of this

last weekend and now we just try to take those in the next weekend yeah looking at the scoring

as well you know we we can hark back to last season and and where struggles came it's one of

them some of them was like finding the sort of secondary and the tertiary scoring but you look

at what's been going on in pre-season even just this last weekend to Osterberg more and Cassetti

all on the scoreboard bariga mismatch all on the scoreboard coops as well there seems to be some

really good gelling some really good scoring come from multiple multiple directions yeah you know

we've had some combinations that have gone together in the pre-season that we've really

liked and then for for different reasons we've had to shuffle it around a little bit and we've

liked those combinations which is a really good thing when you've got guys that can you know play

in different spots and on different lines uh that's you know that's how you kind of build your

build your depth and um

obviously looking forward to getting a few guys back into the lineup uh this coming weekend and

and we'll see where everything fits together but um definitely nice to see as many guys uh get on

the score sheet as they have over these last four games uh it makes you confident that you will get

scoring from up and down the lineup um you know so a lot a lot of encouraging things and I think

the things we talked about coming into the pre-season you know we've we've certainly

um you know hit on most of those things and uh you know there's always places to build and and

time to grow um you know and you're trying to build towards a championship but uh you know so far a

lot of encouraging signs from the guys that have been on the ice and how they've come together

and now camp is behind us Mason probably this weekend back on the boat then over to a place

that you'll be no stranger to on day on five couple of hard games to get the competitive

season off and running yeah absolutely and I think we we talked about it last week and it was our

top places to play and um and where it starts for real and obviously with the changing around of

the challenge cup but uh it's harder to advance and and it means there's there's less room to you

know less room for error less less room to slip up so um you know we have to be ready going in there

uh and I expect that we will be um you know and and hopefully we can go and get the job done both

on Saturday and Sunday uh and then come back home the following weekend for the the home opener and

um not problem but you guys coming in this league that just aren't um maybe haven't played in the

sort of format of the challenge cup where you know opening weekends these games count yeah and we've

we've talked a lot about that and I think we've got we've you know we got a number of guys in the

locker room that that have you know played in Belfast before or played in the league before

and understand that you know every game counts and certainly from day one we try to uh you know

further back from day one you know

in the summertime recruitment period when you're talking to guys coming into the league you stress

them that every game matters that that this in this league uh whether it's challenge cup or the

league every game matters and into where you want to be so um you know we certainly hit that point

home early and and hopefully that that means that when we turn up on Saturday night guys are you

know come out with showing that same importance yes I've been looking back at training camp and

obviously the last three weeks um apart from

day one I don't think you've had everybody on the ice at the same time how much of a challenge has

it been with guys being away at GP injuries already this season you know kids having to come up and

down the lineup bringing them back in again how much of a challenge has it been especially again

that you control the bench with George and Stewie this weekend yeah I mean it certainly has been a

challenge and you know probably uh you know some unexpected things that we you know we certainly

saw but on the positive side of that it's given us an opportunity to look at more guys we've had an

opportunity to get some of the two-way guys in who have done really well for us that hopefully if if

the situation arises in the season and we need to call upon them then then they've gained that

experience and we're confident and comfortable with with how they fit into our lineup uh and as

I mentioned earlier we've had to you know juggle line combinations and other things for a variety

of different reasons and really gotten to see how how people have mixed together and play together

in places we can put a number of different people throughout the lineup so um you know certainly

hasn't been uh you know uh what what you set out for at the start of training camp you want to have

everybody from day one and and and straight through where you you know learning about your

team and and putting things together but it has provided us opportunity to to maybe see some other

things or given some other players some different opportunity um so just looking at the positive

that things have have gone well um and we've been able to you know build uh on each game so um you

know looking at it that way it's you know we've we've gotten what we could have out of it and and

now we're now we're into the thick of it when we look at the likes of the two teams from the

youth sports this weekend and obviously um I know about the you know the friendship for and you're

heavily involved in the organization of it this year it's not that far away I know you've got the

the um the visiting teams

um coming over next week for uh for the visits and then you know the pre-scouting visits and and

obviously you know it's only what is it 11 weeks before the friendship four starts um for anybody

that hasn't and I know majority people have who watch our show anyway have actually heard of

friendship four you play it at that level you play at the NCAA but how important is it to continue to

build the friendship for and have things likes of Carlton and Alberta Golden Burst how important is

it to have to play those guys on our own

regular basis too well I mean nothing sells the city of Belfast like actually coming and experiencing

the city of Belfast um you know anyone that comes in and comes here and spends time here loves it

here um so there's no better sale for us than when players actually come in here um and see the city

and and what better way for us than people that are not yet at the pro level yet to be able to

come here and and you know know that's a place that I I would like to go and that's you know

one of their you know one of the things they think about when it's time to turn pro so it has

been a a big advantage for us in terms of that a lot of people have come through and played in the

tournament or had friends that played in the tournament um you know and that that's that

speaks you know volumes you know it does a lot more than than what you know myself or Adam or

Steve or somebody can do on the phone speaking to them um so it's been a huge benefit that way and

then and then obviously the the u-sports teams aren't involved in

in the friendship for but being able to get them over here and having gotten them over in the past

um and I'm sure again in the future uh again it's a chance for us to see some players and

get familiar with them before they're before they're you know uh before they've used up all

their their you know University eligibility uh and it also gives them an opportunity to see the

city and the setup in the arena uh and see how things are done here so those kinds of things are

are really important for us

um you know in recruitment and building our team and um you know so it has been a great benefit to

us and it's also you know it's a great benefit for the people in Northern Ireland to be able to see

you know very high level hockey and people that you know in a lot of cases are future

NHLers I mean we only we only missed out on the on the top overall selection in the NHL draft by you

know by a little bit this year um you know if he had returned to BU for his sophomore season he'd

have been here so uh they've got a number of people that can be an inspiration for that and I think you know that's what's going to be for them.

a number of first round picks on their team and guys that you know are projected high so

uh as well as the other team so it's a great opportunity for people to see great hockey and

potential future nhl stars or future belfast giants finally miss because i know it's past

your bedtime so i don't want to keep you up to date time right now way past way past your bedtime

um you know obviously last season was last season it's in the books now and lessons have been

learned and you know we'd still have a spine of players who probably are itching from what

happened last season and the fact that it was the first time we'd not had silverware in you know in

recent in the recent past um how how do you feel is the determination in the room because you

ultimately you stewie george and of course keifer are the guys who have to be pushing these guys

forward how do you feel the determination is going into these first games i i think they're

a very determined group i think there's the competitiveness

in them

you see it come out in practice um we see it come out daily and then even even looking back on this

weekend those aren't easy games to play um you know it's it's the second weekend so you you know

those those first games are out of the way excuse me and uh you know you're you're looking at

canadian university teams that that you don't know and uh you know you're short bench so there

was lots of reason you know there was lots of built-in excuses for guys to to kind of turn it

off and shut it down and you know i think it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a

know look towards next weekend um but they didn't do that and you know they competed and you know

the times uh you know even on the third period on sunday when uh you know they had pulled it back to

within a goal we came right back and it was either the next shift or the shift after that we scored

again to make it two goals again where you just saw and you could feel it on the bench that guys

were like okay that we're not going to let this happen so um i i think it's been very encouraging

i think the you know the compete level throughout um you know is extremely high and that's you know

one of the big things we look at when we're bringing players in is you know do they compete

and we think we've got a lot of guys that do and if if you compete night in and night out you got

a good chance to to win listen we really appreciate you coming on thanks for joining us um good luck

this weekend we'll catch up with you again later in the season cheers guys no worries big thanks

to jeff mason for joining us here on the views in the bridge ahead of this weekend's games and

this

weekend's games start in dundee against the dundee stars in the challenge cup so who else are we

going to call up it is of course the head coach of the dundee stars but we know him as friend of

the show mark lefevre how you doing man good yourself yep doing really well thank you now

we're going to before we get stuck in the talk about the games that happened this weekend you

guys have had your own pre-season two games against um fife home and away and then two games

against you sports

in um and quebec probably there um differing results you had good results against fife but

not so good against the u sports how did you feel and what do you feel your team's learned

from the experience in pre-season well i don't think it's more about the results more about

getting chemistry we have a lot of new guys this year and we're still missing guys obviously with

with benny sold the olympic qualifiers with gb we haven't seen him yet we still have a few guys

that come into the country so it's been kind of a mix and match kind of thing you know we've had a

lot of bad guys through the four games and obviously some illnesses some injuries already

picked up and i think belfast has been going through the same thing through their pre-season

as well so it's hard to get a read on not only our team but their team as well it's uh this is

the sort of time where you are trying to get those gel and you and you've brought back maybe a spine

of players you like dredge is a it's a stalwart now in dundee how happy are we the roster you

put together i like it so far we haven't played any games earlier so yeah i think i've really been

coach and GM is going to say the same thing they love their team in in August and the start of

September but uh obviously things change throughout the year but with the guys that we brought back

the guys we brought in uh we're looking a little bit different this year obviously with two import

goaltenders we get a national team player in Ben into our lineup um like I said bring a core group

of guys back and then obviously some new additions so we'll definitely have a different look but a

lot of familiar faces that's for sure coach thanks for joining us on AVF TV for another season it

seems like this has been going on forever I think this is going to be the last one bad isn't it um

better not I think you guys 15 times this year with this new cut format so I think yes

see you next week man

straight into that conversation like um new format in the challenge cup twice as many games it seems

in the group stage against the same teams a little bit more jeopardy and that it's straight

the semi-finals albeit there's some caveats on that and play-ins and play-outs and stuff

um happy with the format

I know our owners are happy because we have Glasgow and fight for an extra home gate you

know but it's an extra trip to you guys obviously like that I mean that's from a coach's point of

view I I don't like it I don't understand it uh you know we have a 10 team league why do we need

a group of four and a group of six I understand there's different Dynamics that go with that but

you know to try and have you know two groups of five you know play everybody home and away

and you know every quarter file semi-files and and and finals obviously that's how I would do it

in two groups of five but I I get it logistically and finances everything I go into it um but just

from a coach's point of view it's not my favorite former that's for sure I'd rather what we did last

year we just played you guys and fight from Glasgow in our group and and figure that out

from there and then the other two groups have teams of three and and their format so it's it's

something new uh something different but I'd rather be in a group of four than a group of six

format format aside um it's good to get into some competitive hockey again oh 100 you know we know

if we want to do anything this year we're gonna have to go through Belfast Glasgow you know our

big rivals with five um you know and everything like that so it's gonna be good test for us this

weekend obviously I'm sure Kiefer's saying the same thing because he hasn't seen his team yet

uh you know with everybody in the lineup we haven't had everybody in the lineup ourselves

in pre-season so I think with the cup games I mean I guess the only positive was so many

at the start of it I think seven of our first eight games are cup games you kind of get a feel

for what your team really is um obviously for us with our club the biggest thing for us is is

getting to the top eight in the playoffs and trying to win it with you know the format that

we have that way um obviously the league yeah it'd be great for us as a club to win the league but we

know it's you know the top clubs at Cardiff Belfast uh Sheffield obviously competing every

year for that um but you know for us for hockey wise we won't win the playoffs so but the cup

we're at here in the next month coach obviously you know you've got your you had all of last year

in Dundee you're going back into another season there um it does it get any easier for you with

regards to you know you you know in your surroundings you you're not coming in off

the I think it was in Denmark or the year before France whatever it was but you know you because

you're settled now does it get a lot easier for you or does it just the matter of you still putting

the same amount of hours and you're still you know just knocking your pan in to make sure everything's

correct before you get you hit the ice for your first game oh there's new challenges every day no

matter if it's your first season or 10th season and and you know especially when there's so much

roster turnover in our league you've got to blend those new guys into the guys that you're bringing

back and the last year was a little bit different because we had wholesale changes from the season

prior to that for me taking over um you know obviously we brought a core box they know how

I run things but with the new guys you want to implement things and like I said there's new

challenges every day um like I said when it's your first year 10th year it doesn't really

really matter um you're always trying to find a solution for it what did you learn about yourself

in the last season what do you learn about what what changes do you feel coaching wise

you have made to yourself going into this new season well I think it's not so much changing

it's just doing something different um all the time I think it just keeps challenging for myself

too to keep things fresh all the time you can't keep going back to the same things over and over

again and you want to challenge the players like that um with different things there's

different systems different ways of running practice uh and just keeps things fresh so I

think that's one thing for myself is just to challenge myself a little bit more to keep

things going because it gets redundant all the time it gets boring especially when we hit those

dog days and in January and February um so you want to keep things as fresh as possible keep

it upbeat keep it positive um and just do something different all the time why to import goalies this

year well I think the biggest thing for us you look at our League if you don't have

a vessel like you guys have we're bouncy they're they're for me they're starting net miners in our

League I don't think there's another British goalie out there that could be a starter and we're we

could be playing up to 70 to 80 games this year with the Cup format and the playoffs and regular

season I just don't think there's any other guys out there that can carry the workload

um I don't think we've gone from a League of where your starter or your import goalie starts 60 games

now you want to have that balance where we're playing 40 30 split for the most part um so for

us we you know after cards we went down last year um obviously we couldn't bring a new goalie in we

had to go with a young 21 year old Brett um and you know he was trying his best enough but you know we

probably dropped 10 points uh without having a proper starting goal attended towards in the

season and you know we end up seventh instead of maybe fourth or fifth on the table um so for us it

was one it was important one we have to get a national team player that doesn't count as an

import that's a homegrown player so again Ben O'Connor helped that and then we were able to

um so you look for the most for the most part I think the league's going that way it's trending

that way with the 15 imports like I said you guys are very fortunate yourselves to have Jackson and

Carter for bouncy but I just don't know where the next implement of goalies are going to be British

wise to be starting goaltenders in our league um and you guys are in a very fortunate situation and

a lot of teams don't have that luxury where they can have that 40 30 split with the British goalie

most teams don't have that so it was imperative for us to go to import goalies this year yeah

um Lucas Brown when when when cause he went down and and you know he's now gone across to to Glasgow

to be part of the setup with with uh with Corey Nielsen but one of the players you have been able

to bring in one of the players that maybe made a lot of people you know step up and and take notice

was Ben O'Connor you mentioned him earlier on was bringing Ben O'Connor to to Tay said you know how

did that come about and and what are you expecting from Ben this season well we've had a long

relationship I played with Ben 2009 in Edinburgh so not the age yeah anything but uh I've just I've

been thinking that exact thing exactly yeah so we we've had a good relationship going back to then

and we've always kept in touch and uh we talked a little bit last year um you know this is in a

friendly way and then after the season was done when they lost in the semis uh the following week

we started chatting a little bit you know to see where things were going to go for this season and

I kind of told him our plans what we wanted to do um and he was on board I think uh he and Guilford

seemed to be at a at a stalemate and what bringing him back or not and I think he was looking for

something different and uh he fit where right what we wanted we need for me we need to get faster on

the back end I thought we were and that's by my own thing we were too heavy on the back last year

uh we didn't have those good puck movers like Dryden so we've added Ben and obviously Cole

McDonald coming in as well we you know we've the league's changed a lot since that last time I was

here you don't have all those slugs you know around the ice and that now you need you know

good puck moving defense when the game's transitioning a lot faster yeah the league's

getting faster and faster every year and um so we need those transporters so that

is definitely bringing that to the table you've had a good little look at this league for many

years now it must be at least there's 20 years since you first came over to Sheffield at least

that and then you talk about you talk about Edinburgh was probably maybe five or six years

up sort of what did you say there 2009-10 something like that so did you imagine first of all when you

came in 2003 but maybe even when you went up to Scotland for the first time as a full-time in in

rugby life for you the eihl I know you've gone away from France and you've done a few back home

and and you've done here and there in European League but it's really you've been quite eihl

centric you're the last 20 years of your career you've always gravitated back here

yeah it's come it gets better every year um I know a lot of people you know get upset with

the import numbers and and that but I just think the fans want to be entertained we're a different

animal I think our league to a lot of the leagues in Europe we're just they want to

be entertained um and I think by having a heavy import numbers like we do in the league it helps

that obviously it's great to have the homegrown players as well but um to see the league where

it is now I think we have 10 healthy franchises it's nice to see and um you know and the players

are coming to League you know from even from last summer to this summer it's it's incredible

um players being attracted to it I think um you know you look up and down every roster

every coach has done a good job recruiting again this year so um it's great to have

that competitiveness and you saw last year when right though for us anyways right down the last

game of the season um and that's how you want your league to be you know try and get into the

playoffs like that you know obviously for your guys sake too you wish the league was a little

bit closer at the top of the table there was with without Sheffield running away with it but

um you know I just think the league is so competitive every every night it's it's not

like the olden days where you know you're gonna have two points up on the board uh nine times out

of ten against a certain team but now it's everybody could beat anybody on any given night

probably in the parody of the league um and just I think it's just going to keep getting better and

better without trying to be in any way controversial obviously you've talked about Jackson and Ben

Bynes as baseball tenders with them the the new rules for two ways is that something that you're

going to be able to dive into yeah we've we've put two goals in two-way contracts um you know

we've got a couple of incoming guys around around Scotland that are you know been part of the GB set

up in under 18s and everything like that so um they've been

with us during preseason as well until until Savo gets here um so they've you know got a bit of a

taste of it hey we love to be in that situation where we have you know a British in that minor

to give us you know that 40 30 split that we talked about earlier I think you know one day

hopefully that's coming I think Manchester's doing a good job with Old Dale the kid there

and obviously Brian um but I know if they're they're not ready to step into that role of being

uh starters yet in our league or at least a 1A 1B situation tandem situation so it starts its baby

steps it's it's it's gotta be a homegrown thing but you gotta start early you can't just throw them

into the fire right away when they're 17 years old 18 years old you have to develop them from

a young age and bring them through your program um but our you know how our league is it's results

now um so you can't take a chance on a lot of guys so I I don't think there's an opportunity

for that I think there'd be should be a setup where players could be developed not just the

goalie wise but player-wise as well where we can have kind of a proper feeder system

where um you know they train with the senior team and they may be playing in an under 20

league or something where they're you know they're the stars of that team um but unfortunately we

just don't have that set up the way our league is I know when I coached in Hungary we had our

fourth line was all the under 20 kids and then they go play the under 20 team as well I'd be

stars there so they had the best of both worlds they practice also play games at the senior level

but they get a chance to develop at the junior level as well so I I think we're a long way a

long ways away from that kind of setup

but that's for guys that have development and British players to come through because

you look at the national team as well now the guys are getting older as well and you know

what's that next wave of players coming through um so a lot of it goes hand in hand with the

development but um you know I I still think we're a long ways away from from even getting there

if I can just come in there you talk about how difficult it is and and we hearken back to to

what you were saying earlier about you know about goalkeepers we've a comment from Anthony Russell

talking about you know not that one this one um Sam gospel Jordan Henley Jordan McLaughlin someone

needs to be brave and give someone a chance like like so we give Ben bounds at how you know but

how difficult is that because you're judging results you're judging we always say two two

points in October or as much as two points in March you know the difficulty there I guess is

is the fact that the league structure 100 I think that's it's a good point someone's got to be

willing to do it um and take that chance but

you know like he said it's a results-oriented business no matter what um wins or wins and you

can't take that chance sometimes I think there's probably some goalies at that level that may be

able to step up we're just not sure but I think there's such a disparity between between a 15

import level league and a four import level league as well um you know what's the quality down there

as well for those guys so um it's just there's no development system really like I said with

us no there's no parody between it at all guys will be able to step up well that's one of those

and then I guess the league needs to sort of make decisions as to what priorities are is it you know

do we have to are we going to be able to bring these players through or you know how do we mix

that and I guess this two-way this new two-way approach is what they're trying to do listen we're

not going to keep you any longer coach we really appreciate the time before we go you know how you

set up for the weekend how you set up how do you feel do you feel already going into these games

yeah you know that we know the challenge that's going to be had this weekend so it's um you know

we're looking forward I mean obviously we had some great games with Belfast last year and I expect no

different I know there's uh quite a few changes with you guys this season there's quite a few

changes with us so um but you know it started the season everybody's excited and see what the teams

can do Saturday but uh we're setting up well it's going to be a big challenge for us and we're

looking forward to it listen we really appreciate you coming on friend of the show Mark Lefebvre

we're not going to wish you luck on um

cheers man cheers thanks a lot guys nice coach big thanks to Mark Lefebvre for joining us friend

of the show Mark Lefebvre um let's get a bit of just before you go on there it's interesting I'm

just reading the chapter Anthony Russell obviously who's steeped in NIHL EP or whatever from back in

the day as well and and he fundamentally disagrees that it can't be done but I like I can see where

it's going like this this league was set up we're talking to Mark but he originally came in this

league what 2003 when it was probably first season he I a challenge I remember to put out the mission

statement and all what this league was going to be a development league but it very quickly became

you know we all want the win and are we willing to sacrifice that for the development side of

the British game yeah you know that's that's a question that can never be answered and obviously

the British game was picked and dropped through those last 20 years as well

um it's a very difficult question the answer and obviously Mark was very honest there about

whenever car went down injured and he had to bring in Brian and and hired it affected possibly their

overall stand and then he will be in the season so it is it is a very difficult one it's it's it's

an interesting conversation well I'm going to bring just this sort of feet into something I'm

just going to bring up in a second with regards to the new rules with regards to the roster but

um well let's go to that they'll have a new the um a few things are put up by the elite league and one

of the roster rules if I can just share my screen uh for those that are watching online in regards

to the um the the two-way players that it's defined as a as a player under age of 25 on the

1st of September this year contracted primarily to the EIH or or Scotland-based teams in lower

league in National and one then two in SNL and has obtained written permission from their parent

club and is classified as a homegrown player and it's not possible to register a non-homegrown

player as a two-way player and obviously you have a situation in Sheffield where the the um the

Steel Dogs are owned by the Sheffield Steelers and you know there was talk about whether they

would be able to have players playing for the Steel Dogs and come on a two-way contract the

fact that they can't be imports it states categorically that the non-homegrown players

can't be two-way players um Davey what sort of effect do you think that these new roster changes

would have for a two-way player this might be something that you know Anthony would be able

to even give give more

depth of knowledge on all I can say is like the guys that we we know about Caleb Mack we've seen

them before Mason Alderson excuse me from the house came in and um Rose Mitchell King I thought

looked fantastic in preseason you know if these guys get some sort of opportunity to play you know

Jeff Mason talked about it I don't keep talking about last week and marked an extent there as

well about picking the spots to put them in and that they know that if there's a game in November

where we're short bodies and we'll have to get guys

in you know that they can be trusted to come and play some some part of the game

it's but it's it's very difficult to know I think it was Mark that used the the term trust if you

can trust the players to to go in we have only our own knowledge of watching them in in some

pre-season games and we're we're effectively dead rubbers but and they've done really well

and done themselves no harm Max obviously put up three four or five points maybe across pre-season

I'm not a hundred percent sure he got eight goals and goes and assist so he's he's done a lot of good stuff

and he's really been a great team uh he's a very good team and you know he's a good team he's a good team

he's a good team and he's a good team and he's going to be a great team and he's a great team and he's going to be a great team

he's done no harm himself for his confidence especially going back to melting kings as well

and we know these guys will be able to play a role if required but in a 15 import league there's

probably not space for them at the minute to come in and get top six minutes would that be fair

simon yeah absolutely but the way it's sitting right now i mean it is very difficult i'm just

reading anthony's thread here on the on the comment section and and there is because of the the the

difference in levels between the ehl and the mihl it's um even the the goaltenders would find it

increasingly difficult i i don't know what these guys get paid at that level i know that some of

the guys have been offered more money than what they would be offered in the ehl um but i don't

know whether that likes a jordan mclaughlin sam gospel you know can they commit to going full

time again i have absolutely no idea some guys are happy playing hockey you know trailing two

three nights

a week and going away at the weekends because they've got another job to fall back on or they've

got a you know they've got a trade or they've got um they're still at school doing college i really

don't know the full ins and outs of what the situation is but being involved in in the inside

of the organization now as as compared to what it was a few years ago i know it's very very difficult

to have the opportunity for the coming through i mean this isn't something new this is going right

the whole way back to even when i was

playing like you know getting a chance to play at the top level is not easy um you know you need

to be given that that trust davy mentioned you know that the fev had said about it and and um

you know you you want to be you want you just want to play hockey and then if you feel that

you're going to get more ice time playing at the nihl level and getting you know 18 20 22 minutes

a game compared to two or three shifts and sometimes no shifts at the ihl i'm going to be

really honest i would probably want to play at the top level and i'm not going to be playing at the

ihl level myself but if i when i was 21 22 years of age i just want to play you know i just wanted

to get as much ice time as possible and and if the chance came along to play at the ihl level

and i was getting you know regular minutes then that that's completely different but

the league where we are right now it's not going to change anytime soon mark mfev also commented

on the uk sorry the team gb situation you know you look at the guys who are you're getting

older um obviously karen long dropped out um a few weeks or a few seasons ago didn't get the

chances he was hoping for um uh jonathan phillips from the from sheffield is obviously gone now

uh you look over ashley tate's reserve for longevity matthew mars was there for forever

you know all this mark richardson is getting older you know there's legs of ben davies your

legs have robbed out ben o'connor yep and how many of these kids that are coming through are

going to get the chance and they're going to have to step up the ihl level to be even considered

playing for team gb and it's and i'm sorry to cut in there season just to add to your point and you

can come back on this as well is the fact that what we see and all due respect to them you know

they have earned their spots sam rup ben lake these are not guys who are coming through the

system here these are guys who have come and played here earned their spot through the system

but it's not guys who are coming through the system yeah and again

that's not something new it's it's been happening for years i mean paul yuri oh yeah is one steve

thornton shane johnston you know you have all these guys that you're you're going back all that

time and all of a sudden you know they've got the they've got the the uh uk residency and they've

got the passport and they can play for for gb so it's it's um it's a very very difficult situation

i i fear for gb hockey because of the way the situation is you you do need a core of locally

brought up kids i mean when you look back two seasons ago i think it was the under 18

gb squad kelby cameron uh hamill carter hamill and mac stewart four kids all trained in belfast

all coached in belfast for probably 12 or 13 years together and those four kids got into that gb team

which is more than any other team throughout the uk actually put on that team at that time

four kids from one club is an unbelievable achievement for both rob stewart and mark

morrison and all those guys that are involved in the coaching and the junior chance that's

absolutely incredible and now again that they've taken that step up obviously they've all decided

to go and play in england yes we've got three of them on two-way contracts um and none of them let

themselves down when they played a few weeks ago or several last two weekends but again stepping

up and playing 12 14 16 minutes at the

eihl level is a huge step up from where they are at the nihl level and it's it's it's completely

massive step um and i i really hope that some of them can make it i was really in play davy touched

on it mitchell king i was really impressed with him over the two games that he played i've been

really impressed with mac stewart over the last couple of weekends as well you know we got two

i'm pretty sure he's got four points two goals and two assists over those three games

that he played um so uh i look i would love to say that kids are going to get a chance but davy

just touched on it and you said it yourself patty it is not a development league and coaches jobs

depend on it i can hear anthony russell just going nuts now i know i can hear anthony i can

hear anthony russell's fingers on the keyboard going but yeah but this is this is a this is this

anthony a spot on a view from the braves to chat about it we will bring him on possibly next week

possibly next week because we i know we've only got one game or the week after i know we've only

got one game with regards to the weekend so i what i will say if you don't follow anthony on on that

on twitter banners on the wall at banners otw follow him on twitter i don't like this cover

by the way um anthony the uh the dog shepherd scoring against the belfast giants let's get

that changed but definitely he has a great stream every week

talking about like the nihl and and sort of a state of the nation on a weekly basis as regards

to hockey in the uk very well worth following a good friend of our show we've known him for many

years but anthony russell so banners on the wall get on that and you will come on this show anthony

and we will have a full and frank debate about it um one other thing with regards to the stuff that

happens with regards to the league is that the video review for major penalties has been implemented

major penalties and double and double minors on a high sticking

um in regards to what it says here on the elite league website all major penalties except fighting

are eligible for confirmation by video review and officials can review a play in order to confirm

an original major penalty downgrade a major to a minor or remove the penalty altogether also it's

there's going to be confirmation on a double minor high sticking to confirm the double minor or remove

the penalty altogether in both cases as with video reviews for golden goal situations the reviews

will be conducted by the on-ice officials within the on-ice officials within the on-ice officials

within the arena um a good move david yeah listen if it gets more if it gets more um

calls that are borderline correct then it's a good move but the the difficulty i guess the

only difficulty i have with it is the the technical equipment that everybody has isn't the

same and you know it shouldn't that was my first it shouldn't actually punish any teams because you

you shouldn't actually get more going for you or against you it just means it's some arenas

where you know it's recorded on okay 51 10 you're not getting the same you're not getting the

same sort of feed as you're getting chevy belfast cardiff for example so you know it'll reduce the

amount of i don't want to say officials mistakes but this this is what they're saying we're going

to review if we've made a mistake so it reduces that number fine it's good good says i'm okay but

it helps the officials out um and you know gets them to make the right decision i'm absolutely

okay with it david just just mentioned there not only every arena has the same capabilities and

some have better uh camera setups than others uh but look they're just they can only work with

they can only work in the terms that they've got and hopefully um again if it's going to help the

officials make the right decision then so be it absolutely um other bits of news uh despite

defeating japan in the final game

uh being losing to norway and denmark had already sealed their team gb's fate in qualifications

for the 2026 olympics denmark will progress to milan or katina but katina's a skiing in it so

milan for that um and also as part of the build-up for the new season there's been a few little stats

put out not least that the giants hold the league's best winning record at 64.9 percent

and of course this has spurred a few tears from opposition fans who don't see this as a bit of a

puff piece

before the start of the season they see this as a fundamental slight

against the abilities and successes of their own team anyway let's go to our stats man

it's been a while what are your thoughts on it what are your thoughts on it mr jim say

what was the question patty because i wasn't really listening

the uh the the elite

putting out that the belfast giants have a 64.9 percent ah the winning the winning winningest

in ehl history and the only team that also have a winning record against every other team

in the ehl you know there's chef and not in and we have winning records over cardiff

winning records over and now the ehl just put that rubber stamp a messy a stamp of approval

on the belfast giants

Joe Grimaldi stamp

Joe Grimaldi guarantee

64% of games

over a 20 odd years

it's incredible actually

it really is when you see some teams

that are in the 30s

it's a testament to all the hard work

that's gone on before

that is already in place for the future

so congratulations to that

fantastic organisation

on leading the way as normal

and also it's quite entertaining when you look on

social media the amount of people that just

literally just a little puff piece

put out by the league

ahead of the start of the new season

and it's all like

what's the negativity

Patrick there

I've seen some negative stuff on Twitter

today even a thread that

she got involved in

oh my goodness Mark

Hitchcock needs to get a hobby let's be fair

I hope you're ok Mark

I hope he's going to be ok

the guy's not been on Facebook for 5 years

he's not been on Facebook for 5 years

and he's whinging on Facebook about things that are on Facebook

calm yourself down buddy

anyway

the whinge is all like

was it like the conference system

and we had certain mono games

and of course you played more teams more than others

and blah blah blah

it doesn't fucking matter

it's just a bit of crack before the start of the season

nobody really cares

of course the Belfast Giants have come out on top

so everybody just has to accept that

but you know whinging on Twitter

one of my favourite things

thanks for Mark Brooks

for pointing that out obviously

well done Brooksy

nice one Brooksy

I've not

by the way I was supposed to get a text from Brooksy

because he's playing a game tonight

and because I've not got a text from him

I don't think I have let me check

no because I've not got a text from him

I believe that means that he's lost his game

oh no yep

lost to Belfast by 5 points

not too bad

as long as we're a few more back in June

his team played my team

this is GAA gents

just

anyway

last bit of news

anyone care about the Steelers

in the CHL

because they begin it this week

against Froberg, Groton

and the Vecual Lakers

and personally I hope they get stuffed

so yeah CHL starts this week

more importantly

the Belfast Giants are back in action this Saturday

Dundee away 7pm at the Dundee Ice Arena

and you get that on Dundee Stars TV

and Fife away

in the Dundee Ice Arena

and you'll get that on Sunday at 4

and you'll get that on Flyers TV

we're in Challenge Cup action gentlemen

and looking forward to it

any other business?

happy birthday Max Mason

10 today

happy birthday

where's Dad on?

we could have done that then

Laura and I sang him happy birthday

earlier on

it was our own FaceTime

and Kelly works in our office

her birthday today as well

happy birthday to you

happy birthday

glad I got the soundboard working again

only do like literally

I only got the soundboard working for this

Sean Chaggert just losing out there

that's going to be used again and again

anything else chance

that's me man

no well in fact case as I said

Dundee away on Saturday at

7pm Fife away on

Sunday at 4pm

Dundee Stars TV for the Saturday game

Fife Fliers TV

for Sunday's game both in

the challenge cup um big thanks to the calistaberg to jeff mason and of course the friend of the show

mark lefebvre you can get us at avftb on twitter you can get us on youtube facebook x you can get

us on instagram you can get us on kingdom of the giants.com and all the usual sort of podcast

places mr mcjimsy mr kitchen good to see us see us again next week um a bit of unfortunately a bit

of a sad note to end on this week the hockey world lost another bright star in johnny goudreau

um and his brother he and his brother matthew were struck by a car while i was cycling in new jersey

um terrible turn of events it was the night before their sister's wedding and old in the

oldsmans township in new jersey um the columbus blue jacket and the calgary flame player has been

mourned right across the hockey world alongside his brother and we add our thoughts and prayers

to that so we'll close the show with this tribute that was going on twitter

and um rest in peace uh johnny hockey

you

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