Fife Flyers have an injury-hit squad for their Challenge Cup double-header with arch rivals 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. He has a shoulder problem.
Danny Stewart, Fife’s associate player/coach, is fit despite a crunching hit by Steelers’ Mark Thomas in Saturday’s 5-4 shootout defeat to the men from The House of Steel.
Fife were training last night and so missed the chance to view Dundee in their Elite League clash with Coventry Blaze at the Dundee Ice Arena.
But Stewart is more concerned about how Flyers perform, particularly in the first game at Kirkcaldy tonight.
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.”