Jamie Russell explained that Fife Flyers bosses did all they could to secure the visas for their new big National Hockey League (NHL) signings before handing the paperwork to the powers that be.
Now, the head coach is keeping his fingers crossed that David Booth and Milan Lucic can make their debuts for Flyers at Belfast Giants in the Elite League on Friday (face-off 19.00).
Booth and Lucic sat out Saturday’s home defeat to Glasgow Clan and Russell (pictured on the bench by Scott Wiggins) revealed that similar applications from several other clubs were also held up.
However, he expects the red tape to be cleared ahead of the Boxing Day fixture. If not, he hopes the two former National Hockey League (NHL) signings will make their debut at The Fife Ice Arena on Sunday (15.00), also against Giants, the only scheduled game on the card.
If they are not cleared then they will not make the trip across the Irish Sea.
The newcomers were expected on the ice yesterday (TUES), working with their new team-mates, and their possible inclusion, and the return from injury of Canadian winger, Justin Ducharme, could allow Russell the luxury of going with four lines at Belfast who thrashed Dundee Stars 7-1 in the SSE Arena, Belfast, on Sunday in front of a crowd of 7,183.
A 4-1 middle session did the damage after Giants led 2-0 after the first 20 minutes, and Belfast, one of the league heavyweights, outshot Stars 47-25 during the 60 minutes.
Basingstoke-born centre ice Scott Conway destroyed Dundee with a four-goal salvo, allowing the Northern Ireland-based combine to consolidate fourth spot in the ten-strong table with 27 points from 18 games. Fife prop up the rest with eight points from 22 starts.
Russell was pleased that his men responded on Saturday, cutting down the number of shots against, and he added: “The areas we wanted to tighten up were much better.”
His men, he said, defended better, were better up front, and boxed-out better, and he added: “It would have been nice to have capitalised at the end there, we hit a post.”
There was, however, a big swing on momentum with the scoreline at 1-1 deep in the middle session.
Fife scored after 35min 56sec but the goal was disallowed after review, officials believing Flyers used a foot/skate in what they called “a distinct kicking motion”.
Clan then scored after 39min 10sec for 2-1 and Russell said: “We scored, it was reviewed, disallowed, and, they score. Instead of going up 2-1 we go in 2-1 down, so that was a big swing.”
Looking ahead, Russell wants his men to put that behind them and move on, and he is thankful that Flyers have a day between games this weekend which starts with a 6am departure from Kirkcaldy en route to the ferry to Belfast on Friday.
Russell was also pleased with Ducharme’s comeback last weekend in the Clan double-header but he acknowledged that the Canadian forward was a little “rusty” after his injury lay-off. He will have benefited from the games.
Fife were in both games, earning a point in the 5-4 overtime defeat at Braehead despite having a short bench, and only being edged 2-1 on Saturday, with the NHL duo believing strongly that Fife are “not far away”.
