Fife Flyers face shake-up after pointless weekend

One win in five starts, crowds declining, the first jeers from the stands, and a horror show 10-3 home loss to Sheffield Steelers – and they still have Belfast Giants to come on Wednesday before the calendar flips over to November.

The weekend may have delivered better performances, but no points, Flyers going down 4-3 in Nottingham on Saturday and, rather harshly 4-1 at home to Steelers tonight.

After a few rocky weekends, the fans and team were back on the same page.

The players dug deeper, the fans stood behind them, but the bottom line is a shake-up is needed to inject an edge into this team.

Todd Dutiaume, head coach, effectively fired a warning shot across the dressing-room for the first time as he hinted at moves after another defeat at the hands of Sheffield.

The ultimate decision rests with the board, but there is absolutely no doubt the fans want to see a spark via new faces to re-ignite hockey nights. For them it is not ‘if’ but ‘when.’... and for many the time is now. Action has to follow words.

While they appreciated what they saw against Steelers, particularly in the second period, ultimately, this team is coming up short too often.

Flyers had one short-handed goal to show for 37 shots on Steelers’ netminder Tomas Duba who was a solid presence between the pipes.

They had opportunities on the powerplay as the refs dished out a host of soft penalties to turn this into a rather scrappy game but finished 0/7.

Dutiaume described the specialist unit as “ice cold” and suggested the personnel may change.

They also gave Robert Dowd – a player in red hot form – too much time on the puck for his two goals, the first coming on the powerplay at 4:21, with his second effectively blowing this gamed wide open at 46:01.

Carlo Finucci’s 22nd minute short handed strike after a glorious steal by Paul Crowder raised the atmosphere, and Flyers certainly went at Steelers with real determination.

But Nikolai Lemtyugov’s strike barely one minute into the third period made it 2-1 – his strength on the puck was impressive – and Dowd’s delightful move across the net for 3-1 just five minutes later saw this game turn away from them.

It was clear Sheffield wanted a fourth to seal the deal and it came when Lemtyugov hit the empty net in the dying seconds.

Dutiaume said the result was “extremely disappointing” and that the mood in the dressing-room was “incredibly low right now.”

“A couple of things are plaguing the team right now,” he said.

“We count on individuals for offensive production. That has dropped drastically.

“We are being punished for individual errors. The goals tonight were the result of individual guys missing their assignments.”