With the
disappointing final loss to Fife in the Autumn Cup, a week ahead of the first
proper competitive Challenge Cup games, Clan fans looked to the opening night
tie against Belfast with much excitement. They weren't let down thanks to a
cohesive 3-2 victory over the Elite League Champions, showing that the
conference split for this season won't be the dominant and the diddies. With
impressive displays from the other Scottish sides against their southern rivals,
the opening weekend looked to prove that the Gardiner section will be a close
division to call.
This was typified
for Braehead on Sunday night when they managed a third period three goal blitz
to force overtime against Rene Jarolin inspired Edinburgh Capitals. However, it
would be Jarolin to break those brave Clan hearts with his OT winner, to
frustrate the Purple Army within 24 hours of a confidence and morale boosting
defeat of the Giants. Frustration mainly borne from the previous season, where
inconsistency on the road saw some stumbles in the side's second
season.
Still missing Ryan
Campbell and the game changing Jade Galbraith, confined to Canada under Visa
issues, Jordan Krestanovich knows that this weekend's games will go a bit of a
way to proving the Clan's mettle early on in this 2012-13 campaign. The Belfast
victory showed plenty of positives in the attack with Ash Goldie and Robert
Farmer's goals not their only contributions to a forward thinking front line,
and at the back, Mitch Maunu looked solid and dependable enough to earn the
right to his Man of the Match award. The third period showed the players to tire
a little though, which is probably expected given the first gung ho game of the
calendar.
It seemed to carry
over to Sunday, and with the Caps 3 goals to the good going in to the third, a
herculean effort was needed and was produced, before Jarolin beat Zemlak for the
W. With three games in three nights the week before and then two in two, JK's
side will need to pull focus on the whole weekends to prevent any slip ups in a
season where silverwear is an expected bare minimum, be it the Gardiner trophy,
the overall league title or the Playoffs.
With no home games
for the next month, Krestanovich must kae sure his side are well equipped for
the road. it will give the side more time to bond on their travels, with this
season's imports hoping to bed in as quickly as possible to make the season
memorable. A look to Twitter shows that Steve Birnstill and Bobby Chaumont are
bonding fairly well with the Brit Twits of Adam Walker, Sammy Zajac and Matty
Haywood, while I'm sure once Jade Galbraith is back, much ten pin bowling will
ensue to help the team adhere.
The summer arrivals
of the above, along with Zemlak, Hansen,Watt, Maunu and Captain Ash Goldie, will
do well to fill the void of some of the lads who opted not to return this year.
As still a relative newbie to the sport, being weaned on football up until 2010,
you get used to players coming and going after maybe 2 or 3 years, but in hockey
the turnovers are much quicker, resulting in fan favourites making an impact and
then leaving in the space of 9 months. Jim Jorgensen, who many seen as a
staright swop for now NHL man Jon Landry had a great seaosn at the arena, but
has gone south to Sheffield for the bigger money. Mike Wirll has moved to
Dundee, Mike Bayrack has not returned, Tim Wedderburn has put his time at Clan
on hold, Jaako Suomolainen has been ousted from between the sticks and, rather
acrimonously, Drew Bannister took another option after
re-signing.
Guys who put up a
solid number of points last term needed to be replaced and JK moved quickly to
do so. These are the men charged with bringing some silverware to Braehead, the
men who most believe will be the Premier Scottish team in the EIHl yet again,
but this year with something tangible in place of just the loftiest league
standing. I was impressed with my first viewing of Clan 3.0 last weekend and
with an expectedly hostile visit to Fife before journeying to Cardiff on the
cards this weekend, it will not be an easy two games. However, a continuation
from last week's Giant's win and the comeback against the Capital's may see two
wins from two for JK's men.
Mon The
Clan
