Flyers in Pre-season

Aalborg’s visit marks the 191^st and 192^nd games since Fife Flyers’ move in to the Elite League, so far the Flyers have an all-time record of 68-106-1-15 across all competitions (league, challenge cup, playoffs and pre-season). Flyers hold a 2-3-1 record in pre-season, with all three losses coming at the hands of the Dundee Stars. The Stars also hold the distinction of being the only team to tie with the Flyers in the Elite era with a 4-4 draw in the pre-season of 2011 after an inaugural 6-1 defeat the previous night. The other losses were suffered at the start of the 2013-14 season where Dundee bested Fife 4-3 in Kirkcaldy before winning 7-2 the following night on the other side of the Tay. Fortunes would fair differently as the season progressed though, Fife held a league and cup record of 5-5-0 with the Taysiders before getting the better of them in the playoffs with a resounding 8-4 two-legged victory, which only serves to show that nothing is decided after pre-season games.

Fife’s victories in pre-season came on the eve of the 2012-13 season with wins in the Autumn Cup competition, a 2-1 result against rivals Edinburgh Capitals was then followed by a 7-3 final victory over the Braehead Clan. Flyers were lead to victory by newly acquired Jason Pitton who scored 4 goals only to discover they were not counted toward EIHL season totals. The Autumn Cup still serves as the only silverware the Flyers have won in this era… so far. 

Summer Dreams

For all sports fans the off-season is the purest of all times, there is no competition and is a time that supporters can let their dreams roam. The best laid plans can be made and it's going to be long time before any of these can dispelled entirely. During the summer months the football transfer market reigns supreme; Where will Arturo Vidal be playing come September? Who is next out of the door at Manchester United? How will Liverpool survive without Luis Suarez? It makes for great stories and even greater excitement, all over the UK fans of ages are using scrap bits of paper playing with the various formations that no matter how many times you try still add up to ten outfield players and a goalie (4-4-2, 4-3-3, 3-5-2... it's much of a muchness), but would football fans have it any other way? As described by Nooruddean Choudry (@beardedgenius) on the FourFourTwo Website it's a huge part of the journalist game and is under an immense amount of scrutiny. Ice hockey in the UK is no different and each year a seemingly better and better standard of player joins the Elite League and the EPL (in the case of the Telford Tigers).

What I wish to discuss is how do we know that our team has signed a better player? How do we know for certain that our team has improved by looking at a stat sheet? I must admit that I love stats as much as any hockey fan, Internet Hockey Database and Elite Prospects are two of my most visited websites but do these websites offer the full picture? No, of course they don't, it's impossible for them to do so. When your team signs these players there are multiple things that need to be considered:

What league did the new player play in last year?

If a guy played 9 games in the NHL 7 years ago that's impressive, but why isn't he still playing there? If the player played any length of time in the AHL, ECHL or CHL they will be more than capable of dealing with the pace of the game, bear in mind that in North America they do play on a smaller ice pad so that could take some time for the player adapt to the wider rink and their production could suffer based on previous years. If the player has played in Europe then you need to look at the league that they played at last year, the likelihood of signing anyone from Finland, Sweden, Russia or the Czech Republic is not high but if your team nab someone from these leagues then this would likley be an excellent signing. In all reality you would be likely to get players from Norway, Denmark, Italy and France (amongst others), the players from this league are familiar with the larger ice pad but may not be familiar with the typical North Amercan style of play that most teams in the UK play with the exception of Edinburgh. A perfect example of this would be Andy Contois, who joined the Fife Flyers last August with top billing, having put up 81 points in 77 games with Rødovre in Denmark over the previous two years, for whatever reason it didn't work. During his spell with Fife, Head Coach Todd Dutiaume was quoted multiple times on Flyers TV as saying, "you can't force chemistry" this was never aimed at anyone in particular but on paper a number of good forwards can ultimately produce no offence when thrust in to a system and team with zero or very little experience of either. The only clear indication of what type of player you are signing may be if they played in the UK last year. Coventry Blaze have taken on Rory Rawlyk from Dundee Stars, they know that they are getting a mobile defenseman who can eat minutes with an insatiable hunger and produce points dutifully from the blueline. Dundee in turn have added both Chris Blight, Brad Plumton and Shane Lust, all of whom have the profited from at least a years experience in the EIHL and will no doubt be huge for any success that Jeff Hutchins and Dundee have this year. Additionally, Hutchins has also signed Jade Galbraith the former Nottingham and Braehead forward, there is no doubt that a fully fit Galbraith will light up the Elite League this year and is the equivalent of a recruitment no-brainer.

How many points did they put up last year?

Once we have considered the league that the new player played in last year we then have to consider how many points they put up last year, and by extension the last 3-4 years. Playing at the AHL is an incredible level but is their production a result of a restricted role or minutes, or is this due to the fact that their style of play is not suited to a place on the scoring lines? Very few teams can afford you use a roster place for an import who is going to play an agitator/grinding role, the obvious example being Adam Keefe who brings a great leadership role at Belfast, also not every team has the luxury of a player like Colin Shields infiltrating the import-laden top scoring lines and an import standard netminder in Stephen Murphy. There are obviously other examples but in essence imports need to be the big producers in the UK league. A perfect example of this is Zach Fitzgerald who joined Braehead Clan this summer as an Assistant Coach/Player, Fitzgerald has played 447 games in the AHL, with 1741 PIMs along the way, it's of little doubt that he is player that can take care of himself and his team mates but it was interesting what he said when he joined:

“My offensively stats are pretty minimal because of my roles in my previous teams, but I feel I have something to offer in that department."

I admire him for saying this, while we like a ruck in our hockey games we prefer it to be with players that can play the game well, but with 49 points total in those 447 games and just 2 combined in the last two seasons, how truthful can this be? Equally, we can't write players off too soon, Dennis Rix newly added to the Edinburgh Capitals scored 33 points for Michigan Tech over 149 games but playing in the NCAA is a completely different hockey system, players get what I always call an "education in hockey" they get taught how to play a two-game and have a defense-first mentality, don't believe me? Just watch Mighty Ducks 3.Alternatively, look at a player like Riley Sheahan, in his final year with Notre Dame he put up 25 points in 37 games, last year he put up 24 points in 42 games with the Detroit Red Wings is the college game as difficult to play as the NHL? Of course not, it's just a completely different style of play to most leagues out there.

Have they played with any of your players before?

This may seem like an obvious one as a quick look at the rosters from previous seasons may suggest that players played together but don't automatically assume this. If you look at the stats from a previous year and see that one of your players was top 3 in scoring and a new signing was in the top 3 on the same team then it may be fair to assume that they at least have some experience playing together, such as the case with Bobby Chaumont and Chris Auger at Fort Wayne Comets in 2011/2012. This is highlighted by the signing today of Mike Kompon to the Belfast Giants, he has been earmarked by Steve Thornton as a first line centre, and on the strength of his numbers you can see why, he is also seen as the perfect foil for the Giants to get the best out of Kevin Saurette. This has lead a few Giants fans to fall in to a common mistake citing that they have played together, it is correct that in 2005-06 they were both with the Reading Royals of the ECHL where Kompon scored 56 points in 42 games, but given the Saurette only played 3 games and scored 1 goal, the success or failure of there time together can not be measured, indeed given that Kompon split time between Reading and the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL, without looking at gamesheets and then game tape there is no evidence whatsoever that they played any time together, apart from the occasional practice.

Are there any scouting reports online about the new players?

As we have seen above, stats only show part of the picture, if you can get any scouting reports on then it may be possible to paint a better picture of the player you are getting. If the player was drafted by an NHL team there should be a pretty detailed file on him somewhere, especially from his draft year, if he wasn't drafted it may be worth going to a forum for their last team. As a fraternity hockey fans are usually honest, while there may be reasons why they are happy/sad a player is leaving they will give you an honest assessment of the player in question. The new addition to the Nottingham Panthers, Nathan Robinson was acquired by the Red Wings in 2002 so by visiting redwingscentral.com it can be seen that the player is "A phenomenal skater who can accelerate in a heartbeat" but also is "Prone to giveaways" as he hasn't been part of the NHL system for some years these observations may be a tad out of date but they allow us to flesh out the picture we can have of the player. A website like Hockey's Future is an invaluable source of this information and has a report on a number of the EIHLs new recruits: Chris Auger, Riley Emmerson and Colby Cohen.

I truly hope that this has not come across as a giant rant as that simply was not the intention, I had not just wanted to highlight that while the off-season is an incredible time of the year it is not necessarily the absolute and players that may not have impressed could have an incredible year, whereas players who can't be failures may just be so. With all teams in the EIHL strengthening we have the prospect of the best season yet and with the moves that every team has made we can all go in to September with huge optimism, just remember the season isn't won in August.

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.