Individual News
28th of February 2008
Let's leave the dreams to a later part of the letter and get things going!
What a bunch of games we have had! Some fantastic and some I can't remember (no, please don't remind me).
At the top of my list of achievements is of course the Knock Out Cup Semi-final win! Wow, what a game, what an effort from the boys! The night before we had played Cardiff at home and it was perhaps not this season's best game. Who would have thought that the boys would show up in the morning with the well-known 'never say die Bison 10' attitude? Well, they did! It was a new team that arrived to get on the bus to Hull; gone was the night before, gone were the worries over the injuries we suffered the night before, gone were all the problems. It was a 'we have come here today to win' attitude that ruled!
I couldn't help but notice that Thornton had started packing his equipment in a bag and got it on the bus. He had just been to see a hand specialist who told him to rest for 2-3 weeks and then perhaps he could play again. But in Hull I walked in to the locker room and listened to some of the game plan for the evening and Thornts told me, 'I'm gonna warm-up, and then see if I can play'. That deserves respect! He knew that the injury list from the evening before could damage us seriously, and he was having none of it. The boys wanted this win, they knew we had to have it, and Thornton was not going to be on the bench watching them fighting for it without him. And what a fight it turned out to be!
Since I am the owner I should not comment on refs and such things so I won't. I will tell you a different story instead.
I have never understood hooligans. They seemed to be the bad side of sport, But one day I had a spark of hooliganism in me! I was watching a game that made me want to become an 'instant hooligan', but since no one sold this kind of package at the rink and there was no way of having my head shaved and a tattoo added while drinking serious amounts of beer, it was just not going to happen, I had to become a 'temporary hooligan' instead! The first thing that struck me was that I needed something to throw in a certain direction, but there was nothing to be found. The only thing I could see was the pink horn my 3 year old daughter was blowing in support of the team, I really wanted to grab it and throw it at someone, but something in me told me it was not the right thing to do so I dropped the whole plan and just sat down. (What the voice in me actually said was, 'Tomas, you can't do this, you can't take a pink horn from a 3 year old!').
Ok, let's get back to hockey! :)
Hull vs Bison turned out to be one of the best 'Never Say Die' performances I have ever seen from this team, and the smile on the guys' faces after the game was priceless! Extremely well done to every single one of them. We won that game for the simple reason that our boys were willing to give 110% every second. They came there to win and would take nothing else then a win back home with them!
Last I heard from Hull after the game was that the boys had finished off a dinner in a restaurant next to the rink and were now playing football! In the middle of the night!
So now we have a FINAL in Bisonland coming up!
I have spent a few days trying to sort this out. We already have an over-packed fixture list, but we need to fit not one but two games in to this. To add to the trouble Nottingham lost their ice time on the 9th February when we were to meet them and this had to be moved to the 11th instead. The game against Hull on the 12th is now moved to the 5th so we free up some space later in March. Not an easy one this!
I hope to have the fixtures for the final ready within a few days!
Tuesday Evening Away Game in Q bar:
Well, it was really nice to see a 100 or so fans coming in to the bar to watch the game, I understand why so many came. It was a 'nice' game to watch and for all those of you who could not make it there on Tuesday we are showing the game again on Saturday after the match.
Injury list: (Why do I write this, it really gives the other teams too much info):
No one is sick, everyone is on the ice! (now if you are a real Bison fan you can continue to read).
Ok, we have the long running Thornton hand injury. He played in Hull. That was his own decision and I respect him for that and he did great on the ice. But the reality is, we can't have him on half speed. He needs to get well so he will be on the bench this weekend.
David
Took a horrible hit on his knee in the game against Cardiff on Saturday, did not look good at all and he was not in Hull on Sunday. David called me early in the week, said he had seen the Doc and he hopes to be on the ice this weekend.
Derek
Wrist injury from the game in Hull last Wednesday (were we really there? I can't remember). Nothing broken but he now wears the same wrist support as Thornton does and Peto did earlier. I'm starting to wonder if they sell the supports and scans in some sort of '3 for 2' package. At the moment we have no time scale on this but are hoping for the best.
Danny lost a tooth the other day, but haven't they all! No worries with that.
So what about that 'dream' then?
Well, you all know we had a really cruel schedule the other week with 4 games in 5 days and 2 of them were away games. I must say, this was not a good schedule for us. We could have had some injuries and we had a tough time getting all the points we should have had from these games since they where played so close to each other, but it was just one of those decisions you have to make sometimes.
I took the decision that we would keep the boys in a hotel to save them some travel time and give them an extra chance of some rest between the games. I had some help from Paul B and Ryan in planning this little trip and they looked for hotels in the region. The plan was to go to Nottingham then on to the bus after the game and drive to Newcastle where they would stay 2 nights in a hotel and therefore have all of Thursday off for rest. Friday they would play Newcastle and then head straight home to Bisonland to have 2 home games.
Good plan, right?
Well like the heading says, dreams don't always match the reality.
After much searching Paul found a hotel in a place not far from Newcastle. The previous one had been turned down by me for budget reasons.
Paul: Found it! Here is a small hotel in a coastal resort with a low price since it is off season!
Tomas: Hmm, that sounds nice, cost?
Paul: * pounds for 2 nights for all the guys.
Tomas: Really, what does it look like?
Paul: Not bad, here is an image online.
Ryan: Yeah that will do.
Tomas: Book it! It will be nice for the boys with all the fresh air! Coastal resort, I like that.
I now pictured a small hotel along the coast in some sleepy summer town. The type of place that is run by some eccentric ex-London banker with his wife because they both dream of the healthy life along the coast somewhere. A hotel that kind of looks Victorian and is located next to 2 other hotels that now have signs saying "Closed for season'. The rooms would have nice beds with thick duvets and pillows so large your head disappears in it. The type of place where you find a small chocolate on the pillow before bedtime. You know what I mean?
Well, this is where the dream kind of separates from reality! I got a call after the first night in the hotel.
Tomas: Hi mate, everything ok?
Player: No, not really.
Tomas: Why? What's up?
Player: Hotel was as cold as ice. There was no heating!
Tomas: What? No heating? That must have been cold! ( I was no wondering if this 'banker couple' were saving a bit too much money..)
Player: And water was leaking in to Player 2's room, and he wasn't even staying on the top floor!
Tomas: No way, you are joking! Let me see what is up.
I now called up to find out what the problem was and soon learned that the heater had broken down a few hours before they arrived and was now fixed.
New call to players:
Tomas: Hi, heating is fixed, so you should be alright tonight. I will call you later. If it's no good we will send you to another hotel.
Player 3: Ok great, but we are not going any where, this place has a free adult movie channel!
Tomas: What? Free what? I thought they would be showing Discovery History!! (My dreams about this place were somewhat tarnished.)
Player 3: The bar in the hotel is also having a Striptease evening to attract visitors. It is Valentine's night you know!
Tomas: What? You have to be kidding! This is not what I had in mind at all! I feel really sorry for you guys, I will come there at once and make sure it is not too bad there!!! (Well, my wife didn't think it was necessary for me to go there and inspect the hotel for the boys, so this trip never happened, and I am of course very happy I didn't have to make the drive.. yeah right, keep telling yourself that..)
OK back to hockey again.
What do we have coming up? Big, big game against Caps this weekend! I don't think I have to say that we need to win this one to keep some distance from them and secure our Play Off position, and Caps need to win this one to have a chance of stealing our place. Seems like we are going to have an interesting weekend! My last cheque showed that ticket sales were really good already by mid Wednesday so we will see a big crowd this weekend!
Sunday is a day off for the guys! No travel this time!
Wednesday
Back to Hull again for a league game! We need the points and Hull wants to win to show the fans it was a bad game on Sunday and they can really win. I'm looking forward to that one actually. Anyone know who the ref is?
Later in the season we have planned a friendly on 15th March against the Bees followed by this year's biggest shirt auction in the bar!
Some may wonder why we would schedule a game on a night off in an already full schedule. The reason is we need some sort of income every weekend. The double home game we had the other weekend did cover that week's cost but not much more since we also had this travelling and hotels. Add to that the fact that we are dragging some bills behind us and are playing catch up all the time this season. We need the income. So that is it, and I hope to see all of you there and the usual begging applies - bring your mother-in-law and so on.
Hmm, well, I think that was all that was on my mind for the day. Thanks for reading and see you all on Saturday!
Tomas
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What a bunch of games we have had! Some fantastic and some I can't remember (no, please don't remind me).
At the top of my list of achievements is of course the Knock Out Cup Semi-final win! Wow, what a game, what an effort from the boys! The night before we had played Cardiff at home and it was perhaps not this season's best game. Who would have thought that the boys would show up in the morning with the well-known 'never say die Bison 10' attitude? Well, they did! It was a new team that arrived to get on the bus to Hull; gone was the night before, gone were the worries over the injuries we suffered the night before, gone were all the problems. It was a 'we have come here today to win' attitude that ruled!
I couldn't help but notice that Thornton had started packing his equipment in a bag and got it on the bus. He had just been to see a hand specialist who told him to rest for 2-3 weeks and then perhaps he could play again. But in Hull I walked in to the locker room and listened to some of the game plan for the evening and Thornts told me, 'I'm gonna warm-up, and then see if I can play'. That deserves respect! He knew that the injury list from the evening before could damage us seriously, and he was having none of it. The boys wanted this win, they knew we had to have it, and Thornton was not going to be on the bench watching them fighting for it without him. And what a fight it turned out to be!
Since I am the owner I should not comment on refs and such things so I won't. I will tell you a different story instead.
I have never understood hooligans. They seemed to be the bad side of sport, But one day I had a spark of hooliganism in me! I was watching a game that made me want to become an 'instant hooligan', but since no one sold this kind of package at the rink and there was no way of having my head shaved and a tattoo added while drinking serious amounts of beer, it was just not going to happen, I had to become a 'temporary hooligan' instead! The first thing that struck me was that I needed something to throw in a certain direction, but there was nothing to be found. The only thing I could see was the pink horn my 3 year old daughter was blowing in support of the team, I really wanted to grab it and throw it at someone, but something in me told me it was not the right thing to do so I dropped the whole plan and just sat down. (What the voice in me actually said was, 'Tomas, you can't do this, you can't take a pink horn from a 3 year old!').
Ok, let's get back to hockey! :)
Hull vs Bison turned out to be one of the best 'Never Say Die' performances I have ever seen from this team, and the smile on the guys' faces after the game was priceless! Extremely well done to every single one of them. We won that game for the simple reason that our boys were willing to give 110% every second. They came there to win and would take nothing else then a win back home with them!
Last I heard from Hull after the game was that the boys had finished off a dinner in a restaurant next to the rink and were now playing football! In the middle of the night!
So now we have a FINAL in Bisonland coming up!
I have spent a few days trying to sort this out. We already have an over-packed fixture list, but we need to fit not one but two games in to this. To add to the trouble Nottingham lost their ice time on the 9th February when we were to meet them and this had to be moved to the 11th instead. The game against Hull on the 12th is now moved to the 5th so we free up some space later in March. Not an easy one this!
I hope to have the fixtures for the final ready within a few days!
Tuesday Evening Away Game in Q bar:
Well, it was really nice to see a 100 or so fans coming in to the bar to watch the game, I understand why so many came. It was a 'nice' game to watch and for all those of you who could not make it there on Tuesday we are showing the game again on Saturday after the match.
Injury list: (Why do I write this, it really gives the other teams too much info):
No one is sick, everyone is on the ice! (now if you are a real Bison fan you can continue to read).
Ok, we have the long running Thornton hand injury. He played in Hull. That was his own decision and I respect him for that and he did great on the ice. But the reality is, we can't have him on half speed. He needs to get well so he will be on the bench this weekend.
David
Took a horrible hit on his knee in the game against Cardiff on Saturday, did not look good at all and he was not in Hull on Sunday. David called me early in the week, said he had seen the Doc and he hopes to be on the ice this weekend.
Derek
Wrist injury from the game in Hull last Wednesday (were we really there? I can't remember). Nothing broken but he now wears the same wrist support as Thornton does and Peto did earlier. I'm starting to wonder if they sell the supports and scans in some sort of '3 for 2' package. At the moment we have no time scale on this but are hoping for the best.
Danny lost a tooth the other day, but haven't they all! No worries with that.
So what about that 'dream' then?
Well, you all know we had a really cruel schedule the other week with 4 games in 5 days and 2 of them were away games. I must say, this was not a good schedule for us. We could have had some injuries and we had a tough time getting all the points we should have had from these games since they where played so close to each other, but it was just one of those decisions you have to make sometimes.
I took the decision that we would keep the boys in a hotel to save them some travel time and give them an extra chance of some rest between the games. I had some help from Paul B and Ryan in planning this little trip and they looked for hotels in the region. The plan was to go to Nottingham then on to the bus after the game and drive to Newcastle where they would stay 2 nights in a hotel and therefore have all of Thursday off for rest. Friday they would play Newcastle and then head straight home to Bisonland to have 2 home games.
Good plan, right?
Well like the heading says, dreams don't always match the reality.
After much searching Paul found a hotel in a place not far from Newcastle. The previous one had been turned down by me for budget reasons.
Paul: Found it! Here is a small hotel in a coastal resort with a low price since it is off season!
Tomas: Hmm, that sounds nice, cost?
Paul: * pounds for 2 nights for all the guys.
Tomas: Really, what does it look like?
Paul: Not bad, here is an image online.
Ryan: Yeah that will do.
Tomas: Book it! It will be nice for the boys with all the fresh air! Coastal resort, I like that.
I now pictured a small hotel along the coast in some sleepy summer town. The type of place that is run by some eccentric ex-London banker with his wife because they both dream of the healthy life along the coast somewhere. A hotel that kind of looks Victorian and is located next to 2 other hotels that now have signs saying "Closed for season'. The rooms would have nice beds with thick duvets and pillows so large your head disappears in it. The type of place where you find a small chocolate on the pillow before bedtime. You know what I mean?
Well, this is where the dream kind of separates from reality! I got a call after the first night in the hotel.
Tomas: Hi mate, everything ok?
Player: No, not really.
Tomas: Why? What's up?
Player: Hotel was as cold as ice. There was no heating!
Tomas: What? No heating? That must have been cold! ( I was no wondering if this 'banker couple' were saving a bit too much money..)
Player: And water was leaking in to Player 2's room, and he wasn't even staying on the top floor!
Tomas: No way, you are joking! Let me see what is up.
I now called up to find out what the problem was and soon learned that the heater had broken down a few hours before they arrived and was now fixed.
New call to players:
Tomas: Hi, heating is fixed, so you should be alright tonight. I will call you later. If it's no good we will send you to another hotel.
Player 3: Ok great, but we are not going any where, this place has a free adult movie channel!
Tomas: What? Free what? I thought they would be showing Discovery History!! (My dreams about this place were somewhat tarnished.)
Player 3: The bar in the hotel is also having a Striptease evening to attract visitors. It is Valentine's night you know!
Tomas: What? You have to be kidding! This is not what I had in mind at all! I feel really sorry for you guys, I will come there at once and make sure it is not too bad there!!! (Well, my wife didn't think it was necessary for me to go there and inspect the hotel for the boys, so this trip never happened, and I am of course very happy I didn't have to make the drive.. yeah right, keep telling yourself that..)
OK back to hockey again.
What do we have coming up? Big, big game against Caps this weekend! I don't think I have to say that we need to win this one to keep some distance from them and secure our Play Off position, and Caps need to win this one to have a chance of stealing our place. Seems like we are going to have an interesting weekend! My last cheque showed that ticket sales were really good already by mid Wednesday so we will see a big crowd this weekend!
Sunday is a day off for the guys! No travel this time!
Wednesday
Back to Hull again for a league game! We need the points and Hull wants to win to show the fans it was a bad game on Sunday and they can really win. I'm looking forward to that one actually. Anyone know who the ref is?
Later in the season we have planned a friendly on 15th March against the Bees followed by this year's biggest shirt auction in the bar!
Some may wonder why we would schedule a game on a night off in an already full schedule. The reason is we need some sort of income every weekend. The double home game we had the other weekend did cover that week's cost but not much more since we also had this travelling and hotels. Add to that the fact that we are dragging some bills behind us and are playing catch up all the time this season. We need the income. So that is it, and I hope to see all of you there and the usual begging applies - bring your mother-in-law and so on.
Hmm, well, I think that was all that was on my mind for the day. Thanks for reading and see you all on Saturday!
Tomas
To receive Tomas' news direct to your Inbox - [enews.php]