Winless weekends have been a thing of rarity for the Belfast Giants this season, which makes trying to bounce back from their defeats to Sheffield and Coventry something of a unique experience.
Adam Keefe’s side did at least come away with a point from their loss to the Blaze, even though the head coach described their performance as “ugly”, which means they are still in the driver’s seat in the Elite League title race, three points back of the Cardiff Devils but with two games in hand that have the potential to take them top.
But more important for the team in the short-term is how they respond to their first back-to-back losses since the end of November, and winger JJ Piccinich is confident they will do so in this weekend’s double-header against the Nottingham Panthers at the SSE Arena on Friday and Saturday (both 7pm).
“We’re feeling good. It’s tough not winning both games in a weekend but we’ve found our identity over the past month, six weeks. We’re going to stick to our guns,” insists the American forward.
“There’s been a lot of games in the recent two months where we’ve controlled the game a lot and we’ve had really good possession of the puck. We’ve been in control of a lot of games despite not winning, like the game against Sheffield. It’s been a theme for our team.
“The game against Coventry was a step back, it was chaotic and wasn’t like how we want to play. Those bad habits hadn’t crept into our game for a long time and that’s what happened.
“Overall we’ve done a really good job and that’s our identity. It’s nice to get a work week in where we can just practice and have a full week, not playing every other day. We can digest what went on in a good way and focus on the little things and get our minds back into gear.”
The pleasing aspect is the position the Giants are in so early into the new year, even if they are yet to register a victory in 2025. While most of their recent title wins have required them to make up significant ground in the second half of the season, this time they turn the calendar just three points back and top of the points per game tally in their bid to wrestle back the Elite League crown.
“We were definitely not in as good a position in my first year here,” adds Piccinich, who won the title with the Giants in 2022.
“There’s so much hockey still to be played so we could fall back in the blink of an eye. It’s nice to be in the position we’re in but we know the work that’s needed to get there and the work we’ve had to put in to be where we are now.
“It will go fast. I’m not sure how many games we have left but every game is so important and that’ll start with this weekend against Nottingham.”
The Panthers have soared back to form over the last few months, Danny Stewart’s men tucked in just four points behind the Giants in the standings as they bid for their first Championship since 2013, and arrive in Belfast off the back of not just 12 wins in their last 15 games but having won both of the previous meetings between the two sides.
But given what Belfast have faced when taking on the Panthers this season, heading to the Motorpoint Arena shortbenched for their first meeting and having battled through significant travel disruption for the second, Piccinich is eager to get another crack at them on more familiar ice.
“We definitely owe them a performance. They’ll see a different team this weekend and we can surprise them in that regard,” believes the 28-year-old, who has 15 goals and 37 points in 38 games this season.
“They might think we play one way but we actually play another way. We haven’t had a chance to put our best foot forward against Nottingham. We will this weekend.”