Another 3 game weekend, another 3 loses for Fife. Flyers started off a gruelling 5 day schedule, which concludes this evening at Fife Ice Arena against the Hull Stingrays. Friday night saw Fife crossing the Irish Sea to take on league leaders Belfast Giants, where unfortunately an already challenging weekend, became more difficult with 4 key players missing from their roster. Player/coach Todd Dutiaume, joined 3 other players on the sideline, and was unable to ice, instead taking up bench coach duties alongside Steven Lynch.
Friday saw the Flyers give their best performance of the weekend, albeit still going down 6-3. Steven McAlpine continued his recent good form scoring his 2nd goal of the campaign, with Mike Hamilton bagging his 9th and Matt Cohen his 4th goal.
Flyers captain Danny Stewart was pleased with the performance on Friday.
“We had a long trip over to Belfast on the Friday but when the puck dropped we came out ready to play. We have to be realistic at the moment, and when we are playing a team like Belfast, we are going to be out classed, so it’s important that we stick together as a unit and make it as difficult as we can.”
“It was great to see our Power Play unit working well on Friday as that has been something that has been hit or miss all season, but all 3 of our goals came from the Power Play which is a positive sign. Unfortunately, we also took too many penalties ourselves, and were punished on the penalty kill with four of Belfast’s goals coming from their own Power Play unit.”
Historically, Flyers would leave to return back to Fife straight after an away game, but with the fixture the following evening in Glasgow against the Braehead Clan, the team took advantage of the trip, and stayed over night in Belfast.
“Normally after a game we leave and head back up the road, which is difficult because we often don’t get in until 4 or 5am in the morning. This time though we thought it would be good to get a proper rest and good meal before we got the ferry in the morning and head straight to Glasgow for the game so we should have been nice and refreshed. Obviously though it didn’t work out quite like that.”
On the Saturday Flyers played an ever improving Braehead Clan in what was their 2nd trip to the Braehead arena of the season.
“We came out OK in the opening minutes but yet again we made 2 or 3 blatant mistakes, which as we know in this league you are punished for. What was also really disappointing about Saturday’s performance is that we just didn’t compete all night and the effort just didn’t seem to be there, the guys looked tired but that is not a good enough excuse.”
“No one is going through a harder time than us at the moment, but the coaching staff, and myself as captain, are trying to keep the players in a positive mindset, and that is certainly how we prepare for games. Whether or not a player comes in to a game with a losing mentality, well that is another matter. However, we have got to find positives from this weekend and take them in to Tuesday game against Hull Stingrays. We have got to keep things simple and make it as difficult as possible for whoever we are playing. We have 2 great netminders here, but we have got to start giving them a chance by closing players and limiting the number of shots we are facing.”
The 3rd game of the weekend saw Flyers return home and take on the league’s highest goal scoring team, the Nottingham Panthers, with Panthers taking the 2 points home after an easy 8-1 win. “We were heavily outplayed against Nottingham, and the fatigue had set in. Obviously losing Matt [Cohen] for Sunday’s game was a huge blow after he tweaked something on Saturday, but hopefully it isn’t anything too serious, and we will wait and see how he is in the morning.” Stewart confirmed.
“We competed pretty well in the opening 10 minutes against Nottingham and we were still in the game after the opening period but we didn’t come out and play enough in the 2nd period like we should have. 2 out of their first 3 opening goals were yet again from terrible mistakes.”
“We are too soft out on the ice at the moment, our opposition are getting too much time because we are not being physical enough, that is something we need to improve. If we become more physical then players won’t find that extra 2 or 3 feet of space to get their shots on goal. If we start closing down players, this is going to give Garrett a chance in nets as he isn’t facing as many shots.”
Before the start of the season, Flyers aim was to be the top team in Scotland and qualify for the post season play-offs at Nottingham’s National Ice Arena. With the top 8 teams in the league qualifying for the play offs and Flyers now 4 points adrift of Dundee, 6 away from Hull, and 7 and 11 points behind Edinburgh and Braehead respectively, are these targets still achievable?
“It is still achievable! Don’t get me wrong though, unless we pick up points from our next 5 games (Hull, Belfast, Hull, Edinburgh and Cardiff) we will have an uphill battle. We have to pick up points as often as we can to give ourselves any chance of making the play-offs.”
Danny was recently appointed captain after Jamie Wilson stepped down from the role, and he confirmed that as team captain he is doing all he can to keep the heads and morale positive.
“Morale is understandably low at the moment, it is never easy losing hockey games, however I am doing what I can to keep the guys thinking positive. We are 2 months in to the season so it is really important that we remain a close knit group. I am here to lead by example and I am very vocal. Having the experience in the league that I have, I can shed some light on what needs to happen and how we can move on from our current position, and have made myself available to the guys to ask any questions they have about anything.”
Fife Flyers return to the ice Tuesday 15th (7:30pm face-ff) when Hull Stingrays visit Fife Ice Arena, before Belfast Giants return on Saturday 19th November (7:15pm face-off).
