November to Remember?

Paul Thompson is ready for the busiest month in his career as he begins his mission to take the national side to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

With Olympic qualification on the line, the Blaze competing for their third straight Elite League title and also entering European club competition later this month, Thompson has a hectic November schedule.

And in an interview with skysports.com, Thompson revealed just how busy he is.

“It’s ridiculous – I keep having to look up at the scoreboard to see who we’re playing in all of these different competitions!” Thompson joked.

“It is an awfully busy time and a draining time, but it’s an exciting time and I’m looking forward to our first game.”

Team GB's first game is against Poland, who won the last meeting between the teams at the World Championships in April after a penalty shootout.

“I’ve been speaking to my assistant coaches on a daily basis,” Thompson said.

“For the last couple of weeks we’ve been discussing how we are going to put the lines together and work on our powerplays and penalty killing to get the right balance.”

With so much administrative work required this month in addition to the actual games, Thompson praised the work of Andy Buxton, who is the general manager of the GB senior men’s team.

“I’m grateful to have a guy like Andy to help me out because he does a lot of work and takes care of many of the problems and issues that come up,” Thompson added.

“While I do a lot of admin work for the Blaze, Andy does a lot of the admin for the national team and it would be very difficult to get it all done without him.”

Buxton believes that allowing Thompson to concentrate on winning games and not have to worry about paperwork will enable the team to perform better in Poland.

“We have a good off-ice team and we try to take away all the worries and concerns from the coaching staff and players,” Buxton told skysports.com.

“If we can do the best job that we can to take care of everything off the ice, all Paul has to worry about is his team and trying to win the game.”

Have Skates, Will Travel

Ideally, Team GB would have flown into Poland last weekend, took a few days to unwind, practice and get ready for Thursday’s opening game against the host country in the pre Olympic qualification tournament.

But with Elite League fixtures and the extra cost of financing an extended stay both factoring in, head coach Paul Thompson and company are travelling today.

In an interview with skysports.com, Andy Buxton, the GM of the men’s senior team, outlined the travel itinerary.

“We leave Coventry at 5:00am for a two hour bus journey to Heathrow,” Buxton said.

“Then we have a flight to Warsaw and then we have an internal flight in Poland. From there we have another hour and a half on the coach to Sanok and then when we arrive we’ll probably just collapse!”

Still, it could be worse. It’s fair to say that Japan, who are also in Group D, have a slightly harder travel itinerary!