Good evening and welcome to the Hangar for tonight’s match against the Sheffield Steeldogs. I’ve read during the week of some changes within the Dogs so I’m sure it’ll be a good match up tonight.
I’d like to just go back over last weekend’s home game and in particular the Flames first goal. It seems most people in the Hangar believed that Flames playing with 4 players at the time of the goal was wrong but here’s the facts from the gamesheet.
Flames first penalty (bench minor being served by Longstaff) expired at 4.30 but due to there being 2 other players in the penalty box he doesn’t leave, game continues 5 on 3 as it should. Smital’s penalty now starts. Masa’s penalty expires at 5.09, he returns to the ice as he should and the playing strength is now 5 on 4. As there has been no stoppage in play Longstaff is still in the penalty box (not serving a penalty) as he can’t return to the ice until a stoppage and Smital is also still in the box serving the remaining penalty. The goal was then scored at 5.53 when the playing strength was and should have been 5 on 4.
For the last few years now the penalty clocks on the away side have not worked on the scoreboard properly. The top penalty clock has been proven to miscount, it drops from 40 to 19 instead of 39 then counts down to zero before going back to 19 to count down the missing seconds. In the event of a penalty about to expire this would just cause so much confusion to explain to a player that although the clock says 0 he has another 20 seconds to serve. The bottom penalty clock doesn’t stop in synchronisation with the clock as it should either. All this makes it very difficult to run and display a situation where three penalties are called.
In short, 5 on 3 is lowest playing strength that a team can have during play. If more than two penalties are called then 3 players will remain on the ice, the third player will sit in the penalty box but his penalty will not start until the 1st penalty expires. The player serving the first penalty cannot leave the penalty box until the first stoppage in play as 5 on 3 is still correct on the ice. If play continues uninterrupted then the player serving the 2nd penalty would leave the penalty box when his penalty expires as would the player serving the 3rd penalty. Only the player serving the initial penalty cannot return until a stoppage in play.
I can see where confusion would have come from in not having all the penalties showing on the clock. The clock is an original piece of hardware from when the Hangar opened in 1986, nobody offers maintenance for it anymore and sadly the cost of a new one is financially prohibitive. However in such a situation we have all the penalties recorded, given, start and finish times and between the stage crew and JG in the penalty box we know when each player should return to the ice and send them back accordingly.
Thankfully situations like that don’t arise too often and hopefully tonight we can have a game free from confusion.
Before the game started last weekend I’ll admit I was worried having seen the two Guildford blocks filled with supporters and ours still empty but by the time the teams lined up we had 538 in the building which is an awesome attendance for a Sunday game for us. Tonight we’re back on our normal night and there’s some big games coming up as well. We’ve got Manchester at home next weekend, and then a double home weekend with Milton Keynes on Saturday and Basingstoke Bison on Sunday.
Don’t forget to check our Facebook page as well, click the events tab at the top and invite your Facebook friends to the upcoming games, the more the merrier.
Enjoy tonight’s game
My team, your team, OUR TEAM
Mark
