Returning: Josh Smith

 

The team is growing, the latest of the signings being Josh Smith.

Josh Smith has put pen to paper to remain with the Bees for another season. This forward is a Bee through and through, starting with the club in the 2011/2012 season icing for the Stingers he has only strayed once from the colony spending the 2017/2018 season with Bison (for which we have forgiven him) under Doug Sheppard’s leadership. Smithy has many attributes that make him a key player for the Bees, not only is he a good points scorer but he works hard on the ice too. He doesn’t keep the penalty box bench warm too often and certainly knows where the back of the net is. Finishing 6th in Bees scorers last season whilst only playing ¾ of the season shows that when he is fit and on form, he is a force to be reckoned with. In the 2021/2022 playoffs he was the Bees top goal scorer, and it is this form that gives him the potential to finish higher up the teams points scorers in the forthcoming season.

Once he gets going - Smithy is a threat to any team in the league, and if he can maintain it for the season he can make it to the top of the point standings.



We now know how many times we will play each team, how does it benefit the Bees?

Once we knew the number of fixtures and teams, we took a while trying to set up conferences and everything possible to allow the same number of games for each team. Turns out, it wasn't possible and each team does not play the same number of games against each team.

The Bees only travel to Sheffield and Hull twice instead of three times, as well as Leeds and Telford traveling to Slough twice.

Is it fair?

Simply, no it isn't. However across the length of a season there are many things that make it slightly unfair from injuries to controversial decisions, so it shouldn't make a huge difference on the final standings come the end of the season.

Did the Bees get let off lightly?

Three of the four teams that we will only play 5 times finished in the top 4 last season. Of course the one exception being Hull who are new to the National League for the upcoming season.

So as a whole, we should be pretty happy with how it's worked out as a Bees fan.


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