STORM BLITZ ISSUE #41 Monday 18 May 1997 If you have any comments on Storm Blitz, please feel free to e-mail simon.sm@poboxes.com any time. --------------------------------------------------- In this issue : * Cardiff reinstated in EHL - then banned again * Government put B&H Cup under threat * Kurt offers contracts * Kris Miller * Storm's EHL fixtures announced * Lyle signs for Detroit Whalers * Follow Stanley Cup Finals on TV and radio * Storms Around The World * The British League * Into The Storm * Get back issues of Storm Blitz * How to unsubscribe to Storm Blitz --------------------------------------------------- > CARDIFF REINSTATED IN EHL - THEN BANNED AGAIN Cardiff Devils did partly win their appeal against being excluded from the European Hockey League by overturning their exclusion, but the Wales National Ice Rink was not to be used for Cardiff's home games. Instead, Storm's Nynex Arena was expected to be used for the three games. Then came the blow to Cardiff fans that because the Devils had not signed the pepers in time agreeing to play their games at the Nynex Arena, they had been excluded from the competition again. Another team from Europe replaced them - not Sheffield Steelers, who had earlier pulled out of the EHL in protest at the decision not to allow Cardiff Devils in. This series of events has meant that Storm are now the only representative of Great Britain in the EHL having won the wildcard place ahead of several other European teams on a facilities basis. > GOVERNMENT PUT B&H CUP UNDER THREAT In a shock announcement today, the government said that it is ready to ban all tobacco advertising and sponsorship of sports events. BBC Radio 5 Live highlighted ice hockey as a sport affected as the B&H Cup is a big tournament in the ice hockey calendar. The government said that it would give the sports time to find new sponsors, but it doesn't look good for the future of the competition in its present format. > STORM'S EHL FIXTURES ANNOUNCED The dates and times of the EHL Division F fixtures for Manchester Storm have been announced. The teams that Storm will face have been changed slightly as Amiens (France) have withdrawn and have been replaced with Sparta Prague (Czech Republic). The other two teams are Moscow Dynamo (Russia) and Bolzano (Italy). TUE 16 SEP 1930 Bolzano v Manchester Storm TUE 30 SEP 1930 Manchester Storm v Moscow Dynamo TUE 14 OCT 1730 Sparta Prague v Manchester Storm TUE 28 OCT 2000 Manchester Storm v Sparta Prague TUE 18 NOV 1930 Moscow Dynamo v Manchester Storm TUE 02 DEC 2000 Manchester Storm v Bolzano > KURT OFFERS CONTRACTS It is reported that Storm's new coach, Kurt Kleinendorst has offered five of last season's squad new contracts. The five are Craig Woodcroft, Brad Rubachuk, Mike Morin, Brad Turner and Dale Jago. This contradicts earlier reports of the impending departures of Dale Jago and Brad Rubachuk. It isn't clear yet whether the new contracts have been fully agreed or signed. Kris Miller, the experienced defenceman who was expected to sign in time for the start of the season is still in contract negotiations and so his move is not yet confirmed. There are expected to be more of last season's squad still around next season, but Kurt is keeping his cards close to his chest for now. We can also expect more new signings (hopefully quite a few more!) and with the lure of European League hockey, hopefully a high enough calibre of player can be attracted. Craig Woodcroft is quoted as being extremely excited about playing in this season's EHL, especially playing against Dynamo Moscow, and was one of the reasons that he wants to remain a Storm player. > KRIS MILLER The following info is from the Raleigh Ice Caps page (http://www.icecaps.com) as Kris has spent some time playing for the them. #7 KRIS MILLER Position: Defense Height: 6'1" Born: 3/30/69 Shoots: Left Weight: 200lbs Home Town: Grand Rapids, MN Career Highlights: Has played in over 300 professional hockey games over five seasons. Played the last two seasons with the Minnesota Moose of the IHL. Kris was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in the sixth round of the 1987 entry draft. Kris played parts of two seasons with the IceCaps in 1991-92 and 1992-93. Stats: Season Club GP G A PTS PIM 1991-92 Phoenix (IHL) 16 1 2 3 17 Utica (AHL) 1 0 0 0 0 Raleigh (ECHL) 42 12 27 39 78 1992-93 Salt Lake (IHL) 45 4 21 25 45 Raleigh (ECHL) 30 8 24 32 62 1993-94 Saint John (AHL) 58 2 17 19 38 1994-95 Minnesota (IHL) 71 4 16 20 51 1995-96 Minnesota 70 5 10 15 84 1996-97 Raleigh (ECHL) 23 2 18 20 43 Playoffs Club GP G A PTS PIM 1991-92 Raleigh (ECHL) 4 2 3 5 8 1994-95 Minnesota (AHL) 3 1 0 1 0 > LYLE SIGNS FOR DETROIT WHALERS Cardiff's young Great Britain goalie, Stevie Lyle, has been drafted by Detroit Whalers, a junior team that belongs to the NHL side Detroit Red Wings. > FOLLOW STANLEY CUP FINALS ON TV AND RADIO The Stanley Cup Finals will be LIVE on satellite/cable TV and there will also be LIVE commentary on the radio. Sky Sports are expected to show all of the Finals live which will be in about a week's time in a best of seven games format. The radio commentary of the games will be found on AFN EUROPE which broadcasts on 873AM (just to the left of Radio 5 Live (909AM) and Radio Wales (882AM) and just to the right of Radio Lancashire (855AM). The station broadcasts from Germany to the American Armed Forces and so has many American Sports Commentaries on it almost every day. It can only be picked up in this country from about 7.00PM until 5.00AM, which is handy as all the games take place well within those times - the NHL games are expected to begin at approx midnight UK time. There is NBA play-off commentary on tonight (Saturday) before the NHL Western Conference game between Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche gets underway at 12.30am when they are going full commentary on that. They also do baseball games every other day and american football games when the season is underway. The wierdest thing I ever heard on it was live commentary on WWF Wrestling!!! > STORMS AROUND THE WORLD I've discovered a few more "Storms"! To go with Derby Storm (UK basketball), Boston Storm (US soccer), Toledo Storm (US ice hockey), Guelph Storm (Canada ice hockey), Bergen Storm (Norway american football), Simcoe Storm (Canada ice hockey), Tampa Bay Storm (US Arena football) and Grande Prairie Storm (Canada ice hockey) the new discoveries are: SHERWOOD STORM - Canadian ice hockey team from Sherwood Park, Alberta. LAKE ELSINORE STORM - I've forgotten who they are (possibly baseball team from the US). SAN JOSE STORM - Women's volleyball team from San Jose in USA. CALIFORNIA STORM - Women's soccer team from USA that used to be called SACRAMENTO STORM. SHREVEPORT STORM - Basketball team that played in Louisiana, USA from 1994 to 1996 in the Continental Basketball Association. Became defunct in March 1996. MEMPHIS STORM - American football team playing in the Capsules League. SIMPSON STORM - This appears to be a series of college teams that include baseball, volleyball, amercian football, golf and softball. All of the teams are called Simpson Storm as they are representing Simpson College. THURSDAY STORM - Ice hockey team from the True North Hockey Canada league, a Canadian Adult Rec league in Ontario. STORM - Has no prefix, Storm are another team from the True North Hockey Canada like Thursday Storm. More details of these teams and links to Web sites if they have one will be added to the STORMS AROUND THE WORLD page on Into The Storm over the next week. If you know of any other Storms please let me know! > THE BRITISH LEAGUE The following is a BIHA press release : The member clubs of the present Premier and Northern Premier Leagues met together at Holme Pierrepoint on Tuesday 29th April 1997. They have accepted the proposal put forward by the BIHA for the sport's restructure outside of the Ice Hockey Superleague. This included the establishment of a British National League Management Committee. The Committee comprises of representatives from Blackburn, Guildford, Murrayfield, Peterborough, Telford and Whitley Bay. All sixteen British league clubs go into a British National League which will see each club play the others once home and once away between 6th Sept and 22 February. Running simultaneously with this competition will be the Northern and Southern Premier Leagues. A new competition will be introduced over the Christmas/New Year period with four groups of four competing in the Christmas Cup. The group winners will go into the semi-finals and the winner of these two semi-finals will contest the eventual final. The format for the end of season championship play-offs will be determined by the top eight league positions in the British National League. The remaining clubs will go into a British National Shield competition. BIHA President, Frederick Meredith, congratulated all the teams on this exciting agreement betweens the clubs. he felt the future was bright and that clubs and fans alike would be thrilled with the future plans. Exciting times lie ahead! -- end of press release -- The teams are expected to be split as follows: Northern League : Fife Flyers Paisley Pirates Dumfries Border Vikings Castlereagh Knights Blackburn Hawks Kingston Hawks Whitley Warriors Murrayfield Royals Southern League : Telford Tigers Medway Bears Solihull Blaze Peterborough Pirates Slough Jets Guildford Flames Cardiff Capitals Swindon Ice Lords > INTO THE STORM I discovered a problem with INTO THE STORM that I hadn't been aware of! There is a piece of Javascript in every page that worked out the Last Updated date of each page so I didn't have to remember to change it each time. This all worked fine when the pages were on my computer at home. When I sent them to the Internet, it didn't work as expected and worked out the Last Updated date to be 1st January 1970 for each page. For some reason it was worse than that if you were using Netscape 2...it just crashed the browser! After I heard reports of this I tested it out on Netscape 2 and it did crash it. I haven't managed to solve the problem just yet so if you are still using thaat browser, then avoid INTO THE STORM until Tuesday 19th when I should have either fixed it or removed the problem coding. The Latest NHL News and Latest News pages are due for an update and they will be updated later this week. Once that has been done, I can get round to adding some more of the pages to the site and finally add the new forum and chat features. > DOWNLOAD BACK ISSUES OF STORM BLITZ All previous issues of Storm Blitz are still available. If you didn't get them, or want them again, you can now download them from the Internet in a .zip file. The URL of these will be confirmed soon. If you don't have web access, I can e-mail you the .zip files. > HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE TO STORM BLITZ Easy! Send an e-mail to simon.sm@poboxes.com telling me that you don't want Storm Blitz any more. Also use this address if you wish to change e-mail addresses or if you have any comments. *** END OF STORM BLITZ ISSUE #41 *** INTO THE STORM can be accessed at: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3859/storm.html