ROMFORD, Great Britain - For a few brief, shining moments over the past year, ice hockey fans around the world got a glimpse at the potential of United Kingdom hockey in the new millennium. A year ago, the UK's U20 team came within a whisker of shocking the hockey world by earning a promotion to the 2008 IIHF World U20 Championship.  In the fall, the NHL paid a visit to London's new O2 Arena to open the 2007-08 regular season with two games between the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings.
 
Nevertheless, ice hockey very much remains a sport at the crossroads in the United Kingdom. The national federation, Ice Hockey UK (IHUK), has often found it difficult to advance the 29th-ranked men's national team program, while the Elite League is still looking for ways to bolster the overall caliber of play, competitiveness and prestige.

It is true that the modern-era ice hockey is a niche sport in the charter IIHF member nation, but there are higher-ranked countries where this is also true. For instance, the football-obsessed Netherlands is ranked five spots above the UK, with fewer rinks (15 versus 44) and players (there are 1,883 registered Dutch players to 8,401 in the UK).

Meanwhile, 13th-ranked Italy formerly had its position strengthened by passport national team players trained in Canada, including occasional former NHL players such as goaltender Jason Muzzatti. But Italy is every bit as football-dominated as the UK and also has a smaller pool of registered players (6,953).

Greater tournament involvement

Hockey in the United Kingdom has to work around a cumbersome administrative structure.  The system has often hindered the sport's ability to establish a unified objective and cohesive strategy for advancement.

England and Scotland each have individual hockey associations - the English Ice Hockey Association (EIHA) and Scottish Ice Hockey (SIH) - affiliated with Ice Hockey UK. Welsh hockey falls under both the English and IHUK umbrellas.  

Traditionally, Northern Irish hockey fell under Scottish jurisdiction. However, there have been substantial efforts in recent years by the Dublin-based Irish Ice Hockey Association to promote and develop a unified all-islands Irish hockey system. (IIHF.com will look at these efforts in an upcoming feature).

IHUK has often suffered economic shortfalls (including a deficit of £20,000 reported at the May 5th, 2007 directors meeting of EIHA) but has made efforts to broaden the horizons of the national team program.

One of the most promising steps British hockey has undertaken in recent years is the decision to have Team Great Britian participate not just in the IIHF World Championship Division I, but also in other selected international competitions. This had not been the case in quite a few years.

Recently, with the cooperation of the Elite League clubs and the league sponsor, the UK took part in the four-team Mont Blanc Euro Challenge in France, which also involved Norway and Ukraine. All through countries are higher-ranked than the United Kingdom.

"Raising the ranking and profile of the National Team is so important, not just to the Great Britain team, but to the sport of ice hockey in the UK," national team and Coventry Blaze head coach Paul Thompson said on the IHUK official site. "We have the World Championships coming up in Austria in April and last year in Slovenia we missed out on a medal on goal difference. We are desperate to go one step better in Austria and taking part in this tournament makes our preparation for that event so much better."

Great Britain ended the tournament with a 5-3 win over Lithuania, a 3-5 loss to the Norwegians and a 0-4 loss to France. More important, the players and coaching staff gained valuable experience.

"We came here with such a young, inexperienced squad and we have all got so much out of this experience. The attitude and application of these young men has been outstanding," Thompson said after the tournament. "Look at the amount of 18-, 19- and 20 year olds out here. Think how good these guys will be in two, three or four years' time. It's frightening, it really is."

In coming seasons, there are plans to expand senior national team tournament participation and increase the exposure of its junior- and youth-hockey aged players to international competitions. In the immediate future, Great Britain youth hockey participants will be taking part in the IIHF Skills Challenge.

This competition, open to players under the age of 15, covering a variety of different hockey skills for skaters and goaltenders culminates in late February with national competitions taking place in each participating country. The winners from each country, both male, will be invited to the Skills Challenge Finals to be held from May 1 to May 5 during the 2008 IIHF World Championship in Canada.

The long-term goal of British hockey, like all countries is for young players to stay with the sport and for talent to filter up to the national junior team and ultimately the senior team. The need for further junior development was underscored by the disappointing outcome for Great Britain at the 2008 World Under-20 Championships Division I Group B in Latvia.

Last year in Italy, the UK's Under-20 team came agonizingly close to shocking the entire hockey world by earning a promotion to the 2008 World U20 Championship in the Czech Republic.

The Brits beat France, stunned eventual champion Kazakhstan (a country that held its spot at the top level this year and threw a scare into Russia and the USA along the way) and led Austria in the final match by scores of 0-2 and 2-3 until finally yielding the third period.  

This time around, there was no magic for the UK juniors. The U20 team was unceremoniously relegated to Division II after going winless in Riga.

Coventry remains tops in the Elite League

The 10-team Elite League (also known as the Elite Ice Hockey League or EIHL), sponsored by a budget airline firm, includes teams from all four UK home nations, including Scottish participant Edinburgh, Welsh club Cardiff and Northern Irish team Belfast.

The Coventry Blaze has been the best team in the import-player dominated league for the last few years. The two-time league champions look to be in good shape to successfully defend their 2006-07 victory. Coventry sits in first place, six points ahead of the Belfast Giants and Sheffield Steelers, despite having played fewer games than either club.

Of the various in-season and post-season trophies awarded during the Elite League season - including the Grand Finals, the Challenge Cup, and the Knockout Cup - the Knockout Cup is the one trophy that Coventry has yet to win. The club reached the finals of that competition last year but lost to the Cardiff Devils. Coventry will get another shot at the Knockout Cup this year by virtue of beating the Edinburgh Capitals in the semi-finals.

Among individual players competing in the EIHL this season, the top four point-getters are Coventry's Adam Calder (88 points), Ed Courtenay of the Belfast Giants (84 points), Belfast's Peter Campbell (83 points) and the Nottingham Panthers' Sean McAslan (76 points). Calder and Manchester's Joe Tallari are tied for the goal-scoring lead with 41 tallie. Courtenay leads the league in assists with 60, nine ahead of teammate Dan Carlson and Cardiff's Sylvain Deschatelets.
 
In the race for top goaltender honors, Coventry's Trevor Koenig leads the league with a 93.1 save percentage, followed by Nottingham's Tom Askey (92.7) and Sheffield's Jody Lehman (92.0).

BILL MELTZER