Yesterday I went to see Coventry Blaze’s first game of the season, which was an exhibition game against Telford Tigers. Unfortunately, due to it being one of the hottest and most humid days for ages, it made the climate inside the arena slightly weird, with the glass panels round the side getting covered in condensation, which gradually cleared during each period of the game while a cloud of mist gathered on the rink. So it was quite hard to see what was going on at the other end. Neither team managed to score for the first two periods, perhaps because they couldn’t see each other either, and the crowd was rather quiet.
But in the third period the climate had stabilised and mist and condesation were gone, the crowd started to make a bit of noise, and Blaze scored their first goal of the season. Shortly followed by the Tigers equalising, Blaze getting another and Tigers equalising again. Finally we had a game on our hands. Although now the game was all down one end, as Tigers hardly got another look in and Blaze knocked another couple in.
I don’t know enough about hockey yet to know if this is another grand slam winning team, but once I could see them they looked pretty good. We’ve got some fast and skilful players, and hopefully they can gel as a team and repeat last year’s successes. Although I’m going to be in Canada for a large part of the season, and watching the Calgary Hitmen instead, (I can’t afford to watch the Flames), while wearing my Coventry Blaze shirt. Which looks horrible, by the way. Why can’t it look like the Telford Tigers’ top?