Fife Flyers success-starved fans have been told that changes will be made to improve their club which finished in last place in the Premier Sports Elite League after an unhappy season.
Jeff Hutchins (picgtured), Fife’s Edinburgh-based assistant coach, made the promise after another Elite League defeat, this time at home to Scottish rivals Glasgow Clan.
The 4-3 reverse brought the curtain down on a season in which Britain’s oldest professional ice hockey club finished bottom of the ten-strong table.
Fife, sponsored by UNISON Fife Health Branch, only collected only 37 points from 54 league games, scoring only 122 goals, the worst total in the division, and letting in 191, tied with Nottingham Panthers, who finished fourth, as the second worst record in the table. Only Manchester Storm, who were ninth, one place above Fife, had a worst goals against record, shipping 210.
Fife won only 12 games in regulation and four in a shootout or in overtime and lost 33 in regulation and lost five either in overtime or a shootout.
East Coast neighbours, Dundee Stars, battled to seventh spot in the league with 53 points from 54 games, winning 19 in regulation and six in overtime or shootout. For the record, Stars scored 160 goals and let in 185 and finished their regular season on a high with a dramatic 4-3 come from behind win after overtime at Coventry Blaze.
Glasgow Clan, Fife’s opponents on Sunday, started six weeks behind everybody else but finished sixth. They also finished on 53 points winning 21 games in regulation and two in a shootout our overtime scoring 150 goals and letting in 182, including the three shipped at Kirkcaldy in a narrow 4-3 win after being 2-1 behind after the first session. The sides blanked the middle period but Clan won the third 3-1 to take the points.
Canadian-born Hutchins confirmed that the coaching team were happy with the effort shown by the players in the narrow defeat to Clan but added: “The perseverance to come back and push at the end was great.
“It would have been good to get the win, but a good way to finish up (for the season).”
Experienced news, business, arts, sport and travel journalist. Food critic and managing editor of a well-established food and travel website. Also a magazine editor of publications with circulations of up to 200,000 and managing director of a long-established PR/marketing company with a string of blue-chip clients in its CV. Former communications lecturer at a Scottish university and social media specialist for a string of successful and busy SMEs.
