Belfast Giants taking each game at a time as they push for EIHL title

The Giants’ dominant lead has been shaved down by both the Nottingham Panthers and the Sheffield Steelers. As it stands the league could be anyone’s to win, although the Giants to have games to spare.

And it looks very likely that the champions of the league will not be crowned until Saturday, April 5, when the Giants play the penultimate game of the season against the Panthers at the SSE Arena.

For Giants defenceman Jeff Baum the squad are keeping their focus on the here and now, each game as it comes and not allowing themselves to get to far ahead. Or allowing themselves to be lost in the “what ifs” of the game.

Looking back at last weekend’s road trip to Scotland which saw the Giants secure three out of four points but fall to the Glasgow Clan in a penalty shootout.

Baum said: “It is always a tough trip heading over to Scotland and that was the case last weekend. Overall though, I think we made a good push.

“We had gained some momentum after winning the Challenge Cup on the Wednesday and we wanted to carry that into the weekend games.

“We wanted to stay rolling and I think that on the whole we showed what our game can be like on the Wednesday.

“But we knew that Fife and Glasgow were going to be two tough places to play in. I thought we competed pretty hard in both games.

“We made the right steps but it was unfortunate that we couldn’t have come away with the two points against Glasgow, but we were happy to have secured the three points in the two games.”

As can be the case in ice hockey, it can be one big step forward and one small step back.

Baum said: “There was a little bit of a sore taste in the mouth not being able to secure all four points for sure.

“For us as a team right not, especially with how tight the league is this year, but it has also been the same right across the whole season too, we have wanted to focus on our gameplan and playing how we play.

“It really is case of taking one day at a time and not get too far ahead of ourselves.

“You can even break it down smaller and take it period by period and then shift by shift.

“If you look to much at the bigger pictured, which is of course easy to do, you can get lost in all the what ifs.

“Your mind can spin with the magnitude of the task at hand and that is not good for any player.

“At the end of day we are playing a game that we have been playing our whole lives, we know that we can control the things that we can control and try to do your best to keep moving forward.”

Baum agrees that a sort of mental short-termism is key to keeping players on a even keel.

He said: “It can be very easy to stress yourself out, especially at this stage of a season. I think what is important and what we keep our focus on is that the EIHL trophy is very different from anything else you might have competed for.

“Guys who are having their first year in the league have experienced nothing like this before, were the very first game of the season is just as important as the final game to be played.

“It is something that Keefer and the coaching staff do a really great job of impressing on us.

“The path to winning the EIHL trophy can be a tough one, it can be hard to win for sure.

“When you get to the end and you are lucky enough to win the league title, you sigh of relief and look back at the eight hard months to get there.”