Steelers start their 2015-16 Elite League season campaign on Saturday night. The team make the lengthy bus ride to Tayside and the Dundee Ice Arena. Lying in wait are former player and a recent assistant coach, Marc LeFebvre, and his newly assembled Stars team. It's again a much changed Stars line up we will face, and we will be hoping we are the ones getting off to a winning start.
Helping FSB set the scene for the game is Stars supporter and match night commentator for @DundeeStarslive, Dave Sweetin.
FSB: How would you describe last season for the Stars?
DS: Last season was, quite simply, a disaster for the Stars. Bottom of the League, bottom of the Conference, lost some decent players along the way and then, to top it off, lost our Coach at the end of the season. And yet, it actually didn’t start off that badly.
We were looking like real contenders on paper with a Playoff winning Captain in Chris Blight, a League MVP and 100 points a season scorer in Jade Galbraith. Challenge Cup winner, Matt Ryan, had signed from the Panthers and had a wealth of Euro experience, as Assistant Coach and looked excellent in his first few games. We’d also signed 6”5’ forward, John Mitchell, who had a pretty solid AHL career behind playing in 193 games over 4 seasons with the Syracuse Crunch, the Norfolk Admirals, the Hershey Bears and the Portland Pirates. Kelly Cup winning D Man, Kevin Quick, came highly recommended from the South Carolina Stingrays where he captained the team in the ECHL for 2 seasons having also played 176 AHL games, mostly for the Norfolk Admirals.
These were all promising signs before the season started and there was plenty optimism around the D.I.A following our Gardiner Conference winning season the year before. This looked like a better team. In preseason we beat Italian league side Asiago, who went on to win the Italian League last season. We did well against Edinburgh in pre-season games and all in all things were looking fine for the season ahead.
Then the season started and things seemed to unravel fairly quickly. Jade Galbraith didn’t arrive which was a huge blow as he was probably going to be our leading points scorer. We lost Matt Ryan and John Mitchell fairly early in the season which further depleted our roster. We lost our first 5 games of the season then had narrow victories over the Flyers and Capitals before losing to the Clan and, despite claims that it was early in the season or Challenge Cup games only, we never seemed to get out of the rut and really struggled most weeks to get a result.
Along the way we had some heavy losses, one of which against the Steelers 11-1 which gave the Steelers their 3rd highest winning margin since 2000. Another against Belfast 9-3. We seemed to incur more than our fair share of injuries along the way which didn’t help. Chris Blight and Shane Lust were out for some weeks which left us very short benched and really struggling against the bigger rostered teams. We did get the odd result. The 3-2 win over the Panthers sticks out in my mind but they were a rarity and it became obvious that, despite what we looked like on paper, on the ice it wasn’t working.
Then, at the end of the season, the owners were looking to change things and had some ideas on what they wanted to alter or improve on. Unfortunately, Jeff Hutchins couldn’t commit to them and, after 4 seasons, they decided by mutual agreement to go their separate ways. Jeff has moved to pastures new and is now coaching in China with the China Dragon in the Asia League.
The owners then set about making some changes on and off the ice. These were arguably needed as there were some very upset fans and I think it was a great decision to look at the club top to bottom and just review everything. They set up fan groups to consult on some areas, for example social media, website development and the game night experience. They also hired a new Coach and brought Marc LeFebvre in.
FSB: Marc LeFebvre has come in as your new coach. Bearing in mind he was fired by Blaze, smart move for you or stupid?
DS: The Stars bringing in a full time Coach as opposed to a Player Coach was a bit of a surprise. Purely for budgetary reasons, I figured we would always go with a Player Coach but, as everything was up for review, I think the Wards decided to go in this different direction to try and make a real difference this season.
Things may have ended badly in Coventry for Marc but the team he built went on to win the Playoffs. I’m not sure what went on behind the scenes there but Marc’s recruitment looked excellent and he will get the chance in Dundee to put what went on in Coventry behind him and prove his detractors wrong. I think a Coach with a point to prove could deliver a good season for the Stars and was a smart move to bring someone in who will have that extra bit of desire to the job done.
The early signs certainly look good. Any team that has the ability to bounce back and win after being behind surely has a good morale and work ethic. We may have an issue with consistency but Marc said after the win over Braehead last weekend that he was working on that. As an ex Steeler, I’m sure he will be keen to get something on Saturday and we look to up our game against the bigger teams so I’m hoping we can do the same against Sheffield this weekend.
FSB: You've also acquired Doug Clarkson this season. Did that come as a surprise?
DS: In a word, yes. I remember thinking “Wow” when that got announced, “That’s a huge signing for Dundee”. Doug was in a great Cardiff team last year. I remember him scoring against us last season when Cardiff came up to the D.I.A and just played really well. He isn’t just there for his size either. 20 goals and 23 assists last season at the Devils prove that he has that scoring ability and already this season he’s on more than a point per game average.
His line with John Dolan and our Captain, Riley Wetmore, has generated almost the same points as our top line of Dickenson, Chaumont and Leinweber so after initially thinking he was coming in as an enforcer, he’s now shown that he could well end up a key point scorer for the team and also that he is a strong team leader both on and off the ice.
FSB: You had an incredible season in 2014, would you say this is the best moment as a Stars fan so far?
DS: Absolutely. That season was incredible. We didn’t really have any big name players. Most had come in reasonably early in their pro careers and I’m not sure there were that many high expectations of the team at the start of the season.
The stand out was obviously Dan Bakala in goal who went home at the end of the season with a suitcase full of awards from the Stars and the League after achieving a GAA of 2.62 and a save percentage of 92.7. But other stand outs for me were Nikita Kashirsky Nico Sacchetti and Jerry Pollastrone whose link up play was sublime to watch. I remember a belter against the Stingrays where Kashirsky flew up the left wing leaving defencemen is his wake, crunched to a halt just past the hash mark, spun around and flicked a pass backwards to centre ice where Sacchetti was waiting to take the pass and score.
There were so many highlights that season which made last season even worse. There was always the danger of unrealistic expectations after winning the Gardiner Conference and finishing 3rd in the league and it was maybe always going to tough to follow but for it be as bad as it was made it even more frustrating as a Stars fan and refreshing almost everything this season was probably the best way to go.
FSB: What are your expectations for the season ahead?
DS: I’d like us to win the Conference but can’t see past the Clan for that this season with their 4 lines and ex NHLers and the like. So I’d be happy with us running them as close as possible then who knows, maybe they will bottle it again. There will be much more pressure on them to win it so that may give us the opportunity to just go about our business and sneak up on them. If we do that then our league position should be good enough to get a decent Play Off berth and I would love it if we could get past the quarter finals this year and make it to Nottingham for the finals weekend.
There’s obviously a long way to go but we’ve had a positive start to the season and it looks like we have the makings of a good team who will have a good season. Overall, I’ll be happy if we compete every week, the team never gives up and the guys play for the badge on the front rather than the name on the back. If we do that, I’m confident we will get the results to take us where we want to be.
FSB: Finally, who do you think tonight's key players from both sides are and what will be the final score as a prediction?
DS: Firstly, I think you have to look at both goalies. Tyler Plante has some great numbers up already with a GAA of only 1.25 and a save percentage of 94.4 so he looks like he is very tough to beat and the Stars forwards will need to be on top form to get something past him. Our own netty, Vlasto Lakosil, has got off to a good start too. 93.3 save percentage and a GAA of 2.14. Interestingly, Lakosil has faced more than double the shots Plante has despite playing only 2 games more. That could be a worry for the Stars as giving the Steelers forwards that many opportunities may not end well.
Mosienko and Roy look like danger men already for the Steelers this season with 4 goals each in 4 games. If Roy gets anywhere near his points total from last season then lots of goalies are going to suffer and defences will need to bring their A game to keep him quiet.
For the Stars, apart from Clarkson who we’ve mentioned already, Leinweber and Dickenson are combining well already and have a point per game average each already and are proving dangerous. Assistant Coach, Bobby Chaumont is hot on their heels and is our resident poacher. He loves lurking on the doorstep and if anything gets through to him, he will bury the puck. Whatever happens, it promises to be a great game. I’ll go for a 4-2 win for the Steelers with an ENG right at the end to seal it for Sheffield.
On behalf of FSB, we thank Dave for his participation. Cheers Dave for your detailed answers!
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