Fife Flyers are 2 months in to their inaugural Rapid Solicitors Elite Ice Hockey League campaign and player/coach Todd Dutiaume has taken some time to reflect on those opening 2 months. The opening month of the season saw Fife taking on Coventry (twice), Nottingham, Sheffield and Belfast (twice) who Dutiaume has described all 4 sides as title challengers.
“The whole month of September was a really difficult start to our first Elite League campaign; we were facing the top 4 sides in the league so it was always going to be difficult to get points on the board from these games.
“All of October though we had set ourselves a target for points and it has been really disappointing not to have achieved that. This past month should have been a time when we were getting points on the board, but injuries have compounded us and that hasn’t turned out to be the case.” Dutiaume said.
“At the beginning of the month we found ourselves only a point of the play-off position, but now at the end of October we find ourselves a little bit adrift of the other teams we are competing against for the play-off spots.
“We can’t let the gap get too big in the league table otherwise it will be an uphill battle for the rest of the entire season. Hopefully with our new import we hope to finalise this week, and possibly another 2 defencemen then we will become a team that can really push for the play-offs and compete against everyone in this league.”
Dutiaume is referring to a new forward being brought in to the team, with all paperwork still to be finalised no further details will be announced at this moment in time.
“Defence, defence, defence. That is the one area that we really need to work on! There are 2 import d-men on the top of my wish list, we need them in so we can help out Cohen and Horne in ‘d’ but also to help the development of Tommy [Muir], Willie [Nicolson] and Wando [Chris Wands]. I have been nagging the directors about it and hopefully we can bring some more guys in. We have guys on our team who can put the puck in the back of the net, but we need to build from the back.”
“Matt Siddall is showing he has got a good understanding of the league now and has been out their putting in some hard shifts in and grinding it out for the whole game. He bagged himself 4 goals at the weekend and is a leader on and off the ice. I am sure the fans see why we brought him to Fife. If we can give him the support we will get even more out of him. Matt never stops going, he plays right up to the buzzer, and if we concede a goal he is straight out there after it getting us back in the game with a goal himself.”
Fife Flyers British contingent have made the step up with the team from the Northern Ice Hockey League to the Rapid Solicitors Elite Ice Hockey League and hasn’t been completely happy with how they have coped with the transition but knows they still have a lot of learning to do.
“We have seen a lot of positives from the local guys, during the summer we identified the players that we wanted to make the step up and we felt would be able to make that step up. Some of the boys have shown they are good enough to play full time, but some haven’t. It is great that the guys have this opportunity and they will benefit greatly from playing with imports. They are still learning and have shown loyalty to this team and it is great that we can offer the same loyalty too. They are never going to give up and are proud to be playing for the team.” Dutiaume explained.
“When I was approached about taking the team in to the Elite League, I was fully aware at the difficult position we would find ourselves in but that we would be able to have a competitive team. We had an extremely difficult start to the season and so far only have the one win. I have always been looking to improve the team and push forward and even if we started off with a full quota I knew it would be difficult, never mind playing under strength.
“Up until now we have been hanging in there and I have been waiting for the green light to bring in some new guys to get us up to the full compliment, and I hope to have a new player in for this weekend, paperwork dependant.
“Personally I am a competitive guy, I always want to win so I have found this period difficult to take, but I was never going to just go with the motions, I want to take this team to the next level but also understand that the club have a budget to work with. We are lucky in that we have owners who are going to look after the best interests of the organisation and are in this for the long term and will not let the club suffer.”
Fife Flyers return to home ice this week when Hull Stingrays visit Fife Ice Arena on Saturday 29th October, face-off 7:15pm.
