Game Preview - Devils Vs Giants
Saturday night see’s the Devils host the Belfast Giants in Cardiff Bays big blue tent, this will be the Giants second visit to Cardiff this season with their first visit seeing them pip the devils at the post and beat the home side 4 – 3. The Giants currently sit at the top of the league with nine wins from ten games and in two games while the Devils currently sit in fifth position with only 3 wins from eight games. It’s going to be a huge game! 
Last weekend saw the Giants take two road wins first up for a Giant kicking were the Hull Stingrays who held in there but eventually lost out 3 - 4 to the Giants. The Stingrays came out hard in the first and at one point had a two-goal lead but by the end of the second period, the Giants had the game tied at two apiece.The game properly turned against Hull when Derek Campbell got a match penalty for a sucker punch and on the resulting power play Giants made it 8 wins out of nine as Jeff Mason netted the game winner.
Next up for the Giants were the Coventry Blaze on Sunday, the Giants showed some real firepower punching 5 past the blaze to close out the game 2 – 5. The stand out performance for the Giants here has to spare spare Import George Awada who netted a Hat trick, not bad for someone they got in on “the cheap” as “he’s local” as injury cover.
Belfast's Coach Doug Christiansen late Sunday Night about the two away games.
“It was a great weekend for the team with different lines and players stepping up. On Saturday, the team showed a ton of character to come from behind in a very tough place to play. Hull’s rink is not the loudest or nicest but it is a very different game. The guys persevered through penalty trouble and got the two points."
“Against Coventry, the team really competed well. The Blaze are a very good team and we were able to get a lead and hold on. The Blaze have great forwards and if it was not for Stephen Murphy the score could have been different.”
In preparation for the Game in Cardiff the Giants are of course missing some Key players Brock McBride is out with a lower body injury, Jeremy Rebek is still out as is former Devil Jon Pelle.
Doug Christiansen, the Giants Head Coach, stated
“Brock might be the best player in the league. He is the fastest player I have ever coached or played with and we will miss him dearly this weekend. We had hoped he might be able to play but he is not going to be traveling with the team this weekend. Other players will have to step up if we are going to win in Cardiff. ”
Speaking on the other injuries he had this to say
"It is exciting to have Jon Pelle practicing in all of the drills and gym sessions. He is chomping on the bit to get back. It is important that we do not rush him but I am confident he will be playing October 21 against Dundee. We are playing well as a team now and he will make us better. It is not fair to heap lofty expectations onto a player after returning from an injury. He will not be in game shape and his timing will not be 100% but we are doing everything in our power to get him ready for the Stars. I think all of us are excited to see him in a Giants jersey.
Jeremy Rebek continues to improve but is still a long way away from returning. Rebek will start skating by himself this week. I expect him to return to games in early / mid-November.”
The giants squad oozes talent and money with two players Brock McBride and Benoit Doucet in the top 3 scorers in the league and another couple in the top 20 with Robert Dowd and Craig Peacock both racking up the points as well, all this is of course with Jon Pelle the league’s top scorer from last season sat on the side lines. In nets the giants have Stephen Murphy who currently sits in second position in the league with a 93.7% save percentage.
Physically the Giants won’t be intimidated as easily as some others have been on Cardiff’s smaller ice and have Adam Keefe who will look to enforce for them, although he looked more than a little lost on his last trip to Cardiff. It has been said that the Giants suffer on the smaller ice pads preferring the big ice where speed can really come into play.
The Devils struggled last weekend narrowly beating new comers the Fife flyers after an epic bus Journey away in Fife before retruning to Cardiff and losing out to the Sheffield Steelers in a lack luster shoot out performance.
For full details of the Devils games last weekend in case you missed them, we’d suggest checking out Devils fan Holly Acott’s blog which has a great write up of both games here http://theworldofsportbyateengirl.blogspot.com/ and also very worth a look are coach Gerard Adams after match thoughts, he looks rather cross, here http://www.cardiffdevils.com/news/gerad-post-game-9th-oct/
The Devils should be at full strength as they are hopeful defenseman Mark Smith will return after sitting out last weekend with an injury picked up in training.
The Devils will no doubt be raring to go on this one having only one game to think about this week and after the roasting that G clearly gave them this week.
As always well be running the “Childish and amazingly Biased” Match Night Live service for this game, at the usual location of www.theinferno.co.uk/mnl if you'd like to help out or chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com. Should anything go wrong (which it shouldn’t) we will move over to Twitter for updates so it’s worth following us there on @InfernoMNL
And don’t forget if you’re looking for somewhere to have a pint and a bite to eat before the game or a few beers afterwards the Pilot in Penarth is a short trip away and will be open for a staggering amount of time before the game Starting with the Rugby at 9am and then the Football and will also be open afterwards for post-match drinks, directions to the pub can be found here - http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/where-to-eatdrink/
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