Tonight, the Belfast Giants start their season in earnest as they host Kalpa Kuopio in the Champions Hockey League. After a pair of positive performances in pre-season against Stavanger Oilers, we caught up with Bo Hanson for his thoughts on the fixture, and the season ahead.

“We’re trying to prepare as best as we can for that. We know that both of these teams that are coming into our building are two tough Finnish teams. I think Kalpa won their league last year.” Hanson says as I mention the fixtures ahead. “It’s a great opportunity, and a great test for our guys to play some really good teams across Europe. We’re excited for the opportunity and the challenge that it’s going to bring. Absolutely!”

Is that opportunity, I wonder, the reason Bo chose to return to the Giants for a second season? “I was signed before we won the league, to be honest with you, before the season ended. That was a driving force in me wanting to win. Not only because I’m a competitive son of a gun, but I wanted to get a chance in Champions League again.”

“I got to play in it a little bit before, when I was in Denmark. Played some good teams there. We also saw what Sheffield did last year. We have a good team too. Hopefully, we can make a name for ourselves in the league as well.”

There was more than just CHL tempting Bo back to Belfast though, and he was quick to tell us so. “I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. One, this is a great city. I’m actually walking around town right now. I walk into town almost every single day to do whatever I can if I need groceries, if I just want to sit at a coffee shop and hang out. I like being around it.”

“There are good people in Belfast. There’s good people in the organisation. We get taken care of really well from staff to our training staff to our equipment manager Taff.It’s a top-notch place to be. Honestly, I’ve really enjoyed my time here. Belfast feels like a second home.”

“It was a no-brainer for me when Thorts (Steve Thornton – Director of Hockey Operations) was talking to me about wanting to come back. I was really excited to get that taken care of. I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but it was a no-brainer for me coming back here to hopefully defend our championship and just keep building.”

The Giants do better than many of their peers at retaining players, I wonder if that reputation helps too?  “Its fun being a second-year guy. I’m a bit more comfortable with the coaching staff. Like you said, we bring back a ton of guys. Honestly, it’s a relief for me. This is the first team I’ve been on in a handful of years where I’m playing two years in a row for the same staff and same group of guys. It’s fun!”

“We have such a good locker room. Everybody cares about each other. Everybody cares about winning, cares about getting better. You can’t ask for much more than that”

Part of that consistency comes from building partnerships and Hanson’s defence pairing with Josh Roach bore fruit for the Giants last season. “Absolutely! Roachy and I played almost an entire year last year together. He had a little bump in preseason, but hopefully he’ll be okay.”

“It’s our system too. It’s knowing how the coaches want us to play, trying to teach the new guys what it means to be a Giant and what it means to play for this type of system and the way we want to.”

“So far, we have an awesome group of new guys, an awesome group of guys that are returning that know how to play the system that we want to play. It’s about trying to get people up to speed as quick as we can do that so that we can compete to our highest level.”

Given the way performances grew across two pre-season games facing Stavanger Oilers, everyone seems to be finding their feet in the system and with their new linemates. “Getting real reps against a real team – we can practice and do as much as we want against each other – but it’s a different level when you have guys in another jersey that want to hit you.”

“In practice, it’s tough to want to hit your own teammates all the time and kind of go through that. You might take a little easy on some guys. When you’re playing another team, you don’t care, you’re going to run around and play real hockey.”

“We were maybe a little rusty on Friday night in that first game, but I thought we got much better as the game went on. On Saturday, I thought we really came out and showed what it meant to play Giants hockey.”

“I thought we controlled the game from start to finish. Then we got to play three on three, which is fun. It felt real on Friday where they got a late goal, so it felt like we were still kind of fighting in that game, whereas Saturday was a little odd in terms of we’re up 6-1 and got to play three on three. You’re kind of like, oh my gosh, I forgot about this. But it’s good reps. It’s good practice.”

Belfast start their campaign with a pair of home games against Finnish opposition before a trip to Switzerland. How different does it feel to be in front of home fans in a competitive fixture?  “Man, we have the best fans in the league, in my opinion. They’re always supportive, they’re always loud, the building’s always rocking. It’s something that I brag about when I go home and talk to people about where I play, what Belfast is like. It’s awesome!”

“We are almost a sold out building, if not sold out every single night. You come into it, it’s a tough place to play. I like to think from how loud it can get, how passionate the teal army is. It’s fun! Tomorrow night is the first taste of real hockey for these fans, and hopefully they’re there to support us. I’m looking forward to it!”

One last word for Kalpa and what to expect when they come to town. “We’re expecting a tough team that’s going to be good defensively and really good offensively too. I think in their couple pre-season games that they’ve had, they’ve had five power play goals, so Jeff Mason was telling us when we were working on the PK. So, we know we have to be good, and we have to be disciplined, and if we get on the kill, we have to be good there too. We might be an underdog in a lot of these Champions League games, but we have a good team too, don’t sleep on the Giants!”