HOCKEY, hockey, hockey . . . that’s all we’ve had to think about over the last week with four games in five nights.

We came out of it with two wins and a couple of losses.

We didn’t perform in Sheffield and got what we deserved but were unlucky in Cardiff losing 4-3 in a game that could have gone either way.

We gave it our all and just didn’t get the bounces. Tony (Hand, Phoenix player-coach) and all the boys were happy with how we played but we just came up short.

But there were a lot of positives to take away. Bruce Mulherin came back after injury and he’s an important guy on our team. He was man-of-the-match against Edinburgh and scored a hat-trick against Basingstoke.

He’s got speed and a great work ethic and it’s a real pick-me-up to have him back.

Then against Sheffield, Carl Graham scored his first ever goal against the top team in the league and broke Jody Lehman’s shut-out.

He got a rebound and put it in the net. Everyone was going wild for him even though we lost 4-1 and It was good to see a big smile on his face.

Against Basingstoke, Adam Walker also scored a hat-trick, which he doesn’t often do, that often, and Adam Summerfield was given a rare run-out in goal with his parents and girlfriend watching.

Summer doesn’t get that many opportunities but we had a good lead and Tony threw him on in the final period. He made a really good stop from Greg Chambers who is one of the league’s top scorers.

It’s good to see him getting on the ice. He’s been waiting patiently all season, practises hard every day and he is learning off Stephen Murphy. Any chance he can gets is worth it.

I went to see the group Slipknot last  Tuesday with a group of fans who won a raffle for the chance to come along with me and Phoenix owner Neil Morris.

They were a great bunch of guys, who were fans of the music, and it made it so much better going with a bunch of melonheads. We had a great time and a lot of laughs.

Slipknot may not be everyone’s cup of tea but at the end of the day they put on a really great show.

We only have one game this weekend against Sheffield on Sunday (5.30pm) so it will give us an early opportunity to redeem ourselves.

They hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons against Cardiff last week after a big bust-up at the end of the game when Andrew Sharp and a bunch of Cardiff guys picked up a whole stack of penalties.

I know nothing about it and I don’t really care about it but you can’t help talking about it in the locker room.

Sometimes it goes off like that in hockey and it usually involves the big meatballs like myself. He’s only a little meatball but he ended up doing a stupid thing.

From what I heard it’s pretty bad so I don’t think he will be playing for a while when the league have finished with him.

I’m pretty level-headed and I don’t lose the plot too often but I guess it does happen. I’ve only been suspended a couple of times in my life so I’m not the type to go out there and do stupid things.

I guess I might have lost it once or twice in a fight but that’s just the way it is. But it sounds like he stepped over the line.

It’s like the difference between stealing a candy bar from a convenience store and robbing a bank. He’s gone way over the line.

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