My Top 10 Flyers

Last year I put together a blog citing my favourite starting line-up for the Flyers as part of the 75 year anniversary. In a little bit of a re-hash and in line with the Flyers PR here is a list of my top 10 favourite players to don the gold, white and blue:

10) Defence: Kyle Horne

The guy bleeds Fife, his Father played for us, his Granddad ran the rink, he was conceived in the skate hire (probably), the Flyers and Fife Ice Arena owe the Horne family a debt of gratitude for their service over the years. A great local player, who competed on a weekly basis against the oppositions best imports in the BNL. Sadly the SNL years almost derailed his Flyers career as he moved south, first of all to Slough and then less south on to Edinburgh. Flyers move to the EIHL came at the right time and Kyle didn’t need any convincing to return home.

9&8) Forward: Davie Smith & Join Haig

Just like Ant and Dec, Smithy and Haigy were a pair, great chemistry on and off the ice. Their on-ice relationship took them to Guildford and back winning championships both here and in Surrey, where they rarely played on different lines. Off the ice they were the faces of the local element of the team and were always game for a laugh at their teammate’s expense, the nickname Todd “Green Fleece” Dutiaume springs to mind. Their names will always be synonymous with one another which has made them impossible to separate on this list.

7) Goalkeeper: Stephen Murphy

It's difficult to believe that Stephen Murphy is only now reaching the age of what is usually considered a prime netminder, but as teenager he was still the best stopper to fill the pipes at FIA in a long time. Incredibly reliable even then and prone to the odd wondersave, Stephen proved that you don't need a big import goalie to compete in the British leagues. He is one of those players that gets you out of your seat whether it was in Fife all those years ago or at the Odyssey last season, he will be remembered as one of Britain's greatest and we are lucky to have had him wear the blue, white and gold.

6) Defence: Greg Kuznik

The only player to make the list that didn't win the Grand Slam with Flyers would have been a welcome addition even on that team. Computer game fans among you may interested to know that Greg features on NHL 2001 for the Carolina Hurricanes, he's 63 overall but still.. NHL 2001! After that career achievement you may have thought it would have been downhill from there but Greg moved to Fife and won a league title in two all too short seasons. The only downside to Greg's time in Fife was that it wasn't long enough. The end of the BNL and Fife's move amateur hockey meant that "Koozy" had to move to pastures new but what a great talent he was!

5) Forward: Steven King

Over 650 games, over 250 goals and an assist total in excess of 670! Three remarkable reasons why Kingy is on this list. A simply wonderful competitor who is also one of the most humble men going. Spurned the approaches of other teams for long term job prospects and his local team. Brief cameo on Premier Sports this year hints that he could be adding broadcaster to his list of talents very soon, hopefully he makes a return to our screens next season.

4) Forward: Russell Monteith

Thirty eight powerplay goals in a season, do I have to say anymore? Not really, but I will. A truly electric player that played in one of the most successful eras in Flyers history. Having scored at over a goal a game it's fair to say that he was one of, if not the, reason Flyers were so successful at this point. Sadly, as with Kuznik he just didn't play long enough for us. Injuries and the end of his studies meant that the end of his third season with Fife would be his last. I remember him returning a few years later to play in Frank Morris' testimonial he was still a class act and the star of the show even then.

3) Defence:  Frank Morris

When a guy is known affectionately as the "Captain Fantastic" can we really leave him out of list of top Flyers? No, we can't. Frank was an extraordinary servant for the club, joining us in 1991 and playing in most seasons through to 2004/2005. Initially playing as a forward Frankie made a name for himself playing on the Flyers blue line. His leadership was key to our Grand Slam winning season and that along with his great service will have him remembered in these parts for years to come.

2) Forward: Mark Morrison

Return of the Mack... not that guy, much cooler! When a guy wins coach of the year 3 times and player of the year 3 times - and had a playing career that also included captaining Canada Junior team ahead of the great Steve Yzerman - it's almost impossible to look beyond him as one of Fife's greatest. He was the player/coach/general manager that pretty much won a trophy ever year. Without Mo I would never have become a Flyers fan, after a visit to my Cubs group in 1997 I became hooked on this great game and for that I will be eternally grateful. Thank you Mo.

1) Forward: Todd Dutiaume

If Mo got me to start going to the Flyers then "Dutes" kept me coming back. What people sometimes forget now is that when Todd arrived here in 1999 he was an elite player, one of the quickest and deadliest in front of the net. Never forget that, Todd has been an incredible servant to this club and his commitment to this club has been admirable, without him the club may have folded in 2005, but never, ever forget that at the heart of it all Todd is one of the greatest players to wear the gold, white and blue. Even last year, there were some great moments that rolled back the years, he scored a goal that guaranteed playoff hockey on a broken knee, this guy is tougher than most. He will be in Flyers folklore for the ages and after 14 years and counting, who could deny him that?

Success on a Knife Edge

Sport is a fickle business with success judged on the slightest of margins, a team can be deemed a failure by the most perplexing of moments. If sport is inherently fickle then there is no more fickle than the sports scene in Fife. This weekend both Raith Rovers and Fife Flyers will be going in to the biggest weekend of the season, Raith in the Ramsdens Cup Final at Easter Road and Fife in the Playoff weekend in Nottingham. If we are using the arbitrary methods I alluded to above, barring a remarkable result on Sunday, Raith’s season will probably be deemed a failure but undoubtedly - regardless of the coming weekend - Fife’s season will be remembered for the ages and is an incredible success.    

It’s incredible how things can change so swiftly, if we were to look back to November we would not have predicted this, momentum has played a huge part and the teams have gone through a role reversal over the last 4 months.  The attendances at Starks Park and FIA over this timeframe has reflected this remarkable change in fortunes. If we rewind back to November, do any Flyers fans think we would find ourselves in this position? Now be honest with yourself, did you really give them a chance? Come on, I’m not saying you booed them off the ice and burned your season ticket but after the game on Hogmanay in Edinburgh did you really think that you would be booking your ticket to Nottingham? If you did, then fair play to you, you clearly are more optimistic than me and I respect your positive demeanour. I thought we had a good set of players but not sure we had a team at that point.

The off-season was so promising, the signings on paper looked good, Fulton had outscored fan favourite Jason Pitton for Stockton of the ECHL a few years ago, Regan had played understudy to the great Tukka Rask for two years in the AHL and in Andy Contois we had the perfect foil to replace the playmaking ability of the departed captain from last year, Casey Haines. You know the old adage, as Ally McCoist said on FIFA 2003 for the PS2, “the game isn’t played on paper”, which simply put is the smartest thing that Ally has ever said. It’s right though and come October we would see that more and more, regularly Todd Dutiaume would say in post-match interviews “you can’t force chemistry” as someone with a Masters in this field from Heriot-Watt University I can confirm that is indeed true. For whatever reason the team wasn’t clicking, the marquee signing of Contois wasn’t looking like it was working out, Kevin Regan – perhaps because he was used to a greater level of professionalism than that in the UK game – hadn’t quite settled in yet, Justin DaCosta was injured and Matt Nickerson was well… suspended. If we were to look back to that time only Fulton and Derek Roehl would get pass marks, Fulton needed to score more but was an energetic player and a constant threat and Roehl in his second year as a pro was forging a reputation as an agitator who had the ability to score a timely goal.

The arrival of Kyle Haines and the departure of Rok Pajic steadied the ship, our defence was more stable and the moving Tim Hartung to centre would prove to be pivotal in our playoff run. Soon after, Contois would leave and a new fan favourite would arrive in the form of Ned Lukacevic. Ned’s debut was televised on Premier Sports and he must have known that the cameras were on him as he scored early on and helped the team to a dramatic win in overtime with Danny Stewart – who, while we are on the subject, had his best season as a Flyer this year, would be surprised if he has had a better Elite season – scored his 100^th EIHL goal. This victory was somewhat overshadowed by the incident with Matt Nickerson and Chris Frank, resulting in a lengthy ban for the big man. I don’t wish to go over that ground again but needless to say this had a huge effect on the form of the team in the 9 games that Matt missed. The Christmas period saw Flyers fall to the foot of the EIHL table but this is the misconception that I think we have all fallen in to, the Flyers did not make real changes in February, they tweaked a few things and we started to win but we made the change on 14^th of December by adding Lukavevic, in the next 34 games he would score 44 points, that isn’t the result of a good run of 10-15 games he settled in a started producing, the reason for me that we did not win more at the start of his time with us was that we were missing Nickerson for the first 9 games, goodness knows the mess we would have been in were he gone for the full 12 games, as was the original ban.

The role that Nickerson plays in the team is one-part Cheerleader and one-part Pantomime Villain, that’s the role that all the enforcers in the league play, we love Nickerson but hate Benny Olsson and Chris Frank, the Coventry and Braehead fans feel exactly the same way about their man. Nickerson is there to protect his team mates and is also there to get the crowd involved. In the last game of the season, it was a 1-1 game and the crowd had gone a bit flat, Flyers needed a momentum shift and Nickerson got them it. When he dropped Bergin to the floor and raised his arm aloft to his adoring public, he knew what he had done, he had lifted the crowd, lifted his team mates and he had not knocked the wind out of the Braehead’s sail that was gathering pace. I look back at that moment as the time I knew we were winning that game and heading to the playoffs. I have an uneasy relationship with the fighting hockey but will save that for another day, we needed that and “Nicker” delivered.

The run to qualify for the playoffs was nothing short of sensational, culminating in two nail-biting victories over Braehead on the final weekend, the team had clicked and played some of the best hockey seen in FIA in years. The sight of Ned Lukacevic or Jordan Fulton on the puck created the level of excitement in the arena that a young Todd Dutiaume did in 1999. The results didn’t go our way on that weekend, but come on did you really want to sneak in through the back door? Of course you didn’t you wanted to explode in and make a statement. Roll on to the next weekend a playoff game against Dundee, a lot was made with Dundee’s “great run” but they were a shadow of the team that had romped to the top of the table in the early months of the season. The return of Rory Rawlyk certainly buoyed them and he played remarkably well for a man who only has partial sight and has not played for a few months. The first leg score of 4-3 to Flyers had a lot of fans nervous but the only thing that really let Dundee in to the game was our nerves, the next night the pressure was all on them and it showed that we could handle the pressure better.

Now we find ourselves in the Finals Weekend, an unbelievable achievement so much of the credit must go to our Head Coach, Todd Dutiamue. Todd is in with the furniture and those blue seats that we got from Ibrox, he has been a long serving player and coach and while his birth certificate does say that he was born in British Columbia, he is Fife through and through. Long regarded as a legend as a player winning the Grand Slam in 2000, the playoffs in 1999 and winning the league in 2004, in the middle of all that having some serious health concerns but still playing on. He is a remarkable guy and is now very much in the legend category for what he has done as a coach. Whatever happens this coming weekend the team have exceeded all expectations and I would happily welcome them all back for next season where we do this all again, you know without the 4 month blip at the beginning. 

Top 75 Flyers

As we enter the 75th Season for the Fife Flyers it is a great opportunity for fans of the club reminisce about years gone by and past successes. Now we could argue all day about why last year marketed as our "75th Year" and this upcoming campaign our "75th Season" but do we really care? In the spirit of the promotions by the club I am going to talk through my favourite Flyers and I cannot stress this enough... I will be wrong, you won't agree with my choices but that's the game that's the fun of being a fan. If you disagree let me know let's share the knowledge of fans. You may be right the "Plumb Line" was probably exceptional, Bert Smith was perhaps the best local lad we ever had but I never saw them play so I won't insult you or them by including them on my list!

Now we have that out the way, let's get started.

Goalkeeper: Stephen Murphy

It's difficult to believe that Stephen Murphy is only now reaching the age of what is usually considered a prime netminder, but as teenager he was still the best stopper to fill the pipes at FIA in a long time.Incredibly reliable even then and prone to the odd wondersave, Stephen proved that you don't need a big import goalie to compete in the British leagues. He is one of those players that gets you out of your seat whether it was in Fife all those years ago or at the Odyssey last season, he will be remembered as one of Britain's greatest and we are lucky to have had him wear the blue, white and gold.

Defence:  Frank Morris

When a guy is known affectionately as the "Captain Fantastic" can we really leave him out of list of top Flyers? No, we can't. Frank was an extraordinary servant for the club, joining us in 1991 and playing in most seasons through to 2004/2005. Initially playing as a forward Frankie made a name for himself playing on the Flyers blue line. His leadership was key to our Grand Slam winning season and that along with his great service will have him remembered in these parts for years to come.

Defence: Greg Kuznik

The only player to make the list that didn't win the Grand Slam with Flyers would have been a welcome addition even on that team. Computer game fans among you may interested to know that Greg features on NHL 2001 for the Carolina Hurricanes, he's 63 overall but still.. NHL 2001! After that career achievement you may have thought it would have been downhill from there but Greg moved to Fife and won a league title in two all too short seasons. The only downside to Greg's time in Fife was that it wasn't long enough. The end of the BNL and Fife's move amateur hockey meant that "Koozy" had to move to pastures new but what a great talent he was!

Forward: Mark Morrison

Return of the Mack... not that guy, much cooler! When a guy wins coach of the year 3 times and player of the year 3 times - and had a playing career that also included captaining Canada Junior team ahead of the great Steve Yzerman - it's almost impossible to look beyond him as one of Fife's greatest. He was the player/coach/general manager that pretty much won a trophy ever year. Without Mo I would never have become a Flyers fan, after a visit to my Cubs group in 1997 I became hooked on this great game and for that I will be eternally grateful. Thank you Mo.

Forward: Russell Monteith

Thirty eight powerplay goals in a season, do I have to say anymore? Not really, but I will. A truly electric player that played in one of the most successful eras in Flyers history. Having scored at over a goal a game it's fair to say that he was one of, if not the, reason Flyers were so successful at this point. Sadly, as with Kuznik he just didn't play long enough for us. Injuries and the end of his studies meant that the end of his third season with Fife would be his last. I remember him returning a few years later to play in Frank Morris' testimonial he was still a class act and the star of the show even then.

Forward: Todd Dutiaume

If Mo got me to start going to the Flyers then"Dutes" kept me coming back. What people sometimes forget now is that when Todd arrived here in 1999 he was an elite player, one of the quickest and deadliest in front of the net. Never forget that, Todd has been an incredible servant to this club and his commitment to this club has been admirable, without him the club may have folded in 2005, but never, ever forget that at the heart of it all Todd is one of the greatest players to wear the gold, white and blue. Even last year, there were some great moments that rolled back the years, he scored a goal that guaranteed playoff hockey on a broken knee, this guy is tougher than most. He will be in Flyers folklore for the ages and after 14 years and counting, who could deny him that?

Well, there we go... told you I was wrong.

Ice Hockey Withdrawal

If Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year then July is the worst, don't get me wrong the heatwave we are experiencing is incredible and I have a terrible t-shirt tan just like the rest of Britain. For an ice hockey fan though this is a tough time, the EIHL finished in April so there are no games left to watch the NHL and AHL seasons have been finished for over a month, the draft is passed and the one day fire sale that is "Free Agent Frenzy" is done and only a few secondary players remain.

So now we are left with the 2 month wait until the hockey returns, what to do while we await the return of the Good Ol' Hockey Game. I've been thinking of ways to alleviate the pressure and here is "Murdoch's Top Tips" on how to survive the dreaded off-season:

1. Watch old hockey videos on YouTube: an obvious one to begin with, but much in the way a smoker uses nicotine patches and smackheads use methodone, we can survive a few weeks with just some old clips of Datsyuk dangling his opponents, Chara handing out some corporal punishment, the moves like Jagr and hours of footage of Paul Bissonette sitting on the bench. 
2. If watching old clips doesn't work for you then why not watch Australian hockey? I'm not joking, the season is in full swing and the AIHL promote themselves very well on twitter. They offer regular updates and even give links to game streams through Livestream and, for the Fifers among you, I have checked it is free, honest.
3. Watch Football: Seriously, watching just 15 minutes of any football game will remind you that you can wait 2 months to watch some real sport. In the mean time it will perhaps keep you going with the football rumours that are swirling about at the moment, for example: where will Suarez sign? can Mourinho recreate his former glories at Chelsea? and what was the point in Wayne Rooney spending £10K on hair plugs if all he's going to do is shave his head?
4. Start hanging about Farmfoods: OK, this is an odd one even I'll admit this but hear me out. There are a lot of freezers in farmfoods and the cool air that may remind you of an ice rink. Did you think I really had I a more insightful point than that? Come on! Also, if you are cheap buy Red Rooster as it's like half the price of Red Bull
5. Watch Mighty Ducks: Go on, you know you want to! Goldberg and the gang will fill the void that the hockey off season has left sooner than you say "Quack! Quack! Quack!" (but not out loud because that would be silly)
6. Play Street Hockey: Why not? We're not too old to chuck on the Bauer FX1s and get our Franklin sticks and play hockey in 1 minute intervals before frantically rushing to the pavement as someone yells "CAAAAAAARRRRRRR". What? We are too old? Nevermind.
7. Go cold turkey: One thing to remember about cold turkey is that it is not as delicious as it sounds and it is often very dry and tough.

Now it is clear to me that this list is neither exhaustive nor at all helpful but let's all just enjoy the sunshine and count down the days until hockey is back. It's not that long, I mean it's only 7 weeks until preseason starts. Wow, 7 weeks, how will we manage?