20-05-2025
Belfast Giants to learn Champions League opposition: ‘They're not going to walk all over us'
Long gone are the days where, after their first ever game in the competition six years ago, they were compared to the movie 'Slapshot' after stunning Czech side Bili Tygri Liberec. After winning three games two years ago and missing out on the Play-Offs by a point, the Giants are now competitive on the continent.
Nobody expects them to win the CHL, that is asking a little bit much of the Elite League champions, but things have now progressed to the point where at Wednesday's pool stage draw in Stockholm they will be looking for winnable ties as opposed to just experiences.
And not only that but, as head of hockey operations Steve Thornton outlines, the Giants themselves have become something of a plum draw for Europe's elite.
"It's a different experience. They're not going to come in and walk all over us like possibly it was in the early days now. It's quite competitive," says Thornton.
"We're playing against a big bunch of teams but we're holding our own, I think. I think there'll be a lot of teams at that draw that are hoping to get us for that kind of experience. And that's actually quite exciting.
"I've been fortunate to be able to go to three or four draws now, where you're in the room mingling, and the number of people that are representing teams across here to come up to you with their fingers crossed to get you, because they want that experience, is incredible.
"That says a lot about the reputation that we've built up over the last couple of decades for hockey in a country that just didn't have it before. So it's exciting. I've enjoyed it as well, I'm very proud of that."
Six different teams from Europe's elite leagues - Austria, Czechia, Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland - await the Giants when the group stage starts in August, three games played on the road and three at the SSE Arena.
Although any team they face will be top quality opposition, of particular note are potential reunions with the likes of Swedish champions Luleå, Finnish side Lukko and Austrian heavyweights Salzburg, while Giants fans may hope for a match-up with German outfit Ingolstadt, who have former Belfast defenceman Sam Ruopp on their roster.
Although they will be underdogs against just about every other team in the competition, that doesn't mean it's not worth the Giants' time being involved.
"When we find out what our road trips are, we do what we can to pull as much out of it as possible," explains Thornton.
"If there's something around there that allows us to see what is the best in current practise, being able to compare ourselves, seeing the experiences of some of these European venues, how they recruit, what they do in the locker rooms, things like that. We have no shame, really, in stealing ideas.
"We don't want to reinvent the wheel, we just want to do what we can all the time to give ourselves the best chance to win. Sometimes it's those small little one per cents, little things you steal, that make the big difference in the end."
The Giants are back in the CHL off the back of another superb season that saw them win a League and Challenge Cup double, taking their haul to ten trophies in the last seven years.
"It was certainly stressful," grins Thornton.
"But it says a lot about the quality of the League right now. There's quite a few teams that are going to be in the mix year upon year now, and everybody was beating everybody for a good portion of the season, and I think that says that hockey is healthy in the UK.
"Any time you win, it makes the summer that much better. So I think, reflecting back on last year after about a month of getting your weekends back, it feels much more like we won a double rather than we lost a triple. And I think that's a good feeling, because it's not easy to win."
The Giants were taken down to the final period of the final game by a combined comeback from the Sheffield Steelers and Nottingham Panthers in order to win the League title, a 4-3 overtime success in Nottingham clinching the crown, and that mental load resulted in their Grand Slam bid ending with a shut-out loss to the Cardiff Devils in the Play-Off Semi-Finals.
But as much as that stung, Thornton sees it as a positive that the fans were initially upset by the way the season ended, rather than focusing on the rest of the campaign.
"We sweated everything possible out of that it was crawling to the line almost to get it was so close to winning nothing. And then the fact that we won two, you look at that as incredible success," he continues.
"We're just so fortunate that we've had a good run of five or six years with trophies in the bank. And I'm kind of proud of the fact that there are a lot of people that judge us by winning the wouldn't have said that seven or eight years ago.
"So anytime you win something, it's a good season. And it just makes it a lot easier in terms of building a team for the next year, keeping that culture.
