After a couple of ‘nearly’ seasons when it comes to lifting substantial silverware, Tony Hand’s Manchester Phoenix will look to put the close shaves to bed in 2010/11 when their second foray into the English Premier League gets under way in September.
There are still two vacant slots in the Phoenix roster for the coming season, import slots that the British ‘Great One’ has indicated will come in the form of forwards, but Hand has already shown his intentions with the structure of the team so far.
In defence, Ben Morgan joins a blue line that seems set in stone after the signing of Ukrainian born Pavel Gomenyuk. This season looks to be a big one for young Ben Wood, currently being one of four defencemen signed up, indicating a big step up for someone who for the most of last season rode the pine or chipped in as 3rd line forward. Only in the latter stages of the season did Hand use Wood regularly, back in his preferred position of defending and he showed good composure when given the chance.
Hand seems content to go with the one import on defence, a strategy that was heavily questioned last season and resulted in Jaakko Hagelberg dropping to the blue line for half of last season as Andre Mattsson struggled to perform week in week out and the captaincy seemed to weigh on Luke Boothroyd’s shoulders perhaps epitomized by the epic Cup exit to the Milton Keynes Lightning and their collapse at lowly Swindon Wildcats late in the season.
Meanwhile going forward, lightweight players like Iain Bowie and Robert Lachowicz have been replaced with the hard nosed Dean Holland and grafter Tom Duggan. If anything, last seasons team lacked the ability to grind in the corners and come away with the puck, which seems to be the way forward with teams like Milton Keynes, Slough and Guildford looking to grinders to spur on attack waves with second and third opportunities created from behind the goal-line.
Of the three import forwards from last season, Ed Courtenay retired mid way through the campaign and despite a lack of pace, still found the net with ease, his replacement Curtis Huppe, has many question marks hanging over him given his lacklustre season, for him, at Hull Stingrays. But Hand has played with and coached Huppe before, he should hopefully get the best out of a player that once scored 64 points in 46 games for Coventry Blaze.
Andre Payette is presumed to be not returning as Hand has openly admitted that Payette was ‘too tough’ for the English Premier League, as players backed out of fights when the Ontario native stepped up. Finally the shining light of last season Jaakko Hagelberg, who was perhaps solely responsible for half the victories achieved is also presumed to not be returning, after early rumblings of a return, maybe the Finnish star asked for a salary that was too much for one player at Altrincham.
Whilst the Phoenix scored the most goals in the league, they conceded far too many, and normally that means point the finger between the pipes. Steve Fone had an up and down season for the Phoenix last term, the major down being an early Christmas present in the form of a separated shoulder which, despite Adam Summerfield coming away with a winning record including a 5-4 overtime victory over the Lightning, ruined the teams momentum as they cruised to the top of the league.
However Fone fought his way back to fitness and guided the team to a 3rd place finish in his first season as a number one goalie. His finest performance came in the playoff quarterfinal home leg against Peterborough, standing on his head during a 5 on 3 penalty kill indicating why Hand chose to go with the rookie goalie at the beginning of the year. However for all the good saves he made throughout the season, there were bad ones, rebounds resulted in plenty of goals that might have never happened if he had managed to apply the glue to his pads like so many other goalies in the league can do, namely Barry Hollyhead of the Lightning. If Fone can stay healthy this year, there’s no reason why he cannot build on last season but there’s a feeling that the jury is still out on Hand’s decision to retain him.
So what can we expect from the coming season? Well, I think that this new Phoenix squad has so far gained a grittier edge than last season, retaining the services of Greg Wood and Stephen Wallace also indicating Hand intends to be a little less finesse and little more in-your-face. Of course, Hand himself, won’t be grinding out the lose puck, he’ll be up to his usual tricks of finding the space and creating every Phoenix goal this season. It would have been nice to see Robert Farmer (seen as a replacement for the departing Adam Walker) working with Hand on the ice, but he jumped ship before donning the angry budgie logo to pursue a career state-side, and good luck to him, not many players get the chance. I’m certain this turn of events led to the Phoenix chasing 3 import forwards instead of 2, so maybe Farmer flying the coop is a blessing in disguise, or it could have scuppered all the plans for the season as now we may have fallen into the age old Phoenix debacle of shoot first, defend later.
One thing’s for sure, Tony Hand has a knack for finding the right players, but not the right result, Phoenix have been off target when it comes to pressure situations, Challenge Cup Final, Knockout Cup Final, EPL Cup Semi-Final and sliding down the league standings last season. Phoenix are notorious high flyers in September, burn outs in March. It’s time to produce.
