Fife Flyers have an injury-hit squad for their Challenge Cup double-header this weekend with Dundee Stars.
American forward Matt Reber and former Great Britain defenceman Kyle Horne are sidelined with concussion after colliding with each other in a freak accident in the Elite League home clash with Sheffield Steelers last Saturday.
The pair missed Sunday’s demolition at red-hot Sheffield on Sunday and sit out again along with defenceman Chris Wands, who has a shoulder problem.
Fife associate player-coach Danny Stewart is fit despite a crunching hit by Steelers’ Mark Thomas in Saturday’s 5-4 shootout defeat.
Fife were training last night and so missed the chance to watch Dundee in their Elite League clash with Coventry Blaze.
But Stewart is more concerned about how Flyers perform, particularly in the first game at Kirkcaldy on Saturday night.
The Canadian said: “Sure, we’re make the guys aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the Dundee squad.
“We’ve not watched Dundee this season. Once we get into the season we’ll know more about their power play and their systems but it is important we focus on ourselves.
“Of course, winning on Saturday would be good as that takes us into Sunday with a positive but we know that Dundee have some big guys.
“The loss of Jade Galbraith (who was not granted a visa to come to Scotland) is a blow to them offensively and (Rob) Ricci could be out as well. He’s not played this season because of injury and we’ve been monitoring that.
“That means a loss of two big guys offensively but we’re down on players with Kyle (Horne), Matt (Reber) and Chris (Wands) out. Reber skates really well and loves to have ice time.”
Stewart stressed: “The guys will have to step-up to cover but they are all determined to do a job for us over the weekend.
“We’ve been performing well and playing good hockey. We lost narrowly to Coventry and went to a shoot-out against Sheffield last Saturday.
“Last Sunday at Sheffield was a bad day at the office but that is behind us and I think the fans know that.
“We’ve been providing good entertainment and we are looking to get off to a good start this weekend at home.”
Stars’ unhappy start to the season continued last night with a disappointing 2-1 home defeat at the hands of pace-setters Coventry Blaze.
The victory opened up a four-point gap over reigning league champions Belfast Giants, who have played two games less.
It was achieved by goals in the first and second periods of a tense struggle at the Dundee Ice Arena.
Stars pulled one back in the final session but the defeat their fifth straight loss in all competitions was a blow to Stars player-coach Jeff Hutchins, who believed his men could defeat the Midlands outfit.
Stars now travel to Kirkcaldy in the Challenge Cup Group A with Hutchins looking for an improvement.
Last night Stars, who are now second-bottom in the Elite league, went behind after 14 minutes when Canadian defenceman Mark Smith netted.
The Dundee side were 2-0 down when Great Britain under-21 international Ross Venus scored 21 minutes later.
Stars powered back into the contest when marksman Shane Lust netted his second goal since joining Dundee from Braehead Clan.
That set up a grandstand finish but Stars failed to find the net again.