Johnny Curran, has a clear week to prepare for the visit of arch rivals, Dundee Stars, to Kirkcaldy on Saturday (19.15).
And Fife Flyers’ interim head coach he takes positives from the weekend double-header, including the performance of new signing, Charles-Antoine Paiement.
The 25-year-old Canadian forward made his debut in the narrow defeat by Coventry Blaze at Kirkcaldy last Saturday and the Quebec-born winger opened his account in the defeat at Guildford Flames 24-hours later.
The Great Britain international said: “He’s (Charles) looking good for us. Skates well, lots of skill and he will give us much-needed depth once we are at a full roster.”
The fallout from the Elite League skirmishes at the weekend means that Fife Flyers now have a 15-point gap between them and second-bottom Manchester Storm in the standings.
Fife’s failure to earn any reward from games against Coventry Blaze (a 3-1 home defeat) and at Guildford Flames (a 7-1 reverse) means they remain on six points from 26 fixtures with Storm above them on 21 points having played a game less, two of their points coming in a 4-3 road win at Dundee Stars on Saturday.
Dundee occupy the eighth and final play-off spot with 22 points from 29 starts with Glasgow Clan seventh on 24 points from 26 outings.
Playcaller Curran was disappointed at the margin of the scoreline at sixth-placed Guildford, despite leading with an early goal after 3min 13sec from Paiement from a Ryan Foss pass, and he added: “We need to start believing how good we can be.”
Curran, who is being assisted by Todd Dutiaume, a former head coach at Kirkcaldy, stressed the need to execute on the chances created and said: “I thought we deserved to be in a closer game. It just shows how fragile we are and how we still turn off at times.”
He still believes Fife have more to show as a team but stressed that changes will not happen overnight.
After Dundee’s visit on Saturday the men from The Fife Ice Arena travel to Sheffield Steelers on Sunday (16.00) for a joust against one of the big budget teams, and a side thirsting for revenge after their shock 5-3 reverse at Kirkcaldy on December 1.
The Yorkshire side, who entertain Coventry on Saturday (19.00), are third in the table with 34 points from 26 games, three adrift of second-placed Belfast Giants, who have played the same number of fixtures, and six behind long-time, pace-setters Cardiff Devils who have played 28 games to collect 40 points.
ACTION: Guildford Flames v Fife Flyers captured by John Unwin and courtesy of the Elite League
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