Match Preview - Devils Vs Flyers 8th October

This Saturday see’s the Devils make their second trip of the year to Scotland this time to take on newcomers to the league the Fife Flyers. Fife will no doubt be keen to take their first scalps in the league and the Devils will need to play a smart road game to avoid providing Fife with their first win in a similar fashion as they did with the Dundee Stars last season.

Fife Flyers are the oldest hockey club in the United Kingdom and were originally founded in 1938 playing their first game in October of that year and this season sees them makes a welcome return to the professional game. Playing out of the 3280 capacity Fife Ice Arena which has only just had plexi fitted around the board in preparation for this season’s campaign.

The Flyers have been the big fish in a series of small (ish) ponds for a long time now and have developed a winning tradition and ethos. The news that Fife will be in the EIHL and “back in the big time” this off season has reportedly created a real buzz around Kirkcaldy and hopefully the crowds and atmosphere of years gone by will see a return. Flyers fans are not realistically expecting any silverware this season, but there is an expectation that the team will be competitive.

The Flyers have stared their first Elite season with just seven Imports the rest of the team being made up of home grown players. Resisting the urge to make any reference to the magnificent seven the key signings for the Flyers look to be.

Todd Dutiaume returns as player coach, having been with the Flyers since 1998/99 season. At 38 years old and having apparently played fewer and fewer games a season over the last few seasons, it’s difficult to judge exactly how much of an impact he will have in the league as a player. His biggest impact will be as a coach. Early in his Flyers career, he was a speedy scoring winger; he possesses a strong two-way game and has a great work ethic which he is sure to instill in his side.

The flyers look to have made good use of their former coach Mark Morrison’s contacts. Morrison spent the last few seasons as head coach of the Victoria Salmon Kings in the ECHL helping the Flyers recruiting several of his ex-players in Matt Siddall and Mike Hamilton.

Forward Matt Siddall looks promising at 6’1” the 205lb forward scored 44 points in 66 games for the Victoria Salmon Kings of the ECHL last season, while racking up 164 minutes in the penalty box. Whilst Siddall will stand up for his team mates if needed he isn’t an out and out Enforcer and at Elite level could well be a potent scoring threat.

Flyers coach Todd Dutiaume said 'We are thrilled to be able to announce Matt as the latest Flyer; he comes to us with fantastic references and his game speaks for itself. He is a big strong winger who puts up numbers, plays hard and takes no nonsense. Siddall is solidly built, strong on his skates and good at protecting the puck. At 6 foot 1 inch he plays a very rough style. Matt is also very good in front of the net and banging home rebounds. '

Joining him is forward Mike Hamilton the 6 foot native of Victoria, British Colombia joins the flyers bringing a wealth of AHL and ECHL experience having played for the likes of the Chicago Wolves in the AHL and the Victoria Salmon Kings in the ECHL. Hamilton spent last season playing in Italy, where he was part of the Vipiteno Broncos team who were last season crowned champions. Hamilton recorded 54 points (27 goals + 27 assists) and 84 penalty minutes last season.

Danny Stewart brings to the Flyers a wealth of experience EIHL experience after spells with the Newcastle Vipers as player coach and prior to that spent several seasons with the Coventry Blaze. With his gritty style he’s a solid 2nd or 3rd liner who can also play on D, he plays hard and will contribute on scoring. During his time playing in the UK Danny has played 259 games scoring 195 points (58 goals + 137 assists) and 619 penalty minutes.

Flyers player/coach Todd Dutiaume had this to say about the former Newcastle Vipers Coach.

"Danny has a great reputation in this country and his experience on and off the ice will be invaluable to the club. He is renowned as being a big team guy, can play forward and defense and plays hard-expect big things from Danny this season."

Matt Cohen joins the Flyers on Defence straight from the DEL having spent the bulk of his career serving in both the ECHL and the AHL having iced with Trenton Titans and Lowell Devils, before he made the move to Europe last season to play in one of Europe's top leagues in the DEL for the Hamburg Freezers. Matt is a left-handed offensive d-man who’s a good passer of the puck and good on transitional play.

Joining Cohen on the blue line is Latvian player Aigars Brencis. Who joins from the flyers from the Latvian Hawks of the Irish Ice Hockey league where he was player coach. Brencis brings a wealth of experience in various Eastern European leagues but joins the Flyers initially on a trial basis.

Flyers round out their Import Roster with Canadian net minder Garrett Zemlak. Who has experience playing with Matt Siddall’s former team Gwinnet Gladiators of the ECHL. Zemlak spent last season playing with 5 different ECHL teams before finishing the season with Gwinnett Gladiators. Garrett has been seen as a huge talent after a very impressive WHL career with Saskatoon Blades and Prince Albert Raiders.

Fife have completed their roster with home grown talent from their strong youth development program most of these players are unknown quantities at Elite level aside from Kirkcaldy native defenseman Kyle Horne, who has spent the last 5 seasons playing for the Edinburgh Capitals but signed for  the Flyers, his home town where he started his Hockey career, shortly after they announced they were joining the Elite, Horne brings valuable EIHL experience and a solid all-round game to the Flyers’ blue line.

Player/Coach Todd Dutiaume had this to say on the return of Kyle Horne -

"As far as Kyle, what can I say, he was one of the first guys I thought of when we confirmed we were going up; I've known Kyle since the 99 season and he has been a big part of whatever team he has played on since. I consider Kyle to be one of the best defenseman in the country and he will be relied on heavily this season."

Much of Fife’s season will lay in the hands of their home grown players and how well they step up to and integrate into the North American style that the league plays. Home grown forwards Stephen Gunn, Kris Phillips, Iain Bowie who's formally played for the Edinburgh Capitals, Josh Scoon, Steven McAlpine, Jamie Wilson, Andrew Samuel all hail from Kirkcaldy and Marc Fowley from Ayrshire, Scotland and on Defence the Flyers have Willie Nicolson, Thomas Muir and Chris Wands all from Kirkcaldy.

Getting the right balance of Imports and home grown guys on each line will be for my mind the coach’s biggest challenge of the season. Whilst there home Grown players are a massive asset they will take time to adjust to the Elite league.

This season I think Fife may well suffer from the decision to only bring in seven imports as they will struggle if any of their imports are out with Injury. They also look to lack great depth in scoring and an out and out sniper. While Siddall will stand up for his team mates he isn’t an out and out enforcer, he needs to be on the ice and not in the box, Fife may well suffer only having one person in this role.  They do of course still have the option to bolster the squad as needed if the right players become available.

It’s been a tough start in the Elite league for the Flyers losing all of their first six league games and only registering one win to date in their Challenge cup group. Whilst I can’t see the Flyers setting the league on fire this season I can see that they have the makings of being real contenders at the Elite level and if they keep bringing on their local players will have a great platform to play from in seasons to come.

Last weekend Fife were in action against the Belfast Giants on Saturday where they took the early lead and lead by a goal at the end of the first before crumbling and eventually losing out 7 – 2 to the “diamond encrusted” Giants. Scoring from the Flyers came from Ian Bowie and a power play goal from Blue liner Matt Cohen.

Sunday saw the Flyers take on the injury plagued Steelers in a rather one sided affair as the Steelers romped home 5 – 0 against the Flyers who held the game scoreless for the first fifteen minutes but without starting net minder Garrett Zemlak who is out injured after an incident with Adam Keefe that saw him run and apparently kneed to the head, the end result was a bit of a formality really.

The Devils had mixed fortunes last weekend losing out to the Braehead Clan on the road 3 -1 with the single goal for the Devils coming from winger Max Birbraer and then turning this result around at home the next day winning 5 - 2 with Goals coming from across the squad as Jeff Pierce scored 2, Captain Stuuu opened his account for the season with a goal and another 2 scored from the blue line with both Gerard Adams and Mark Richardson netting.

For full details of these games I’d suggest checking out Devils fan Holly Acott’s blog which has a write up of both games here.  HTTP://THEWORLDOFSPORTBYATEENGIRL.BLOGSPOT.COM/

The Devils struggled early in the game last Saturday after a long and delayed bus journey to Braehead and this may well again play a factor in Saturdays game in Fife as the Devils will likely travel up on the day. The trip to Braehead was a 23 hour round trip and Fife is a little further we may see some ill effects from this on Sunday when the Devils take on the Steelers in Cardiff.

Both teams have some injury question marks with both Flyers goalie Garrett Zemlak and Devils centre Scott Matzka not icing on Sunday after taking knocks to the head. From comments made by Neil Francis Matzka was only rested as a precaution, I am not aware of the extent of the injury to the Fife goalie but hopefully both players will be declared fit for this weekend’s games.

We will try our best to run the “Childish and amazingly Biased” Match Night Live service for this game, providing we can get volunteers to text us updates for the game that is, at the usual location of www.theinferno.co.uk/mnl  if you'd like to help out and are heading up or you’re a Flyers fan who’d like the eternal gratitude of a large group of Devils fans please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com. Should anything go wrong on the night we will move coverage over to Twitter for updates so follow us there on @InfernoMNL

And don’t forget if you’re looking for somewhere to have a pint and a bite to eat in a Hockey friendly pub the Pilot in Penarth will be offering discount bar meals before the game and will be open afterwards for post-match drinks, directions to the pub can be found here - http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/where-to-eatdrink/