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To me this upcoming season has no ifs and buts about it,,,,,, if no silverware is won than there is no doubt that coaching staff will be changed,,,,,,,, hopefully foxy has assembled a team than can produce the goods ,,,,,,

In the past I've put an expectations topic on, but to be honest I'm not really looking forward to more bland 'Fox' hockey.

I agree that no silverware success should equal a coaching change. I'd wager if we keep the 8,000+ attendance average, nothing will change on that front.

For me, I wanted a coaching change at the end of last season.

I'll certainly watch the first few games, but might find something else to fill my time if it's the same as the previous two seasons.

It's gone stale for me.

Sorry to break to spell of entitlement here but no club boss is going to gas a coach who's consistently delivering a there-or-thereabouts team year in year out, notwhen he's got with 8000+ queueing up on the weekly to watch it. 'bland' or otherwise.

Reminder: most players on most teams in most leagues and in most sports never win any silverware and rarely get anywhere near winning any silverware and our enjoyment of the game and support for your team should not be conditional on winning silverware.

My expectation at the start of each season is that we should be competing for the trophies, because we are one of the big budget teams.

The reality is that apart from the GS season, we keep falling short, so I'd say that is a failure on the coaching side.

It is difficult though because I believe Belfast have the biggest budget, but we're probably 2nd in the spending charts, so a 4th place finish is an under achievement.

There is also the entertainment issue. Quite clearly some of our supporters do find the Fox technical hockey quite bland and would prefer a more in your face style.

Looking at our squad this season I think we could win the league, but I don't expect it when I compare our forwards with Belfast. They look to have more young hungry forwards who know where the net is, whereas Fox has resorted to type and signed mainly older forwards from Europe who are on the downwards slope.

I really hope the likes of Rockwood, Collins, Archambault and Jasper surprise me, but I can't see any of them getting close to 20 goals.

I am excited to see what Teissala can do and look forward to seeing the development of Steele and IBN. I also have a very good feeling about Roe, even though he's another ageing player.

My prediction for the season would be 3rd in the league and possibly a final, but no silverware

I will be there though, hoping to be entertained.

Regards

Doom

I’ll be the optimist, my gut feeling is we’ll win one trophy, hopefully the league, but probably one of the cups. I just hope we have an entertaining team to watch.

On paper, it's a team that should be right in the mix for all 3 trophies. There are, however, at least 3 other teams who also will have good looking squads on paper and a couple who could easily put a run together and sneak a cup competition.

I'll argue til I'm blue in the face that 24-25 we win the league if Greenfield doesn't get injured in Berlin. And it still came down to the final day of the season. So I'm afraid I don't buy that Fox has had 1 good year so is the problem. Playing style is always a personal preference, but if you're consistently in the mix it can't be too far off in terms of effectiveness.

I think most people would agree that to win the league we're probably going to have to finish one place above Belfast.

Looking at notional forward line comparisons of the two teams (no doubt the coaches will come up with different combinations):

Goodwin/Conway/Piccinich v Archambault/Gettinger/Balmas

Kawaguchi/Gaudet/Guay v Juusola/Rockwood/Teissala

Cockerill/Bates/Pearson v Tait/Collins/Jasper

Shudra/Guay/Long v Whistle/Dowd/IBN

On paper my expectation is we probably match up OK with those two top lines of Belfast, but boy does that Belfast 3rd line look scarily good.

I think our 4th probably edges it.

Defence is harder to call, but I'm quite happy with our back end.

Regards

Doom

The Giants are certainly the team to beat once again and it will take a very special team to finish above them.

They have won five out of the last six league titles which by my reckoning is the most dominance by one team in British ice hockey history.

Jimmy o wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 05, 2026 10:08 am

The Giants are certainly the team to beat once again and it will take a very special team to finish above them.

They have won five out of the last six league titles which by my reckoning is the most dominance by one team in British ice hockey history.

Belfast also won't have the distraction and injury potential of the CHL to deal with this season either.

Imo it all comes down to coaching no matter what the players are like and Keefe is head and shoulders above everyone. Yes we may have great NHL players etc (well one) but give Fox 4 weeks and he will be average