In Town Tomorrow

The visitors to the Link Centre tomorrow night are last season’s League champions, the Telford Tigers. This has been a poor year by the Tigers recent high standards, they have gone from league winners to really struggling to even make the post season. Telford are battling it out with Bristol and Basingstoke for the 7th and 8th spots in the NIHL which would secure their post season berths.

Head coach Tom Watkins remains in charge, this will be his 13th consecutive season in Telford and coming off back-to-back league title wins the Tigers would have been expecting another strong showing but it has been anything but this year.

Starting at the back end, Brad Day is back once more in net for Telford and he’ll be a very strong presence in goal that will give the Tigers a solid base in every game they play. He is backed up by young goalie, Ryan Lewis, who has joined from the Tigers 2nd team. While there is a clear starter Lewis will be looking to push Day for starts all season long.

On the blue line there is continuity and the majority of the Tigers defensive corps have returned for this season and the key signings to look out for are veteran 45 year-old Jonathan Weaver and the experienced 27 year-old Daniel Rose.

In the forward ranks there is a real split when it comes to age and experience, the Tigers have 3 forwards over the age of 40. Imports Jason Silverthorn and Vladimir Luka both return and so does veteran British forward Rick Plant. These players bring a wealth of skill and experience to the team but that has to be offset against age catching up with all three. It seems age has caught up with Plant and Silverthorn as both have struggled with injury and Silverthorn has been ruled out for the remainder of the season. With this in mind Watkins moved to secure some reinforcements; he signed two veteran British players in the form of Tom Carlon and Gareth O’Flaherty. To replace the import slot vacated by Silverthorn the Tigers have signed American Robert Herrman who was recently released by Cardiff Devils and has a wealth of experience in the NCAA college system in the US.

In contrast to the above veteran’s, they will be ably supported by an up and coming star in the NIHL, Finley Howells has signed with the Tigers and currently sits 3rd in scoring for the team, they will rely on him heavily this year. Along with Howells there are some young prospects looking to make an impact, they include Brodie Jesson, Sam Watkins and Lucas Price.

This looks to be a Tigers roster in transition, they’re asking their older players for 1 or 2 more years while some youth is blooded into the line-up and will then serve the team for future successes.