Up Next for Devils; Olympic Events, League Games & Pride Night

CARDIFF, WALES – As written at Chasing The Puck https://chasingthepuck0.wordpress.com/2024/01/10/cardiff-wales-hockey-town/, the last few weeks have been busy down the bay, featuring a heavy league schedule and the IIHF 2024 Continental Cup Final.

The latter was widely accepted as a huge success for the club, arena, sport in the UK and for the IIHF’s faith in this organisation as a whole. Next up, the Olympic Qualifiers for the highly anticipated event in Cortina, 2026 which will (finally) feature NHL’ers again.

This tournament is spread across four days, with China, Serbia and Romania. In the mix, will be two league games for the home team domestically, with the designated Pride Night game at home vs Coventry on Friday, then a trip to Manchester for a road game on Sunday.

It would come as no surprise that most would have rather seen these games moved or have the Qualifiers arranged at a different time, school holidays would have been best to attract greater crowds overall.

An international break is expected at all levels of sport, particularly the pro levels, then with expected marketed match night experiences thrown in, it creates a large headache for all those involved.

Not all call ups will be equal and it is not solely reserved to Team GB either, as the international period will see more called up around the league.

An estimated 9 players are to throw Giants in a spin, for their squad although at the max, requires the assistance of an ex-premier league goalie again.

Devils technically are now without their top Brits, save for Josh Batch as Waller is out injured. Steelers have also had 4 called up to GB alone.

Just how this will affect their respective clubs would be found out come game day, even Clan have called up an old favourite as their cup game goes ahead later.

With a 7 game win streak and key players out of the line up for the games this weekend, it is a tall order to see if this can continue.

Expected call ups would be Harewood (FW) and Norton (G) to provide cover, with the addition of ice time for Pietroniro and Duggan.

Also, Rymsha should be set to return following his IR stint last month. He was expected to return for the double header, so should be available for this weekend.

Projected Line Ups during GB Qualifiers;

Alderson – Martin – Sanford

Ully – Arniel – Barrow

Crandall – Busch – Cox

Brandt – Duggan – Harewood

Crawford – Donaghey

Rymsha – Pietroniro

Batch – Wilde

Wall

Norton