Keefe sees positives and negatives in new CHL rules

Photo: R. Blumenthal / CHL

Belfast Giants start their third Champions Hockey League campaign on Friday, aiming to become only the second team form the Elite League to advance into the last 16.

The Giants are also looking to pick up their first road points in the CHL, a feat that only Cardiff and Nottingham have managed since the competition's inception in 2014. They have a tough start, however, with back-to-back games in Finland against Lukko Rauma and defending champions Tappara Tampere.

This season's competition also features new rules for powerplays which the Giants trailed last weekend in pre-season games against Cardiff. "You can look at the new rules two ways," began Head Coach Adam Keefe on the "two minutes means two minutes two" rule for minor penalties. "Penalties can always cause you problems, especially in the CHL, but with the new rules you could find yourselves a couple of goals down if you’re not careful.

"On the flip side, we can also look at it in that we could get ourselves up by a few in games if we take our chances, so there’s definitely positives and negatives in these new rules."

Off the ice, the CHL's new format now ranks teams on a straight 1-24 league table, rather than in individual groups of four sides each. The Giants need to finish in the Top 16 to make it to the next round. "I’m not sure if the new format makes it easier or harder, but we’re not looking at that too much yet," continued Keefe. "We’re taking it one game at a time here and trying to make sure that we get better. We want to make sure we’re competitive every game and go from there."

The Giants start in two games in Finland, and the Giants' coach had a good idea of what to expect. "Going off of my experience with GB, I know Finnish teams are always fast, physical and very well-structured," added Keefe. "We’ll have two very tough games here on the road with very little margin for error in our own game."