Viruses. Buh. Suffering from one of my own this week, my head is full of cotton wool, my mouth feels like a cat litter tray and my nose looks like I've just done what onlookers would call "an heroic dose" of Columbian Marching Powder. (Kids, ask your parents.)
As for the virus of the electronic kind - well hanging is too good for them. I ahve no time for virus writers, no matter how smart they are, and hope that they end up in jail for years. That may surprise people who know of my championing of technologies such as BitTorrent which - among other things - allow widepsread piracy, but thats a different kettle of bits and bytes.
Anyway - been copying what I consider to be the greatest hockey match I've ever seen, the 1999 B&H Cup Final between Storm and London Knights onto DVD and it occured to me that it was a very significant game.
Significant in that it was probably the day that the Storm, and the ISL started going downhill. Certainly Manchester hockey never got anywhere close to that day, with crowds beginning to slide and KK on his way out. But also for ISL, as Mike Blaisdell was newly installed as Sheffield coach (despite his name not being on the shortlist according to Simms). The following season saw Terry Christensen helpless in the face of the Grand Sham Steeler squad, money troubles with almost all the clubs, TV interest waning and so on.
So, that match represents the high watermark for hockey in this country, certainly for the last couple of decades. But what a watermark! Still a spinetingling game to watch, Storm going 0-2 down in the opening ten minutes, with the Manchester fans fearing the worst. First Pierre Allard, then Mike Harding clawed us back into it. When Jablonski scored that 3rd, the Sheffield Arena went crazy, the crowd noise is immense. But Scremin ties it up and we hit OT, penalties, and Pietrangelo, Pietrangelo, Pietrangelo.
When the Phoenix rise next season, they can't hope to hit that kind of height - the game has changed just as much in the last couple of years as it did when the Storm started. It will be different, better or worse who knows, but that cold December evening in 1999 was certainly very special indeed.
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I remember the night of the B&H Cup Final very well. The feelings of dread early in the game when the Knights went two nil up, the elation of drawing level, of going ahead, and the edge of the seat ending leading to the penalty shoot out....
I also remember the jubilation on the drive home, the fleet of Storm fans in their cars on the roads leading out of Sheffield, and seeing Mr Landers practically hanging out of the passenger side of a car waving like mad as we passed by in the next lane. Those were the days!
Oh yes... um.. that.
The scary thing is, that was after I'd calmed down a bit. There is a picture of me in the Arena after the game and I just look like a wild-eyed lunatic.
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