Giants can take positives from heavy Panthers loss, says Riley
BLAIR Riley has vowed to turn the Belfast Giants’ first defeat of the season on its head — by using the 6-3 humbling at the hands of the Nottingham Panthers as a positive.
Strange as it may seem, the Giants captain believes that having their four-match winning streak brought to such an abrupt end in the first Elite League game of the season on Wednesday night can ultimately be a good thing for the team.
And with a massive 59 games left in a marathon league season there are no panic buttons being pressed at the SSE Arena. Instead the players are planning a strong response when they travel to face the Fife Flyers tonight, before the teams face-off again in Belfast on Sunday in the Challenge Cup.
“There are always positives to take from any defeat if you look for them hard enough,” said Riley. “We have looked at the video of the Nottingham game and we have lots to correct and lots to work on.
“We have a big opportunity from this to learn as a group and see the defeat as a measure of the teams who are going to be fighting it out for the league this season.
“Maybe the warning signs were there against Glasgow last weekend when we came back from 3-0 down to win the game. We weren’t able to do that against Nottingham and we can’t let ourselves get into that situation again.
“In this league, with the regular season being the most important trophy rather than the play-offs, points at this stage of the season are important and we can’t let ourselves fall off the pace.”
The Giants now know the schedule of games in front of them when they host the semi-final round of the Continental Cup in November.
First up will be a clash with Medvescak Zagreb (which translates as the Zagreb Bears) from Croatia on Thursday November 15 and the Giants will go up against Polish side GKS Katowice in the final game on Saturday November 17.
It’s not unusual to hear sportsmen or women vowing to ‘fight their way to the top.’ What is unusual is when they mean it in the literal sense. Ice hockey, though, is a sport like no other. Fighting is accepted as part of the game. While in others there would be calls for lengthy bans for such violence, engage in fisticuffs on the ice and you’ll be back in the action five minutes later.
Enforcers are signed to carry out the role of looking after their team mates. For Belfast Giants coach Adam Keefe punching opponents was part of the job during his playing career and — he admits — without that side to his game he may never have made it as a professional.
He never intended it to be that way though when he was growing up in Brampton, Ontario, a half-hour drive from downtown Toronto.
“No kid steps onto the ice for the first time wanting to be a fighter,” said Adam.
“When I was a kid I idolised the skilled players and the good players. I wouldn’t say I disliked the physical guys, but you look at the best players in the best teams.”
So how did it work out that he made his living on the uglier side of the game?
“I was 15 years old when I got into my first fight and I did really well,” he said with a smile.
“I think it just so happened to be at the right time that a lot of people were watching and it kind of pushed me into that role.
“At 15 I had a good fight. I did really well. At 16 I had one against an 18 or 19-year-old and that one didn’t go so well.
“I do think I needed that side to my game to make it as a professional. I am sure I would have developed in other ways if I didn’t have that. I maybe would have been a better player, but I am not sure it would have been enough to send me to the next level.
“There are a lot of good players out there. Whatever you do well you have to stick out from the pack and for me it was that aggression
❝ You have to stick out from the pack and for me it was that aggression and playing on the edge
and playing on the edge.”
Adam’s early potential was built upon by his dad, with dawn starts the norm in the Keefe household from a young age.
His father Brian would take him and his older brother Sheldon, who played in the NHL and now coaches the American Hockey League champions the Toronto Marlies — to their local rink first thing in the morning, paying the Zamboni driver to open up early so his kids could skate before school.
Ultimately it was a move that paid off, but not one that Adam enjoyed at the time.
“They weren’t fun days, that’s for sure,” recalled the 34-year-old.
“I think it’s inevitable for most families in Canada. My brother played, he is four years older than me and it was just a natural progression that I was going to play as well.
“I think my dad started to put me on the ice — and I wouldn’t say skate — at about four years old.
“I think my dad taking us to the rink early in the mornings instilled a work ethic in us that allowed me to play at a professional level because my skill and talent wasn’t there, but my work ethic carried me through and for I am thankful that I was given that otherwise I wouldn’t have had much else.”
There was enough in his game for Keefe to get picked up as a 16-year-old by the Sudbury Wolves in the Ontario League in 2000 before moving closer to home with the Kitchener Rangers during the following season.
After four years there he got his break into the East Coast League, where the next step is the NHL, the league where the best in the world play.
In six seasons moving between the ECHL and the AHL he only started and finished two with the same club.
In 2011, aged 27 and at something of a crossroads, came a