EIHL Preview

After the Nottingham Panthers dominated the previous campaign, winning the League, the Playoffs and the British Challenge Cup they look to have more competition than last year, with each team making some impressive signings, most notably the Sheffield Steelers.

Sheffield seemed to be the outcasts of the top three teams last year, trailing the Panthers and Belfast Giants, but after dumping coach Ryan Finnerty and brining in Giants boss Doug Christiansen, the Steelers look promising to put up more of a fight.Some of the Steelers most notable signings include 25 year old Brit Rob Dowd who's making his return to EIHL action after a spell in the Swedish Allsvenskan with Troja-Ljungby. He returns to his former team where he scored 149 points in 187 appearances and looks set to be one of the leading Brits this year.

Also set for an impressive year is 27 year old American defenceman who teams up with coach Christiansen again after making 13 appearances for Belfast last year which included a very impressive four-point night against the Cardiff Devils. With some new faces and a new goalie in Frank Doyle, the Steelers should be set for a top 2 finish and will be looking to make the playoff weekend in Nottingham after a two-year absence.

The Belfast Giants, despite losing Doug Christiansen look likely to impress and repeat there second place finish from last season as they've maintained a pretty similar line-up to last year. The notable loss of young Brit Craig Peacock to Frederikshavn in Denmark could be seen as a problem for the Giants but they've proved last season they don't rely on one man to get the job done.

Sticking with the impressive Stephen Murphy in net who should bounce back from his injury last season, the Giants have a similar defence core to last year, a defence core that impressed all year long. The Giants most impressive signing looks to be former Giant Evan Cheverie. Cheverie spent the 2008-09 and 2009-10 season in Belfast scoring an impressive 147 points which is good enough for 10th most in Belfast Giants franchise history. Another player in the top 10 points is Colin Shields who returns to the Giants for another year, and with just three points he will become the Franchise leader in points with 304, overtaking current leader George Awada who has 303.

As defending Champions, the Nottingham Panthers have a lot to live up to but they've lost a few key guys which might see there chances of a repeat slide a little bit. Perhaps most notably the loss of Assistant Captain Matt Myers to his hometown team, the Cardiff Devils could hurt the Panthers as he consistently put up 40+ point seasons during his time in Nottingham. Despite losing key guys like Myers, Guillaume Lépine and captain Jordan Fox, as expected the Panthers have made good signings as usual.

One of the players who looks most likely to impress despite his age of 38 is Canadian forward Bob Wren. His age may cause concerns but his point production over the last few seasons playing in Europe shown he's not lost his touch just yet. In 536 games in the AHL he scored a very impressive 502 points and through his career in Europe and the Canadian junior leagues he's nearly always had an average of more than a point per game.

The Panthers have kept goalie Craig Kowalski who is going into his fourth year in Nottingham, winning three playoff championships in his three years with the Panthers and looking to add a fourth, he's impressed with an impressive goals against average in his three years, the highest it's been was 2.64 in his first year in the EIHL. Also returning is Eric Werner who physical play made him tough to play against last year and was a big part of the Panthers success last year. Despite the impressive numbers held throughout the team it wouldn't be surprising to see them fall short to the Steelers and Giants, but not by much, but it wouldn't be surprising to see the Panthers winning some silverware this year as they look to make it a fourth Playoff Championship in a row.

Last year the Cardiff Devils fell short of expectations, signing a lot of skill but not enough grit to protect them they fifth in the League but look much improved this year. The two standout players are back, Mac Faulkner who's looks better than ever after coming back from knee surgery and his partner in crime Chris Blight look to be the main point producers again this season but the Devils have put together a new look team that look very hard to play against.

Perhaps the best signing came from bad fortune, after signing Frank Doyle to play between the pipes, Doyle left and signed a two year deal with the Sheffield Steelers leaving the Devils searching for a goalie once again. That's when fortune turned and sent the Columbus Blue Jackets third round pick from the 2004 NHL Draft, Dan LaCosta there way and he appears to be a significant upgrade to Doyle. LaCosta only made 4 NHL appearances but was able to record a shutout in his first game, then had a 1.54 GAA in his three games in the 08/09 season. Reportedly LaCosta turned down an offer to join the Ottawa Senators organisation to come to the EIHL after spending two years with the University of New Brunswick.

Another notable addition is the big body of Brad Plumton who showed on Wednesday night in a pre-season game against the Coventry Blaze that he's more than willing to drop the gloves and more than capable of holding his own. The Devils should be looking at a fourth place finish but will be under pressure from the two teams behind them who look quite evenly matched.

The battle for fifth and sixth should be an exciting and close contest between the Coventry Blaze and Braehead Clan who both have exciting teams for this campaign. The Blaze showed they're more than capable with a 3 - 1 pre-season win over the Cardiff Devils and it wouldn't be surprising to see them finish ahead of there South Wales rivals again this year, but over the course of the season it probably will end with the Blaze behind the Devils but only just.

One of last years late additions to the Blaze returns, the impressive Adam Henrich but he's teamed up now with his apparently even more impressive brother Michael Henrich who showed his talents in his year for Dornbirner EC in Austria last season with 37 points in 54 games and his big frame makes him a tough guy to knock off the puck, and the Blaze are full of big guys.

One of the biggest names and bodies they kept from last year isn't the type of player who will wow you with his hands, or even contribute a great deal to the offence, but the way Benn Olson can rock bodies and use his fists still makes the 26 year old a important part of the Blaze organisation. Last year he led the league in penalty minutes, amassing 392 points whilst also contributing with a career high 15 points for the Blaze.

One question about the Blaze was in net, how they would manage without Peter Hirsch and how replacement Mike Zacharias would be, and after Wednesday nights win over the Devils I think Blaze fans can rest assured that Zacharias looks to be a terrific signing for the Blaze, and he'll be the reason for a lot of the Blazes' wins this year.

Close on the heels of Coventry are the Braehead Clan, who signed a new coach in Ryan Finnerty and have attracted a lot of very talented players and a big hitting defenceman in Chris Frank. The Clan had an impressive year, narrowly missing out on a spot in the playoff weekend in a thrilling two-leg quarterfinal loss to the Cardiff Devils.

Braehead retained the services of Ash Goldie who had a very impressive 80 point season for Braehead last season in his first year in the EIHL and all signs point in the right direction for him to repeat the individual success he had last year. Like the Blaze, one of the questions of the Clan is how there new goalie will hold up, his stats don't list him as one of the premier goalies of the league but his 3.30 GAA and .893 save percentage for the Colorado Eagles of the ECHL show he is a capable netminder and should do well for the Clan as they look to repeat the Gardiner Conference win of the 2012-13 campaign.

Rounding out the bottom four should be the Dundee Stars, Edinburgh Capitals, Fife Flyers and Hull Stingrays. After Hull thrashed the Capitals 9 - 0 on Wednesday it'd be a fair assessment that the Stingrays should be finishing top of the bottom four in 7th place, a significant improvement on there last place finish last year. They still have Ben Bowns in goal who showed he has a lot of promise and could one day become a Team GB regular, but the rest of the squad doesn't show much of an improvement on last year. They still have Jereme Tendler and Jason Silverthorn and Matt Davies should be joining them in the leading points scores for Hull but they don't seem to have enough depth to challenge the likes of Sheffield, Belfast and Nottingham and could see them fall to the bottom end of the table again.

The battle for eighth and ninth should be between the Dundee Stars and Fife Flyers and Dundee just might edge it as they appear to have made better off-season signings than Fife like Nico Sacchetti who has a 2nd round pick by the Dallas Stars in 2007 but never made it to the NHL. He impressed for HYS The Hague in the Netherlands last year with 59 points in 37 games and should be one of the Stars premier offensive threats this year, but much like last year the Stars have few offensive threats but could still pull off upsets of bigger teams, but on rare occasions which is why they should be finishing 8th.

The Flyers will likely finish 9th, there roster doesn't show much improvement on last season and as impressive as there local talent is, they seem too reliant on Scottish players to poise any threat this year. They do have some talent in the likes of Andy Contois and Jordan Fulton who both put up 30+ points in Denmark last year and should do well this year, but the lack of depth again doesn't look promising for a good season in Fife.

Finally the Edinburgh Capitals. It's hardly likely that with there current, unfinished roster that they'll be doing much this year. They have three defenceman for a start which is a disadvantage from the very get go and they'll struggle from the start, especially after a demoralising 9 - 0 loss to the Hull Stingrays just a few days ago.

One consolation is the man between the pipes. Slovakian Tomáš Hiadlovsky who had a good year in Edinburgh last year, with a 3.27 GAA for a team that struggled defensively, Hiadlovsky will be the main man in Edinburgh and will be relied upon a lot to bail the Capitals out of inevitable trouble.

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