Challenge Cup: seven months to find a winner shows we need  sharper format

The very fact the Challenge Cup meanders round the schedules from September right through to March sums up the competition.

What began on September 13 with the first round of group matches concluded on March 18 as Nottingham Panthers defeated Coventry Blaze 3-2 in overtime, and a shiny new piece of silverware finally found a cabinet to sit in after games running over seven months.

That timescale to find a winner is absurd, but the league seems unable to come up with a short, sharp format that turns this never-ending competition into something exciting and much more meaningful.

The cup was given an overhaul last season, but it still felt clunky. That’s because it is.

Splitting ten teams into qualifying groups of six and four instead of two equal groups of five is a head scratcher.

The format has to work for all ten clubs, but the problem with trying to appease everyone is you end up with a bit of a dog’s dinner of a tournament. Design by committee rarely works.

A fans’ survey in 2022 flagged the Challenge Cup as a key gripe. Four years on, I’m far from convinced the structure is any closer to working.

I’m old enough to remember the Benson & Hedges Cup which kick-started the seasons with much more of a bang - and it was done and dusted before teams got round to putting up Christmas decorations in the dressing room. There again, it was the Autumn Cup - the scheduling clue was in the title.

The EIHL could do a lot worse than go back and see how things were done and take that as a blueprint for the Challenge Cup.

No matter how thrilling the final was, the tournament has a predictability about it that blunts its aims.

Not only have the big four of Cardiff Devils, Nottingham Panthers, Sheffield Steelers and Belfast Giants, etched their name on every trophy since 2014, they have also provided almost all the runners-up. Only Guilford Flames, Fife Flyers and Coventry have dared to disturb the arena giants’ dominance in more than a decade of finals.

Imagine a season, and a tournament, which started with a bang by eliminating one of those clubs - maybe that’s the shake up needed to give the Challenge Cup the sense of excitement it needs.

Qualifying groups are fine, but they need to be done straight off the bat, and followed immediately by the knockout stages.

Allowing the tournament to clog up the league schedules means the importance of games can get lost, and teams have to figure out no only who they are playing, but in which competition. Momentum gained in one doesn’t necessarily carry into another.

Panthers and Blaze opened their cup competitions with losses - Nottingham 6-3 to Cardiff, Coventry 6-4 away to Manchester Storm - but those results, from mid September, have long since been erased from the memories of both sets of fans. Will the format change for next season? Probably not.

Will the final have the same social media debate over the venue, the decision over who is the ‘home’ team and what strips they wear? Absolutely.

But, to a large extent, that’s all froth. The game has to be played somewhere and big arenas will almost always win over ‘wee’ rinks. I do recall Flyers’ final appearance at Belfast. It felt very much like a Giants’ home game, right down to the way the teams were introduced - probably because it was.

The more pressing issue is grabbing this cup by both handles and giving it an almighty shake.