Fife Flyers’ waiting game for players kit to arrive as training camp underway

After a long summer recess, fans will get their first glimpse of a new look team when it goes head to head against Dundee Stars at Fife Ice Arena on Saturday (7:15pm) and again at Dundee Ice Arena on Sunday (7:00pm).

New coach Tom Coolen has been putting his players through their paces on and off the ice, but has had to juggled some unexpected headaches with missing kit leaving several on the sidelines. Four players are still waiting on their kit turning up after they flew into Scotland. It failed to materialise when they landed in Edinburgh, and the club is now busy tracking it down.

Coolen said: “The guys can’t just throw on someone else’s skates, they are custom made to their needs. We are working on it and waiting for the kit to arrive.”

The team was on ice twice on Wednesday as the coach looks to get everyone ready for the puck drop against Stars. The players have also been busy with sessions in the gym. They underwent fitness and medical tests at Fife College this week.

Coolen arrived in town on Saturday followed by a host of new signings all set top make their debuts this weekend.

“The most exciting day is the first day of training camp,” he said. “It was the first time I got to meet the players face to face. There’s a real buzz among them -= there are a lot of leaders and captains, and it was great to see them. I like my team.”

Coolen took his players through the systems he will deploy this season, and wants to make a good opening impression on a fan base eager to see Flyers move back up the standings after several tough post-lockdown seasons.

“Pre-season is all about getting guys on to the ice and getting some games under their belts. Although the emphasis is not on the result, we are all competitors and we want to win our first games and show the fans what we are made of - and Stars are rivals so we want to make sure we put our best foot forward.”

Coolen will look to give his whole roster ice time across this weekend and again next weekend when Flyers take on Dutch outfit, Tilburg Trappers on Saturday, September 16, and Romanian outfit CSM Brasov - complete with former Fife import Chase Schaber - on Sunday 17th.

The puck then drops on the 2023-24 EIHL season on the weekend of September 23-24 when they go head to head with rivals Glasgow Clan in the Challenge Cup - and the coach will face the challenge of decided who will be his first healthy scratches. He has 17 imports on his roster but can only dress 15.

“We will have competition within our import group,” he said.

The players will get to meet the fans for the first time at an open training session at the rink on Thursday, September 7 - and there are plenty of new faces to get to know with only netminder Shane Owen and defencemen Reece Harsh and Jonas Emmerdahl retained from last season’s roster.

Fan will also have a first opportunity to order replicas of the new strips which were launched last week