So this weekend was quite an eventful one if you were a Panthers fan. Not all of it in a good way. A shut out defeat in Cardiff, a delightful Robert Farmer goal, a signing session with the players and Henley missing Sunday's game which at the time was without explanation.
Ice Hockey isn't the most popular sport in the country, it gets little, if any media coverage nationally, there is never any team news on Sky Sports News although it is covered well by regional media, so in order to find information you sometimes need to dig a little deeper.
Now Gary Moran is quick enough to tell us that as Panthers fans 'we are the best in the league' so then why aren't we treated as such? We live in an age of social media and a large percentage of fans are constantly able to access information online, information that the Panthers can be quite frustrating in giving out.
Let's take Friday for example, I was sat at my desk at work, beginning to look forward to the weekend's hockey action and I spot a tweet from the Panthers. 'Big Game Preview' was the tweet. Excellent I thought, now I can check on whether Lacho, K-Wall, Werner, Wren or Loyns had recovered from their injuries or whether they were making progress. So I followed the link, still fully expecting a preview of the big game. However, I was greeted with the following information....
1. Game is being played in the NIC on Sunday at 4pm, sponsored by Bricks for kids - fair enough.
2. This game comes on the back of a trip to Cardiff the night before - fair enough, although your title didn't really indicate which game you were previewing so I probably would have assumed it was the Saturday fixture.
3. The demand for the beefcake calenders exceeded all expectations - Well that's ok then, 2 points in the bag surely?!
4. Tickets for the upcoming Christmas quiz on 12 December will be available - Good news for all involved, that'll be worth a couple of goals.
5. The Panthers have partnered with Nottingham City Transport to get reduced fares on match nights - Again, brilliant news, now I can catch the tram cheaper to watch the game where I don't know who is playing!
6. We have also partnered with Pizza Express - Good because I didn't really want to watch hockey, I am hungry!
I apologise for the sarcasm, but to say I was annoyed was an understatement. If I am being told I am reading a big game preview, then that is what I expect, not an excuse to re-iterate things which are told to us at least once a period during games. I understand the Panthers are also running a business, but as their customers, I want information on the playing squad and while I am at it, comments by the coach wouldn't go amiss either.
Three hours later, the Panthers did finally put an extensive injury update on the website, so many of you will be wondering what my issue is. The issue is just a lack of detail in the information provided. In the weekend's game reports, would it be a hardship to detail who had scored for the Devils? In the match report for the Sunday game there was absolutely no mention as to why Henley hadn't returned as his suspension was now over, same with Makela. The fans didn't know, Twitter, Facebook and the forums didn't know. With Makela, the rumours had circulated that he hadn't travelled back from Asiago, which is understandable as he was only ever here short term, but the feeling amongst some fans was that he could have done a job for the rest of the season. Why not have some comments as to why he has gone, was it never an option for him to stay for the remainder of the season or was it that he hadn't done enough in Neilson's opinion to warrant an extended contract.
As for Henley, the lack of information provided meant that the friends we sit with were of the opinion that actually he was going to be released and that Corey hadn't played him as a result (it does seem that you are wrong on this one Mr Cooke!!)
So it was left to the match report by Mick Holland of the Evening Post to provide us with the information the fans were after. Henley had suffered a re-occurrence of a previous injury and was unable to ice. Simple wasn't it? So why was this information not relayed by the Panthers at any point? Don't get me wrong, it is fantastic the club and the local press have a good relationship but the club need to be telling us this.
After looking into this however, it seems like this just isn't a problem the Panthers suffer with. The Clan website have a game day news article which is all about off ice activity. The injury updates are in a separate article, but they do at least name the opposition scorers. The Stars didn't even have a weekend preview on their site, neither do the Flyers, Steelers, Capitals or Giants. The Blaze did provide an injury update before their Scotland weekend with comments from the coach as do the Stingrays. Don't get me wrong, the Giants had an article with Murphy looking forward to the Dundee game but it isn't the same.
So what I am trying to get at, is the Panthers and possibly the rest of the league need to be more forthcoming with information on their websites. They are frequently used sources of information that as fans we rely on. I am not suggesting we give away trade secrets, but just have a little honesty.
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