November Round Up of EIHL

Even at this early stage it is difficult to see past more than two teams for the EIHL title. Nottingham Panthers seem too distracted with the continental cup to mount a realistic challenge and the consistency of Belfast Giants leaves much to be desired. Of the hopefuls this leaves just Braehead Clan and after a woeful start to the season they appear to have left themselves too much to do. That leaves just the Sheffield Steelers-defending champions-and last years runners up Cardiff Devils.

The Sheffield Steelers trail the Cardiff Devils in the EIHL title race but only because Sheffield have played six fewer games.

A total of four wins in the league this month saw Sheffield Steelers move into second place whilst advancing to the semi finals of the Challenge Cup at the expense of Edinburgh Capitals. They were hampered by two injuries late in the month (broken hand and concussion). Both look to be fairly long term.

They suffered a setback last Sunday when they were up against title rivals Cardiff Devils. They were the victim of, shall we say, interesting refereeing decisions for all three goals, one involving a check to the head which went unpunished something the league as a whole need to tighten up on as this sort of thing is creeping into the game at the moment.

With regards to the rest of the league the standard has undoubtedly improved.

Coventry Blaze are at the foot of the table at the moment two points behind Edinburgh Capitals for whom Russian Pavel Vorobeyev leads the scoring.

Rather surprisingly, Matt Beca of Braehead Clan is second in the scoring stakes, surprising because the Clan are just three points away from a bottom place in the league.

As I alluded to earlier the fact that Nottingham Panthers have advanced to the final of the Continental Cup has impacted on their league status as they languish in sixth place.

If Belfast Giants were to put a consistent run together they could conceivably challenge for the title as they have the strength in depth to do this. Unfortunately the same strength of depth cannot be said for the nearest Scottish challengers Fife Flyers who are in fourth place at the moment.

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