Kingdom Of The Giants :: Belfast Giants Fan Community, News & Views
T'was the Game Before Chrismas....
21-Dec-2007Tonight is the last home game before Christmas and the league leading Blaze come into our barn for a tilt that last time out between the two teams in Coventry shockingly had the Giants winning AND shutting out their opponent. The Giants form has been inconsistent of late, I guess that goes for the season but they've slowly been climbing the standings and enter the festive season with the chance of closing the gap even more on the top teams.
It's probably unrealistic to expect the Giants to win the league this year but they will make the playoff knockout stage and so have a season long run to prepare for it and to push for the final four and possibly the final trophy of the 07-08 season. Now that would cap off the season nicely.
Anyway, back to reality - December 07, almost halfway through the season and the Giants have it all to gain or lose in the next two weeks. Below is a little look at how previous festive campaigns have gone. I've taken a date range between the 18th December and 5th January. (I haven't got the 00-01 results at hand so we'll have to ignore that).
2001-2002: PL 4, W 4, L 0, T 0, GF 21, GA 9
2002-2003: PL 4, W 2, L 1, T 1, GF 17, GA 10
2003-2004: PL 6, W 4, L 2, T 0, GF 26, GA 15
2004-2005: PL 4, W 3, L 0, T 1, GF 19, GA 10
2005-2006: PL 4, W 4, L 0, T 0, GF 22, GA 6
2006-2007: PL 4, W 1, L 3, T 0, GF 11, GA 14
TOTALS: PL 26, W 18, L 6, T 2, GF 116, GA 64
So, no doubt the Giants like the holiday season, they win their games and they score plenty of goals - Just under 4.5 goals per game. Only last season was the four Christmas games a losing period for the Giants and on three occasions they have got through Christmas unbeaten.
For the record, the schedule has always been favourable to the Giants over the Christmas period, playing 20 games at home and just 6 on the road. This year with 4 at home and again just 2 on the road here's hoping the winning trend continues. I don’t mean to scud the team, it's just a reason to remain jolly heading into Christmas.
Merry Christmas one and all . . . Eat, drink and enjoy your hockey.
Ricky Blayney
Live Scores
League Standings
| P | TEAM | GP | W(OT) | L(OT) | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blaze | 54 | 36(5) | 11(2) | 84 |
| 2 | Steelers | 54 | 33(5) | 14(2) | 78 |
| 3 | Panthers | 54 | 30(3) | 18(3) | 69 |
| 4 | Giants | 54 | 29(4) | 19(2) | 68 |
| 5 | Vipers | 54 | 24(4) | 22(4) | 60 |
| 6 | Devils | 54 | 23(3) | 25(3) | 55 |
| 7 | Phoenix | 54 | 20(3) | 28(3) | 49 |
| 8 | Capitals | 54 | 16(3) | 32(3) | 41 |
| 9 | Bison | 54 | 13(3) | 33(5) | 37 |
| 10 | Stingrays | 54 | 12(1) | 34(7) | 33 |