Britain’s Ice Hockey dreams crushed by defeat in Poland

On November 17, 2008 by

This week brought disappointing news for British fans of ice hockey. Great Britain’s dreams of reaching the Winter Olympics were crushed after defeat at the hands of both Poland and Japan in their pre-qualifying group for the event scheduled for 2010.

The team managed to show its potential by thrashing Romania 11-1 in the final game but disappointment and frustration are the feelings which will be taken away from Poland when the British team heads home.

This was acknowledged by the Great Britain coach, Paul Thompson. Thompson believes that it was ‘good to finish’ the tournament with a convincing win regardless of the quality of the opposition and was happy with the attitude of his team, with the players showing their skills despite feeling angry about the prospect of staying at home in 2010. Ultimately though, there is a frustrating feeling throughout the Great Britain ice hockey camp of

Tampa Bay Lightning part company with Melrose

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Barry Melrose has been fired by the Tampa Bay Lightning after only five months in charge of the NHL club. Melrose had joined the club after working as a commentator for the popular American television channel, ESPN, for thirteen years.

The coach did, however, have previous experience in the world of ice hockey, having coached Los Angeles for three years in the early 1990s. Furthermore, his time at Los Angeles had brought some success: in 1992, he had managed to lead the team to the finals of the Stanley Cup although they were eventually unlucky to lose to Montreal.

The announcement of Melrose’s departure from Tampa Bay Lightning has come after a poor run of form in the NHL. With sixteen games already played this season, the officials at the Lightning decided to take swift action and bring an end to Melrose’s reign at the club.

The Lightning have suffered three straight defeats and are now in fourth position in the Southeast Division. Furthermore, they have scored the least goals in the entire NHL.

The general manager of the club, Brian Lawton, has revealed that the decision to fire Melrose was