Stockton: Team chemistry behind Fife Flyers good start

Flyers have won six out of six in the Gardiner Conference and are also making an impact in the overall Elite League standings, sitting just five points off second place with games in hand.

A feature of the campaign so far has been the consistency within the team set-up, with the same three forward lines rolling since day one, aside from the occasional injury absence.

“Sometimes guys find that instant chemistry,” Stockton told the Press.

“When you’re having success, as the saying goes, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

“As long as we’re playing well and winning games there’s no real point in switching stuff around.

“When you get to know your line mates tendencies and what they are going to do in different situations, you get into a comfort level with them, already knowing where they are going to be, instead of having to keep talking about things.

“It’s definitely helped build that chemisty and it’s good for us that it’s been working.”

Stockton’s line mates are James Isaacs and Carlo Finucci, and between them they generated six of the 11 goals scored against Edinburgh Capitals over the weekend, with Stockton grabbing a double on Saturday, and Finucci firing a hat-trick in Murrayfield on Sunday.

“It was nice to chip in and I thought our line played pretty well this weekend,” Stockton said.

“It’s aways nice to produce and help the team in any way you can.

“Since I’ve been back from injury the line hasn’t always been producing points in every game but we’re a hard-working line and we try to chip in where we can and get some energy going.

“We’ve got some skill but we’re also not afraid to get pucks deep and grind out down low. It’s a good combination for us for sure.

“It’s a nice breath of fresh air when you get something to show for your efforts, and I think we’re well deserving of producing and having the weekend that we did.

“Besides winning a game one of best feelings you can have as a hockey player is scoring a goal, so it’s rewarding.”

After missing almost all of last season with a knee injury, and then picking up a shoulder injury in pre-season, Stockton is simply enjoying getting an extended run of games under his belt.

“When you miss so much time it takes a while to get back,” he said.

“When the preseason injury happened it was another step back, but I feel like I’ve taken a couple of steps forward, and I’m getting back to where my game was before.”

Flyers have made their best ever start to an EIHL season and Stockton, now in his third campaign in Fife, believes the current team has the potential to lift a trophy.

“We’re putting ourselves in a good position early in the season to be where we want to be at the end of the year,” he said. “It’s still early, but there’s no reason why we should feel that we can’t accomplish something this year.

“We still take it week by week and game by game and if we keep doing what we have been, the potential is there to have good results at the end of the year.”