End of Season...

This was my final programme piece for the Cardiff Devils 2024/2025 season, I’ll have more to say on hockey over the summer but for now…

And so we’re at the end of another hockey season. While attention turns to playoffs for the next couple of weeks, it’s also a time to reflect on what the season has brought and what hockey means to us all.

While chasing trophies is always the aim, chasing week-on-week victories is also the goal of any sports team. There’s more to hockey for anyone who loves the sport. More to the Cardiff Devils than just the tally of trophies. So, as the season closes, with one trophy in the form of the Continental Cup, and one left to chase in the playoffs, it might not have been the year fans or the team dreamed of in silverware, but it’s always been more than just that.

Of course, there will be more technical analyses—the best players, the best games, a breakdown of the season shot by shot—and all that is great and fascinating. But hockey week on week is more than just player statistics. It’s about the game and the love of it.

And there’s been a lot to love about this season. Very soon, everyone will be complaining about off-season (yes, even those who ‘can’t wait’ for the season to end, give it a week and they’ll miss it). And while a long hockey-less always feels like a drought, there’s also the excitement, the possibility…looking back to last summer, as new signings came trickling in. Starting with the excitement of seeing players like Joey Martin and Ben Davies return once more, to the excitement of new players. And the arrival of players like Josh McDonald, Reid Duke and Zach O’Brien played out in a season of new favourites for Devils fans.

And then there’s the highs of the season—the Continental Cup, up there, not only for the victory but also for the weekend of hockey. Sharing the rink with the passionate Katowice fans is an experience somewhat impossible to describe.

Before that, too, many fans had travelled to Zilina to support the fans, and the end of the season marks the end of traveling rink to rink, supporting the team, and celebrating (and commiserating) with others on the long drives home. But every away trip, every freezing winter evening in a rink is another set of Devils memories in the bank.

Back at home, too, there’s an array of memories to take away from the season. Whether it’s a favourite goal (Riley Brandt’s brilliant snipe against Glasgow Clan) or favourite fight (Riley Brandt against…well, pick a tea,m there’s probably one…). Or one of all three goalies’ shutouts this season. There’s a whole host of perfect hockey moments to pick from.

But hockey isn’t just about hockey. Some fans will disagree that it is only about goals and winning. But most of us know it’s about much more. It’s about game night rituals - whether that’s a pint of Guinness or curry and chips- it’s about debating which jersey to wear (and cursing if you jinxed it with the wrong one). It's about the people you sit with and the funny moments mixed up in the game (like a goalie getting kicked off his own bench). It’s about the in-jokes with your seat neighbours (most of them unprintable). It’s about the team off the ice- the fellow fans.

For many, hockey is more than just the game on the ice. It’s about the place they come every week, where there’s an escape from life being tough, and people they care about on and off the ice—a place for entertainment and a place to belong. Trophies are great, victories are always the aim. But also hockey, and the Cardiff Devils are about so much more.

And we get to do it all again next season.

And as a footnote, I’m incredibly grateful to be given the opportunity to write these pieces this season. Sharing about things I’m passionate about is well, my passion and getting a chance to write about hockey has allowed me to do that in a different context, while learning along the way. Some purists, I’m sure, will say writing about ‘Air the Bear’ or silly Halloween pieces isn’t ‘what hockey’s about’, but I disagree…hockey is about lots of things, and the love for the sport comes in many forms. More to the point, if one new person to the sport picks up a programme and sees an article not in ‘hockey speak’ their first game, and understands why we’re throwing bears on the ice, or what the Rainbow tape means, and feels a bit more welcome because of it…then I’ve done my job.