Dan Carlson and Matt Soderstrom have re-signed for the 10/11 season. The thirty-one year old American forward, Dan Carlson has been with the Blaze since 04/05 season. Since then, Carlson has helped the Blaze win four Elite league titles and four other major titles in 357 games, while also appearing in fourth place in the Coventry Blaze’s all time point scorer chart with 467 points.  “I’m excited to be back for a sixth season with the Blaze,” said Carlson. “The Blaze organisation has always been great to me and I know coming back, that the goal will be to challenge for more trophies. Coventry’s been a supporting and welcoming home for my family and I over the years so as always we are thrilled to be returning once more. With the added bonus of the Continental Cup and defending last season’s championship there is a lot to look forward to in the upcoming season.”

Also returning to the Blaze is defence man Matt Soderstrom. This will be Soderstrom’s ninth season with the Blaze, and is also the first foreign player to play 500 games in this league. The thirty-three yea (more…)

Head Coach, Paul Thompson has today announced the signing of five time champion Jeff Smith from Danish team Nijmegen Devils. While there, the 6’6″ Canadian helped the Nijmegen Devils win the Dutch cup, and spent his last season as team captain.

“I’m delighted that Jeff will be joining us in Coventry,” said Thompson. “He’s a really huge man and throughout his career he’s used his size really well.  He’s played both as a forward and as a defenceman but it’s at the back that he’s really been able to make the most of his size.  He’s very much a stay a (more…)

Two years ago, Sheffield Steelers were going stronger then ever, after being crowned Elite league champions and managing to win the Elite League Playoffs in Nottingham. While having finished the 08/09 season with such huge success, Steeler fans were looking forward to another season of great hockey. While losing a lot of key players at the end of the 08/09 season, Steeler fans weren’t too worried. With head coach Dave Matsos in charge, Steeler fans were sure that they would be capable of making a competitive team for the 09/10 season. While sadly this didn’t work out like planned, Steelers managed to finish in 5th place after numerous c (more…)

This Sunday, Paul Thompson and David Simms will be in Crosby’s bar, where they will be talking about current events in the elite league, and some of there own stories from the past. With the sad news of Sheffield Steelers having some major problems, which resulted in David Simms, Mike O’Connor and coach Dave Matsos leaving the steelers, it should be a fun night, with plenty to talk about.

This  over 18′s only event, starts at 7pm this Sunday – July the 18th. So if your missing your usual ice hockey rush, why not pop down, and get the chance to talk to two of the biggest names in British Hockey, and fellow hockey fans while your there.

There is no “team” behind Blaze Online, it is completely fan driven…

We are very happy to accept writers for this site, all you need is MS Word, or any text editor, and you can start writing for Blaze Online. You can write about anything related to do with Hockey (British ice Hockey, Elite League and Coventry Blaze in general) If you are interested in doing this, please email us at the address below, and we will get back to you…

We are happy for you to submit suggestions also, so if your interested please get in contact

writers@coventryblazeonline.co.uk

Back up Goalie Tom Murdy has re-signed a contract, keeping him at the Blaze for another season. While with the Coventry Blaze, Tom managed to win a gold medal with Great Britain’s under 21 team, which saw them get promoted to division one in the world championships in Debrecen in Hungary.

“It’s not always easy being the number two goalie in an Elite League team,” said Thompson. “But Tom has a great attitude and work ethic and he knows that his time with us is a very important stage on his way to becoming a starting goalie. He has plenty of talent so we’ll be looking to get him a few more starts with our reserve team during the season to bring him on even further.”

After being released by Sheffield Steelers last season, Brad Cruikshank was quickly picked up by the Coventry Blaze, and was re-united with former Bison team mates Greg Chambers, and Greg Owen. While playing 16 games for the Blaze last season, Cruikshank managed to score 7 goals and 4 assists, giving him a total points tally of 11. He also managed to score a goal during the elite league playoffs which, at the time was a huge goal that nearly saw Blaze get through to the final. With Cruikshank signing a one year contract, Head Coach Paul Thompson has said

“Brad deserves another contract. Not only is he tough and feisty but he has a nice touch around the net and he does have a knack of scoring big goals. He’s a real competitor, very committed and with (more…)

With two new teams joining the elite league this year transfer news has been coming thick and fast. After the sad news of former Blaze player Adam Calder re-signing from the Braehead Clan after a rumoured fallout with the Neil Black, Braehead were left without a coach. That was in till Bruce Richardson – of the Nottingham Panthers – decided to take up the role. His first signings for the Clan we’re Sam Bullas, Matt Haywood and Adam Walker. Although Sam and Matt are only nineteen years old, they have both played for the Great Britain’s Under 20. While Adam Walker makes the move to Braehead Clan after a successful season with Manchester Phoenix. The twenty-three year old forward managed to rack up a total points tally of 102 points in 54 games (more…)

We have decided to start providing our own newsletter to fans, which will provide the latest news, rumours, opinions/thoughts etc… along with our own additional inserts, which will vary throughout the season. We will be sending out newsletters frequently throughout the off-season, so that we can update you all, faster with rumours and news etc…

During the Season we will probably be releasing the newsletter’s monthly to give overviews of games/players and more…

You can sign up to our newsletter by the link below… Make sure you read everything to make sure your email client is suitable to our newsletters.

http://www.coventryblazeonline.co.uk/newsletter/subscribe/

Coventry Blaze will be playing against the Telford Tigers, home at the Sky dome Arena at 7 pm on the 4th September. Telford Tigers are a successful team in the English Premier League who have recently been assigned a new player coach of Tom Watkins, who played at the Blaze last season and has helped them to achieve winning championships and the Elite League title multiple times.

Telford will be working closely with the Blaze, as 3 of their players are in 2 way contracts with Coventry Blaze, meaning that they will be training with the blaze but playing for Telford, working around their fixtures, but sometimes able to ice for the Blaze. (more…)