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Dan 24 - Brent 24 and The Push For The Playoffs.

2012-02-23T21:33:00.000Z

A few months ago after a Stars TV interview, Dan Ceman said to us with a sigh "what can we do to get more atmosphere into this building?" usually, I know my place in these discussions and just say nothing, we all know what opinions are like after all. However, on this occasion he seemed genuinely open to ideas. I said to him "Personally speaking, I wish we were winning more but it's not so much just the losing that's getting everyone down, it's the lack of goals that come with it". I can't speak for anyone but myself but for me, that was the worst part of the first half of this season. An 8-5 loss is always better than an 0-3 loss and of course, a 1-0 win is better than either.

A few people have asked me recently whether I think the team have improved since Brent took over. All I know is that we're scoring more. Some of our results are disappointing but at least we're seeing our team score a few goals a game now. Last weekend, for the first time in a long time, I decided to travel through to an away game, spurred on by our performance against Sheffield the Thursday before and our fantastic 6 goal performance on the way to a win really brought a feeling of the good old days back. Although we ultimately came away with the Sheffield game with nothing, the combined performances in that game and at Murrayfield are, for me, the highlights of the season so far.

I admit, I had all but given up. I thought there was no way we could make the playoffs now but these last two games have provided a renewed sense of optimism among a lot of people, ourselves being no exception. Anyway, it got me to wondering whether infact we ARE scoring more goals under Brent than we were with Dan or whether it was maybe just something about the style of play Brent has adopted for the team that's making games more exciting.

So, having a bit of time today, I finally got around to actually tallying up the stats and conveniently enough, the Edinburgh game was the 24th game of the season under Brent's leadership as head coach. Exactly the number of meaningful games Dan coached this year before he was let go. Thankfully the numbers don't lie. In 24 games under Dan Ceman, we scored 56 goals. An average of 2.3 per game. Under Hughesy we've scored 74 goals in 24 games. An average of 3.08 per game. It doesn't look like a huge difference when it's written down but even before I had seen the stats, I had noticed it. It's an extremely noticeable positive in our latest run of games.

So, is it just the increase in goals per game that's given me renewed optimism about the playoffs? I don't think so. Games have become exciting again, yes there is still the odd snorefest but generally the atmosphere is back at DIA and Murrayfield last Sunday was pretty much fun from start to finish.

Mark Kolanos has made a huge difference. He's insanely good and his level of play is rubbing off on teammates who may have let their usual high standard of play dip in recent games. Kyle Bruce is also a cracking addition to the team. His horrendous luck with injuries has clouded the fact that in his short stint with us, he's already 0+5. Let's hope he comes back as if we remain in the playoff hunt, he'll be crucial down the stretch.

I'm not writing this with the intention of being positive for the sake of positive. I won't proclaim "let's all get behind the lads and the playoffs will be ours at a canter". I think everyone is being realistic from here on in. We may have left it too late but the playoffs are not some dim and distant dream. It'll take some luck and finding some consistency that we haven't shown a lot this season but whatever happens, we're scoring more and Stars games are fun again. Don't just take our word for it, the stats don't lie.

Back In The Game - Some Thoughts on January

2012-02-06T20:40:00.000Z

A few people (we're no longer egomaniacal enough to think it's a lot of people) may have noticed our absence from fanzine postings, Stars TV and games over January. I can assure everyone we haven't fallen out of love with the mighty red, white and blue. No, it's a simple case of illness and some personal circumstances for one of us and the small matter of the other one saving the pennies for his wedding this year and being brassic as a result. Think of it this way though, coincidentally enough we were both skint after Christmas last year and missed a stretch of games in January, after which Stars turned their season around and marched into the playoffs. Maybe us missing games in January is a good omen.

I returned to DIA last night and enjoyed one of the most enjoyable league games ever witnessed at home since we joined the EIHL. A complete and comprehensive owning of Fife.

It was the first chance I'd had to witness Mark Kolanos in action and to say I was mightily impressed is an understatement. The signing of Kolanos is just one of many things that occured in a busy January for a team in transition though, so what of the other incidents?

Mazur's leaving? Well, I don't have the inside scoop on why Mazur was let go but having seen Kolanos play, I think it may well prove to be a good move. Sure, it's not very often you see a D-Man being replaced by a forward but we needed to do something outside the box to turn this season around and this may well be it. Kolanos may turn out to be that next Decosty/Morgan/Latulippe type guy (e.g. the dynamic midseason replacement who turns our season around) and if he does, it was worth dropping a d-man for, although Mazur was a solid player.

Mitch for Bruce? Something obviously wasn't working for Mitch here. He's a fantastic player and it was tough to hear he was going but for whatever reason, he just wasn't scoring. At different points during the season I've wondered if it was down to poor coaching by Ceman, playing in a poor system or the player himself being unmotivated. I really don't know what the answer is. All I know is that after a period and a half of seeing Kyle Bruce last night, I'm highly impressed with him and am gutted he's been injured already. A million fingers crossed he makes it back this season. The honour of being the first hockey team in history to have two Brucies on its books is one we're not about to give up without a fight.

For any opposition fans reading this, my apologies that our high standards of live twitter coverage from games has slipped recently but I've been having issues with my phone connecting to the internet. I'm hoping to have this fixed by Saturday so that Hull fans can follow our updates.

I think this weekend's home and home with Hull is going to prove a pivotal moment this season. We need at least 2 points from it but if we take 4, who knows where that momentum can lead? But let's not get ahead of ourselves, let's just hope for the same level of intensity that we saw last night on Saturday because personally, I can't get enough of beating teams who play in blue and yellow.

2011: Year Of The Fanzine

2011-12-31T19:36:00.000Z

So we're in the final day of 2011.

It's been quite a year for us here at the Fanzine - since our conception in February, we've garnered a bawhair short of 20,000 pageviews, which is approximately 19,990 more than we ever thought we'd achieve. Naturally, we are humbled to our souls for the level of support we've received!

Enough about us though - we'd like to talk about the year in terms of hockey.

It's been an up-and-down year to be a Stars fan. That can't be denied. We started the year in fairly dire straits in terms of our league position. However, as the year progressed, we strengthened as Edinburgh and Newcastle declined, leading us directly to probably our highlight - and I'm sure, many others' too - the playoff game against Sheffield.

Trailing 6-1 from the first leg, I doubt anyone in UK hockey gave us a chance of pulling off the upset. And when Robert Dowd scored early in the second period to make it 7-1 on aggregate, no-one could have blamed the Stars if their heads dropped at all.

But of course, the heads didn't drop. If anything, we needed to concede the goal to galvanise the team.

A powerplay marker from Nebus was followed by a JD strike with less than 8 seconds left in the period. The faintest glimmer of belief? Maybe.

Almost ten minutes of Stars pressure led to two quick goals in the middle of the third period, and all of a sudden, it was 7-5. And while the charge may have come up ever so slightly short, every Stars fan in the buiding left with a huge sense of pride and very little voice.

We have to be aiming for similar, going into 2012.

Right now the league sees us 8 points off of the final playoff spot - hardly an ideal position. But we were just as poorly-placed last season and we went on to win 11 of our last 17 home games to qualify handily.

Fife's shootout win against Edinburgh tonight puts us bottom of the league going into 2012. Can we be happy with this position? Absolutely not. Can we feel hard-done-by? Yes, a little - a lot of good, potentially match-winning performances haven't been matched with good luck for us. Can we be confident that it will be turned round? We're tempted just to say "Hell yes! 'Mon the Stars!" but the reality is we just don't know yet, it's still too early in Hughesy's coaching tenure to make any decisions on whether we believe we'll turn the season around.

Affirmative action was taken by the Wards just a few weeks ago, as Coach Dan Ceman was released. Under Hughesy, the overall performances of the team seem to have risen a little and, importantly, the team are visibly playing with more confidence all-in-all.

As a team, as a fanbase, we have to look forward and not backward.

Starting, conveniently, with a home double-header this Monday and Tuesday.

Monday sees us take on the league-leading Belfast Giants in what will no doubt prove to be another tightly-contested affair. Both of our home games against Belfast so far this season have seen the teams tied after 60 minutes with the Giants taking the extra point both times so far.

A huge defensive effort will, naturally, be needed as Belfast have proven they have one of the most depth-filled offensive lineups the Elite League has seen in recent years. That said we've proven we can keep them at bay and realistically, the two points will be achievable with just a little sparkle of luck.

We can be under no illusions that a Monday night, January 2nd crowd against the league leaders will be a small crowd, but that doesn't mean to say it can't be a vociferous one also - let's make sure that for the full 60+ minutes we are making all the noise as Belfast will no doubt bring through a decent number.

Tuesday's crowd will likely be a bigger one. Our first home league game against the Auld Enemy and the first return to DIA of the Auld Coach. Dan Ceman's release from the Stars was met with a drooling mouth by Todd Dutiaume who snapped him up almost instantly.

No doubt there'll be a fair bit of good-natured Ceman-bashing from the stands, but realistically the game will be about far more than that. Last Tuesday's 2-1 defeat in Fife was, by all accounts, a drab affair with Fife hanging on to a first period lead and us not quite being able to get back into the game. We need a solid win on Tuesday to restore our pride.

But most importantly of all, we need a win to dump Fife back down to the bottom of the league. They have now essentially completed their roster, however they have lost standout player Matt Siddall to Medvescak Zagreb of the Austrian league. With a couple of injuries still in their squad, we have to take advantage of their short bench and take the win.

Here's to a great 2012 for all our readers!

So, Dan's A Flyer.

2011-12-13T17:19:00.001Z

Since the news broke that Dan Ceman had been relieved of his duties here in Dundee, the Stars fans seem to have split into three distinct camps. There are those who have been calling for his head for months and are pleased to see us go in a new direction; Then there are those who feel our problems were not down to Dan and he's been made a scapegoat and finally there are those who have mixed feelings on the matter.

We've both always been very supportive of what Dan brought to the club as a player, he's a natural goal scorer and a great playmaker who's still got his scoring touch at the age of 38. However, we can't in all good conscience argue with the coaching change. Last season we quite obviously had a budget team who quite frankly weren't expected to do much in their first EIHL season. Granted, we were helped out with Edinburgh and Newcastle's off-ice troubles dooming them to the bottom two positions in the league but that was coupled with a few great performances in the second half of last season. No-one was calling for Dan to be fired because we understood that the season was going about as expected for the team we'd built.

This season has been a different matter entirely though. Hockey is not rocket science to be honest, at least the EIHL isn't. It's pretty clear what it takes to build a successful team in this league. Look at the teams who have won this league in the past. You will always find a glut of imports in their respective rosters who have a fair few AHL and ECHL games under their belt and have been able to score at that level. We can see it in our own history with guys like Cory Morgan, Scott Corbett and Scott Kirton who all had great success here. Of course there is also the CHL which is considered a step below the ECHL but has produced some top players in this league like Jereme Tendler and Jon Pelle. We've also found some real gems from the CHL like Jeff Marshall, Hughesy and AJ.

Obviously last season we brought in guys whose North American stats were no indication that they'd be top guys in this league. With notable exceptions like Hughesy who was already a proven EIHL player, Chris Zarb who was brought in to replace the underperforming Luciano Lomanno, AJ whose skills came in his leadership and special teams prowess (but who this season is becoming a valuable goal scorer) and Dan himself. It was no surprise that we struggled to move up the league last year. No one was expecting we would come into the league and go and obtain a top import core and win it all.

We were told we would be a team who tries to build and improve season after season and this season we looked to have done just that. On paper, guys like Turner, Mazur, McGoff, Konkle, Hutchins and Whitley are all huge upgrades on the guys they replaced. Infact, with our goalie troubles last year, to say Whits is an upgrade is a huge understatement. It looked like we had a team who was ready to go from just barely making the playoffs to move up and start challenging the mid-table teams and yet it hasn't been happening. Fans, players and everyone connected to the club knows our team is better than our league position and so something had to change. Losing Dan as a player is a blow, he was our top scorer this season and was our top scorer last season but it became clear that whatever he was doing coaching-wise wasn't working. It wasn't just the losses, fans can handle losses, it was the lack of goals and the style of play which, to say the least, was becoming tiresome to watch.

So, Dan has gone and the Hughesy era has begun. Brent has the full support of players and fans and has given the fans some entertainment in his first home game in charge but now the real challenges begin. I was very encouraged by Hughesy's words on Stars TV that giving the fans something to cheer about at home is going to be a big focus under his leadership and we all know what a dedicated and hard-working guy he is. Yes, we fully agree a coaching change needed to happen but we'll miss Dan as a player and as much as we fully back Brent as our new coach, it was still hard to watch the video which produced the image in this article. It'll be strange to say the least to see Dan playing against us in a Fife uniform and we will give him a warm applause when he returns to DIA although we won't be wishing him well as far as success for the Flyers goes.

Hughesy has said that the first half of the season is over and the second half belongs to us. We certainly hope that's the case and that our win over Fife on Sunday was not an indicator of playing weakened opposition but an indicator of a new, freshly focused Stars team who are ready to move up the league.

We're Annoyed but We Care.

2011-12-06T17:41:00.001Z

Over the last few weeks, people have accused us of not being objective on the pages of this fanzine and while some of the bile and personal abuse thrown at us has been a bit harsh, somewhere amongst it all, admittedly, there is a fair point.

This season has been no fun so far for anyone connected to Stars and while we have naturally been surprised and pleased to be asked to take over interviewing duties on Stars TV, all too often we've had to interview decidedly unhappy hockey players as our poor performances pile up. It is because of our Stars TV duties, I think, that people have started accusing us of, for want of a better term, "sucking up" to the players and refusing to put anything negative about them in these pages. It's partly true but what I would say is that we never pretended to be anything different. It sounds like such a cliche to say this but I am being 100% truthful when I say we honestly just started this because we like to chat about the Stars a lot and we wanted it to be humorous and generally upbeat and light hearted. We hoped maybe a wee core of Stars fans would enjoy reading it but we were also well aware that some people just like to go and watch their hockey on weekends and leave it at that - we knew it wasn't going to be everyone's cup of tea.

Again I'm going into cliche territory but once again I promise faithfully that the prospect of the team owners, programme and Stars TV people actually noticing our blog and commenting was something we never for one second even talked about. This blog went live in February of this year and within a month we were regularly being printed in the Stars programme, a great number of present and former Stars players had agreed to interviews and we were asked to be interviewed for Stars TV. Again, this was NEVER something we deliberately pushed for or tried to manufacture for ourselves but recently it feels like a few people seem to think that we are, to quote, "getting ideas above our station".

The fact is, we have never used this blog as a place to slate the team and that WAS a deliberate move. It's such a cheesey fanzine gimmick to slate the team constantly and that's not for us. The fact is that for the first few months of this fanzine we deliberately kept ourselves anonymous and hadn't spoken a word to any Stars player so, if we had been so inclined, we could have used that time to slate our players and performances left, right and centre with no fear of retribution but we didn't - because it's not being on Stars TV or talking to players or being published in the programme that leads to our non-critical articles. It's just the way we've always been.

However.

Stars fans are pissed off right now, we all are. What we're seeing on the ice isn't acceptable and everone knows this. Looking back over our most recent postings I can quite understand why, in amongst lower-than-we'd-like crowd numbers, heartbreaking losses and poor performances, that when we come wading in with a "let's all be positive" article it can look bad. It can look like we're being told what to write on these pages and we're completely misrepresenting fan feeling.

The fact is, most Stars fans know who we are, we chat to people at games and our feelings are much the same as everyone else's. Our performances this season have been largely unacceptable. The fans know it, the players know it, the management knows it. Everyone knows it. It's at times like these when that annoying phrase "a minority of negative fans" springs up. Rest assured that those who think that by expressing any negative opinions makes you less of a supporter annoy us as much as they annoy anyone else. To be honest, I don't personally know any Stars fans who have that attitude but we all know they exist. The truth is, EVERYONE whinges about their favourite sports teams. I've seen hockey players from various British clubs act bemused at their own fans' negativity while tweeting that their favourite NHL team are playing terribly hours later. It's a part of following your club, it shows you care.

The people who don't say anything when their club aren't playing well are the ones you need to worry about. These are the people who will just walk away from the sport and cause crowd numbers to dwindle. Those of us among the Stars support who regularly register our displeasure care deeply about this team, we have a strong core of loyal fans who support this team through thick and thin. A travel club who will endure long bus journeys down to Nottingham on a Sunday night knowing we'll be hard pushed to get a result, fans who will turn up in their relative droves to a meaningless game against Fife this weekend and a supporter's club who will organise events all season to raise funds. We are all doing our bit to help, we all care, and we all get pissed off when the team aren't playing well.

Personal attacks and insults? Look elsewhere, they will never appear on these pages but being annoyed when a team you support passionately and care deeply about isn't playing well? There's nothing wrong with it as long as we're actively supporting our team and the vast majority of us are.

Spotlight On: Jarrett Konkle

2011-11-16T19:10:00.000Z

Now that we're a few months into the season, we thought we'd start a new series of feature articles we had planned to do this season. Basically, we aim to do a spotlight article on every Stars player and where better to start than our joint top-scorer, Mr. Jarrett Konkle?

When you see an array of Nottingham players scoring nearly 2 points per game and guys from other teams scoring highly, it comes as no surprise that some Stars fans are worried that Konks is not among that group of guys points wise. Afterall, Konks was brought here to be our #1 guy in terms of offensive production. The man said it himself when we interviewed him in the summer - letting us know that he has always been relied on to produce offensively.

The fact is, scoring has been hard to come by this season for the mighty red, white and blue but whatever scoring we are doing, Mr. Konkle is usually in the thick of it. Thus far Konks has chipped in with 6 goals and 8 assists for 14 points in 17 games in all competitions. On the face of it that seems like a really good return but in a league where some guys are hitting 27-30 points in 17 games, it has led to some people to (quite understandably) question whether Konks is indeed "all that". In our opinion, yes he is. And here's why:

Let's take away goals and assists for a moment and concentrate on the other things that a successful hockey player has to do. The very first thing that springs to mind with Konks is his workrate and his ability to hold onto the puck under pressure. It's been a common scenario this season, we dump the puck in and go for a change, Konks stays on and retrieves the puck while finding himself alone in a forest of opposition d-men. To cough up the puck in that situation more often than not leads to an opposition breakaway and a goal but it rarely happens when Konks is on the puck. He will shield it expertly, take it to the corner, make himself bigger than he is. All the while making sure that when our fresh guys get onto the ice, we still have the puck.

The other thing that Konks seems to do better than anyone on our team is get himself open in the offensive zone and into good positions for a shot. Sadly, as I'm sure most would agree, getting into those positions and receiving the puck for a quality chance are two different things entirely. Sometimes you can see the frustration on his face when things aren't going the way the team would like but in situations when the heads go down, Konks' head, in all fairness, is rarely one of them. The workrate continues.

The stats rarely lie, Konks is a guy with a career tally of 192 points in 246 games in the ECHL. Guys with career numbers like that almost never score poorly in the EIHL. So why isn't Konks dominating near the top of the league's top scorers? The more this season's going on, the more we're getting a sense of the reasons we play the way we do. Earlier this season at the end of an article, we appealed to be told why certain things are approached the way we are tactically. To their credit, Dan and Brent have been quite open with this, we tend to dump the puck in and take it wide because against more skilled teams there is a great risk of turning the puck over in the neutral zone and so we play it cautiously. I don't want to make wild assumptions but I would assume guys like Konks are not used to playing in a situation like this where more often than not they are chasing the game against a more skilled team.

We're not going to make out like we're never critical of team tactics and never say anything negative. We do, just like everyone else but we're taking on board the reasons for this. Some of those reasons we may agree with and some we may not, but it's not as if we know anything about coaching a hockey team. Either way, Konks is in a team that right now cannot afford to lend itself to "sexy hockey" tactics. We're a defence first team and while guys like Konks may not be troubling the EIHL scoring race at the moment, he will continue to lead our team on the stats board and be a valuable contributor to the non-offensive aspects of our game.

Statto's Corner (11/11/11)

2011-11-11T23:04:00.000Z

I'd been holding back on these articles for a few reasons; firstly, I'd like to believe me doing them was jinxing the team into not scoring many goals, and moreover, the fact they weren't scoring many goals was causing it to be incredibly difficult to write them.

However, a recent flurry of 2s, 3s and even 5s in our Goals For column (which I maintain is because I stopped writing these - I'm hoping that doesn't bite me in the bum!), means there's actually quite a lot to talk about!

To start, a look at the top scorers in the league right now shows that it's still being dominated by Nottingham players - the top three read as follows;

Scott Champagne, 9 goals, 23 assists, 32 points.
David-Alexandre Beauregard, 17 goals, 9 assists, 26 points.
Matt Myers, 6 goals, 20 assists, 26 points.

And then, it gets a little unexpected.

Fourth is Edinburgh's Rene Jarolin with a stellar 15+10 from his 17 games.
Tied for fifth, are Benoit Doucet (Belfast) and Jason Silverthorn (Hull), both with 11+14 from 18 games.

Jarolin also has the most impressive streak in the league at present - between the 9th and 30th of October, in seven games, he scored a whopping 11+9 for 20 points with at least one goal in each of those games. Bari McKenzie, also of the Capitals, has a still-continuing streak of points dating back to the 9th of October, with 6 goals and 16 points in those 9 games. Here's hoping we can end that by shutting the Caps out at home on Saturday!

Of course, I haven't mentioned any Stars players in this update so far - unfortunately none of our players are troubling the top 20 scorers in the league at time of writing, although I firmly believe it's only a matter of time until a couple of them are!

One leaderboard we do have our names on, is of course the penalty minutes table! We have two players in the top ten - Zarb, with 70 minutes, in 6th, and Hutchins, with 52, in 9th. Still, even combining the two of them, doesn't compare to the leader, Cardiff's Chris Frank (137) - whose antics up here in DIA alone earned him almost three quarters of an hour!

In terms of goaltending, Chris Whitley has slipped down the standings a little - although remains very respectable with a SV% of .895. he has also faced the second highest number of shots of any goalie in the league, with only Hull's Christian Boucher having faced more. Murphy and Kowalski, of Belfast and Nottingham, are duking it out at the top of the goalie charts with Smurf ahead on SV% (.932 to .927) but K-wall ahead on GAA (1.77 to 1.80).

I will now leave you with our top scorers.

Home: Dan Ceman 3+1=4, AJ MacLean 1+3=4, Jarrett Konkle 2+1=3, Lee Mitchell 1+2=3, Brent Hughes 0+3=3

Away: Jarrett Konkle 4+6=10, Dan Ceman 3+5=8, John Dolan 4+1=5

Overall: Jarrett Konkle 6+7=13, Dan Ceman 6+6=12, AJ MacLean 3+5=8

We will see you at DIA, Saturday 7PM, for Dundee Stars vs Edinburgh Capitals - and hopefully a lot more numbers for me to write about as a result!

Devilishly Good

2011-11-01T22:09:00.001Z

You know, I was almost contemplating not going to the Devils game. It was all I could do to get out of bed after a family party the previous night saw me knocking back Jack and Cokes like Vimto. Like the trooper I am though, I deemed that a Stars victory over Cardiff would be the perfect hangover cure and how right I was.

Don't ask me why, but I had a stronger feeling than ever before that we would win this one. Maybe it was the fact that despite losses away to Nottingham and Sheffield in the days preceeding the game, the mighty red, white and blue had, by all accounts, given a sterling account of themselves and had banished the memories of the weekend from hell.

Cardiff took the longest journey in the EIHL after boasting of the retribution they would be carrying out on Brennan Turner after a couple of fights in the big blue tent but they started the game less like a team with a burning desire for vengeance and more like a fart in a trance. In fairness, we didn't start with much of a jump either and the first period plodded along unmemorably until Jeff Hutchins sent the puck just wide with our first real chance before taking a penalty. Thankfully, Cardiff's PP didn't look up to much.

It wasn't long until Cardiff's Kenton Smith took the first of what would be numerous Devils penalties on the night and that set the stage for Brennan Turner to let his actions speak louder than his fists by converting a Lee Mitchell pass backdoor for 1-0 Stars.

Cardiff followed by getting into the game a bit more before again running into penalty trouble and handing our boys 1:43 of 5 on 3 - sadly our PP wasn't as sharp this time and Cardiff killed. The rest of the first period was seen out with little action other than Chris Zarb showing Cardiff's Davies to his seat via a thunderous check and Cardiff hitting the sin bin again in the form of a Kenton Smith hold and a whining Max Birbraer taking 10 minutes for his troubles.

Cardiff killed the penalty and started the second period a bit more up for it. Indeed, Whits had to pull off several key saves early on before Stars broke forward 3 on 2 into the zone. Mitch broke in, sent the puck beatifully to McGoff in the slot and McGoff touched it back to allow Hughesy to become the "toe" to Mitch and McGoff's "tic and tac". Sadly, Lyle saved superbly from Hughesy's shot. It was an eye-wateringly neat piece of skill between the three of them and would have been Stars goal of the season had it not been for Lyle's pesky pad.

Not long after this, Dan McGoff was again making space for himself in the slot when a Brennan Turner shot hit him, McGoff saw the approaching Turner following his own rebound and left the puck for Turns to ping top shelf over Lyle's left shoulder for 2-0 Stars. Cardiff had said Turns would be "looking over his shoulder" during this game. The only looking over his shoulder he was doing was to see which of his teammates was coming over to celebrate with him. A thoroughly deserved two goal night for the big d-man.

The game started to become a bit more even after this with both goalies making saves and both PK units out. With time running out, the Devils started camping out in Stars' zone and no sooner had I thought "this is looking dangerous, we need to clear the zone" than the Devils got a vital goal to end the period 2-1 behind. This had come after a bit of handbags that would see Chris Frank taking his first 2+10 of the evening.

I remember thinking as the third period started "we really need to make sure we play all three periods and don't let them come right out and tie up the game". As Cardiff came right out and tied the game 42 seconds into the third I remember thinking "Bugger."

This set the scene for an entertaining and nervy third period as both teams tried for the winner and found nothing. With 8 minutes left in the game, Chris Frank provided one of the moments of the night, after taking yet another stupid holding penalty, he had obviously come to the conclusion that the penalty box was a bit cold for his liking and he needed to get a fire going to warm up. What better way to find some kindling for this fire than to batter your stick around until it's reduced to a thousand bits. Referee Neil Wilson just will not have anyone trying to get a heat in his game and so directed Mr. Frank to the locker room instead. Franky boy decided to race his helmet there and lost handily. It was a hissy fit to rival any two year old in Tesco who's just been told they're not getting a sweetie. Thankyou Mr. Frank - that bit of hilarity was just the tonic for my aforementioned hangover.

One thing that wasn't quite so funny was Brad Voth deciding he didn't like life outside of the running for "most classless buffoon in the league" and deciding to remedy that situation with a stick to Chris Zarb's face from the bench. Section C's "Voth is scum" chant said it all.

So, to overtime we went via a clutch penalty kill by Stars in the dying minutes of the game that got the DIA crowd seriously pumped up. We started OT with 1:53 of PP but couldn't capitalise. After a frustrating lack of chances on the man advantage, both teams played out the rest of OT nervously and set up the second Stars-Devils DIA shootout. Stars were ready to go 2 for 2 in that particular series.

By this point, Drew and I were so nervous, our respective bottles of juice were getting a head on them with all the shaking. Birbraer was up first - GLOVE SAVE WHITS! Okay, deep breath, good start. Here comes Hughesy, our best penalty shot man by a mile. Oh dear, my knees appear to be turning to jelly - GOAL HUGHESY! YAAAASSS! Okay, deep breath again. So what if my heart is now palpitating dangerously? Oh no, Matzka - this boy can score, I can't look. Okay, I can - MISS BY MATZKA! How can Drew be tweeting at a time like this? More to the point, how come I've lost feeling below my waist? Mitch is up - don't worry I can lean on the plexi to stay upright. GOAL MITCHELL!! YA DAAAAAANNNCCEEEEEERRR! STARS WIN! STARS WIN! STARS WIN!!!

It took about 15 minutes to regain our composure again in time to do our Stars TV interviews with a happy Dan Ceman and Brennan Turner.

Away to the tinky Fifers on Saturday and then home to a Braehead side who have lost to Hull and Edinburgh recently. A good chance for a four point weekend but like Dan said on Stars TV, we can't get too high on ourselves. Every game is a challenge and we must take them one game at a time. Still, a fantastic win against Cardiff and hopefully more of the same this weekend.

Complete Negativity Is Not The Answer

2011-10-28T23:33:00.000+01:00

Whichever team you support in UK hockey, there seems to be a scale of the mindsets of fans. At one end there are those who say nothing but negative things about their team when they underperform, the people who call for the entire roster to be gassed after a run of three losses and will not see the positives in anything. At the other end of the scale there are those who are blind to their team's faults, who seem to think being a supporter is a contest for how much love and praise you can lavish on a team and generally have an air of "look at how much of a fan I am."

Then of course, there is the middle ground where people can see both sides of the debate and judge team matters on their merits. I like to think this is where most Stars fans are on this scale.

We haven't posted any content on the fanzine this week - let's be honest it's not a whole lot of fun being a Stars fan right now and I think enough people have said enough things about our recent results without us sticking our oar in for once. We're heading into this weekend against two good teams with a glut of injuries and a bad run of results recently. I don't think anyone would accuse any Stars fan of being overly negative if they didn't hold out much hope for these games but at the same time the vast majority of Stars fans know how valuable their support is right now, both financially and in terms of generating an atmosphere at games.

Again, supporting your team doesn't mean turning a blind eye to their faults. Some of our performances recently have been terrible. We know it, the coach knows it, the owners know it. Everyone knows it. One thing I don't know much about is what it takes to run a team in this league but I think I can safely assume it's not easy. It's a catch 22, our results are bad, crowds dwindle, club finances take a hit, not enough money to sign top players, bad results, crowds dwindle etc.

Right now we're in a bad way in terms of crowd numbers. 7/800 just isn't going to cut it. If we want to establish ourselves as even a stable mid-table team we need to be over 1000 at least regularly. Recently, we took over as the interviewers for Stars TV and the club have been extremely good to us with this fanzine and so this might look like an article we were pressured to write by the Stars in order to smokescreen the on ice performance. I can 100% guarantee no-one from the club has ever told us what we should be writing on these pages and we've certainly never been members of the happy clappy "everything's okay" brigade.

What I'm trying to say is that for those people who are turning way and debating whether to come to games anymore - you might disagree with our tactics and our style of play but it's not the players you're hurting by withdrawing your support, it's the people who are busting their balls to keep top level hockey in Dundee a reality. The Wards, who have never been anything other than honest and responsible owners are the ones who will feel the pinch, guys like rink manager Alex Cram who has bent over backwards to make EIHL hockey work in DIA. These guys are not the ones who dictate how the team play but they are the ones who suffer if people withdraw their support. Hardly seems fair does it? There are also the players - I wonder if anyone truly believes they are more pissed off with the way we are playing than the players are? I honestly don't think so.

I'm well aware the vast majority of Stars fans have reasonable concerns they wish to raise and will not be walking out and withdrawing their support. Most of them have supported this team through tough times far better than we have so if this comes across as a swipe at anyone who's being negative - that's not the way it's intended at all. This is intended to highlight that it may seem crazy but the only way we are going to have the finances and long term standing to compete in this league is to establish a firm fanbase in greater numbers than we are seeing right now. We're still in our infancy in this league, it won't always be like this if we stick it out now and ride the bad times in greater numbers.

Mazur Ready For Tough Weekend

2011-10-20T17:50:00.001+01:00

I believe it was Brennan Turner who said, "I thought I left North American minor hockey schedules in North America..." Alas, however, it would appear they've followed him, as the Stars now face a punishing run of 6 (Count 'em: SIX) games in nine days. Are the players frightened of the schedule? Well, according to a certain Mr. A. Mazur, the answer is quite simply, "No."

"We definitely have a tough schedule coming up but I think the guys that have played professionally in North America will know what to expect and how to stay ready and healthy for the 6 game stretch. The key is to keep your game simple and not try to do too much."

We kick things off with three games in three different countries in three days. Friday sees our first trip of the season to the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. We ran them so close last month in DIA, holding them to a 0-0 game for 63 and a half minutes before they finally found a way past us. Travelling over there for a game may prove a different prospect but Alan is confident in the team's ability to shine:

"I think travelling to Belfast will be a good test for us. We know we can play with them and if we go in there with confidence, come out hard and make the simple plays we will give ourselves a good chance to pick up the 2 points."

Okay, so they'll have Jon Pelle, the Elite League's reigning top scorer back into their line up, fresh from a comeback-game hat-trick in his old stomping ground against Cardiff, but still. We're sharing Mazur's confidence!

Saturday sees another tough game, in the "Big Blue Tent" in Cardiff. Now Cardiff are notoriously strong at home on their smaller-than-the-rest-of-the-league ice surface, but Belfast went there last week and showed everyone else just how you defeat the Devils. A feat we're not too strange to ourselves having beaten them twice last year, including ending their world-record run of wins. It's our first game against them this year, so we asked Alan if he's played against anyone on the Cardiff roster in the past, and how the team are approaching the game.

"We are focused on one game at a time so when we play Cardiff we will go over our game plan and prepare accordingly then. I have played against one of their players, Chris Frank. He is a hard-hitting defenceman."

Finally, Sunday's game sees the Hull Stingrays return to DIA, two weeks to the day after we gave them a right hiding. Well, a 3-1 hiding that could have been 6 or 7 but for the heroics of Christian Boucher stopping 56 of the 59 shots we fired at him. Naturally we'll be looking for more of the same from the boys, and certainly the game seems easier on paper than the other two, but as Mazur points out, it's never as straightforward as that.

"We don't consider any game easier than the other. Every game is a different challenge and we know any team can beat anyone on any given night. We have to prepare the same way for every match if we want to come out hard and win. No game is an easy game. We can not take nights off or we will not be successful."

Last week, we had mixed fortunes overall, being shutout at home by Sheffield in spite of a whopping shot count of 46 on their net, before scoring 7 goals in Edinburgh on only 28 shots. A definite up-and-down weekend was a fair reflection, as Mazur agrees:

"The Sheffield game was very disappointing for our team. We came out hard and played well for the most part, but got caught with some very costly mistakes which resulted with the puck in the back of our net. If we limited those mistakes and got a couple bounces going the other way it would have been a totally different outcome. That's why it was such a disappointment in the end.

The way we bounced back was great though. We needed a good, high-offense game to build our confidence and reward us for our hard work. We now know that we can put the puck in the net, so we just have to be consistent and put a few in each game to give us a good chance to win."

Without further ado, we'll leave you with:

Alan Mazur's Keys To Victory!

1. We need to keep our game simple and patient since we will be on the road. Wait for them to make mistakes and capitalize.

2. Stick to the game plan and get quality shots on net.

3. Stay healthy and be prepared for every game.

So there you have it. Mazur's ready, it certainly seems the rest of the team are ready, and we're definitely ready for what will be a veritable smörgåsbord of action, and hopefully we'll be feasting on a good few points at the end of it all too.

Shutout on 46, in 7th Heaven on 28.

2011-10-17T03:40:00.001+01:00

What the hell is the title of this article all about I hear you ask? Actually I don't hear you ask anything because it's quite straightforward. Quite simply we put 46 shots on Sheffield's netminder on Saturday and came away with no goals but responded in style by pumping 7 past Nathan Craze in the Edinburgh net the following night and finally we found out that we are a team capable of scoring heavily.

The Sheffield game started absolutely terribly - the reason? Well, we were stood outside DIA waiting for the doors to open and Drew had decided that because of our upcoming Stars TV gig he would make an ill-fated stab at professionalism and show up to the game with a shirt on. The upshot of it all was that we ended up standing in a sea of sickly teal and orange surrounded by countless Steelers fans as I stood out like a sore thumb in the lone Stars shirt. But hey, I'm always proud to wear the red, white and blue.

Sheffield came out well to start the first but it quickly became apparent that we were matching them. Although they rang one off the post in the early going, we soon found our feet and it wasn't long before JD and Hutchy went close. Steelers responded soon after by capitalising on a loose puck at the blue line and going in on a breakaway which Whits turned away with ease and for a while it became all Stars. Our offence looking strong was punctuated nicely with some key defensive plays by Brennan Turner who went on to have a complete workhorse of a game, helping out all over the ice. If our tweets are anything to go by, the rest of the first period was all Stars. Was it really all Stars or are we just extremely biased? I'm going to cautiously offer a weak "bit of both" as the answer. 0 - 0 it was after one period though and things were looking good. Indeed it had been one of the best periods I'd seen from Stars this season, very few mistakes and we had certainly looked the better team.

BOOM! 1 - 0 Sheffield early in the second period. Mark Thomas with a bombastic slapshot and a more against-the-run-of-play goal you're unlikely to find this season. I'm not just being biased here, up until that point in the game I truly felt we were the team more deserving of the first goal. However, Sheffield weren't for playing second best for long and soon showed why they are indeed a "big team". Shortly after the goal a period of Steeler pressure led to a puck clanging off Whits' mask and a good save on the followup shot and while Steelers were becoming more threatening, Stars were also reverting to some not very entertaining dump and chase tactics. Hey, we all love entertainment but there's nothing more entertaining than a win and at that point in the game with Sheffield looking strong, maybe dump and chase was the way to go.

We didn't dump it into the zone moments later though as Jeff Hutchins let go a cannon blast from a tight angle at the faceoff circle and caused the post to make the sound of an E-minor at least. Sheffield responded by marching up ice and Whits was quick to come way out of his net and expertly close down the angle on their shot to keep them at bay. A couple of minutes later we were treated to, in fairness, the only bad decision Hanson made on the night. Hughesy was horrendously tripped by a Steeler and flew awkwardly into the boards and yet the only calls on the play were the numerous calls from the stands for Hanson to perhaps reconsider his current supplier of optical goods. Hughesy would return to the game briefly but then leave for the locker room after taking another knock, let's hope his absence is short. While all this had been going on, Jeff Hutchins was riding the ~~pine~~ chipped plastic in the penalty box and had Stars' best chance of the game upon emerging from it, a breakaway with all the time in the world was heartbreakingly shot straight into DeCaro's pads for an easy save.

Next up it was Sheffield's turn to hit the sin bin, and hit it they did - twice. 1:16 of 5 on 3 for Stars to follow and surely a goal coming up? Well, no. Sadly it looked as if we were showing too much respect to Sheffield and not playing like a team who had a two man advantage. Sheffield killed both penalties and rode the momentum to their second goal, a bad line change from Stars left Ashley Tait with all the time in the world after recieving a pass on the blue line to deke around Whits (who was completely hung out to dry by the poor change) and slot it home for 2-0. Speaking of Whits, his fantastic last gasp save from the Hull game was almost (and I stress almost, Whits' save was far better) emulated by Sheffield's DeCaro moments later as Hughesy was left alone back door and the Steeler goalie flashed a pad out in record time to make the save. I didn't applaud the save because I was too busy making the following noise: "AAAAAAAAAAAAARGHRGRHGAHGHRGHAGHFGHRFGHRGHEGJRHRIUITEJHJEH!!!!" Now, where was I? Oh yeah, the second period finished and 2-0 Steelers was the score. 32-18 Stars was the score from shots on goal though, something clearly up with our finishing.

The story of the third period was clearly Twitter playing up leaving me with fewer facts to reference when recapping it so bear with me as I try to recap it from memory: (article ends.) Ho-ho! Only kidding folks, unfortunately I can remember it quite well. In days of old, I would drown my sorrows after a 4-0 game but new-found maturity and my near brush with alcoholism after some of our results in 03/04 forced me to kick that particular habit. Anyway, Sheffield once again scored early in the period to take an entirely undeserved 3-0 lead. I'm not saying we were still by far the better side at this point but we certainly weren't worse to the tune of 3-0.

The rest of the period plodded along quite uneventfully as Steelers looked happy to defend their lead and Stars were struggling to create many quality chances. The game was put to bed with 3 minutes remaining as Ryan Finnerty made it 4-0 and 4-0 it finished. A very tough result to stomach given that (yes I AM going to say it again) I felt we played better than the result would indicate and once again a shot count of 46-24 in our favour perhaps pointed to some serious problems with our finishing. I mentioned our Stars TV gig earlier in the article and this week it consisted of interviewing Dan The Man and Hughesy after the game to get their thoughts, here it is for anyone who cares to take a look:

As Hughesy said, Sunday's game against Edinburgh was must-win and win we did - in style! We'll have to confess to not being in attendance at the game however a 7-3 victory is a damn good result against a Caps team who aren't being readily pummeled anymore and had indeed had more wins than us before we trounced them (albeit their wins were against that lowly team from that weird place across the Tay). What was also encouraging in the Caps game was the news that Chalmo and Mosh (that's our nickname for Ross McIntosh, allow it.) got off the mark with a goal each and a fantastic 2+2 night for Konks, giving him a total of 9 points in 9 games in all competitions.

So overall a very up and down weekend, we were never 4 goals worse than Sheffield (I said it again, didn't I?) and we've finally had that game where we burst out of the gates and score heavily. This weekend sees us play three games in as many nights with tough road visits to Belfast and Cardiff before hosting Hull on Sunday. If we can take anything from the two road games, that will be huge and we know we're capable of dominating Hull. Maybe I'm becoming more optimistic as I get older because I used to be a doom and gloom merchant but I still feel positive about this team, the quality is there and something will spark us into action. We turned it around last year and we have a lot less that needs turned around this year, I think we can do it.

Brennan Turner: "We're due for a win"

2011-10-07T18:56:00.001+01:00

Ay oop chook, eeh by gum, are yer all ready for a blerdy fantastic gehrm of ahce 'ockey this weekend?

Now that we've offended half of East Yorkshire outrageously, it's time to preview this Sunday's home game against the 'Ool Stingrays. Any interesting little facts about this game? Oh, just the return to DIA of two of our best Brits with their new team. Sammy McCluskey and Tristan Harper's new team, much like ourselves, haven't got off to the best of starts in this season's EIHL campaign and sit one place above us with just one win and three points from seven games. With the mighty red, white and blue sitting one place and one point behind with two games in hand, this will be a perfect time to pick up our first win of the season.

Hull have yet to take a single point at DIA in The Elite League and I won't lie, I'd be fairly happy to see that particular streak continuing for a long time yet. A key factor in keeping that streak alive will perhaps be the fact that Hull face a tough home match against Belfast before travelling up to Dundee on the Sunday. We, on the other hand, have Saturday off and that will stand us in good stead.

"Obviously the advantage to only playing one game on the weekend is that your body isn't as fatigued as it would be with a two game set. I can't really see any disadvantage though."

The words of Brennan Turner, so far one of this season's standout performers. And while, with a pedigree like his, it's hardly surprising that he is already showing signs of being a top d-man, it's still nice for any player to hear of fans who like their effort.

"I appreciate the positive feedback from the fans! It's always nice to hear your play is being noticed. I think defensively I've performed up to my abilities. Offensively, I'd like to contribute a bit more but I'm sure I'm not the only guy on the team who would say that. We're starting to click more and seeing more goals scored so hopefully I'll get my name on the scoresheet more. In the points department - not the penalty minutes!"

Great individual play aside though, Brennan (like all pros) is concerned about the team first over individual accomplishments. That's why it must have been hard to accept an overtime loss last Sunday down in Coventry after playing so well and leading 3-1. By all accounts, penalty trouble cost us and it was quite possibly a level of penalty trouble we didn't deserve.

"There were definitely some questionable calls on Sunday (either calls missed or calls made that were inappropriate). Sometimes that just how it goes though - you can't get your way all the time but the number of consecutive penalties against us (especially with two 5-on-3s in the 3rd period) was, in my opinion, outside the lines of fair."

Admittedly, it would have felt great to get our first win in Coventry, they are the auld enemy afterall, but in the end we were doomed to another loss. Our fifth of the season, and while it may be panic stations for some people, Brennan sees things differently.

"Everyone knows we have the personnel to get the job done but things just haven't been clicking together as much we'd like them to be so far. Doing all the little things right will add up and some nights we've done some things great but other things bad. And on other nights it's the vice versa so it's a matter of being consistent and staying positive."

So while the team have identified what needs to be done to turn things around, realising that no team can be taken lightly and that this game is key comes hand in hand with everything else that's being done to bring about the first win.

"Every game is important but yes, this weekend's game against Hull is important because it's a team we know we can beat and we feel we've been getting better and better with each week. That being said, things are starting to click and we're due for a win."

Thanks to Brennan for prodiving his view on this weekend's game, but we still have one thing to get out of the way.

Brennan Turner's Keys to Victory!

1. We have to dictate the pace of the game. Too many times this season, we've played to the other team's level of play. It needs to be the other way around where the opposition has to play up to our level.

2. We have to shoot the puck more. We can't afford to be fancy in the offensive zone but just get the puck on net and look for rebounds.

3. We need to focus on doing the little things consistently - these include chipping pucks out of our zone, good dumps, working hard for every 50-50 puck and limiting turnovers at the bluelines. If we do these things consistently, we will definitely get the 2 points this weekend that we need.

Capital Chaos, Blaze of Pride

2011-10-05T01:52:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a weekend of draws for us - a 2-2 draw at home followed by a 4-3 overtime loss to Coventry. We don't feel that reading it like that tells the whole story though, as in both games we had good chances to take both points.

Saturday saw the first visit of the year to DIA for the Edinburgh Capitals. Country-wide, hockey fans were predicting we'd pick up our first win and leave them still seeking theirs.

It all started tragically. DIA seemingly refused to offer me any form of signal on my phone whatsoever. A disaster, really, since we use the tweets as a firm basis to write these reports. But, we shan't be put off by failed technology, for we are a greater power than that.

So... err... what actually happened? Anyone remember?

We started the game quite brightly, on the powerplay within the first five minutes but nothing was getting through to Craze in the Edinburgh net as their defence stood firm. And when they had the chance to counter-attack, they actually looked surprisingly fast. Which we found out to our detriment at 11:48 of the first period after a McIntosh penalty for checking from behind saw us on the penalty kill - Richard Hartmann tapping in from a few feet out for his first goal of the season.

All-in-all, we lost the first period 1-0 and, possibly more shockingly, we were outshot by 11 to 4.

The second saw us again start sharper than our opponents. This time it wasn't in vain as Coach Dan fired us level at 2:39 of the period, assisted by Hughes and, strangely, Chris Whitley. Hughes was involved again a few minutes later in an incident near Edinburgh's goal which saw him drop the gloves with Edinburgh's 6'5 D-man (and Muay Thai artist) Jozef Sladok. Sladok didn't reciprocate though, and instead gave Brent a couple of gloved punches. 2 minutes each for roughing was a fair review by Staniforth. The only other real notable incident was JD going very close on a wraparound with Craze in no-man's-land.

The third period was a tale of three slapshots. First, AJ put us in the lead with a slapshot from the hash-marks, which caught Nathan Craze unawares (and looked like a pretty soft goal from where we stood!) at 5:45. Then, less than four minutes later, Hartmann replied with a very similar goal from the other end, catching Whits out at the near post to level it at 2-2. And that's how it stayed, partly in thanks to a monster glove save from Whits with a few minutes left after a huge slapshot from the slot.

All-in-all, the general consensus was that we hadn't done well enough as a team in the game and there was a hint of dread in a few fans' voices at the prospect of playing Coventry away the next night, down in the SkyDome with Coventry just off the back of a 7-6 win against Nottingham while we toiled with Edinburgh.

However, as much as the dread may or may not have been justified, it was gone within 2 minutes of the start of the game, as Johnny Dolan fired us into a 1-0 lead. A lead which soon doubled as, at the halfway point of the first period, ex-Blaze player Jeff Hutchins put us 2-0 ahead. Stars fans down in Coventry and ones stuck here at work, all joyous in celebration. A late goal from Ross Venus, however, gave us something to think about near the end of the first, but, for the first time this season, the Stars had won the first period of a competitive game.

We won the second, too, thanks to JD's second goal of the game and the season, and held a very healthy 3-1 advantage going into the third.

Coventry came out all guns... er... blazing (Ed's note: Sorry...) in the third, and pulled it back to 3-2 with 32 seconds on the clock. Then, after Konkle and Mazur had taken penalties for tripping and high sticks respectively, they equalised on a 5-on-3. The boys showed great heart though to see it out to the end of the 60 minutes at 3-3 and at least earn us a point.

By this stage, I'd left my work early to follow updates as best I could. However, heartbreak ensued, as David Phillips fired home the winner with 1:09 gone in overtime. By all accounts though, this was a night-and-day contrast in terms of the performance from the night before and the team, to a man, went away from the game with their heads held high, if not in the result, in terms of how well they all played.

Join us later in the week for a Statto's Corner (Now with something to write about!) and a preview of our solitary weekend game, against the Hull Stingrays.

Dan McGoff: "We will be a force"

2011-09-30T19:19:00.001+01:00

What can we say about last week that hasn't been said before? Well, quite frankly, nothing. We lacked a lot in defence against Braehead, and lacked a lot in attack against Nottingham. We can't dwell on that for long, however, as Saturday sees us back in action against the new-look, Eastern-European flavour Edinburgh Capitals. Towards the back end of last season the Caps took some hefty hidings from everyone and we weren't letting them off easy either with our last two home games against them providing us with 28 goals in 12-3 and 16-3 drubbings.

Now though, it seems they're taking a different direction, and they have signed a decent number of imports, mostly from Eastern Europe. Still, the results keep coming in against them - 8-1 in Belfast, 8-0 at home to Nottingham, and they've even been turned over 3-2 by Fife. Far be it from us to say this is a game we should be winning, but, well, this really is a game we should be winning. We said that last year as well though, and lost 3-1. Complacency could be a key issue in this game, as Dan McGoff points out:

"There is no sense of heightened confidence nor should there be considering we do not have a win yet. No game in this league will be an easy game and so we need to approach this game against Edinburgh like it is a Belfast or Nottingham game. Regardless of whether people around the league believe Edinburgh is a weak team, they still have players that get dressed the same way we do and can hurt us if we are not sharp. We will be excited to play at home again and we are still hungry for our first win so it will be an important game for us."

Sunday sees our first trip of the season to Coventry's SkyDome, which proved a relatively fruitless place for us last year with a record of 1-2 down there. This season, they have started quite poorly, including a 10-1 blowout in Nottingham for their first game of the season, and sit with 4 wins and 3 losses from their first seven games.

They are experiencing a little unrest at the moment, and earlier this week released defenceman John Gordon. As Dan points out, however, we should focus more on our game than on their game as we have enough issues to contend with ourselves:

"Well as everyone around the league would look at it, we will still have the odds stacked against us going down to Coventry. You never know what is going on in another teams dressing room so I do not want to speculate on that, but we know they will be ready to play on Sunday and we will need a big effort against them to be successful. It will be a challenging game with the travel and other factors, but if we just focus on what we need to do and not the outside circumstances we will be fine. We all know we can play with the so-called "big clubs" in this league."

While we had Dan available fresh off his Man of the Match performance against Nottingham on Sunday, we thought we'd ask him what he thought of his performance in that game from a personal standpoint.

"Obviously I wish I could have scored a goal or done a little more to effect the outcome of the game, but I felt OK with my effort against Nottingham. Playing forward was a little bit of a change of pace, but I tried to do the little things and got a lot of tips from AJ, Brent and Hutchy so they were very helpful. So, all in all, I was semi-happy with my performance.

I have played forward before, while in College, so it wasn't that far of a stretch to play, I just needed to get used to it again because it has been a while since I played. I felt fine out there and I am willing to play any position to help the team. It's good to have a guy that can play both positions because we will have injuries this year so I will take some reps at forward in practice to stay sharp."

We also asked Dan how he was settling into Dundee and the UK in general, and what he thinks about the fans and the atmosphere being generated in the rink.

"UK hockey is great. It is a competitive league with a lot of parity and great players. The atmosphere is also great especially here in Dundee its a big help with all the noise the supporters make. I am very pleased with the fans and their positivity through this rough 4 game stretch. The fans have been behind us and supporting us and thats what we need. It is early in the season and we will get wins soon enough and be a force in the league."

Without further ado, we'll leave you with:

Dan McGoff's Keys to Victory!

1. Our focus needs to be on doing the little things and not being so cute with our plays. We need to shoot the puck more and get into the dirty areas to bang home some dirty goals.

2. Our powerplay need to much sharper than it has been in order to be successful.

3. We can't be complacent with Edinburgh thinking it will be a cake walk because it will hurt us.

If we do those three things well, we will have a great chance at getting 4 pts this weekend.

A huge thanks as always to Dan for giving us his time and his wonderful insight to the team. We'll see you all there on Saturday!

And the winner is...

2011-09-30T15:03:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Colinda Hill who wins two tickets to tomorrow's home game against Edinburgh with a monumental 18/20. Thanks to everyone who entered and just to round things up here are the top five runners up and the answers.

Top 5 Runners Up
2. Colin Simpson 14/20
3. Ryan Ringsell 12/20
4. John Sawers 10/20
4. Gail Mallarkey 10/20
6. Mike Alexander 9/20

Answers

1. From our BNL and EIHL days only, what unique fact links the jersey numbers 16 and 28 for Stars? A: These are the two numbers worn by our only Finnish imports. #16 Mikko Inkinen and #28 Lauri Kinos

2. Stars started the 04/05 season with Glenn Ridler and Colin Downie as our two netminders. Who were our two goalies when we lifted the BNL championship at the end of that season? A: Evan Lindsay and Stephen Murphy

3. In the 03/04 season, Stars sadly only defeated the Fife Flyers once at DIA. Who scored our overtime winner in that game? A: Derek Decosty

4. Can you name three of Stars' top five all time points scorers? A: Dolan, Hand, Lochi, Wynne, Wishart

5. Name two imports who have played for both the Dundee Stars and the CHL's Amarillo Gorillas A: Jeff Marshall and Brent Hughes

6. Who is the only Stars player to have worn jersey numbers 20 and 49? A: Laurie Dunbar. Wore #20 in 02/03 and switched to 49 in 03/04

7. Derek Bekar and Cory Morgan both scored points on their home debut for Stars in 2004. Who were our opponents in that game? A: Hull Stingrays

8. Which former Stars import traditionally used to skate in a figure of 8 pattern on the ice before departing for the locker room? A: Scott Young

9. Which former Stars import traditionally used to shoot the puck the length of the ice towards the opposite goal at the end of pre-game warmups? A: Matt Suderman

10. In the 03/04 season, Davey Smith and Derek DeCosty were re-united as teammates for Stars. Which team had they been teammates on before? A: Guildford Flames

11. Scott Young returned to Stars in the 02/03 season after a brief spell with Hull Thunder but can you name the other defenceman Stars signed shortly before the 02/03 playoffs began A: Dan Ratushny

12. In a followup to the above question, name the TV show which that defenceman appeared in shortly after the 02/03 season ended A: Still Game. As the young man who sits next to Jack on the plane in the final episode of series two

13. Against which opponents did Stars get their first point in the Elite League last season? A: Belfast Giants in a shootout loss at the Odyssey Arena

14. What was the real first name of Stars legend Teeder Wynne? A: Frederick

15. In our final game of the 03/04 season, which Edinburgh Capitals player fought and was soundly beaten by Stars defenceman Mark Thompson? A: Miroslav Droppa

16. Name the three players who had 30+ goal regular season tallies in Stars' first ever season: 2001/02 A: Scott Young, Teeder Wynne, Paddy Lochi

17. In which two towns did Stars win silverware in the 04/05 season? A: Kirkcaldy and Guildford. The Capital Cup was switched from Murrayfield to FIA that season and we won it just after new year

18. Who was the first player to put a puck in the net in a competitive EIHL game at DIA last season? A: Steve Makway. Although the goal was of course credited to Sheffield's Ben Simon, we deliberately said "first player to put a puck in the net" ;-)!

19. Stars defeated the Cardiff Devils last season to end their world record win streak, but who were the last team to defeat Cardiff before their streak began? A: Dundee Stars. Again, trying to see if anyone would get caught out with this one but no one did

20. Along with John Dolan, which two other players finished seasons between 2005 and 2010 as our leading scorer in the NIHL? A: Jeff Marshall and John Haig

Thanks once again to everyone who entered and check back to starsfanzine.com later tonight when we'll be joined by Dan McGoff for a look ahead to this weekend's games.

The super-duper-mega Stars trivia quiz.

2011-09-27T18:29:00.001+01:00

Good evening Stars fans. It's time to put your Stars thinking caps on as we bring you the first of what we hope will be a few little fun Stars related competitions this season.

Today we are offering two tickets to Saturday's home game against the Edinburgh Capitals generously put up by our man between the pipes, Chris Whitley.

Below are 20 Stars trivia questions, they vary in difficulty from things every Stars fan should know to obscure facts in seasons gone by that only hardcore Stars anoraks will know. We have purposely tried to avoid questions where the answer can be easily looked up and it may prove unlikely that anyone will get all 20 so we encourage everyone to submit an entry even if they don't know the answers to many questions. You never know how many points first place will score. So with that out of the way, here are the rules.

*Answers will only be accepted in Emails to bringbacksjostrom@gmail.com - Answers in the form of blog comments or Facebook/Twitter messages will NOT be accepted.

*Please remember to give your name in Emails so that we can tell Chris who to leave the tickets for!

*You DO NOT have to answer every question to enter. Like we said at the top, it'll be surprising if anyone gets all 20 so it doesn't matter if you leave some out. Might be an idea to take an educated guess though!

*Closing date for entries will be Friday September 30th - 3pm

*In the event of a tie for first place, the winner will be the person who submitted their answers first, so get them in as quick as possible!

*There are perhaps a couple of questions where the answers can be looked up, all we can do is ask people to be honest with their answers.

So now that we're done with the rules, onto the questions. Remember, get your answers in to bringbacksjostrom@gmail.com before Friday September 30th - 3pm. Good luck!

1. From our BNL and EIHL days only, what unique fact links the jersey numbers 16 and 28 for Stars?

2. Stars started the 04/05 season with Glenn Ridler and Colin Downie as our two netminders. Who were our two goalies when we lifted the BNL championship at the end of that season?

3. In the 03/04 season, Stars sadly only defeated the Fife Flyers once at DIA. Who scored our overtime winner in that game?

4. Can you name three of Stars' top five all time points scorers?

5. Name two imports who have played for both the Dundee Stars and the CHL's Amarillo Gorillas

6. Who is the only Stars player to have worn jersey numbers 20 and 49?

7. Derek Bekar and Cory Morgan both scored points on their home debut for Stars in 2004. Who were our opponents in that game?

8. Which former Stars import traditionally used to skate in a figure of 8 pattern on the ice before departing for the locker room?

9. Which former Stars import traditionally used to shoot the puck the length of the ice towards the opposite goal at the end of pre-game warmups?

10. In the 03/04 season, Davey Smith and Derek DeCosty were re-united as teammates for Stars. Which team had they been teammates on before?

11. Scott Young returned to Stars in the 02/03 season after a brief spell with Hull Thunder but can you name the other defenceman Stars signed shortly before the 02/03 playoffs began

12. In a followup to the above question, name the TV show which that defenceman appeared in shortly after the 02/03 season ended

13. Against which opponents did Stars get their first point in the Elite League last season?

14. What was the real first name of Stars legend Teeder Wynne?

15. In our final game of the 03/04 season, which Edinburgh Capitals player fought and was soundly beaten by Stars defenceman Mark Thompson?

16. Name the three players who had 30+ goal regular season tallies in Stars' first ever season: 2001/02

17. In which two towns did Stars win silverware in the 04/05 season?

18. Who was the first player to put a puck in the net in a competitive EIHL game at DIA last season?

19. Stars defeated the Cardiff Devils last season to end their world record win streak, but who were the last team to defeat Cardiff before their streak began?

20. Along with John Dolan, which two other players finished seasons between 2005 and 2010 as our leading scorer in the NIHL?

Here's To An Easier Time Of It Next Weekend.

2011-09-26T19:42:00.003+01:00

I'm not going to say much about the Braehead game because neither of us were there. Suffice it to say though from the accounts of those in attendance and Dan's comments in today's press release it was generally a subpar performance and we had underestimated Braehead. Although we know it must be hard for the team to concentrate as the strains of the worst chant in the history of hockey "let's go Claaaaaaaaan let's go" hit them like fingers down a blackboard from the pie-stained mouths of three thousand weegies - we still should have done better than 6-0. This was a team in their first game and we should be a gelled unit by now.

Looking back on last night's game in Nottingham is a bit of a funny one. It would appear opinions vary from "we didn't deserve to lose by that much" to "we're lucky it wasn't more". I'm somewhere in between those two opinions.

We once again took our spots at the back of section C, applauded the video intro and had barely cracked open our bottles of DIA's finest vendy machine fare before Nottingham were 1-0 up. "It took a deflection!" I cried "No it didn't, he was screened" said Drew. The fact that I completely missed Nottingham being penalised and us going on the power play seconds later shows that Drew was probably right. Our power play was once again quite poor, punctuated by a fantastic two on one chance with Hughesy and Dan The Man breaking in, Hughesy decided to shoot instead of pass which is fine with us but I wonder if he would have questioned his decision to try and toe drag it instead of just blasting it. Kowalski poked the puck to safety.

Another frustrating power play preceeded Nottingham's Jordan Fox being tossed from the game. All I could see was a weak clash of players behind the play and then Hanson signalling a misconduct. Fox politely disagreed with Hanson and was ejected for his troubles. Nottingham were now missing two imports as Brock Wilson didn't ice. One might be forgiven for thinking "advantage Stars" at this point and that line of thinking nearly came true less than a minute later as Dan The Man broke unchallenged in on Kowalski but agonisingly hit the bar as the Nottingham stopper was beaten. Another great chance followed soon after as Konks and Lee Mitchell broke in two on one and again heavy metal was the genre of choice for Stars' offensive efforts. Stars were walking up to the counter with a pile of money and saying "two goals please" and the guy at the till was liberally replying "LOL, jog on m8!" - E.g. we couldn't buy a goal.

Thoughts soon turned to the well-being of Nottingham's Jeff Heerema as he collided with a team mate and just about found his way back to the bench, his face a crimson mask. It wasn't just the blood, the poor guy could barely move. His limp frame was eventually carted off albeit not under his own steam - good vibes heading to the Heerema household from us. That was a tough one to watch.

We had been outshot 17-4 in the first period but inexplicably came out of it only 1-0 down and I'd have to say, we had generally had the better chances. Nottingham started the second period the better team and started to carve out some quality chances of their own, Whits made a fantastic diving glove save backdoor to deny David Clarke before a completely unmemorable period of four on four lead to Stars going frustratingly close as Kowalski saved at one side, left half of the net open but was able to scramble back just in time to make the save before JD stuffed in the wraparound. This led to Stars best period of the game.

It seemed to start with Dan McGoff. The reliable D-Man who was once again playing forward as cover for the injured AJ began to lead by example - the Stars it seemed had been over-thinking things and trying to be fancy but McGoff was doing his job efficiently, keeping it simple. He would skate into the zone and get pucks on the net if a simple pass wasn't there. It's the age old hockey saying "you can only score if you get pucks on the net". Pretty soon the rest of the team was following suit and the cries of "Oooohhhh!" were sounding around DIA in earnest as we were once again banging at the door but not able to put the final touch on it. This spell of play ended when Lee Mitchell took a kneeing penalty when going for a loose puck. It appeared to us like there was ample time to take the puck but Mitch played the man instead and we were shorthanded. Nottingham went 2-0 up on the resultant power play and while in the heat of the moment we were quick to express frustration at Lee's decision to play the man, time has passed and we can understand that things in the stand don't always look the same on the ice. In hockey you're taught to take the man and not the puck, Mitch was doing his job and it's just one of those unfortunate times it doesn't go right.

We went into the third period 2-0 down and hoping we would be able to convert our chances into goals in the final period. Early on we were about to do just that, Zarb to Hughesy, Hughesy into the zone 1 on 1 - here comes 2-1......but no, the lino had other ideas. The 8,467th offside of the night was called and while fans dispute the vast majority of offside calls on their team, this one was particularly hard to take. The video evidence may well prove me wrong but this one looked borderline at best. The goal had to come though and ten minutes into the period our prayers were finally answered. Hughesy and Konkle broke two on one, Hughesy chose pass this time and Konkle fired home to the delight and relief of all but the hardy band of Nottingham fans in DIA. 2-1, we were still in it. We could well equalise here - how great would that be? I mean, the only thing that could stop us now is, you know, if Jeff Hutchins checks a player who has the puck and Hanson decides that merits an interference call and Nottingham score on their power play - what are the chances of that happening though? Ugh. 3 - 1 became 4 - 1 on an empty net goal as Chris Zarb tried a pass to Brennan Turner in Nottingham's zone and it was intercepted by Lachowicz for the empty netter. I should point out that last night in the heat of the moment (there's that phrase again) our tweet from the game read "Zarb with the worst turnover of all time" Chris logged into Twitter and decided to retweet what we had said - obviously not pleased and who can blame him? We ballsed up, we can admit it. It's true enough that Chris turned the puck over but to call it "the worst turnover of all time" was going too far on our part. We have since talked to Chris and things have been smoothed over - lesson learned that in future we will keep our tweets to the facts and not wild exaggerations.

At the end of the day though, while Hanson and the linos made some poor calls, we cannot in good conscience blame them for our loss. We wonder why Lee Mitchell is on the third line while D-Man McGoff is playing forward on the top two lines (both Lee and Dan had solid games last night, but surely the forward should be on the higher line?) This fanzine is never going to be a place to take cheapshots at the team - what I'm really saying is that as fans, we all know that the guys on the ice probably know what they're doing better than us so when we (and I'm only speaking for we fanzine guys here) question things like this, it's not because we want to be critical of the team or single out people for individual praise and scorn - we just want to be educated and know the thinking behind these decisions so that frustration can be turned into understanding.

No one player is ever to blame for any loss, it's been made crystal clear that this group of guys win as a team and lose as a team and if there are any positives to take out of this weekend it is the constant reminder that no one came off the ice smiling last night - these guys hate losing and Stars being successfull matters to them. Yes, this team still needs a lot of work but while this weekend was disappointing at least we don't have to worry that 100% won't be put into turning it around. We've had a brutal schedule to open the season and with Edinburgh at home in the Challenge Cup next Saturday we must surely be favourites to record our first home win and, as the title of the article reads: here's to an easier time of it next weekend.

Chris Zarb: "Everyone plays for the team...not individuals"

2011-09-23T14:14:00.002+01:00

So what do you do as a Stars player after a performance like we saw last Sunday against Belfast? Pat yourself on the back, file it away in your head as a pleasant memory and focus on other things? Or do you use it to your advantage against your next opponents?

"Absolutely we will ride the momentum from the Belfast game into this weekend. I think the past two games against two of the "top four" teams proved to ourselves and the rest of the league that we are not to be looked past. We are going to battle and do the little things to achieve the wins that we feel we deserve."

Those are the words of Chris Zarb, one of the standout players from Sunday's game who joins us today to talk about Braehead and Nottingham - our upcoming opponents this weekend.

"It was a fun game to be a part of and I think we showed the league that we are a different team this year. We have been having great training sessions, and everyone is on the same page. Our systems are much tighter this year, and everyone on the team plays for the team, not individuals."

It'll be good to take something from that game into this weekend for several reasons, not least of which the fact that we fared quite poorly against both of these teams in our last campaign. We didn't beat Nottingham at all last season and managed just one shootout win in our six encounters with Braehead - we wonder if these teams will pose an equally tall task to overcome this time.

"I don't know much about Braehead this year so it is tough to say. We are just going to go into the game with the mindset that we are there to win, and the boys will do anything it takes to get those two points. I know that they haven't played many games, if any at all (Ed's note: this will indeed be their first game) so that should help our mindset going into Saturday."

To turn around a 1-11 record against these teams as we had last season, you have to establish what makes this team different and indeed better than the the team who fell short last season and for Zarby there is one difference that stands out in particular.

"I think the biggest difference is our goaltender Chris Whitley. It is very comforting knowing that if we make a mistake on the back end that Whits is there to bail us out. He sees the puck and controls his rebounds very well. He was amazing on Sunday, and obviously he helps us out a lot. It's easier for a defenceman to do his job when the goaltender communicates with us on dump-ins, and whether he can see the shots or not. Whitley is vocal and plays the puck well, which makes our job much easier. We can expect him to be solid throughout the year just like he was against Belfast."

Bad goaltending cost us badly last year as we all know and while Ladi did a great job when he came in, this season we really did need a big game goalie and it appears unanimous that Whits is the guy. However, Whits isn't the only reason that we have cause to be confident going into this weekend.

"Another difference in the league overall is the 10 import rule as opposed to 12 last year. It changes the game a lot, and puts a much bigger emphasis on the British players for each team. Bringing in Lee Mitchell and Steven Chalmers is a big help to us, I really like how Lee plays the game, he is always moving his feet and makes his presence known on the ice. Gary Wishart looks good this year too, he is a veteran presence who knows his role and plays it very well."

Talking about our defence is of course the key issue though, not just because Chris is a D-Man but also because Nottingham have been scoring for fun this season and we want to be the team who put an unceremonious end to that caper on Sunday.

"I think our defence this year is much more rounded, Euan Forsyth has been playing well and will play more minutes than last year. Nottingham have bona fide goal scorers in their lineup but for most of the defencemen on our team its nothing that we haven't seen before. Turner is a big presence who plays a tough physical game and has games in the AHL. Mazur is a good puck-moving defenceman that will handle himself well against Nottingham's speedy forwards. We will do our best to put a stop to their high-scoring capabilities."

It's clear that the confidence in this team is felt by everyone from the fans to the players to the backroom staff and everyone associated with this club right now. So, let's round up this preview with:

Chris Zarb's Keys To Victory!

1. Try and put some pucks on the net a little better than we have the past two games. Our power play will be key for that. We are moving the puck really well and its just a matter of time until the bounces go our way.

2. Let Whits see as many shots as possible. Clearing guys from the front of the net, tying up sticks, things like that help.

3. Play our game. No matter who we are playing, if we do the little things right, we will give ourselves a chance to win every night, no matter who the opponent is.

Bring it on.

Statto's Corner (22/9/11) with Drew Halliburton.

2011-09-22T18:29:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone, Drew here again, and although the stats haven't changed much it's my god-given right to bore you to death with them anyway!

The biggest mover after Sunday night's dance with the Giants is, obviously, our good old #83. His 48 saves from 49 shots see him jump all the way to the top of the EIHL goalie statistics with a cracking SV% of .935.

A lack of goals on our end thanks to the other half of the goalie masterclass we witnessed, means I have nothing to add to last week's running totals. That said, I'm sure I'll have a lot more to write about this time next week.

A quick look around the league tells us that David-Alexandre Beauregard now holds the outright EIHL scoring lead with 10+3 from 7 games, David Clarke and Matthew Myers both following with 11 and again, the top of the board reads Nottingham - so of course, the best offence in the league will come up against the best goalie in the league on Sunday with the end result surely being unmissable.

So I'll leave you with Drew's Arbitrary Mighty Numbers Game (aka the DAMN Game):

Numbers: (The number of points scorers we have), (The number of games Nottingham have played), (the number of goals Belfast have conceded), (the total goals at time of writing in the Nottingham-Hull game), (The time remaining in that game to the nearest minute at time of writing), and (The landmark the Fanzine celebrates right now). Target once again will be (Mr Whitley's SV%).

3, 6, 9, 8, 5, 50 (Yes, it's our fiftieth post!)
Target: 935.

As always, feel free to fire us messages on Facebook/Twitter (preferably not in the comments!) with your answers. This week's game has a DAMN difficulty of 7/10!

And now, without further ado, the Top Scorers!

Home: No points scored.

Away: Dan Ceman 1+0=1, Brent Hughes, Jarrett Konkle 0+1=1

Overall: Dan Ceman 1+0=1, Brent Hughes, Jarrett Konkle 0+1=1

See you all next week for more of the same.

Pride Of The Red, White and Blue

2011-09-21T13:35:00.004+01:00

(Note: before we go onto the article, everyone is probably aware already but the fanzine can now be found at www.starsfanzine.com)

It's two seasons in the Elite League and two tough sets of opening fixtures for the red, white and blue. Sheffield last week was by all accounts a hard-fought loss and a lot of people were predicting a similar scoreline when Belfast visited DIA on Sunday night. They were fresh off an 8 - 1 thumping of Edinburgh and while we're certainly no Edinburgh Capitals, even the most biased Stars fan wearing the thickest rose-tinted glasses would have to have conceded that we were up against it going into our home opener.

I entered DIA to watch The Stars in their (in my opinion) league-best away jerseys going through warmup and from the chat I was hearing around the rink it seemed like something special was happening for the player intros. With warmup over I took my place at the back of section C in time for the lights going down and all eyes to be focused on the board in section G as we were treated to a spine-chillingly good introduction video featuring some highly-polished green screen work as each player was introduced to a sound reception from the pumped DIA crowd. Just another example of the great work Wayne and Graham do with Stars-related media.

With the intro out of the way and the crowd suitably pumped up it was game on after an impeccably observed minute's silence for the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl tragedy.

Stars had the better of things early on with Konks and Hughesy going close but the sense that Stephen Murphy was on his game was soon permeating DIA. It wasn't long until Belfast got into the game with some (rare on the night) defensive mistakes from Stars leading to a turnover and a Belfast break which Chris Whitley denied. It seemed evident early on that both goalies were on their game. Soon after this, the penalties started. An early spell of four on four led to a Giants player disposessing Brennan Turner and going close, Turns recovered well and mangaged to stop the chance but Moray Hanson, in the first of a series of calls which we respectfully disagreed with, called Turns for a tripping and hooking double minor.

It was during this four minute shorthanded spell that we really got a look at how disciplined, organised and in-synch the Stars penalty kill was. In short, Belfast did not have a sniff on the power play. Stars maintained their box shape and seemed to be moving as one, Chris Zarb in particular seemed to be completely 'in the zone' on the PK and the rest of the team weren't far behind.

Stars killed the four minutes handily and we saw out the first period with a power play of our own which unfortunately came to nothing. A couple of careless penalties of our own, however would see us start the second period killing a 5 on 3 penalty for 1:27.

....and we did kill it! Easily. I say easily, I'm sure our guys didn't feel like it was easy but from the stands, a more well organised, coherant and well oiled penalty killing machine we haven't seen in recent years. Strangely, Belfast were at their most dangerous when the game was even strength and they started upping it in the second period both offensively and (in the shape of Adam Keefe) they also upped their game when it came to agitating. Brennan Turner had seen enough and dealt with Keefe sans his gloves. It was an even tilt but it dealt with the needling swiftly and the rest of the game was largely played out without any dirtiness from either side.

Stars then killed another 5 on 3 with Konks and Mazur sitting and if the last 5 on 3 kill had been impressive, this one was even better. The intensity on show from our guys was beautifully displayed as the Giants carved out a chance with an open man back door and Chris Zarb sacrificed himself with a dive across the crease to block the shot. We saw out the rest of the period with a couple of frustrating powerplays of our own before another "play of the game" contender emerged. It was a routine clearing of the zone by Chris Zarb but in the act of chipping the puck past the blue line, he was challenged by a Giant and brought down behind the play (apparently unseen by ref Hanson). We were now left with no defence as Belfast pounced 2 on 0 into our zone. The heads went down from the fans, here it comes, 1 - 0 Giants a certainty. Chris Whitley had other ideas as he gloved Belfast's shot out of the air while burping and scratching his rear end - okay so he wasn't really doing those things, the point being he made it look as effortless as laying on a sofa watching Trailer Park Boys. End of the second period and it was 0 - 0. High drama, constant effort and a beautiful PK - we were matching Belfast all the way.

Stars looked more offensive to start the third with Lee Mitchell forcing a good save from Murphy before Stars themselves went on a 5 on 3 powerplay. Enter Hughesy at the point. Slapshot: just wide, Slapshot: off the post! Slapshot: off Murphy's helmet! It was heart attack city in the stands but to their credit, Belfast's PK was also looking sharp on the night.

From here on in Belfast started looking a lot sharper offensively and for a spell started to carve out chances at will. Chris Whitley was equal to them all, capped off by another effortlessly fantastic gloving of a free shot back-door. The tension became unbearable as Belfast threw it all at Whits and finally got a puck in the net...JUST as 0:00.1 became 0:00. We were going to overtime and Stars had a point.

We all know how it went down from here but make no mistake about it, this is not a story of the plucky underdog finding massive reserves of guts and courage to stave off the barrage from the big dog in the yard, this was two evenly matched teams who gave it their all and produced an outstanding display of drama, tension, and intense hockey for 63 minutes sending both sets of fans home happy.

Dan The Man has talked often this season about the fact that we're not going to go into games against the top teams this season thinking of them as top teams, we are here to compete and if we can compete with Belfast, we can compete with anyone. Chris Zarb perhaps said it best when he described this season's team as "night and day" as compared to last season. We can't disagree - here's to many more nights at DIA this season that send us home proud to be Stars fans.

Chris Whitley: "We know we can compete with anyone"

2011-09-17T15:47:00.002+01:00

Belfast is always a hard game. They NEVER have anything less than a team capable of winning the league, however tomorrow night may just be the best chance we have against them this season.

Sure, it's a bonus that Belfast are missing Jon Pelle and Jeremy Rebek, possibly their biggest threats in attack and defence respectively but to hang our hopes completely on their injuries is to do a disservice to our group of guys. Even with the injuries they have, Belfast are still one of the most dangerous squads in the league and so it will have to be the strength of our team's own game coming to the fore if we're to get a win.

Today, we will be taking a bit of a back seat with this preview because we have been lucky enough to have a comprehensive look at the weekend ahead from a guy who knows more about these things than us. Although we lost 4 - 1 to Sheffield last weekend, it was nice to hear the Steelers' commentators comment that Chris Whitley looked so solid in goal that they pointed out they'd be unlikely to see a more naturally talented visiting goalie. For Chris though, such words of praise are not enough without the win.

"It is a flattering comment but I definitely wasn't satisfied with the outcome. I felt I played well for most of the game but I did make some mistakes that I don't usually make. Overall it was an okay start but I know I can play better personally."

The commentators' comments about Chris were not the only good things we heard coming out of the game last week. As a fan, you always want to know if there are positives to take out of a loss and while so often that wasn't the case against Sheffield last season, we have been encouraged to read that fans of both teams in attendance last week all very much conclude that we will be far more competitive this season. Chris agrees:

"For the most part we took the third as a positive as we won the period and took it to them for most of the 20 minutes. We were a little sloppy at times and the second period we lost a lot of battles which contributed to them scoring three goals and if you take that away and we make some smarter plays, it's a totally different game. However in saying that it's part of the game and we will be on the other end of that another night taking advantage of another team's mistakes. As a team we know we can compete with anyone in this league, we have a much improved lineup than last year and we will win our share of games this season"

You see, no one was making those kind of comments last season - it just seemed to be expected that we were new and would struggle. Wins against the big teams would be a bonus, but this season Dan The Man and several other players have been quick to point out that we're not approaching games with that attitude this season and that's why we've got every right to be at least hopeful of taking something on Sunday. Another thing we have going for us in the early going is our relatively light schedule, meaning guys have longer to prepare, practice and get used to playing with each other. Chris is nearly there.

"I am starting to get a feel but it will still take a few more games to get comfortable. I like the atmosphere in the games so far! It is very different than the United States, very upbeat and lively throughout the games. The rinks are a little wider than I'm used to so that is still an adjustment that I need to make in regards to my angles"

As well as getting a feel for the league, an added part of a goalie's job is to know the forwards he is up against in his next game, especially important this week as Belfast have some of the best.

"I prepare the same for every game, however I am aware of who they have up front as well, I always make sure I know what the three forward lines look like and I always want to know what they do on the power play. I respect the talent on that team and I do know a few of them from from the past few years in the Central League so that also helps me prepare as well."

And in case anyone is still wondering if our guys know how big a challenge Belfast are, Chris is on hand again:

"We have preparing hard for this game all week and have been working on the mistakes we made against in our first game. I know Belfast will be a tough opponent Sunday night, but it's our home opener and we want to prove to ourselves and our fans that we are up for the challenge."

It's usually at this point in a game preview that we offer our Sjostrom Towers Keys To Victory but this week we thought we'd delegate that particular duty and present:

Chris Whitley's Keys To Victory!

1. I believe we have to keep things simple. We need to make sure we do the little things right and not be too fancy with the puck.

2. We need to take care of our own end. Belfast is a great team and have a lot of guys who are dangerous in the offensive zone so we need to be aware of our surroundings in our own end.

3. Play mistake-free hockey. The fewer mistakes we make, the better chance we have at winning the game. They are a team you can't give too many chances to or they will make you pay.

'Nuff said.

A Short Article In Support of Chris Zarb

2011-09-15T19:15:00.002+01:00

One of the things we've learned over the course of running this fanzine is that posting articles too frequently can be overkill. Nevertheless, with recent events I felt compelled to come out in support of one of our favourite Stars players of the last year.

We didn't attend the Sheffield game last Saturday but we were listening to the commentary and didn't really think much of it when the commentators got all excited when Chris Zarb and Matt Stephenson had dropped the gloves. It was late in the game, Stars were losing and we figured Chris was trying to get the guys going. It was only later that we discovered that Stephenson had fought Zarby because of a knee on knee collision between Chris and Jono Phillips.

"Knee on knee" is one of those horrible little phrases in hockey. Invariably it implies a serious injury - the most famous case of a knee on knee collision would be between victim Cam Neely and perpetrator Ulf Samuelsson in the NHL, the hit went a long way to ending Neely's career and Samuelsson was vilified as a cheap shot artist for the rest of his career.

The difference is, Samuelsson was a cheap shot artist - Chris Zarb most certainly is not. I have to admit, I cannot get my head around the narrow minded and downright ignorant response from a minority of the Sheffield Steelers support. I'd like to clarify that I'm sure the vast majority of Steelers fans realise this was an accidental collision and Chris meant no malice, but to read some posts on Facebook from certain Steelers fans claiming Chris intentionally set out to injure Phillips it has compelled us (the fans who have seen him week in and week out for a whole season) to come out and defend him.

Chris has already issued a full and frank statement on Facebook and it comes as no surprise to us that he has been quick to express regret and apologies for what has happened but at the same time he has admirably stood up and refused to let his name be trashed by a minority of ignorant fans. If Chris Zarb or any other hockey player enjoyed going out and deliberately injuring fellow players they would not have made it to the pros, this was an accident and Mr. Zarb is just as gutted as anybody at the results of it.

So let's grow up and learn to separate a deliberate act of malice from an unfortunate accident. Calls for lengthy bans and bloody retribution are ridiculous - this is the EIHL not the LNAH. It was an unfortunate accident and Stars fans as well as Steelers ones are all hoping Jono Phillips can make a full and speedy recovery from this and return to the league.

Statto's Corner With Countdown's Andrew Halliburton

2011-09-14T21:30:00.004+01:00

Hi guys, Drew Halliburton here (did I mention I was on Countdown, by the way?) providing (I'd like to declare a nine please, Jeff) the first of this season's Statto's Corner updates.

I thought I'd start by providing a Countdown numbers game with a twist. Your numbers are, (The number of points the top scorers in the EIHL so far have), (The number of players tied for that top spot), (The number of shirts Edinburgh had to borrow for import players on Sunday), (The number of major and misconduct penalties dished out in the Stars-Steelers game on Saturday), (The current PIM totals for Coventry/Edinburgh, the lowest total in the league at present), and your large, (Cardiff's total PIMs at time of writing). Your target: (Chris Whitley's current SV% in the league). Thirty seconds start... (Listening to earpiece)... well, my editor has just informed me it's not reasonable to expect you to look up the stats when I'm supposed to be giving them myself. So in order:

7, 5, 7, 10, 8, 50, Target: 857.

Thirty seconds start... now.

Actually I'm quite disappointed at how easy that one turned out to be. Answers on a postcard, however, to Sjostrom Towers. Or, you know, just fire us a message on facebook. First name drawn out of the hat wins... well, nothing, really. This is a low-budget publication, after all.

Hilarities aside, it's time to showcase the latest notable statistics from around the league.

As I touched upon earlier, there is a five-way tie at the top of the EIHL scoring charts, with David-Alexandre Beauregard, David Clarke, Brandon Benedict, Jordan Fox and Scott Champagne - all Nottingham players - sitting on 7 points. Sheffield's John DeCaro leads the goalie charts with a stellar .952 save percentage.

In comparison, having only scored one league goal this season thus far, our top scorers are Dan Ceman, Jarrett Konkle and Brent Hughes with one point. However, we've only played one game so there really isn't anything to read into that, and I'm sure we'll have numerous players in the top 20 quite comfortably by the end of the season. (Plus, one point is still one more point than anyone in Fife's had this year!) Goalie-wise, Chris Whitley's .857 SV% can't be judged either, and he performed admirably in the Sheffield game, only conceding 4 under huge pressure when other goalies may have let the floodgates open completely.

Chris Zarb has, of course, stepped off the plane and straight to the top of our PIM charts, with 30 for his part in the incident which led to the first of two fights in the Sheffield game.

As a closing note, we will be starting a new feature here where we list our top-3 scorers, at home, away from home and in total.

Home: No games played.

Away: Dan Ceman 1+0=1, Brent Hughes, Jarrett Konkle 0+1=1

Overall: Dan Ceman 1+0=1, Brent Hughes, Jarrett Konkle 0+1=1

So that's it for Statto's Corner, I'm Drew Halliburton, and did I mention already I was on Countdown?

A Look Back At Sheffield.

2011-09-12T01:54:00.008+01:00

It's that time of year again!

Saturday saw our league campaign opening with an away match against the Sheffield Steelers. While we won't lay claim to being at the game, we have enlisted the help of Stars fan Stewart Robertson, who was, to help us with our review. And as many others have said in the past, the first thing he really noticed was the sheer size of the Motorpoint Arena:

"This was the first away game I'd been to, other than Edinburgh and Fife. My first thoughts upon entering the arena, to the sound of AC/DC's Thunderstruck, was the size of the place, it really was quite impressive."

While we couldn't make it down, we were furtively trying to get the Steelers' commentary working, and heard the vast majority of the game. Sadly, the beginning of the game wasn't as impressive as the arena from a Stars viewpoint as we fell 1-0 behind within a minute of the game. A string of saves from our Man of the Match, Chris Whitley, kept us in the game until the end of the first period, as Stewart points out:

"Although there was little in the way of a goal threat coming from the Stars the fact that we prevented the Steelers from scoring again was something to be proud of, and it gave me hope for the rest of the game."

Sadly, the second period started much like the first, with the Steelers swarming us early and often, and quickly they carved out a 3-0 lead:

"The second period wasn't fun. A couple of soft goals followed and the Steelers seemed to be getting the breaks with the puck."

The second period eventually ended 4-0, and the shot count was 20-7 in Sheffield's favour. It seemed like the game was lost, but Dan must have had a rough word with the team in the intermission, because we started the third period a lot sharper and started to really put pressure on our opponents. About 7 minutes from the end, an incident occurred which led to Zarb and Jonathan Phillips being thrown from the game for kneeing and slashing respectively, and ended with Zarb fighting Matt Stephenson. It sounded like a loss for Zarb from what we heard, but having seen a video, it looked very even overall.

This was closely followed by our first Elite goal of the 11/12 season, Dan Ceman slotting home from a Brent Hughes pass with new boy Jarrett Konkle getting the other assist.

"The Stars finally got on the score sheet, which gave the traveling support something to cheer about, and it was the least the Stars deserved for their efforts."

So a final score of 4-1 leaves us with a defeat in our first game. Unexpected? No, cerainly not, but we couldn't help but feel we had the slightest chance of sneaking something from the trip. Still, especially in the third period, there were a lot of positives to be had, even if the overall performance wasn't quite there:

"I don't think the Stars played particularly well and unless you're on top of your game you won't beat the Steelers. Great effort from the lads though and it's early days. Give them a few games and I'm sure we'll get some decent results."

With our next game against title favourites Belfast on Sunday, we'll need to be on the top of our game to get anything from it but here at the Fanzine we're always fully behind the team and we're sure each and every one of you will be too!

Steven Chalmers joins us as we look ahead to the weekend.

2011-09-09T20:03:00.009+01:00

Good evening Stars fans, the time is upon us again to look ahead to a competitive Stars fixture and as first-games-of-the-season go, they don't come much harder than Sheffield away.

It's worth noting that - as we're sure everyone remembers - we ran out 4 - 2 winners the last time we met the EIHL champions and while any momentum we can take from that is debatable, it's a neat little stat nontheless.

Sheffield have lost a lot of quality this summer as Joey Talbot, Jerramie Domish, Ben Simon, Ervins Mustukovs and Rob Globke among others have said goodbye to the Steel City and while replacements such as Mike Ramsey, John Decaro and Ryan Finnerty are no slouches, it must be noted that (at least on paper) The Steelmen look a couple of notches down on last season's quality.

We, on the other hand, have a much improved quality of players and it could go a long way to helping us bridge the gap between the likes of the Steelers and ourselves. One new player calling DIA his hockey home this season is Steven Chalmers, who joins us today with his thoughts on this weekend and his career so far.

It can be a little daunting being a young Brit in this league going out and taking on the big boys but it's not an entirely new environment for Steven, he played a full season for the "Claaa-aaaaan" last year and his experience means he doesn't sweat the big boys as he puts it:

"Without a doubt, game by game the confidence grows. Everyone is up beat and raring to go."

We spoke earlier in the week about that time-honoured hockey cliche regarding team "gelling" and it would appear from what Steven told us that this group of guys are well on their way.

"The team has gelled a lot quicker than last season. Last year we had to travel to another rink to train which wasn't ideal and I feel the team is more organised and prepared for the season. Everyone is up for the challenge ahead and looking to finish as high as we can in the league."

We're glad that most Stars fans and the players recognise that the quality is there and it will show once everyone settles into the system and gets used to playing with each other.

Moving on to Steven's role at The Stars, not seeing much of him last season, we were pleasantly surprised at how good he was during the Fife games (not that we expected him to be bad). Could this be a result of the man in question recieving more ice time than he did in Braehead and being a native Fifer, does it feel strange to him playing on the Dundee side of the rivalry?

"No it doesn't feel strange at all. I feel like I will be getting more ice time here. Dan has given me a great opportunity to gain more valuable experience playing with the Stars and to develop my game further."

Unlike a few of our signings his summer, there weren't a lot of rumours or speculation that Steven might be joining us. With Braehead's coaching change and instability that can cause, we wondered if that impacted his decision.

"No it didn't affect my decision. I got a better offer from the Stars and I was impressed with the set up at Dundee. I saw lot of positive things about Dan as a coach and that he helps to develop young players. I also wanted to gain more experience on the ice."

Great to hear a young and up-and-coming player talk so highly of Dan The Man's youth policy and speaking of up-and-coming, Steven prepared for his pro hockey career over in Canada and the results of his dedication are already evident

"The Ontario Hockey Academy helped me a lot mentally and physically as a player. We trained everyday on ice and in the gym as well as in the classroom. The first year, I played over 60 games which were mostly in tournaments and the second year I played the same amount of games in a league and in tournaments all over North America. I met some great people from all over the world and made friendships that will last for a lifetime. It was an amazing experience and it is something I will never forget."

So with Steven's words and our take on it all thrown into one big soup of preview, here are our keys to victory.

1) The top guys need to make an impact. The likes of Konkle, Turner, Zarb and Hughesy need to come out of the blocks early and show Sheffield what we're all about. Throw everything including the kitchen sink at them from the outset and try to score early and knock them off their game.

2) Running three lines regularly. This one is essential in order to keep guys fresh as Sheffield will be forechecking hard at home.

3) Banish the memory of last season's needless penalty epidemic. You can't win games from the penalty box and with our group of smart hockey players, we should be able to do this quite comfortably.

(Disclaimer: We should point out that these 'keys to victory' are not our attempt to act like big shot hockey strategists with a penchant for armchair-coaching. These are merely the things we predict Dan and Brent will be focusing on in this game.)

So, thanks to Steven for joining us and we're sure he'll make an impact on Saturday and beyond. If you can't make it on Saturday, the Stars travel club will be updating the score on Facebook and Twitter while giving the team a much needed injection of away support. Steelers? Bring it on.

We need some gel please

2011-09-06T20:22:00.002+01:00

Maybe it was the fact that we weren't properly immunised, maybe it was the fact that we aren't ready for the "unique smell", potholes in the car park or Dens-Road-Market-esque cafe decor or maybe it was the fact that not wanting to shell out £30 for pre-season friendlies meant we preferred to give our hard earned to the Stars instead of the Flyers. Whatever the reason, we weren't in attendance during Saturday's 6 - 1 drubbing of the tinky Fifers and so as we look back at the weekend's games we will be focusing on what we saw at home on Sunday night.

After the previous night's result, we expected another comfortable win on Sunday and yet we looked anything but comfortable as we plodded along to a draw. It was tough to watch and not a great advert for Elite League Hockey.

But is it all doom and gloom for us this season? In short, no. Not by a long shot.

The key difference for us is in looking back at least season and our poor start. For us, while we started abysmally last season it was a different kind of bad than the performance we witnessed on Sunday. The main difference is that we have the players this season while last season we didn't. Not to begin with anyway. That's not to say that every single player we had to begin last season wasn't good enough. The likes of Hughesy, Dan The Man and AJ have shown their quality all along and we've all known for a long time how good our Brits can be. The difference is the quality of players we've brought in this season is distinctly better than last year.

There's no way we're going to start this season 0 - 15. Unlike last season where it just seemed like we didn't have the quality to compete, this season the quality is on show and while it's a cliché it genuinley does look like this team just needs time to gel.

Brennan Turner looks as good as we all hoped, positionally solid, works like a horse and has a laser beam for a slapshot. Jarret Konkle got himself into quality scoring positions at will on Sunday but a combination of summer rust and an outstanding display by young Blair Daly in the Fife goal meant that the quality of his shots was lacking - that will come with time. Dan McGoff looks like the complete package, he's already shown how good he is offensively with 3 points on Saturday and on Sunday he showed his defensive instincts with a good shut down game and while Alan Mazur was quiet, we saw flashes of his great speed and smart rushes. Jeff Hutchins showed his hockey intelligence with his assist to Dan The Man on Sunday and Chris Whitley looks super cool in goal, you really get the sense that he owns that crease and nothing phases him. There was only one goal on Sunday that he could have realistically prevented, apart from that he hasn't put a foot wrong.

Unlike last season when the team also needed time to gel and settle in, there were no real signs of the quality that would be apparent when they did so. On Sunday night we saw so many more reasons to be hopeful about what this team can achieve in real games that matter and when they start working like a well oiled machine, there will be no such thing as a guaranteed two points against The Dundee Stars anymore.

Jeff Hutchins on how far this team can go and more.

2011-08-19T19:35:00.004+01:00

We were going to call this article 'The Final New Import Interview' but as we all learned last night, Matt Suderman will not be joining the team this year due to illness. Here at the fanzine we wish Suds all the best for a speedy recovery and know that we along with everyone else who supports the mighty red, white and blue are sending him positive vibes at this difficult time.

Jeff Hutchins is our most experienced import in terms of the EIHL. The Stars will be his sixth club in the league that he has called home since the 05/06 season. Jeff has amassed a highly impressive 301 points in 273 games in the EIHL and with penalty stats that are a good indicator of his role as both a solid scorer and a physical presence. It was with those numbers in mind that we approached this interview differently than the rest, as with our frequent games against Edinburgh last season, most Stars fans are more than familiar with Jeff. So intead we wanted Jeff's thoughts about how far this team can go, the rest of the league and what he hopes to add to the mix on this year's Stars roster.

We started out with a brief and direct summary of what a player like Jeff adds to the Stars

I think they can expect a player who plays an "in your face" game and can play in all situations.

That works for us. With Mark Nebus not returning to the team this year, it appears Jeff will be filling the power forward role and with all due respect to Neebs, we feel that with Jeff's more adept scoring touch, we could be looking at an improvement in that department. If we're expecting Jeff to be our most physical forward this season, it's not something that will come as a surprise to him.

I would agree with that assessment, I know I am at my best when I am combining both aspects. I think I need to play as a power forward that does alot of the little things right, and provides some energy and scoring. I think taking care of your teammates is a responsibility that should be shared by every member however I feel that part of the game comes naturally to me.

One part of the game that doesn't come naturally to any player in professional hockey is being part of a team who you know are going to get blown out every week. This was something Jeff suffered last season after his team, the Edinburgh Capitals' well documented mid-season collapse.

Last year was the lowest point in my hockey career, it was hard to deal with the realisation that every game you were not going to just get beaten, you were going to get embarrassed! However I think you need to try and see the positives in tough situations, I guess the fact that fans supported us faithfully all year was the biggest positive.

However another natural aspect of Jeff's game, given that he is now 33 and one of the older members of the squad is leadership and we wondered if that was one of the things Jeff would be looking to bring to the team this season and indeed if he would be wearing a letter on his chest.

I am not sure what Dan's plans are for captains. However whether I am wearing a letter or not I do believe it is my obligation to provide leadership and help to the new guys. This will be my 7th year in the league and know how difficult it can be for new guys to find their feet and adjust on and off the ice.

Now that we had established that Jeff would be bringing leadership, physicality and a scoring touch to the team, we were interested in finding out how his move to The Stars came about in the first place and whether, after playing us a lot last season, his familiarity with the setup here played a role.

I think the thing that helped me in my decision was the professionalism of the club. I was impressed by the rink, the staff and the fans. After speaking with Hughsey at GB training camp about the organisation I knew I wanted to be part of it. My conversations with Dan about the direction of the club sealed my decision. Dan has real passion for driving the club forward and improving year on year. It was an easy decision really!

It's answers like that which really get us excited about the new season. To hear of Dan and Brent's enthusiasm for improving the team and getting the right guys on board really gives us confidence that we can improve on last season. Although, like the majority of our fans, Jeff agrees that while we look like a good bet to improve this year, it's too early to be setting our targets unrealistically high and with six years EIHL experience, the man knows what he's talking about.

I think we need to be realistic about our chances this year. I definitely think this league has two different divisions, the big 4 and then the rest. I think it would not be unreasonable for us to finish 5-6. I think the key for us is for the new guys to adjust quickly to the league which will help our start, I mean we cannot have a start like last year and expect to be shooting for 5-6. If we can do well against our closest competitors and steal games once in a while from the top four then we have great chance of achieving this goal. Take Braehead as an example, last year they did well early on and managed to knock off some big clubs which set them up to finish top five.

We can't honestly disagree with any of those words and it's good to know that Mr. Hutchins is aware of our struggles of last season and that our coaches and players know what needs to be done for us to have a better season. It's clear that Jeff's EIHL experience will be a key factor for us this season. Another key factor for us this season will be the games against our banjo-plucking neighbours across the tay. Jeff has never played in the same league as Fife and so we wondered if he was aware of the rivalry.

I was not aware of the rivalry prior to them joining the league, however since they have committed to play I am starting to get the idea of the significance. The only thing I will have to go would be the games I played against Notts. when I was in Sheff. Should be fun and can't wait for the challenge matches.

And what will be the top line we throw out to face the likes of Sidall and Stewart in Fife? Those decisions probably won't be made until after training camp gets underway but we couldn't resist asking Jeff whether our 'Toronto Trio' of Hughesy, Konkle and himself would make a good choice.

Again not sure what Dan's plan for lines are, however I did notice that we had a few guys from T.O. You can never have too many! I guess we will see how the lines play out, I would imagine that Dan will use training camp to mix up the combinations and see what transpires.

As many of you know, unlike our other imports Jeff will not be flying over in time for training camp. Instead it will be a quick drive up from Edinburgh which is where he now resides. We asked him why he had decided to make his home in the UK and spend so long in the EIHL.

After my first year in Coventry I always had the intention of leaving and going back to the states to continue playing. However, Ed Courtenay convinced me to come play for him in Belfast and I have been here ever since. I have settled in Edinburgh with my family and have great job outside of hockey and really enjoy the fact that I can work and still play. It is a real bonus!

Last and probably least, we asked Jeff about his choice of #71

I used to wear 17 and when I went to Coventry Russell Cowley had 17 so I flipped it around. It has stuck ever since!

In talking to Jeff for this interview it's clear to us that his experience and knowledge of this league are a real bonus in him coming here. Not to mention his flair for points and his hard checking style. Mr. Hutchins, for us, is one of the key signings up front this off-season and like we always say (but always mean) we can't wait to see him and all of the rest of the guys getting out there and winning in a few weeks.

Interview with Brennan Turner

2011-08-17T23:04:00.005+01:00

Well it's taken us a while to bring you an interview with our most exciting looking new D-Man this season. Mr. Turner has been busy this off-season but like the Ivy League Champ he is, he granted us an interview as soon as he was free and what an interview it is.

Brennan Turner is a 2005 NHL draftee and while he never made it to 'The Show' he has nevertheless carved out a hell of a career in the ECHL with a few AHL callups inbetween.

Before his days as a pro though, he spent three years playing college hockey but unlike any other former NCAA player coming into the league this season, Mr. Turner plied his trade at one of the most famous academic institutions in the world, the Ivy League Yale University. Before we even get into hockey, we had to ask Brennan if this made him a shoe-in for the title of Most Intelligent EIHL Player.

Haha, I'm not sure if I'm the most intelligent but I think I'd fare well against other players around the league in a round of Jeopardy. I have my degree in Economics from Yale and actually worked for 3 months at a Wall Street sell-side firm this summer, working on the energy team. I got to see first-hand the ins and outs of the global financial market system and had a great time doing so. It'll likely be something I pursue once my hockey career finishes up.

That's right. We may not be topping anyone's list of favourites to win the league this season but we boast the only player in the league to have worked on Wall Street and that's as good as winning the big prize for us. Moving on to the kind of game Mr. Turner plays, we don't think we'll be the only Stars fans who are excited to read this encouraging self assessment:

I've been known as a defensive shut-down defenseman, meaning I usually play against other team's top lines and make sure they don't score. I like playing a physical game and establishing a physical presence against another player early in the game will let him know that it'll be a difficult, physical game if he wants to try and match up against me (I don't usually get out-muscled in the defensive zone). I can get the puck to the net quick on offense and make a strong breakout pass.

Exploring the physical aspect of his game further, we asked Brennan about his approach to situations which call for a shedding of the gloves.

As I'm not necessarily a small guy, I've been known to get into a few incidents where the gloves are dropped. As I usually play against the other team's top lines, it's not always the best thing to fight another team's tough guy/fighter who only plays a couple minutes a game versus a guy like me who's playing 20 to 25 to sometimes 30 minutes a game.

And Brennan was quick to point out that while occasionally he will fight to get the team going, he usually engages in scraps for the best of reasons

That being said, I'm more a guy who will stick up for his teammates. Notwithstanding however, if something needs to be done to wake the boys up, I'm not afraid to get in there and do it.

A lot of Stars fans (ourselves included) are hopeful that Brennan will become of of the league's top D-Men this season and we wanted to know if he relishes those kind of expectations being put upon him

On any given night, any 1 player can be the #1 player on the ice. The difference I hope that I can bring to the table is consistency. Night in and night out, I expect to do my job out there . I think that my expectations are higher than the fans (on the defensive side of things at least) so I just want to give a 110% every night. I can only control what I can do but I hope that, if everyone plays within the system and themselves, we'll win a lot more games than we'll lose.

We all love to hear that a player holds himself up to high standards above and beyond what the fans expect of them and it's encouraging to see that Brennan is no exception. After establishing what kind of a player he is in his own end and his fondness for playing physical, we went on to ask Mr. Turner about his offensive attributes and whether we can expect to see a lot of points from him this season

I like to focus on defense first and offense second, which is probably why my offensive numbers aren't mind-boggling! I think though that on the bigger ice surface, it's a different game and there's more opportunity for offense. I played on olympic ice in juniors for 2 years and I really saw my game develop there. Definitely hope though to build on any numbers from previous seasons and then some.

If Brennan is the guy a lot of fans will be looking to as our number 1 D-Man, Jarrett Konkle fills that role up front. Konkle and Turner are no strangers to each other and Jarrett was one of the first guys who let us know via Twitter what a good signing Mr. Turner was. So we asked Brennan about Konks as both a team-mate and an opponent

Konks is a great team guy. Works very hard on and off the ice and in doing so, leads by example. He's a solid skater and a quick shooter. He's not super physical like me per se but he's definitely not afraid to go into the corners. Definitely looking forward to having him on my team again this year versus playing against him.

As well as his glowing assessment of Konks as a player, we also found out that Jarrett signing for The Stars was an added bonus in Brennan's decision to play for The Mighty Red, White and Blue this season.

I was looking at coming over to Europe this season and Coach Ceman just made it sound like a good fit for me. The fact that Konks is going is just a plus. I'm really looking forward to immersing myself in the culture and hopefully checking out some "touristy" things here and there if time permits it.

To round out the interview and to find out more about Brennan, we asked him about his favourite players growing up:

Growing up, I really enjoyed watching Rob Blake and Scott Stevens. Both players were physical defensemen who shut down the other team's top players but also added some offense to their team's game. Recently, I really enjoy watching Kevin Bieksa - he plays a hard-nosed game against some of the other team's best players and adds a couple points along the way.

And, of course, his jersey number:

I usually wear 3, 4, or 5. No specific reasons really - they're just numbers that defensemen usually wear and I'm not flashy or superstitious enough to wear the same number over and over again. Some guys need it but I don't.

Huge thanks to Brennan for providing one of the best interviews we've ever had here at your humble Fanzine. The new season is just around the corner and we're looking forward to seeing Brennan and all the rest of the Mighty Stars take the ice.

Jarrett Konkle talks to The Fanzine.

2011-07-22T12:02:00.004+01:00

One thing you can never accuse us of doing here at Sjostrom Towers is over-hyping things. The Dundee Stars are the greatest team in the history of hockey? Magnus Sjostrom is a god to all men? Allan Paul is the greatest living Fifer? - All undeniable facts, which is why today we can proudly state that we are bringing you an interview with the man who we think will lead our charge towards a top half finish.

Far be it from us to say that Jarrett Konkle is the signing of the summer, but Jarrett Konkle is easily the signing of the summer.

Of course, over-hyping a player can lead to heavy expectations for a player to deliver but the man in question is no stranger to the pressure to perform.

I think all athletes, once they get to a certain level, thrive under pressure and high expectations. Thats what makes them an elite athlete. I hope to do well and will work hard to attain my goals under any kind of pressure.

And if we're expecting a lot from him in the points department, we are assured it's nothing he hasn't heard before as Mr. Konkle begins by telling us:

I have always been relied on by my coaches to score goals and put up numbers...

And then goes on to tell us about his abilities at the other end of the ice

...but in the past few seasons I have really worked at becoming a more all around player and it seems to have helped as I have been PKing and playing a more defensive role if needed.

A guy who can play both ends of the ice and put up big numbers, what more could we ask for? 192 points in 246 ECHL games is true Cory Morgan territory and from what Jarrett told us about his strongest areas as a player, it's no surprise that news of his signing has been so well received.

My biggest strengths would be my ability to get the puck away quickly and my offensive instincts.

A player with these kind of attributes is always going to be in high demand so we were curious as to why Jarrett decided the move to Dundee was the right one for him at this stage.

I really wanted to try something different, I have played in North America for 6 years now and was looking to try a new league and a new challenge.

The challenge this season will be to try and improve upon our eighth place finish last season and with the roster we have so far, it appears we are in great shape to do just that. Touching up on this point further, we wondered if Dan The Man had discussed with Jarrett the way he wants the team to go this season

We haven't spoken much about the team as a whole yet, but he has informed me that he will look to me to try to produce offensively. So, I'd assume that is one area he is looking to improve.

Looking back at Jarrett's career before coming to Dundee, we noticed that the ECHL wasn't the highest level he had played at and so we asked about his 13 game stint in the AHL for the Binghampton Senators back in the 08/09 season.

When I got called up I was playing real well and they needed another forward due to injury. I played in 3 games under a tryout and then they signed me to a standard contract to finish out the season with them. It was a great experience and will be something I'll never forget.

If we go even further back we find that Jarrett played with Chris Zarb earlier in his career and so, as we always like to do, we asked him about his memories of playing with a former Star. His answer, we think, sounds familiar to all and throws in a fact for you video game buffs out there.

Zarbs and I played together in Johnstown in the ECHL. Some of my memories of playing with him would be him going coast-to-coast as a D man. That and him being one of the best Call of Duty players in ECHL history!

Finishing up, we asked about Jarrett's favourite player growing up and (of course) his jersey number and anyone who has the mighty Mess as their favourite hockey player is alright by us! (Well, the NY Rangers supporting half of your fanzine duo anyway!)

#11, because Mark Messier wore it. My favorite player was Mark Messier. I loved how clutch he was and how good a leader he was. I wouldn't say I'm the same type of player as him, but really respect guys that play the same way he did.

Huge thanks to Jarrett for letting us throw questions his way. As we said, we firmly believe this is the signing of the summer. Make no mistake about it, we are this season's dark horses and anyone who under-estimates us is in for a shock. As the old saying goes: Here we go Dundee, here we go!

Alan Mazur Interview

2011-07-11T20:30:00.003+01:00

Mah-zoor? May-zoor? Mazzer? We admit to being unsure how to pronounce our new D-Man's name but rest assured we are reliably informed that "May-zer" is how it's done.

Today, we talk to Alan Mazur, one of the most well-received of Dan Ceman's summer signings.

Statistically, the guy is sound. If we compare him to another four-year NCAA player coming into the Elite League, Chad Huttel from Sheffield, we find that Huttel's combined 8 points in four seasons are absolutely obliterated by Mazur's 98. Alan followed this up with a strong 32 points in 65 games in his first pro season in the CHL. The numbers are there but as we know, points are not always the full story on a D-Man which is why it's also encouraging to see that Alan led the CHL's Bloomington franchise in +/- for D-Men and was second overall on the team.

Statistics aside though, one of the first things he established with us is that:

I move the puck very well and make smart plays. Good at jumping in and adding in on the offense and power-play. Solid in my own end.

Very similar to how Dan McGoff describes his strong points and reading this is a great sign of things to come for our D-Men. Last season we went with a unit of big guys who we thought would provide toughness and the ability to check other teams out of the game but it didn't really work out that way. It's obvious to us that Dan Ceman has a better overall picture of the EIHL now and is making his signings accordingly. Our next question to Alan focused on this shift in the makeup of our defence:

I wouldn't go and say that we or I am much smaller but smaller more agile guys will make for more exciting hockey and good puck movement and offense from the back end.

Part of making us an overall stronger team this season will surely be to ensure we sign guys who are smart when it comes to taking penalties. We noticed that Alan's PIMs are not huge but not tiny either. Is this the sign of a guy who plays physical but is smart with it?

Yes I like to be aggressive and get under the skin of players on other teams.

And what about dropping the mits and having a bit of a scrap?

I am not really a fighter but if it happens then so be it. Good aggressive and tough hockey is what I have grown up with.

It's clear that the word that keeps cropping up in our player interviews is 'smart'. This is one of those qualities in a player which is not often talked about but is absolutely key in having a successful hockey team. An offensive D-Man might be good for 50 points but if he's not smart with it, he can all too often leave his team exposed at the back by taking irresponsible rushes or ill-advised penalties. This is why we're happy that we appear to be signing a core of smart players who know how to avoid these pitfalls.

Another highly touted signing this offseason has been our goalie Chris Whitley, we've heard nothing but good things about him from everyone who's seen him play and Mr. Mazur is no exception.

He is a very good goalie. Only played him a few times but watched him in the finals one year and he is a very good big game goalie. Took his team deep into the playoffs 2 years in a row.

Speaking of big games, we also chatted to Alan about his biggest game in the NCAA Frozen Four.

I played in front of I think around 37,000 fans when I was in college in the NCAA frozen 4. We played in Detroit where the NFL football team Detroit Lions play. They made a rink on the football field. It was amazing, pretty intense.

The NCAA is not a route often taken by Canadian guys on their way to becoming pros so we were interested to find out what had made Alan take this choice over the more established major junior route.

I chose to go to the United States to play college hockey because I wanted to get an education while playing hockey and play at the highest college hockey level (NCAA D1). I had a great experience there and enjoyed my 4 years there and meeting all the great people that have helped me to get me where I am now.

And finally, as always, the jersey number question.

I normally wear 15, that is what I wore in junior hockey so I kept it in college. No reason why really. I have worn 16,5,4 and 6 last year. Those numbers were basically just given to me.

So there we have it, a smart, physical and high scoring D-Man. Highly scouted and a great capture for the mighty red, white and blue. Our roster is already looking a hundred times better than last year and we are confident that the additions of guys like Mazur, McGoff and Whitley are going to pay off in spades when it comes to a higher placed finish. Thanks to Alan for taking the time to answer our questions - roll on September.

The Season That Was - Part One: September

2011-06-29T17:45:00.001+01:00

So here at Sjostrom Towers, we may have lucked into our positions writing about the Stars, and that's all well and great. But at the bottom of it all, we are simply fans of the team.

We thought we'd try out a new feature for the off-season, and attempt to give a fans perspective of the season that has just passed. So without further ado, this is the Season That Was.

Although this will be a look at the month of September, the season I suppose started on April 28th 2010. The announcement that our beloved Dundee Stars would once again be competing in the top flight of British Ice Hockey. The glitz and glamour of the Elite League.

We quickly snapped up Stars stalwart, John Dolan, and followed that announcement up with our new player/coach for the upcoming season, 36-year-old Canadian Dan Ceman, who was instantly hailed on all fronts as a wonderful choice as head of the team, and was well-versed in British hockey having had five seasons here playing for Sheffield, Bracknell and Nottingham.

A string of Brits followed - Wishart, Forsyth, McGill, Phillips, before Dan's first import was announced in American forward, Peter Cartwright, quickly followed by Brent Hughes, poached from Newcastle Vipers. The general consensus was that the team was shaping up very nicely indeed and although we weren't bringing in the calibre of player seen by the league's big boys, we don't think anyone was expecting us to go out there and work miracles in our first season.

With excitement really starting to build, more and more players were announced. We completed our import forward lineup with Mark Nebus, AJ MacLean and one-time-NHLer and all-around entertainer, Sean McMorrow, who signed from Belfast Giants.

The signing of McMorrow would prove highly controversial but it achieved a positive outcome in terms of getting people talking about The Stars. McMorrow was undoubtedly the biggest name in the EIHL, perhaps for the wrong reasons depending on who you talk to but we made a big noise in signing him and got fans from every team looking at us and taking note. The self styled "Sheriff of Dundee" made no secret of the fact that he was coming here to "serve and protect" and along with his undoubted skills in the enforcing department, he had a gift for PR and talking to the cameras and for this reason it was perhaps no surprise that The Stars chose #23 to be their figurehead when the players arrived in town.

We had a little more trouble filling our defensive spots - Canadian Jason Tassier signed but had to pull out due to injury, and fellow Canadian Jamie Lovell signed then decided against moving to Scotland. However, our eventual defensive lineup of Steve Makway, Matt Suderman, Luciano Lomanno and the young Brit, Sam McCluskey, looked solid enough. We also signed American goalie, Jerad Kaufmann, from the IHL.

Roster complete, it was time for our first games of the season. A home-and-home mini-series against the powerhouse Sheffield Steelers. Anticipation running high, 1800 packed into Dundee Ice Arena for the season opener on Sunday, the 5th of September. And within one period, our expectations were sadly brought to earth with a bit of a bump. Perhaps a good metaphor for how the first couple of months of the season would pan out was encapsulated when the first puck to hit a net in Dundee Ice Arena last season saw Steve Makway inexplicably pass it past his own goalie for a Steelers goal. 4-0 down having been outshot 13-5 in the first period and the entire team looking a little shaky, as we went on to lose the game 6-0.

It only got worse in the return game. Sheffield outplayed us again and we lost 7-0, replacing Kaufmann with McGill for the third period. Kaufmann only lasted 10 minutes the next day at home to Nottingham, where once again we were 4-0 down inside the first period. Two little milestones came in this game though. First off, we scored our first ever Elite goal, scored by Mark Nebus, and a goal many have called the most beautiful ever to be scored in Dundee Ice Arena, Carty's well-documented strike. Three games in, we had three defeats, 4 goals scored and 22 against.

Although no-one had expected us to go out and beat two of the league's top teams in our first three games, the writing on the wall was starting to take shape for our man between the pipes. We do occasionally like to take a light humoured pop at some of Stars underperformers here at Sjostrom Towers but in all seriousness the cracks were starting to appear in Dan's choice of netminder at this stage. It was brutally apparent that for whatever reason, Jerad Kaufmann was not going to be the man for the job. His speed and positioning were starting to look highly suspect and while 3 losses out of 3 was not the end of the world and indeed pretty much expected from our first three games, losing them by a combined 22 - 4 was very worrying and an early sign that personel changes would have to be forthcoming for us to make any headway.

September's next game saw the first visit of The Braehead Clan and their ridiculously rhythmically-naive "let's go Claaaaaaaaaaaaaan let's go" chants to Dundee Ice Arena. While The Stars again managed three goals (from Hughesy, Carty and of all people, Michal Beca) and were a bit more solid at the back, The Weegies managed to run out 5 - 3 winners in a game which many fans had optimistically predicted would be our first win. For the second straight game, McMorrow took on the other team's tough guy and won as he made short work of Cedric Bernier. And while McMorrow's pugilistic exploits provided some measure of entertainment, it was the scoreboard and not the penalty box that we wanted to be dominant in.

If some Stars fans had expected we had a good chance of beating Braehead, everyone and their brother saw our next game against Edinburgh as a huge chance for the first W. Stunningly, however, it was not to be. We left the Nation's capital on the end of a 3 - 2 loss with our Challenge Cup campaign already in tatters. If our previous losses had been poor if not unexpected, this was the first one where there really were no excuses. The fans, the players and the management really started to realise at this point that change was needed because if we struggled to get a victory over Edinburgh, it was tough to try and think where the victory would come from. The next two games played out in predictable fashion with a 9 - 2 mauling down in Coventry and a surprisingly close 4 - 2 home loss to Belfast.

Thankfully, hope was at hand for our defense in the shape of a tall, bald headed American called Chris Zarb. His arrival would ultimately lead to the depature of poorly performing Canadian-Italian D-Man, Luciano Lomanno who headed back home shortly after Zarb's first game. After the signing of Zarb was announced on the 16th of September, we waited with baited breath for a full two weeks before he finally made his debut on the final day of the month.

The 30th of September at Dundee Ice Arena saw the Coventry Blaze return in a presumably confident mood after their 9 - 2 demolition of us in their barn. Zarb was making his debut but no rational thinking Stars fan really held out much hope of a victory in this game and yet, this 60 minutes against our old rivals injected the biggest boost of hope into the Stars fanbase since the start of the season. A brilliant first period saw us jump out to a 2 - 0 lead; remakably, the first time we had been ahead in a game on home ice. The Blaze fired back before the end of the period before tying the game midway into the second and it looked like they were about to go on to take the game comfortably but the mighty Stars had other ideas as Wishy fired us back into the lead. From that point on we were the better team. A combination of silly penalties and not-as-sharp-as-it-could-have-been finishing ultimately saw the Blaze win the game 4 - 3 but for the first time we could hold our heads high and say we were the better team. We still hadn't won but chinks of light were starting to appear at the end of the tunnel. It was a great way to end what had been a very disappointing month.

Sjostrom Towers talk to... #83?!?!

2011-06-27T17:20:00.004+01:00

Today, we are joined by the Stars' latest signing, Canadian goalie Chris Whitley.

As with the signing of Dan McGoff, there is not a lot of information readily available about Chris, we once again we thought we'd chance our luck and ask him a few questions directly.

We asked him what style of netminder he is, and what he feels his biggest strength is on the ice.

I would definitely say I am a butterfly goalie. My biggest strengths are my competitiveness and drive to win every game I play. I prepare for every game with the mindset that I will get the win.

Chris had a great 2009/10 season, and was voted the second best CHL goalie that year. He was also called up for a stint in the AHL, and started the season by being invited to the Detroit Red Wings training camp. We asked him first what the circumstances were behind his AHL callup:

I got called up to Texas (Stars) for a game, then a week later got called up to Lake Erie (Monsters) and was told it could be a few weeks because they had two goalies out with injuries. I ended up being up with them for three games and got one start which I won.

We then asked him about the Red Wings training camp - did he get a chance to play against the likes of Pavel Datsyuk and how did he fare against that level of skill?

It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot from those guys on what it takes to be a pro. As for Datsyuk I didn’t face him much in practice however (Nicklas) Lidstrom and (Henrik) Zetterberg I faced quite a bit and it was a lot of fun.

Stars fans may not be familiar with the CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) League - essentially Canada's equivalent of the NCAA - where Chris plied his trade for the well-renowned Lakehead University team for five seasons. We asked him for a little on the background of the league, and how it helped his development as a player.

It’s the university league in Canada, and most of the players come out of major junior to play there. The schedule is similar to this league, where the majority of the games are played on the weekends. Playing at Lakehead was a great experience for me, my last two years I had a coach who coached professionally the year before and helped in my progress to get to the next level.

We had heard that Chris wears the number 83, a very unusual number, so we had to find out his reasons behind that choice.

I wear #83 because when I was a kid I hated getting #30 every year, so I wanted to be the highest number on the team and I couldn’t pick #99 because of Wayne Gretzky, I decided to pick the year I was born which is 1983.

We asked Chris if he remembers playing with or against any of the Stars' recent CHL alumni, and if there are any memories in particular which stick out.

I played against Steve Makway a few games but only remember him as a big tough D man. I played against Brent Hughes in junior hockey in Ontario. So out of the guys I know him the best.

We thought we'd finish by asking Chris why he chose to join the Elite League, and in particular the Stars.

I have heard great things about this league and that’s why I felt it was time to move over to the Elite League. I know Dundee are a new team to the league and heard many good things from Brent Hughes which made it very appealing to me.

We'd like to thank Chris for his time and in-depth answers, and look forward to seeing him on the opening day of the season. Let's face it, he's definitely going to be better than Kaufmann!

Interview with new signing Dan McGoff

2011-06-21T17:00:00.003+01:00

After yesterday's article where we tried to shed some light on the type of player our new signing might be, we had a chance to get the gossip straight from the horse's mouth so to speak.

As has always been our style, we had the chance to swoop in for an interview with the newest member of Dan Ceman's blue and white army, we wanted to find out what kind of player we would be getting come September and Mr. McGoff gave us a well put and articulate summary of his playing style and career so far.

We started with the most obvious question and the one that all fans want to know when their club sign a player new to these shores as we asked Dan what he would consider to be his strongest areas as a hockey player.

I think that my biggest strengths would be my understanding of the game itself and my skating ability. I think that I am good at making the first pass and moving the puck then jumping into the play to make an outnumbered situation.

Sounds good to us, it seems to confirm what we and many others had thought that Dan may well be a speedster with good skating ability and his added point about having a good understanding of the game is music to our ears as all successful teams need smart players who know when to join the rush and when not to. To touch up slightly on Dan's last answer though, we wanted to find out if his high scoring stats in The Netherlands were an accurate representation of our belief that he is very much an offensive D-Man.

I would say that I am offensive, but I also pride myself in the defensive zone. I am not the biggest guy on the ice so I have to rely on my skating and my feet to defend, but I feel I do a good enough job defensively because that was the type of player I was asked to be in college. But I like to be offensive and jump into the play.

As we mentioned in yesterday's article, Dan is the second player in as many seasons to join us out of the Dutch league as Peter Cartwright joined from the Groningen Grizzlies last season, we took this chance to ask Dan if he remembers playing against a former Star and whether he has played with or against anyone else on the roster.

I remember playing against Peter, he was a good player with a good skill set. His team was not so good so he had to make most of his opportunities on his own and as you can see in his stats from Groningen he did that pretty well. I don't think I have played against anyone else on the team.

As we found out in our next line of questioning though, Carty is not the only player known to Dan with British hockey connections and his former teammates and his desire for a new challenge were big reasons in his choosing to come to Dundee and the UK.

I wanted to better my career and this was the logical step for me. I think that the league is overall more talented than Holland and I want to push myself with a new challenge. I have heard alot about the league from my former teammates Jeff Smith (Coventry) and Christian Boucher (Hull). They have had great things to say about the competition and level of play so I am really excited to play in a more talented league and see what I can do.

We know that in Dundee we can create an atmosphere which creates the illusion that our rink is much better than it is but admittedly, we'll have to go some to beat one of Dan's career highlights from his college days as we asked him about the biggest crowd he has played in front of.

I played in front of 17,000 in the Beanpot Hockey Tournament and the Hockey East Championships held at the TD Garden (where the Bruins play) in college. It was such a thrill and so much fun. Its nice to be playing in front so many people who are excited to be there watching hockey.

And while we are trying to create an atmosphere from the stands to match that, we obviously (as we always like to do at Sjostrom Towers) wanted to know the secrets behind the jersey number Dan will be donning as we belt out our support for the team.

I wear 23, it really doesn't have a significant meaning to me, I usually wore 19 because it was my college number, but it has been taken the past few years so I went with 23 and it stuck.

Finishing up with a nod to last season and with the question that we felt might provide the best insight into Dan Ceman's recruiting policy this summer, we wondered if McGoff's relatively few penalty minutes over his career were a big factor in wanting to sign him as we all know of our struggles against needless penalties last season.

Being a small guy I usually get the benefit of the doubt with penalties. I play agressive, but the refs seem to overlook it because of my size. I pride myself on being a player that stays within the rules, and I think my skating ability allows me to do that. I feel like I am pretty smart using my stick and know how to get away with it.

Although as Dan went on to point out, there is more to his game than a guy who will stay within the rules.

I think it could be a factor in why Coach decided to pursue me, but I think it has more to do with having a more mobile blueline and a guy who will jump in the play and put some pressure on other teams defenses

We want to thank Dan McGoff for taking the time to answer our questions and providing such a rounded and detailed insight into himself as a player, we can't wait to see him and the rest of the team in action in September. Not long to go now.

What can we tell you about Dan McGoff?

2011-06-20T18:15:00.001+01:00

As you've probably seen by now, American defenseman Dan McGoff has decided to make Dundee his home for his fourth year as a pro hockey player. As we always do when the mighty Stars sign a 'newbie' we had a scout around the world wide web to see if we could find out any little extras about the player that may be interesting.

The first thing that jumps out is his relatively small size compared to the majority of imports we signed last season. Video footage of him in action seems to be quite scarce but from previous experience we think it's a safe assumption to make that a 5'7" 12 stone D-man is likely to be quick but solid with a low centre of gravity and thus hard to knock off the puck.

Before turning pro McGoff played for The Boston University Terriers, a world famous college hockey program which has produced such NHL stalwarts as Tom Poti, Chris Drury and Ryan Whitney in recent years and further back was the breeding ground of the USA National Team 'miracle on ice' captain, Mike Eruzione. While the team didn't enjoy any great success while McGoff played for them, there are few places better for an American player to get their start in the game.

McGoff comes to us from the Nijmegen Devils of The Netherlands' top tier and it was during his first season there that he chipped in 31 points in 46 games and a further 6 points in 8 playoff games as the Devils completed a double of league and playoff silverware. Our last foray into the Dutch league was for Peter Cartwright who managed a respectable tally of 55 points (roughly a point per game) in the EIHL. Upon signing Carty last season we didn't really know what to expect as we had never signed a player straight out of the Dutch league before and although Carty's 80 points in 42 games in The Netherlands looked impressive, we had to factor in that the Dutch league is by some accounts a few notches below the EIHL in standard. The other factor to consider is that Carty came to us from the Groningen Grizzlies who were the basement boys of the league while McGoff was lifting the trophy.

So in summary, from what we can piece together so far we're getting a D-Man who should be fairly mobile and yet sturdy and one who can score for fun at the top end of the Dutch league. The only question mark that remains and that isn't clear from what we can tell so far is what he's like in his own zone. For now we can look at the positives and hope that McGoff can bring his scoring touch to the EIHL and it's always a positive to have a proven winner of silverware on the team. Either way the Stars are already looking better going into this season than we were at this time last year. Reduced import numbers have always led to greater league parity and while we're certainly not expecting anything unrealistic next season it certainly looks like we won't be starting it 0-15.

Welcome to the Stars, Dan. Wear the legendary red, white and blue with pride - roll on September.

The Sjostrom Towers Rumour Mill - Week Four.

2011-05-30T18:55:00.001+01:00

Well the last couple of days have seen some big rumours flying around. We've been talking to a lot of people to see how much validity there are to the ones concerning the Stars and this is what we've been able to find out.

A credible rumour doing the rounds is that Stars are looking to the AHL (North America's second highest level) for our new man between the pipes. From our own research, former New York Islanders prospect Joel Martin is the name that keeps popping up. This guy looks like he could do a real job in the EIHL and we would be more than happy to see him wear the famous red, white and blue next season. Either way it'll be a mark of the smart coach Dan The Man is turning into to realise his mistake in going with Kaufmann last season and trying to put that right from the get go.

Two players who have recently been brought to our attention as Stars signing targets are American Andrew Brennan (D), and Canadian Kevin Gardner (C). Both of these guys spent last season in Denmark where Dan Ceman played for a number of years. We've heard from more than one source that Dan is looking back to his former home to scout talent and these two could be possibilities. Looking into this further, we haven't been able to get any major leads on 25-year-old defenceman Brennan, however from what we understand 30-year-old center Kevin Gardner has been heavily linked with a move to Dundee. As yet, we're not sure if it's gone any further but he certainly looks like someone who would be an adequate replacement for the heavily-rumoured-not-to-be-returning Jay Latulippe. Gardner has two years ECHL and one year CHL experience alongside three years in Germany and was top goal-scorer in the Danish league last season.

Mothers, lock up your daughters (from your sons) - it looks like Fife are headed to the EIHL. Or does it? To be honest we've heard so many rumours that they're in and so many that they're out that we don't know what to make of it anymore. One thing's for sure, the Northern League is dead on it's arse and the few remaining Fife fans appear to be losing patience with their club's lack of ambition. The EIHL want them, their fans want EIHL - it's all down to the owners now. We hope they make the smart choice and join the big boys but then again we are talking about people who in this day and age still refuse to put up plexi glass in their rink so who knows?

Following on from a previous rumour regarding Matt Hussey, it would appear we have been fleeced by the player's agency and he will not be making the trip over to Dundee after not being able to thrash out a contract.

We also hear there is a chance that Dan is interested in obtaining Kevin Phillips after he was dropped by the Steelers - Phillips would be a worthy addition to any EIHL side and would be very welcome in Dundee.

One final rumour we have heard is that one half of the Fanzine team will be making a (hopefully none too brief) appearance on Countdown on the 23rd of June. Actually we can confirm that this will indeed be the case, and you should all get your Sky+ boxes set!

Early Signings Are Great and Other Musings...

2011-05-27T13:44:00.001+01:00

Well after a month long hiatus due to unfortunate family circumstances, it feels good to be talking about the greatest hockey team in the world again.

So what's happened in the last month? Oh just the small matter of most of our roster being signed by the end of May. One of the worst things about the offseason for hockey fans in this country is the often long waits between signing news (or if you're unfortunate enough to be an Edinburgh or Fife fan, the long wait for your first bit of signing news). It's refreshing that the Stars are getting things done swiftly this offseason. I think we'd all agree it's far more enjoyable to hear nothing for months because your team is signed rather than hearing nothing for months while it's being assembled.

So what do we think about the signings so far? Well, we're no more qualified than anyone else to offer our opinions but we like to talk about the Stars and this seems to be a good place to start.

Defencemen:

Matt Suderman - Suds came to us at the beginning of last season having previously signed for the Hull "Will-they-won't-they" Stingrays, and proved himself to be an unspectacular, no-nonsense defenceman. We feel that while he might not have been our first name on the re-signing list, we welcome Suds back and hope he can put to rest a few of the doubts that cropped up in our minds about him last season. (Of course, world renowned hockey experts that we are, we'd like to tell Suds to work on the backhand during the summer ;))

Craig Mitchell - Known Fifer Craig comes to us with his brother Lee, direct from the Hull Stingrays. He had an injury-interrupted season last time out with Hull, so we are hoping we'll see the best of him in an uninterrupted season for us. Word of mouth states he's a reasonably speedy, position-playing D in the same ilk as Sam McCluskey (who unfortunately headed the other way for the 11/12 season) and we look forward to seeing him line up in a Stars shirt.

Euan Forsyth: Dan picked Brucie as Coach's POTY last season and with good reason, as he stepped up to EIHL level quite nicely. He needs to push his physical play up a little to be fully effective in the Elite League but at the Fanzine we firmly believe he's capable of doing just that.

Forwards:

Dan Ceman - If you want to know what we think about Dan "The Man" Ceman, you only need to hark back to our heart-pouring post a couple of months back about the man himself. Our top goal, assist and points-scorer for last season, and with a proud pedigree of winning silver wherever he goes, we won't go far wrong under his advisory and leadership. A true pro and a wonderful signing.

Brent Hughes - This one's a no-brainer. The heart and soul of the team last season, a leader on and off the ice. No one hated to lose more and no one worked harder to win. We were worried that one of the bigger budget teams would snap up Hughesy during this off-season but we feel a great sense of pride in the fact that the Stars are the first EIHL club he has decided to return to. This one was a priority and we're glad it's happened.

AJ Maclean - We really wanted Stars to focus on bringing in players during this off-season who were more adept at raking in the points. I don't think we'd be doing the man a disservice to say this was not AJ's strong suit last season. What he does bring to the table though is a desire to play for the jersey, a love of the club and a tenacious penalty killing style that was one of our standout areas last season. Admittedly, we'd be happier about this signing if he could up his points totals this season but we can't fault him in any other area of his game.

Jeff Hutchins - Did someone say point-scoring forwards? This is exactly the kind of player we should be trying to sign if we want to improve on last season. Jeff has always been a point per game player in the EIHL and even managed 54 on last season's trainwreck of an Edinburgh Capitals team. The mighty Stars will be his sixth EIHL club and we hope he can maintain his high points output and be a fixture at DIA for seasons to come.

Lee Mitchell - We have covered the finer points of the Mitchell brothers' signings in our previous article but to reiterate, he has the scoring touch and EIHL experience that our Brits of last season lacked and if he can stay healthy, could potentially be a major cog in the Stars machine next season. Excellent signing.

Gary Wishart - It's always good to see the Brit core back and Gary Wishart is certainly part of that. Having been troubled by health issues a few seasons back he has recovered well to become our top-scoring Brit last season and we're very glad to see him back grafting in a Stars shirt.

John Dolan - JD bleeds red. And blue. And white. A Stars ever-present since 2003, JD has given his all every shift he's played and was a decent-scorer when called upon for us last season. His re-signing was of course the worst-kept secret in hockey, but we're happy he's back all the same.

Goalie:

Mark McGill - He stepped into the breach very aptly indeed when "starter" Jerad Kaufmann flopped in goal for us at the beginning of last season and he will assume the backup role once again for us in 11/12. Hopefully he'll continue to gain experience, possibly under an ex-AHL goalie if the rumours are to be believed!

The 'Trade'

2011-04-26T21:30:00.001+01:00

Okay, so it's not officially a trade but this past couple of weeks we've participated in a 4 player switch with the Hull Stingrays which has got people from both fanbases and those outwith the two clubs asking who got the better end of the deal.

Lee and Craig Mitchell are the latest Fifers to realise that life north of The Tay is better as Stars announced that they will be donning the legendary red, white and blue next season. On the face of it, we couldn't be happier here at Sjostrom Towers. Lee is a solid points scorer with years of EIHL experience and Craig is a young up and coming D-Man who also comes with a few solid EIHL seasons under his belt. If asked to pick a couple of new homegrown players to join our roster this season, realistically there weren't many better options than the Mitchell brothers.

The problem is, two of our standout Brits from last season, namely Tristan Harper and Sam McCluskey are headed in the opposite direction and will don the significantly less famous and infinitely more hideous yellow, blue, white and black next season in East Yorkshire.

So, to put it bluntly, who wins? Who has got the better end of this trade of talent.

To answer this we need to address the makeup of success for any hockey team and speculate on which team's duo will be better in each area. For us, there are 5 areas of comparison by which to judge this switch.

1. Points Production
In this area there is no doubt that The Stars have got the edge. Both Mitchell Brothers outscored their positional counterparts from The Stars last season in terms of points percentage. Lee's 0.9 points-per-game is a level above our Brit forwards of last season as Wishy chipped in a 0.5 PPG while JD and Harper managed 0.4. This statistic is not as important when comparing Craig and Sam as neither are particularly offensive defensemen but over the regular season, Craig had the tiniest of edges in this category.

Winner: Stars

2. Physical Presence
If we're talking about the forwards, we have to give the edge to Hull here. Tristan is a big forechecking power forward and will drop the mits with anyone in the league. Lee Mitchell is no slouch when it comes to the rough stuff but does not have near the size to be as physical a presence as Tristan. We obviously haven't seen enough of him to make a complete judgment but by all accounts when it comes to taking the body, Mr. Harper is the man you want in your team. As far as the D-Men go, Craig has the edge. Sammy was not much of a physical threat at all last season but that is not where his main strengths lie and so we wouldn't consider this a weakness.

Winner: Stingrays

3. Experience
This is a win for the Stars hands down. Going into last season, our entire Brit pack had six EIHL games between them and this really hurt us in the early going. The Mitchell brothers have a combined nine seasons of EIHL experience, they won't need as much time to gel and adjust as we saw from a lot of our players last season. Last season was Tristan and Sam's first full season in the EIHL and it could be argued they are still finding their feet although they came on strong towards the end of the season and both made the step up very well but having two guys come into the team who are 'EIHL ready' cannot be understated and this may be the biggest advantage in Stars' favour coming out of this trade.

Winer: Stars

4. Potential
We have talked at length on this fanzine about how good we feel Sam McCluskey can become. We haven't seen enough of Craig Mitchell to really know if he holds a similar level of potential but the fact is that all four of these guys are still very young. At just 24 years old, Lee Mitchell is the senior member of the quartet in question and with the way he can put the points on the board, it's a comforting thought to know he's coming to The Stars at the start of what should be his peak years. Tristan Harper we feel also has the potential to be a really good points scorer in this league. He shot out of the blocks with the points after joining us last season and ended up being an ever present on the top two lines. Overall though, we still feel Sam McCluskey has the most potential of the four but for Hull to have won in this category, we have to assume he will stay with them for the next few seasons and nothing like that can ever be guaranteed in British hockey. So with that in mind, we cannot pick an out and out winner in this category.

Winner: Draw

5. Fitness
This is the real X Factor. Lee Mitchell has missed a significant amount of games in the last few seasons due to different injuries and Craig joined him on the injury list for a lot of last season. The key in Stars winning this trade is the two of them staying healthy for all or most of the season. Sam and Tristan had no injury worries last year and so Hull could potentially 'win' this trade by default next season if it goes similarly in terms of fitness. Here's hoping it doesn't

Winner: Stingrays

So overall it's looking very even right now. What pleases us is that the areas in which we feel Stars come off strongest are areas that cost us hugely last season. We didn't have many guys capable of putting up good numbers and had no Brits with any EIHL experience to speak of, this has changed now and if the Brothers Mitchell can stay healthy and Lee keeps up his scoring touch while Craig continues to improve at the back, there is every chance we could have the last laugh as we finish above Hull in the league next season. We would like to finish up by thanking Sam for his efforts last season and Tristan in particular for not just his on ice efforts but for supporting us so much with the fanzine. We look forward to seeing them and booing them (all in the name of good natured banter) when Hull visit and hopefully lose to the Mighty Stars next season.

The Sjostrom Towers Rumour Mill - Week Three

2011-04-18T12:38:00.004+01:00

For the third straight week we attempt to make sense of all the whispers doing the rounds. Well, the ones that have made it back to us anyway.

Well, it's all over the various forums and discussion boards. It would appear everyone and their brother has heard a whisper that Sam McCluskey and Tristan Harper are on their way out of Dundee. Several destinations have been bandied around but from what we've heard from various sources, they are marketing themselves as a package deal and wherever one ends up, the other will follow. (Additional note: Tristan to Hull is now confirmed. Sam to follow?)

Following our recent rumours regarding Fife joining the EIHL, we have now heard that they have done a U-turn and are now courting teams with a view to a new Northern League.

We would be very surprised if Craig Mitchell didn't follow his brother Lee to Dundee.

A rumour we previously posted regarding import Matt Hussey seems to be gathering pace. A source of ours suggests he has been in talks with Stars extensively but that other clubs are also sniffing around him. Here's to hoping that Dan has enough of a budget for the season to get him snapped up before a bidding war takes place.

We have also heard a rumour doing the rounds that 26-year old American center, Adam Miller is bound for Dundee. He played college hockey with Chris Zarb for three years, and it is possible that Zarby may have told him how awesome it is to play for the Stars. He also seems to be the kind of player Dan would enjoy playing with, a strong playmaker who isn't afraid to get involved in the play but generally keeps it clean. We firmly believe Miller will be a Star next season.

Another player we believe is destined for Stardom (Ahhhh, see what I did there?) is 31-year old Canadian right-wing Kevin Baker. We hear Dan is a big fan of his play and indeed tried to sign him last season. Whilst he had already signed in Italy before Dan's approach, it is understood he will not renew his contract as he has had trouble learning the language and we have heard Dan is following him very closely indeed in a bid to get him signed.

Italia 5-0! The Christian Borgatello Interview

2011-04-11T23:23:00.004+01:00

Today at Sjostrom Towers we have a real treat for any fans from the BNL days as we talk, aptly we think, to one of the 2004/05 Championship winning squad, Christian Borgatello. Borgy came to us highly recommended by a certain P. Lochi who had played with him in their native Italy, and was touted as a skilful, speedy defenceman, a tag he lived up to in Dundee and then some.

Since leaving Dundee after the 2005 playoffs, Christian has been back in Italy. Here at the Fanzine we were shocked to hear that he had suffered a season-ending injury to his shoulder, so we were quick to ask him how bad his injury was and how his recovery was coming along.

Well, I broke all 3 ligaments in my left shoulder, but the surgery went well and I began rehab on March 15th. This season is over for me, so unfortunately I miss the best part of the hockey season, the playoffs.

Another topic that was quick to come to our minds, especially given the recent visit of Christian's sister, Monica, to Dundee, would Christian consider coming back here to play for the Stars again?

I would never say no about coming back to Dundee. For me it was a great opportunity to play away from Italy and to improve my hockey. A great experience in hockey and life.

We asked Christian about the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, where he managed to collect a goal in front of a huge home crowd.

My 2006 was all about making the Olympic team. It was great to be part of it, and when I arrived in Torino it was like living a dream. Every game we played, the arenas were packed, a lot of people didn't fully understand hockey, but they were screaming every time Italy touched the puck. After I scored the goal I can't remember the next few seconds, the feeling was something that you can't put into words. Amazing! Right now I am answering your questions, and I still can't believe that I scored!

There was one game in particular which sticks in both our memories here at the Fanzine. The venue: Kirkcaldy. The score: 5-4 Fife midway through the third period. The puck comes to Borgy on the blueline, and a split second later, the game is tied and we would go on to win it 7-5. We asked him if he remembered this game.

I remember that game. it was really bad playing in that ice rink. That game we showed that we were a real team, like a family, full of great guys and players with a lot of character. The rivalries exist in every country and it is always something special every game you play against the rival team!

We had to ask him about the fans as well, as so many players have stated in the past that the fans are a huge part of playing here.

You guys were awesome! The big thing is, you guys are always behind the team, you are like the 7th man on the ice. It doesn't matter if the game that day is going good or bad, you were in the rink to have fun and party. I liked that a lot!

We, naturally, also asked Borgy if he had always worn number 50, and why he chose it.

In juniors, I always wore the number 22, but in 1999 when my father passed away I chose the year of his birth, #50.

As usual we leave you with parting words from the man himself.

I want to say hi to all the players I played with, and everybody in Dundee and thanks a lot for that great year!

The Sjostrom Towers Rumour Mill - Week Two

2011-04-09T21:32:00.001+01:00

Hike Marding here, reminding you all to wear sunscreen.

Wait, sorry, wrong gig. Rumour Mill, that's it. Well today we've certainly got a few things to report. First off, defenceman Steve Makway is believed to be one player who will not return to Dundee for a second season. The rumours doing the rounds suggest that he could very well be bound for Coventry, who have hinted they will be lowering their overall budget for next season.

On the topic of non-returning Stars, we have heard from a reliable source that young forward Tristan Harper is on his way South with Hull seemingly a likely destination.

With Sheffield's signing of Cardiff third-liner Ryan Finnerty as player-coach for the 11/12 season and what that might just tell us about the direction their budget is headed, we feel there is now credence in the once-cheeky rumour that they may be going for ex-Star Michal Beca to spearhead their first line.

We have an update on a previous rumour we have posted, we were led to believe Adam Calder was tempted by a move North and it appears that he will indeed be on his way, but not quite as far North as we suggested, as it is widely believed that Fife are lining him up as player-coach to take them into the 11/12 Elite League season.

On the topic of Fife, our source in Kirkcaldy has suggested the Flyers will be looking to tempt one of the natives back across the Silvery Tay in order to bolster their British core, but we are led to believe that the Wards will fight tooth and nail if required to ensure Wishy remains a Star.

32-year-old playmaking center, Brendon Hodge, is rumoured to be considering a move to Dundee. He shares an agent with four or five of last year's Stars roster, and the Massachusetts native is strongly rumoured to fancy a move away from North America.

We have heard a late, breaking story that 18-year-old Scottish drummer, Lawrie Hill IV, has suffered a major setback in his bid to maintain fitness as the skin on his drum has indeed broken through years of severe abuse. We understand a team of experts are working around the clock to get it fixed in time for the opening game of the season.

I've been Hike Marding, thanks for reading. Oh, and you'd might as well go ahead and wear sunscreen while you're at it.

The Top 20 Stars of All Time.

2011-04-03T03:01:00.003+01:00

This one's bound to cause a stir but dammit we're going to do it anyway. You see, looking back at the Stars' rich and storied history is something we love to do at Sjostrom Towers and today we present the fruits of that labour of love. After several re-writes, debates, arguments and finally a square go outside the Arctic Bar, it's time for us to present our top 20 Stars of all time.

Of course, the two absolute greatest players in the history of the mighty red, white and blue: Magnus "God" Sjostrom and Mike "Jesus" Harding are far too prestigious to be included in such lists and we hope you can forgive our omission of them. The criteria for selection on this list was not down to playing ability alone. It was playing ability combined with cult status, legacy and what they meant to us as a Star. So it is with great pleasure and preparation to be torn to shreds that we present: The Top 20 Stars of All Time.

20. Mikko Inkinen
With his very own "travelling shindig" the Finnish Flash made his mark on the Stars in our very first season. If you happened to catch our Stars TV interview, you would know that we weren't around quite that far back but the sheer number of fans who hold a place for Mikko in their hearts demands his inclusion in this list. A double winner and a fans' favourite, Mikko is your number 20.

19. Brent Hughes
It would be easy to have short memories when compiling this list but we must keep perspective. As much as we all love Hughesy, he'll need to be around a bit longer to move up the list and since he has signed on for next season, we're sure that won't be long in coming. A true leader on the ice and scorer of too many important goals to count, Hughesy is a true Stars legend in the making. We can't wait for another season of him in action in the red, white and blue.

18. Paul Berrington
With three years of service to the club, Paul Berrington is a must for inclusion here. A double winner in our first season, he returned to the Stars after a brief spell in some backwater called Basingstoke where after one dodgy season, he helped us to playoff glory in 04/05. He may be a top 5 candidate for "most stupid penalties taken" but he was also a great little sniper and would stick up for his teammates when needed.

17. Colin Downie
Colin Downie is here on pure cult status alone. We remember many a Cally Cup game where we made the trip through to Kirkcaldy or Edinburgh where we were 2 of only around 200 in attendance to see Colin backstop us to victory. One of the loudest cheers we've ever heard at a Stars game was when Colin stopped a last minute Fife breakaway in the dying moments of a "crucial" Cally Cup game. The best backup Stars have ever had.

16. Teeder Wynne
An absolute goal machine. Good ol' Frederick is one of those players invariably associated with Stars early glory days. One of the many ex Ayr Eagles that Tony Hand brought over to Dundee with him, he led the way with his uncanny knack for finding the net as we stormed our way into the BNL. Needless to say the #14 Stars Jersey will always be his.

15. Dan Ceman
Much like Hughesy, Danny Boy's relative newbie status sees him further down the list than he has the potential to be. He faced just about the toughest start a rookie coach can and yet his sheer determination and work rate turned around a poor season into one that we can all be proud of. A hard working coach and a determined player, we couldn't be happier that he's at the helm of the Good Ship Dundee Stars next season.

14. AJ Maclean
AJ may not have the numbers that certain others in this list do, but his relationship with the fans and his pride in being a Dundee Star are pretty much unrivaled. AJ has such a place in the hearts of the Stars faithful that he can boast to being sung off the ice after every home game. His hard work and passion for this team have seen him become a huge fan favourite in just one season.

13. Gary Wishart
He comes from Fife, but hey he's still on our list. When Gary Wishart signed for Tony Hand's Stars team in 02/03 he was there as a young Brit getting limited ice time and gaining experience. The next season he broke through and became a vital points scorer. Since then despite playing at a lower standard and taking a year out of hockey, he stormed back to professional hockey this season with stats to rival some of the best Brits in the league. One of the most underrated Brits in the game.

12. Ladislav Kudrna
This season even after we started to improve on the ice, it was clear we needed a better goalie to stop the bleeding at the back. Ladi was no stranger to Stars fans. We had seen him playing for Edinburgh and Hull many times in the BNL. He was getting on in years and no one was raving about his abilities when he signed for us and yet he managed to roll back the years and become an absolute machine at the back to guide us to several important victories this season. If we've seen Ladi's last game in a Stars jersey, rest assured he will never be forgotten.

11. Jason Shmyr
The absolute definition of a guy who you love on your team and hate if he's against you. Rarely have we seen such hatred for one of our players than opposition fans showed for big Jason but that made us take him to our hearts all the more. A career enforcer, he managed to come to the BNL and carve out a niche as a point per game player. When people think of Jason Shmyr they think of his toughness and his leadership but his points totals are nothing to sniff at either. The image of his shaggy hair sticking out of his helmet as he wound up a rocket slapshot as an iconic image of the Dundee Stars and his leadership and captaincy that took us to the 04/05 playoffs mean he is an absolute Stars legend forever.

10. Stephen Murphy
These days he's about the best goalie in Britain and while he played for his hometown Stars, he wasn't far off it. I lost count of the amount of times I was sure the opposition were about to score only for 'Smurph' to pull a save out of nowhere. Any winning team needs great goaltending and Stephen Murphy provided that in spades for the Stars in our early years.

9. Evan Lindsay
For our money, Evan just gets the nod over Smurph as our greatest goaltender. While Ladi's signing turned this season around, Evan Lindsay's signing in the 04/05 season absolutely transformed the team. Shutouts are rare in UK hockey and almost unheard of when playing against much more highly favoured opposition and that's why Evan's shutout of the Coventry Blaze in 2005 is still so fondly remembered for us. To repeat the point we made earlier, winning teams need a great goalie and Evan was as good as they come.

8. Patric Lochi
The site of Paddi Lochi wooshing down the wing at laser speed is almost a constant in Stars history. There has never been a faster player to don the legendary red, white and blue and few have been so beloved by fans. Our enduring memory of Paddi will be his lightning speed, his many goals against Fife and his loyalty, dedication and commitment to the Stars. Absolute 100% legend.

7. Jan Mikel
Still known as "the captain" in some circles. Jan Mikel was an absolutely quality D-Man. His role in setting this team up to destroy all before them upon entry to the BNL cannot be understated. His leadership, eye for goal and physical play have rarely been seen with such quality since he left. Some would have him higher up this list and we considered it but with so many players to consider, whatever position Jan had on this list there could have been arguments for him to be higher. One of the all time greats and still missed.

6. Jeff Marshall
He skates to the left, he skates to the right and he skates right up to number 6 on our list. One of the longest tenured Stars players, Jeff is the definition of a fans' favourite. His slick skating and deft hands are still there as evidenced by his highly successful return to the team this season. This may have been his last season in front of the DIA faithful but for his service to the club, his high standard of play and for being just a downright decent bloke he is one of the most highly regarded Stars players of all time.

5. Christian Borgatello
This is where we make an exception to the rule for one season players. A great number of the Stars faithful would place Jeff and Jan above Borgy and on some levels we can't argue but Borgy just had a certain quality about him and his style of play that made him that bit better than the rest. For us he is one of the highest quality players to play for the Stars and he plyed his trade for us while he could easily have taken a place on a top EIHL team. Evidence of this comes in the form of his inclusion in the Italian olympic team in 2006 where he found himself on the scoresheet. This may be our most contentious inclusion but for us Borgy is the 5th top Star of all time.

4. Scott Young
Ok, ok so he punched a ref and we can't condone that (as much as we want to) but Scott Young was a heart and soul star. He hated it when we lost and he gave everything of himself to make sure we won. Hands down the best offensive D-man to have ever played for the Stars, his numbers in 01/02 were downright scary but it's those along with his leadership and fearsome physical play that put him so high on this list. Sadly we never got to see how far his captaincy would take us in 03/04 but he was pretty much the perfect template for a captain. He led by example and that example was usually impeccable. If there's ever a Dundee Stars hall of fame, Scott Young is a no-brainer.

3. John Dolan
At every level, in every league and in pretty much every season John Dolan has been in a Stars jersey giving 100%. For almost 10 seasons our top all time points scorer has done it all. He's scored important goals at every level and has never seemed out of place in any league where he has donned a Stars jersey. He may not be as skilled as the Brent Hugheses, Teeder Wynnes and Jeff Marshalls of this world but he's definitely better than his quiet and modest demeanour would have you believe. Whether he was blazing the scoring charts in the SNL and the Northern League or chipping in key goals on the lower lines of the BNL or EIHL, JD has done it all for the Stars and always done it with 100% commitment, determination and passion. It may say Ceman on it now but the #16 Dundee Stars jersey is JD's forever.

2. Martin Wiita
His song may have become Gary Wishart's now, but he's STILL got no hair and we STILL don't care. What can you say about Martin Wiita that's not been said already? Such skill, hands, flair and playmaking have rarely been seen since his departure. He was a complete unknown when he came to the Stars in 01/02 and left as the type of player we'd have back in a heartbeat. Losing him was such a monumental blow and we've rarely been so disheartened to see a player go. He was at the very core of what made the Dundee Stars the most attractive team to watch for 2 glorious seasons and while there were a number of highly skilled Stars players in those days, Mr. Wiita always gave you the sense that something would happen when the puck was on his stick. No attack was wasted and no opportunity wasn't taken. Quite frankly if we had a team of players as good as Martin Wiita, we'd win every trophy in the EIHL next season. Absolute quality all the way.

1. Tony Hand
To be perfectly honest, whoever we put as #1 would see a wave of disagreements and we fully expect that not everyone will agree with Tony as the greatest Star of all time. For us though, Tony is the greatest player to have ever played in this country. At every level he's played at he's been THE guy and his time at Stars was no exception. His coaching methods have often been questioned but if we're honest, since Tony left we haven't seen anything approaching the quality of easy-on-the-eye hockey his teams provided. He built teams with skill, speed and flair in mind and that's exactly how he played the game himself. He only played two seasons for us and yet still ranks as our second top points scorer of all time. Any team who has Mr. Hand is a lucky one, Tony is the greatest. The greatest player in the history of British hockey and the greatest player to play for the Stars.

The Sjostrom Towers Rumour Mill - Week One

2011-04-02T04:11:00.002+01:00

We apologise for any inconvenience or distress our last post may have caused. Our beloved home, Sjostrom Towers, was invaded by some commando Flyers fans and we are still trying to get the stink out of the place yet.

However, moving onwards from this flagrant encroachment on our privacy, we would like to introduce a new feature for the off-season, the Rumour Mill. With our many fingers deeply lodged into many hockey pies, well, so to speak at least, we feel well-equipped with the latest information on who will or won't sign for our beloved Stars.

The first rumour doing the rounds is that our mountainous Number 8, Chris Zarb, may not return to Dundee for the 2011/12 season. However we can safely quash any speculation that he is unhappy with the city or the team, and we have it on good authority that if he does move on, it will be a solely career-based decision.

We have also received word that ex-Coventry star, Adam Calder, may be tempted by a move North. Calder, who in the 2007/08 season set the EIHL on fire with over 100 points, split the 10/11 season between the Italian second division and the EPL's Slough Jets, and even at 35, would surely be an interesting character and a solid signing for the Stars.

Sources close to 31-year-old American Matt Hussey have stated that he is looking for a move away from Germany, where he has been playing for the last three seasons, for 2011. Hussey, an ex-NHLer having played with Pittsburgh and having had a brief stint with the Detroit Red Wings, who of course boast a certain Mr. MacLean as Assistant Coach, has been averaging a little under a point per game in the high-standard DEL recently and would be a fantastic signing.

Speculation is abound that Edinburgh's Scottish defenceman, Kyle Horne, may be headed over the Forth and Tay to play for the Stars next season. On its own this rumour may just be the usual name-bandying-around that happens every year, but we can confirm that Mr. Horne was indeed spotted recently in a Dundee branch of a fast-food chain, who shall remain nameless, the day after his team had played the Stars. We have it on authority that he was indeed still in Dundee as he was signing a pre-contractual agreement for next season.

One of our various sources has been able to have a chat with Peter Cartwright and based on the conversation, we understand that the 26-year-old Alaskan will be a Star again next season.

We also understand that 24-year-old American defenceman, Brett Motherwell, is very close to signing a deal with the Dundee Stars. Brett is keen to trace his clear Scottish heritage whilst he is here and a club insider has afforded us the knowledge that the signing is all but complete.

Of course, whilst not a rumour, we are, naturally, delighted that our Assistant Coach, Brent Hughes, has officially re-signed for the club, and we can't wait to see him back in a Stars shirt!

Our TRUE identities.

2011-04-01T01:49:00.003+01:00

Loyal readers of the Fanzine, it has recently come to our attention that a Law was passed at the beginning of March by the Scottish Parliament demanding full, open honesty from anyone involved in a journalistic position.

With that in mind, we are forced to admit that we are actually spies hired by the Fife Flyers organisation in order to garner as much information about the Dundee Stars as possible, so that Fife may attempt a takeover bid in the off-season.

Moreover, the simple fact is that we are simply not, by any stretch of the imagination, Stars fans. The past seven months of attending Stars games, and the past seven weeks of constantly writing about them, have taken a severe toll on our minds. There is only so much monotonous drivel that two people can take.

I, Kreg Guznik, have been a loyal Fife Flyers fan since the age of eight, attending every home game we have played (until this season where I was unfortunately required to miss some games due to clashes with Stars matches) and my colleague, Vreu Dolk, is the long-term civil partner of Flyers coach, Dodd Tutiaume.

As such, The Dundee Stars Fanzine as you know it, will now be renamed the Fife Flyers Fanzine - Triple F, for short. (There's your answer, anyone who's ever asked the question of "Why do you call it a Fanzine?")

We hope that, as you won't have a team next season, many of you will grace Fife Ice Arena for our Elite League matches in the 11/12 season.

Re-Sign Sam McCluskey.

2011-03-27T20:22:00.003+01:00

Here at Sjostrom Towers, we have to admit that beneath all the bravado we are just two hockey fans. We have no access to the goings on in the background of the mighty Stars, and so when we come away with things like "re-sign Sam McCluskey" it's not a demand or an effort to tell anyone how to do their jobs. No, it's more of a request or a general outlook on one of the things we'd like to see happen in the offseason. We have no idea how re-signings work, whether Sammy Boy has had other offers or anything else. The bottom line is, we just want him re-signed.

After 5 years of living in the wilderness called Edinburgh, your author for today's article was only able to regrettably attend a scant smattering of Stars games during the last 5 years and so my first chance to really see guys like Brucie, Sam and Tristan in a Stars uniform came this season. I have to admit, I had my reservations about us signing players from our amatuer years to go back into the pros and I am happy to admit I was proven wrong. A lot of times this season we've seen the ice time of some of our young Brits reduced greatly but Sam's held up well compared to the others, and with good reason too. He may be only 20 and he may have never played above NIHL level before but the way he's stepped up his game to the demands of the EIHL is nothing short of amazing.

During the last game of the season against Sheffield, through our hoarse voices and aching hands, with about a minute to go in the game, I turned to my fanzine colleague Mr. Marding and remarked "McCluskey's been..." and before I could even finish he jumped right in "He's been absolutely impeccable. Brilliant". It was true, we were witnessing something special during that game. When Sam slapped home his goal from the faceoff to absolutely rock DIA, the look on his face was a picture of playoff intensity and confidence. He's not a shy little Brit just glad for a few minutes of ice time, he was as big and confident as any import. His celebration didn't smack of "Wow, I've just scored a goal" it said "come on boys, let's get another".

This is not an article we just decided to do on a whim, there are a good few players we'd like to see returning next season. However, with the bags of potential that Sam holds, we truly feel he can step up and become one of those rare breeds in British hockey, a Brit who is just like an extra import out there. That's why we see it as key that if it's at all possible, Sam should be one of the first names to be re-signed for 2011/12.

We were all proud to see him called up to the GB squad recently and this is yet another indication that he's being noticed this season. Last night we saw him routinely get the better of ex NHLer Rob Globke. This is not something that just happens, it takes a tenacious player with a smart game to do those kinds of things at the back.

Make no mistake, we have a player in Sam who could potentially be the number one British D-Man by the end of this decade. We don't know if Sam's planning to go elsewhere or what Dan has in mind for next season, we're just two fans and these are our observations. For our money, there are few signings as important for next season as #19 and we hope he comes back and plays a big part in us outdoing this season's achievments come September.

Chris, Brent and AJ on their first season in Dundee.

2011-03-26T23:50:00.006Z

After tonight's superb win against Sheffield, we came close but not quite close enough. However, we witnessed one of the best team efforts, atmospheres and all round games of hockey every seen at DIA. From myself and Hike, we would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every player for the effort shown tonight to go out on the best note possible.

It's been a season that started poorly, got better and ended with a tremendous 7 wins from our last 8 EIHL games. We've beaten every team apart from Nottingham and Belfast but taken points from all 9. We've gone out in style and proven that the famous red, white and blue of the Stars cannot be kept down for long.

With that in mind, in this brief end of season article we would like to share with you some words from three of this season's outstanding performers as Chris Zarb, Brent Hughes and AJ Maclean sum up their respective seasons in Dundee.

Here's what Chris had to say:

First off, I like it here a lot. Coming here a month late I knew the situation that I was coming into and I didn't mind it. I knew it was an expansion team that was struggling off the start and I just tried to come in and play my best. The city is fantastic, I love Scotland. Our fans are great, I've never been a part of a team that has fans go to most of the away games, it's definitely an added boost of encouragement when you're playing on the road. Personally, I've had the most successful year of my career, points wise. I attribute that to getting an opportunity to play a lot every single game. I feel that I've grown as a player here. At the beginning of the year I tried to do too much by myself out on the ice, and in the second half I've tried to pick my spots a lot better and I am much more successful that way. So to all the fans, thanks for the continued support through the thick and thin of this season.

Former captain fantastic, player/assistant coach and all round workhorse, Brent Hughes:

I fell in love with the city the moment I got here, the people are great, very friendly, which makes it a fun and enjoyable. I had high expectations from day one, we made a few changes which most teams do and I'm really happy with the way the guys have elevated their game. The fans have been great all season, they have stuck by us and the way Marc Jackson and Dave Rennie have taken control for our away games is unbelievable, and also with what you guys are doing here with the fanzine is great so thank you. Personally I felt more confident on the ice than I ever have, the line-mates I've played with deserve a lot of the credit for the success I've had. I'm a firm believer that if you give it your all each practice and games good things will happen. A lot of guys have the same attitude and few guys have hit their career high in numbers this year which is also great to see. We know with our fans behind us we're a very confident group to get the job done. Thank you Dundee and let's get another banner in the DIA

Finishing up, the words of penalty killer extraordinaire, life and soul of the dressing room and all round fan's favourite, AJ Maclean:

Well I came here excited to come to Scotland first of all. I've always wanted to come and to play hockey was a huge bonus. My opinion of the city is the same as my first day walking around. It's not too big but not too small. It's a great size in my opinion.

Our fans are terrific, chanting and cheering every game. Sometimes staying late on a Sunday to have a few drinks upstairs and sing and dance. The passion from our fans is something I haven't seen on any of the previous teams I've played for.

Personally I've had a great year. The team has made the playoffs, team-mates are great and we've had good times on and off the ice which is all that matters to me.

And I'd like to thank all the fans for everything. The chants, cheers, and small talk after games or around town.

Thanks from us to each and every player who has taken the time to help get our fanzine off the ground by being open to talking to us and letting us interview them. Thanks also for what turned into a wonderful season and an amazing final game. There certainly won't be any complaints from Sjostrom Towers if Brent, Chris and AJ return next season.

5 Reasons To Keep The Faith

2011-03-24T17:21:00.006Z

Well folks, we've been written off.

Down 6 - 1 on aggregate to Sheffield, it's all over, no upsets here, prepare to say goodbye to the players after Saturday's game.

@#!?$@# that!

There are 5 reasons why we should be keeping the faith that we can pull of the upset of upsets, the miracle on ice, the triumph of the underdog, the gubbing of Sheffield. Here's how we see it.

1) We can show that we're the best fans in the country. If ever there was a time for everyone to belt out every chant and song it's now. Even we would have to admit to our usual high levels of singing have been down lately as we were just seeing out the formalities while waiting for the playoffs but the playoffs are here and we need an atmosphere. From section A to section M everyone needs to be in full voice, get the Steelers off their game early and roar for everything the Stars do.

2) We've got Dan Ceman. Danny Boy is a coach who was never taught the meaning of the term "give up". He has never taken a break in the effort it has taken to overhaul this team's poor start and get us back on track and he's not about to take one now. This is a quality that runs through the team as a whole this season. They haven't given up and neither should we.

3) The EIHL needs a miracle. Amongst all the predictable results and the run of the mill final league table, The Elite League has been crying out for a miracle to get people talking. We are the team to do it. Imagine if you will a weekend where the Stars are the talk of UK hockey. Every season in every league needs one team to cause a huge upset every season - this is our time.

4) We've done this before. We're no strangers to miracle playoff runs in Dundee. And while this may be the toughest ask of them all, we know we can go into the playoffs as the lowest ranked team and tear apart the form book.

5) We never give up. This is the most important one. We, as fans, have to remain optimistic all the way. It's easy to give up and throw the towel in but dammit we've never taken the easy road before. Let's get out there on Saturday with a sea of red, white and blue worn with the pride that can only come with being a Stars fan. Be loud from the opening faceoff to the closing one. Whatever happens, this is the last hockey game at DIA this season, let's make it a memorable one. A wall of noise, a sea of red, white and blue and the pride of supporting this team sweating from every pour of every fan for 60 minutes solid.

The Mark Nebus Interview

2011-03-20T15:14:00.007Z

Hockey is a Canadian game. To use the old cliché, it's like a religion over there, as big as football is here. However, it's popularity in the U.S.A is nothing to sniff at either and with four Americans on our books this year, we are enjoying it's benefits here in Dundee. Within the States, there is one particular city where hockey is bigger than anywhere else - Detroit, Michigan or "Hockeytown" as it's known is where today's guest spent his formative years and Mark Nebus is just one of many great hockey players to come out of Hockeytown and make the sport a career.

Detroit is called Hockeytown for a reason, there is hockey everywhere. There were at least five different rinks with in ten miles of where I grew up. I would say living in a hockey hot bed has helped to influence me to give the sport a try. Canada is a close neighbour, only twenty minutes away so we would get coverage from some of their teams as well. Hockey has really spread across the US and has grown a lot in many different states but still doesn't compare to the popularity in the Detroit area.

Neebs has made the primary power forward role his own this season with his physical play and occasional fights but as he tells us, he didn't grow up with visions of being a great power forward and when a bad car accident almost derailed his career, it was his training regime, a smart coach and his desire to come back which helped him step into that role.

When I was a kid I just wanted to be the best! After I went through a long rehabilitation from an auto accident when I was fifteen and my game has changed. I would say my game had much more finesse involved when I was a youngster than it does today. I fell in love with the weights during my comeback and liked lifting more than hockey. After two years of high school hockey my doctor gave me the clearance to pursue hockey at any level I desired. When I started playing at the junior level at eighteen, my coach Tony Curtale turned me into a power forward. He convinced me to put the weights down and taught me how to take care of the walls.

When the news broke last year that we had signed Mr. Nebus, it was to youtube that many Stars fans ventured to see if we could find any footage of our latest import acquisition in action. In amongst a few of his fights, we were delighted to find a highlight of Neebs scoring 5 goals in one game in the USA's IHL. This is what Neebs had to say about that game.

My five goal game is definitely one of my favourite moments in hockey. It is something that doesn't happen very often at the professional level. I scored two goals in the first period and three goals in the third. A hatrick was looking good but I never dreamed that I would score five. The best part about that game was the fact that the team we were playing had released me at the end of the previous season!

Before this season began, no-one was looking to Neebs as our main enforcer. We had "The Sheriff" after all. But what Neebs has that McMorrow didn't was offensive production and the hockey sense to pick his fights at smart times and not just for the sake of it. Fighting is one of those debates in hockey that has been flogged like a dead horse (or McMorrow's Stars career) so instead of asking Neebs the tired old "what are your views on fighting in hockey?" we asked him if he goes for this "staged fights" nonsense.

Sad to see the Sheriff go but our team needed more offensive contributions and with the additions we have made I don't think anyone will disagree with the coaching decisions. Since he has left there is no question my number of fights has gone up. I have never pre-arranged a fight before a match like the Sheriff. I fight to stick up for myself or my mates, give the team a spark when needed, when a team tries running up the score and on occasion for the fans because they deserve something for their ticket when we play a poor game.

Those are the kind of answers we enjoy reading and it certainly shows in Neebs' game. We've been told on several occasions that he goes out there to play for the Star on the jersey and for that, he is a fan's favourite. Of course, like pretty much every other player to have pulled on the legendary red, white and blue, our fans are a favourite of his too.

I have never experienced the drum and singing by the fans and all I have to say is that I love it! Last season my team had the highest attendance in the league at an average of 6,500. We can't even hold anything close to that but what we get is great! I hope to see the numbers always increasing for our fan base. The main thing is that we have our core fans that keep coming back and cheering us on. I feel like our fans are a much tighter group than the big crowds and at times they can create an even better atmosphere! Whitley Bay is the most depressing rink that I have ever played pro in and our fans really put a smile on our faces and actually showed us that we can have fun in any rink!

Touching up on the 6,500 fans Neebs used to play in front of before coming to Dundee, this season has seen a few imports make their way to Dundee via the IHL. It's not a route we've often gone down in the past so we asked Neebs for the particulars on how that league shapes up compared to the EIHL

From my experience in the IHL I would say it was a much more physically tough league. Every line on every team had at least one guy who would fight any shift. The refs seemed to let much more go than the refs here. The age and skill level is very similar though.

With the serious business out of the way, it's time for the world famous, pattented, Sjostrom Towers jersey number question.

When I was a kid my father was number seven and the next number with a seven in it was seventeen. Ever since I put that number on it has always been my first choice.

Usually the jersey number is the note we like to go out on with our interviews but with Neebs there was a far more important and potentially earth shattering question at hand. It's something Stars fans have demanded to know for a long time and dammit we are hard hitting, serious journalists who are not afraid to ask the tough questions. And so it was with a great deal of trepidation and anticipation that we asked Neebs what the world wants to know. What the hell was he referring to when he asked if Stars TV could film "under the table" during his interview?

I was hoping that we could unveil the answer to that question on a later show but I guess I can let the secret out. The Sheriff had forgotten his shoes and had these huge monstrous bare feet under the table! It was really funny because he was taking the show so serious with his dress code and everything so I was hoping we could have zoomed in on his feet for a laugh!

Well, we're glad that little mystery is solved and we're also glad that Neebs took the time to let us add to our illustrious interview portfolio. Thanks to Neebs and the rest of the team for being so generous in helping get the fanzine off the ground. We and all the other Stars fans will thank them the only way we know how, with our voices in DIA as we roar into the playoffs.

Hike Marding Presents: Statto's Corner!

2011-03-19T17:21:00.004Z

Here at Sjostrom Towers, we have been considering ideas for new features we could do on a regular basis. A few ideas have been bandied around our plush "contemplation suite" and one in particular has been a standout, therefore we now bring you Statto's Corner, featuring Dr Hike Marding, Ph.D, PGDip, MSc, TWAT in Statology.

Today we will take a look at the standout players statistically for the Stars this season, and we start with a man we have recently focused on in Coach Dan.

As we pointed out in a previous post, Danny Boy has picked up 70 points in all competitions for us, including 65 in the league (and is indeed the only player to play every league game for us this season!). With 1.3 points per game in the league (52GP, 28+37=65) Dan is our top goalscorer, top assists-getter, and naturally, top points scorer. Not at all bad for the elder statesman of the team!

We move onto a man who has been at, or near, the top of the scoring charts all season. Hughesy has missed the last few weeks through injury, including a couple of games against Edinburgh, and still maintains a very impressive 1.2 PPG over 47 Elite League games (23+32=55).

Next, we look at our leading scorer among defencemen for the season, Our big #8, Chris Zarb. Zarb is floating around the 1.0 PPG rate for us (38GP, 6+30=36) and a couple of strong games against Newcastle could see him breaching that barrier by the end of the season. Chris is also our top D-man goal- and assist-scorer, even joining us late and having his season interrupted by a knee injury!

On the topic of interrupted seasons, we now look at fellow defenceman, Steve Makway. Steve started the season very strongly and picked up a lot of points even when the team was at its weakest. A serious virus, however, kept Steve off the ice for a month, but his 45GP, 5+28=33 is still very respectable from the big man.

Out top home-grown points scorer this season has been known Fifer, Gary Wishart, whose 51GP, 11+13=24 has been a fantastic chip-in through the course of the season. JD is our other 10-goal Brit with 10+9=19 from his 48 games, and an honourable mention must go to Tristan Harper who has 8+8=16 despite joining the team mid-season and only playing 36 games.

Our other mentionable mid-season replacements are Jay Latulippe, who is over the 1.0 PPG barrier with his 14+16=30 from 28 games; and long-time Dundee Stars stalwart, Jeff Marshall, who returned to the team and has chipped in with two goals and nine assists in his 14 games.

My name's Hike Marding, and this has been Statto's Corner!

Dan 'The Man' Ceman - Unsung Hero.

2011-03-16T00:33:00.001Z

This past few weeks has seen a glut of player awards being handed out in the land of the Stars. Brent Hughes was the unanimous fan club and players' player of the year and deservedly so. We also saw Jay Latulipe, AJ MacLean, Ladi and Brucie pick up various awards. We were also asked to vote in programme writers' Player of the Year category and we will be keeping the winner of that award under wraps pending an official announcement.

Suffice it to say, one player has been notable by his absence in this doling out of the personal silverware.

We love Dan Ceman at Sjostrom Towers. Apart from the fact that he's a real Man's Man and all around Lumberjack, he's one hell of a hockey player too. All too often he takes this team on his back, assumes responsibility for the team's failings and never puts forth his own name for praise when the team do well, despite the fact he's more often than not at the forefront of anything good we do. And while, on the balance of the season we'd probably have to go for Brent Hughes as player of the year ourselves, we felt it was time to recognise the contributions of our tireless Player/Coach in what has turned into a decent first season for us in the Elite League.

Before May 25th of last year, it was generally accepted that The Stars would sign an import Player/Coach to guide them into the EIHL although no one quite knew who. It came as quite as a surprise to everyone when it was announced that Dan Ceman, a man last seen on these shores in the 05/06 season which he split between the great rivals Nottingham and Sheffield would be the guy. The Windsor, Ontario native was known to UK hockey fans already having plied his trade here from 1999 to 2003 with the Sheffield Steelers and Bracknell Bees in the Superleague and putting up respectable numbers while he was at it. Since then, other than his lone season back in the UK, he had seen action in France before making SønderjyskE in Denmark his home for four seasons. It was when we heard that he had captained SønderjyskE to four honours in the last two seasons that we started to see what kind of a player he was.

Dan was quoted as saying that he wanted to "build a team that displays passion, determination and intensity each and every game" and while quotes like these are so often just throwaway remarks in press releases, over the course of the season we started to believe he might just be a man of his word. An outsider looking in might just think that any team making an 0-17 start to the season has a pretty lousy coach but to jump to that conclusion is to be ignorant of facts at hand. Yes, we had a slow start but Danny Boy had the unenviable task of having (presumably) one of if not the smallest budget in the league to build a team with. And build he did. Sean McMorrow, Peter Cartwright, Jason Tessier and Mark Nebus were all signed off the bat and while McMorrow's almost reccy standard hockey skills have since been punted, it showed a good understanding on Ceman's part of the need to get bums in seats and people talking about the Stars early on. We may have lost Jason Tessier to injury before he arrived but Neebs and Carty who on paper didn't look like they would be anything special have both filled roles at this club that no other player can - namely the rough and tumble power forward and the speedy sniper.

As the rest of Ceman's import core started to take shape, some players looked good and others looked like they might struggle in this league, but all too often what us armchair pundits fail to recognise is that certain types of guys need to fill certain types of roles. There have been decisions Dan got wrong (Jerad Kaufmann anyone?) but he's never shirked out of his responsibility for this and recognised where we needed improvement. McMorrow, Lomanno and Kaufmann were all given the bullet early to be replaced by Latulipe, Zarb and Kudrna - a major upgrade in each position. It's this dedication to winning, improving and putting himself in line as the guy ultimately responsible for mistakes that we most admire about Dan and why we refer to him by the all too predictable 'The Man' moniker.

His coaching aside, it's his contributions as a player that were the main drive for this article. As the oldest player in the EIHL, we admit to wondering whether Danny Boy was coming here for a holiday to see out his final playing days as a passenger while the rest of the team put up the points and while Dundee is of course the world's premier holiday destination we admit to being proven dead wrong in our cynical musings. Ceman has been pretty much a point per game player in all of his previous UK hockey stints and that includes the Superleague, a good few notches up from the standard of the EIHL if the majority of fans were to be believed. However, he came to us as a 36 year old veteran and we wondered if his scoring touch was still there. It is. This past week, Danny Boy passed the 70 point barrier in his 52nd league game and while point totals have been pushed up across the board this season with Edinburgh's routine slayings, it's all relative and even before Hughesy's injury, Dan was there or thereabouts at the top of Stars point scoring.

More than once this season we've heard fans remark on how much Dan reminds them of Tony Hand. High praise indeed to be compared to consistently the greatest player in this country and the man who holds Stars' all time single season scoring record. It's a good comparison too. Dan glides around the ice surveying everything that's going on, looking for passing and shooting lanes, looking for the best ways to break up ice and the smartest places to make passes and be in position to recieve them. He's like a general out there, his mind seemingly going a mile a minute making sure everything is going to plan and everyone is playing their part - it's clear to observe he has a Coach's mind on a player's body. He may not have the jets that he used to but he knows his strengths and he plays to them to his fullest.

Next season will be key for the Stars. No doubt some players will return and some will leave but with Dan The Man already on board, we're safe in the knowledge that we've got a coach who will strive to improve us and a player who will put that to action on the ice. He may not have picked up any individual player awards this season but we want him to know that he has the full support and backing from all at Sjostrom Towers and hopefully The Stars fanbase at large. So here's to a great first season and bigger and better things next year with Dan The Man at the helm of it all.

The Johan Johansson Interview And The Weekend Preview

2011-03-11T13:00:00.008Z

So by the end of this weekend, we could - should? - have qualified without any doubt for the playoffs. A win against Edinburgh on Saturday will be enough to push us over the line, as will a defeat for Newcastle against Belfast in the Odyssey Arena.

After a great (because, let's face it, all wins against Fife are great) win against Fife in midweek, we're guaranteeing that we will win between zero and two games this weekend against Edinburgh and Coventry. We will also lose between zero and two. A bold prediction if ever there was one!

The Sjostrom Towers Keys To Victory:

Freshness. All of the Brits, along with Dan, Peter, Jeff and Jay played in midweek, so there may be some aches and pains among the squad on Saturday, but a game against Edinburgh is the perfect opportunity to get the game won early, and rotate the lines to keep everyone as fresh as possible.

Discipline. It's been oft-quoted recently but we do need to get our disciplinary record under control, as we'll have little chance against the league winners by the time the playoffs roll around if we're playing 4-on-5 most of the game.

Cartwright. The man's been struggling to buy a goal in the Elite recently, as a group we should all get right behind him and hopefully he can relocate his scoring touch just in time for the Playoffs.

As it's just a short update, we thought we'd bring you another interview with a former Star while we were at it.

Do you all remember Johan Johansson? The quiet, unassuming #7 who did an admirable job anchoring our defense in what ultimately proved to be a disappointing season for us in 2003-04.

After our exit from the playoffs in 2004, he quietely returned to his home country of Sweden (via a short stint in France) to see out his career and has been seldom mentioned in great detail by Stars fans remembering the past.

Well, these days the man we all came to know as 'JoJo' is known as Johan Engstrom and is now enjoying his life post-hockey after retiring at the end of last season but looking back to his playing days he tells us that his season in Dundee was about more than just the sport itself.

After Dundee I went to play in the Elite League in France. I only played there a couple of months then went home to Pitea and played in The Allsvenskan (Swedish Hockey's second tier). It was nice in Scotland and Dundee and it's hard to say if playing in a different country helped me hockey-wise but I'm pretty sure it helped me with finding myself as a person. I couldn’t have done it in a better country.

JoJo wasn't the only Swede plying his sporting trade in Scotland in those days and it was one of his countrymen who inspired his chosen jersey number 7.

I´ve always liked that number and also Henke Larsson was playing over there at that point.

Looking at the career statistics for the man from Piteå, Sweden seems to suggest he was a 'stay at home' sort of D-man before coming here. His 18 points for The Stars was his career best up to that point and we wondered if he came here with the goal of becoming a more offensive player in mind.

Before I went to Dundee I had a very defensive playing strategy. My coach over here in Sweden wanted me to be like that. I wasn't actively trying to raise my offensive production but now looking back at it, it helped me a lot when I went back home to play.

Moving on to Johan's memories of the Stars as a team and the fans here. If you're wondering if Johan, like all of the other players we've interviewed so far, rank the Stars fans as the best they've ever seen - the answer is a resounding yes. And he quickly goes on to tell us he still kept an eye on the team when he was playing.

It wasn't actually my intention to go abroad to play at that point in my life. I decided quite late that I was going to move, but I have never regretted that I did. You guys where amazing, Stars supporters cant be compared with the support back home. I think the supporters back home do an amazing job, but you guys really are probably the best supporters I've ever seen. Since I stopped playing I haven't been following the Stars, before that I followed them a little, but (the league) seems to have changed since I was there.

And why is our man formerly known as JoJo now known as JoEn?

I changed to my Mother's surname so I can pass it on and it'll live on longer.

With the serious questions out of the way, we thought our final question to Johan would be an ideal time to bring up the subject of the greatest hockey player of all time. Indeed, we couldn't resist asking JoJo if having fellow Swede, the legendary Magnus Sjostrom as a team mate helped him settle in Dundee.

Well I am little bit of a shy guy! So it helped to have Magnus in the team at that point. Magnus is a great guy and it was sad that he had to go, but I think I developed much more as a person when I got to be the only Swede in the team.

Well, this has been another fantastic trip down memory lane for us at Sjostrom Towers. Johan was a little self deprecating about his English but his answers required minimal editing and it's not as if we can speak a word of Swedish. Well, we do know one word and it's one we'd like to say to Johan for talking to us about his time in Dundee. Tack, old friend. Tack! (That's thank you, by the way.)

We'll leave you with these words from the man himself

Good luck Stars and all my best to all the fans.

Take care

Johan

Dundee Taxi Drivers and The Stars #1

2011-03-07T22:22:00.002Z

Today at Sjostrom Towers, we have decided to delve into a topic one would normally associate with a hockey team. Taxi drivers.

You see, taxis are our preferred method of transport to the rink on match nights. Far be it from us to say we're far too posh to travel on buses, but we are far too posh to travel on Buses.

This season we have noticed an abundance of Dundee's taxi drivers who seem to follow the mighty Stars. Almost weekly we hear quips such as "aye, McMorrow was guid tae watch but he wis a shite player eh?" or "Thon Hughes is a crackin' wee player, eh?". Of course on those rare occasions when we encounter a "Eh dinnae follow that ice hockey pish" we demand to be let out immediately and walk the rest of the way. The bottom line is, however, Dundee's cabbies by and large know their hockey and support The Stars and we are going to pay tribute to them in this new series of articles.

The first driver we are going to talk about is the chap who escorted us home after Sunday Night's magnificent victory over the Blaze. This guy was an average sized man aged between 40 and 50 with a broad Dundonian accent (we realise this is the description of every Dundee cabbie but dammit we're going with it anyway). He immediately referred to the Stars as "us" and we in turn knew this was going to be a pleasant journey.

Not only did this guy talk at length about what a great result it was but he even expressed his opinion that we thought we were in for our first shut out of the season after two periods. We were in full agreement.

It was at this point that things took a strange turn. As a lull in the conversation descended into your fanzine authors bickering about how many points we needed to qualify for the playoffs, our knowledgable driver chimed in with "Zarb's goal was something else eh?" and then we realised. Unlike any cabbie we've had this season, this guy had been at the game. What a trooper. Quite how he had managed to pick us up not 20 minutes after the game had ended we weren't sure. Had he perhaps left early? Had he just left the game and driven round the corner when he got the call for this job? Was he infact Chris Zarb himself? Perhaps we'll never know. What we do know is that this was by far our best cab journey of the season.

So to this true Stars fan and all other taxi drivers who bleed red, white and blue take a bow and be sure to talk about the greatness of The Stars to all who are heading towards the rink in your car. Particularly if they have a Dundee Tigers jersey on. We hope to have another part to add to this saga on Saturday after we hammer the Caps and qualify for the playoffs.

We Won't Beat Coventry Tomorrow

2011-03-05T16:30:00.002Z

Woah woah woah. Negativity on your #1 Dundee Stars Fanzine? Perish the thought. However, we won't beat Coventry tomorrow. Now, you have to ask yourself if we're saying that because we really foresee a loss for the mighty Stars or whether we've just not been very lucky with guaranteeing Stars victories this season.

Coventry are our old enemies - maybe our oldest. It's been great this season to see their cute wee seahorse-eating-a-curry logo make it's return to DIA. The problem is, we haven't beaten them yet.

This is a worrying trend for the Stars, if we don't win tomorrow it'll be the first time we've not beaten Coventry in a season where we've played them. We cannot, nay, must not allow this to happen. It's our last chance for a rousing chorus of "rocking all over the Blaze" to ring around DIA this season. With all of those factors in mind, it's time for the world famous, super scientific:

Sjostrom Towers Keys To Victory

1) Listen to the coach. "IT HAS GOT TO STOP" came the rallying cry from Dan The Man after last Saturday's heartbreaking loss to the Vipers. Danny Boy is as sick of the seemingly endless parade of needless penalties as we are and with The Coach signing on for next year, we think it's about time players started listening to him if they want to return to the greatest hockey team in the world next season.

2) Capitalise on their fatigue. They've just been beaten soundly by Cardiff at home and host a Hull team tonight who are perfectly capable of getting a result against them. They then face a third straight game in as many nights and have to make one of the longer journeys in the league as we host them tomorrow night. Quite frankly, they will be shagged out (and not in the nicest sense of the term). We will be fresh as the daisies now beginning to poke their heads out of the former Gypsy camp in the DIA car park. Every player must finish their checks, frustrate them by giving them no room and have set plays and plans to execute when going forward. A combination of their fatigue and us agitating them can only lead to good things and stupid penalties (from their side). It's no secret they are a stacked team but they will be coming into this game with some glaring weaknesses which we must exploit to the full.

3) Ladi needs to be immense. Now, we would never suggest our chances of victory lie solely with one player but against Coventry more than most teams, Ladi needs to be on his game. They've shown us they have an array of scorers who can score from virtually anywhere within the opposition zone. Hopefully our defence will be checking them out of the game and frustrating them into taking nothing shots whenever possible but when they do get the breaks, it's going to take the goalie that we all know Ladi can be to turn them back. We don't think Ladi has had a bad game since he became a Star and are confident this will continue tomorrow against the Blaze but he needs to be just that extra bit sharper to guard against their frequent threats of blue line bombs and killer passes from behind the net which have punished us before this season.

Every game is key from now, Newcastle are far from dead and buried and have shown they can still beat us in their depleated state. We face them twice more this season along with another gimme against Edinburgh along with a long trip to Coventry to face the Blaze again. We can't take anything for granted as far as how Newcastle will get on in their games over the run-in and so a victory in at least one of our games against Coventry we feel is essential. It's far more likely to come tomorrow night than in "fortress" Skydome. Whatever happens be loud, be numerous and be proud to be Stars Fans.

See you all on Sunday night.

No, not THAT AJ MacLean

2011-03-02T21:44:00.003Z

Today at Sjostrom Towers we have been lucky enough to have a word with the Captain of the Dundee Stars, AJ MacLean. AJ is, by all accounts, the life of the party for the Stars, and, far be it from us to say, but easily one of the best two-way forwards we have seen play in Dundee Ice Arena.

Here at Sjostrom Towers, we had one particular question we had to ask AJ about - Carty mentioned his dance moves, so does he have any in particular to look out for?

Haha! I guess I kinda had a little pregame routine in Arizona the boys enjoyed, but I've yet to break it out here in Dundee. I'm not sure there's enough space in the room for me to break it out here, haha! It got pretty intense a few times!

AJ has become one of the most beloved players ever to grace the ice pad at DIA, how does he feel about the fans who sing his name at the end of each game?

It's always a great feeling for a player when the fans recognise you for your efforts. I know me and all the guys in the room enjoy every chant, song and cheer the Stars fans sing every home game and on the road. The fans mean everything to us as a team, without your guys' support there is no team, so every night we go out and give it our all to win hockey games.

As most of you will know, here at the Fanzine, we have a 'hero', and far be it from us to say he's the best player to only play five games for Dundee, but he's easily the best player to only play five games for Dundee. He wore #15, which AJ has made his own - but why does AJ wear the number?

I've worn a few numbers in my career but mainly #15. It was my father's number when he played in the NHL. It's become pretty much a family number. My brother, sisters, and cousins all try to wear 15 when possible. My dad has been an inspiration to all of my family growing up and to us being able to wear it is kinda our way of saying thank you, and letting him know how proud we are of him for all his accomplishments.

On the subject of AJ's dad, Paul MacLean played over 700 games in the NHL, posting almost 700 points. He has since gone on to win the Stanley Cup, as Assistant Coach of the Detroit Red Wings in the 2007/08 season. We asked AJ if his dad would ever fancy coming over to Dundee to win a "real" trophy!

First, I think our coaching staff has done a great job. Dan and Brent have worked hard everyday with the team and we've gotten better little by little everyday. For my Dad, I think when he's done in the NHL and if I'm still playing he'd love to. My brother as well. All three of us have talked many times how cool it would be to be on the same bench together.

We asked Peter Cartwright what it was like to have come here, knowing a few guys on the team. We asked AJ the same question, and as it turns out he already knew a lot of the players on the roster.

It definitely helps knowing guys. I roomed with Matt, and was close to Pete as well so when I saw they signed it was great. I also played with Jay in Dayton about five years ago as well. I knew Brent from playing against him and being at training camp together last year and also having some great battles with Makway a few years back. I knew they were all great guys and it was going to be a fun year!

AJ epitomises smart, defensive play, and the peak of this is shown when he leads our Penalty Kill lines. We asked him if he's always excelled when shorthanded.

The penalty kill has always been something I've done. When I played Major Jr, I was one of the top killers and same with all the teams I've played pro with. I'll have to give credit again to my dad for that. Since I was a kid we've gone over lots of video and diagrams about power plays and penalty kills. Even now when I'm home with him and he's doing work, I'll sit at the computer and study game film and try to learn as much as I can about the game in general. He's a terrific teacher and so knowledgeable, I just try to be a sponge and, when I get the chance, do my best to get it done on the ice.

We've already said AJ is absolutely a 'fan favourite' this season for the Dundee Stars - would he consider re-signing for us next season if the offer was put to him?

Most definitely! I've been through a lot of organisations, whether being a stick boy with my Father's teams, or playing myself, and Dundee is terrific. From the Wards, to Sandy Cram and the arena staff, to the fans and places all around the city. It's been such an enjoyable year for me so far on and off the ice. Coming to the rink is a blast, and there's always places to go in town to relax and see some sights.

Now, some of you may be wondering about the title of this page - Well, as it turns out, our AJ is not the only AJ MacLean to grace the world, and meaning no disrespect to ours, the other one may well have been a little more famous at some point or other, as a member of the Backstreet Boys. We asked AJ how many times he's had to use the words, "No, not THAT AJ MacLean".

More times than I can count! More so when the Backstreet Boys were popular. I used to get the stereotypical random e-mails asking if I was the Backstreet Boy, or if I introduced myself to people they'd kinda laugh and make sure I knew we shared the name!

As always, AJ's time is greatly appreciated, and it's fantastic to get to know one of the most popular guys to don the famous red, white and blue.

Dave Simms talks Stars and the EIHL.

2011-02-27T22:31:00.004Z

We were tempted to start off this blog entry with the predictable "love him or hate him" nonsense often spouted when talking about Simmsey but predictability has never been our style at Sjostrom Towers.

Love him or hate him, the one thing no-one seems to be able to do is ignore him. Not that we'd want to of course, indeed we wondered if the man who is the voice of UK hockey to Sky Sports viewers every week would even want to talk to our humble fanzine. And when he agreed to, we hoped he would answer our questions in his own inimitable style - we went 2 for 2.

We asked David Simms for his opinions on The Stars and the EIHL and he gave them to us with both barrels. First thing's first - does he believe The Stars are on the road to success in the EIHL in the not too distant future?

I do believe that the Stars can challenge. It's true that they can't attract the numbers that say Nottingham, Belfast or Sheffield do in their arenas but they have benefits that the Panthers, Steelers and Giants don't have that make up for it. They have to become Scotland’s top dog first, attract the very best Scottish players and build from there. Within 5 years they will win a trophy.

Encouraging words indeed. However, our joy in winning that trophy will not be fully realised if we can't wave it in the face of those inbred hicks from across the Tay. So, does David think our friends from Fife will be joining us anytime soon?

Fife? interesting. My understanding is that the chap who runs Fife won't come near the Elite League. If that’s true then it's a shame because there is enough support in Fife to put a strong team together. It would help Scottish hockey that’s for sure, and I agree it would help Dundee. I hope for your sake it happens, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

There are many things you can say about Dan 'The Man' Ceman. Coach, Winner and Friend of Dave Simms are just three of them. Does Simmsey think (as we most certainly do) that Danny Boy is the man to lead us to the trophy he predicted for us?

You often wonder how a player is going to do as a coach, and I wondered how Danny would do. After a slow start he has done very well. He made some big decisions regarding McMorrow and the goalie, but he showed he wasn't afraid to make those decisions if he felt it benefited the team. Dundee should stick with Danny 100%

And what about one of Dan's most controversial signings? The now departed Sheriff of Dundee, Sean McMorrow. Were we right to sign him, or were we right to release him? In Simmsey's view, we were right to do both

I thought Dundee were 100% right to sign Sean McMorrow, but soon after he arrived it became obvious that he must be released. Dundee needed players, needed to score goals and the McMorrow for Latulippe trade was as good as they get. So right to sign him and also right to release him.

Moving away from the subject of the Stars for a moment (which, you understand, is normally something we don't encourage) and touching on the documented troubles in Newcastle and Edinburgh, we asked Dave if he thinks there'll be ten teams once again in the EIHL next season.

No I don't think there will be. In fact, I hope there isn't. I am a lover of 8, that is 8 until there are strong organisations to take it to 9 and 10 and even more in the future. For now I say go with 8.

But if Edinburgh and Newcastle were to drop out, are there teams who can realistically take their places?

Yes, I think both Manchester and Guildford could join the league and be competitive. They don't want to though. Manchester think they need to be winning and so they don’t think they could afford it and you have to respect that. Guildford should not be in the EPL and should be in the EIHL but for political reasons don’t want to join. Shame, they would be an asset.

As for that trophy Simmsey reckons we'll be lifting in the next 5 years, we're sad to report that he doesn't foresee another miracle on ice in 2011 as we asked him if he thinks Stars can surprise people and take a scalp or two in the playoffs this year.

Sorry - No I don't. Dundee will come 8th and take on the Champions, I just cant see them beating the Champions over two legs. The Stars fans though should go en masse to the playoff finals, they will have a great time and be a welcome addition at the NIC in Nottingham.

Finishing off, we thought we'd induldge ourselves by upholding our tradition of mentioning Peter Cartwright's beautiful goal against Nottingham in September whenever we get the chance. As a man who has seen pretty much every goal scored in the EIHL this season, does Simmsey think it's goal of the year material?

There have been dozens of highlight goals this year and the Cartwright one was outstanding. I've seen lots this year, some of Galbraith's have been breathtaking as well. Great goals this year, great hits, great fights, great year, made all the better by Dundee's involvement.

Mucho thanks to David for taking the time to talk to us and as usual pulling no punches. As if you didn't already know, you can catch the man himself presenting the EIHL hockey show every Friday on Sky Sports.

A Thursday Test, A Weekend Walk In The Park

2011-02-24T16:36:00.002Z

Here at Sjostrom Towers, we are firm believers in the theory that we're long overdue a huge upset win. Aside from our two wins against Cardiff, we have not had a single win against any other teams from the supposed 'Big Five'.

Well we have a feeling in our Green Tea with Elderflower that that record is due to change today. Sheffield were our first opponents of the season, and have pretty much been our major bogey team all year. Top of the league and by all accounts the best team in terms of speed, skill and teamwork that DIA has seen this season. So why on earth do we think the Stars will win? Let's break it down with our Keys to Victory for Thursday.

1) Forecheck. We have to play with two speedy forwards high up the ice, looking to break up Sheffield's attacking moves before they start. It's a risky tactic but it's one that should work against a Sheffield team who do like to build from the rear. Speed and hustle will work wonders.

2) Finishing. If we do break Sheffield's train of forward play, chances will open up for us. We need to make sure - as has been lacking in our recent games - that we finish off our moves by taking a good, accurate shot at goal. The more accurate shots we take, the more goals we will score. Stop trying to look for the extra pass, and make Mustukovs work.

3) Powerplays. Again this will be absolutely key for us, when the chance occurs to get on the powerplay, we MUST be ready to capitalise. Zarb and Kinos both have wicked slapshots, we need to get them on the blueline, lining up Howitzers, and get guys buzzing around the net looking to pick up the rebounds that will occur.

Here at Sjostrom Towers we suspect that Thursday's game will be a high-scoring affair and we have the sneakiest feeling that whoever scores the most might just win. Maybe.

Looking further ahead to the weekend games, Saturday sees a crunch match against heavily-depleted Newcastle in Whitley Bay, which could see us make fantastic progress toward cementing our playoff spot. A win could take our points cushion over them to 7 - even more if we beat Sheffield.

Sunday sees the final league visit of the Edinburgh Capitals, who have suffered outrageously bad fortune this season as most of you will know, and have averaged around 10 goals against per game recently.

Our Keys to Victory for the two weekend games are:

1) Hunger. Even if we're expected to win, we have to have enough drive in the games to kill the opposition off as early as possible. Once that's done, we can look to have a little fun, and perhaps score a bucket of goals.

2) Speed. Both teams are very short-benched and if we tire them out by skating rings round them, winning will be made even easier.

3) Brits. The weekend games, Sunday in particular, could be a great chance for our British contingent. With three games in four days, we'll be rotating the lines a fair amount by Sunday, and if JD, Wishy, Sammy and the like get a good amount of ice-time, they could pick up a fair few points and build their confidence nicely ahead of the final stretch of the season.

Far be it from us to guarantee at least four points, but we're guaranteeing at least four points!

Morgan on Bekar - "We didn't need him!"

2011-02-22T20:15:00.003Z

Nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey! hey! hey! Cory Morgan!

It's a song that rang out around DIA frequently in the 04/05 season. Cory Morgan was a sensational mid-season addition to a team who were on the ropes after a tough start. We heard it said more than once in those days that he could well have been the best player to ever pull on the legendary red, white and blue of The Stars. Well, there are many contenders for that particular honour but Cory Morgan is undoubtedly one of them.

We've talked a few times before about the clutch performances by our players in the playoffs that year but for our money (which is a lot, considering the lofty six-figure weekly sum The Stars are paying us to appear in the match night programme) there were none more clutch than the man from Blue Sky, Alberta.

The ironic thing of course is that the man who went on to post an incredible 38 points in 28 regular season games and 19 points in 15 playoff games came here with a lower profile than the man who signed at the same time as him, Derek Bekar. But while Bekar took one look at the greatest fans in all of British Hockey and decided that the honour of being a Star wasn't for him before running back to that two-bit namby pamby AHL league, Cory was going 3 for 3 in penalty shots in an epic 2 game series with Bracknell before lifting the BNL championship and securing his place as a true legend among Stars fans.

Cory came here with a proven record of being a solid scorer throughout his career up to that point and a lot was expected of him, but as he tells us he was just relieved when, with a little help from his friends, he was able to leave behind the Swedish lower leagues and come to Dundee.

Coming to Dundee was a blessing that season. I started off the year in Sweden, Division 3, in the town of Olofstrom where I found it very difficult to adjust to the lifestyle. So my good friend Evan Lindsay helped get me to Scotland and out of a miserable situation.

Cory also remains modest about his career before coming here and is sure to point out it wasn't all about him that season.

The numbers I posted in the ECHL prior to coming to the BNL were what I call "lucky" and I'm just glad to have played with such great players that helped make me look good on paper. Coming into a team like the Stars where I was brought in to produce definitely highlighted the expectations, but I think I playing with guys like Scott Barnes and Gary Wishart really made my job easy.

And although much was expected of him from the fans when he came in, we wondered if that feeling was shared by the guys in the locker room. However, Cory tells us that he wasn't necessarily the missing piece in the puzzle because we had set out to win from the outset.

I felt that the Wards were committed to making a run for the championship from day one. Trying to recruit a player like Bekar proved that, even if he didn't stay. But between the Dundee fans and myself....we didn't really need him! Playing with Shmyr, Marshall and Corbett among others, we really had a solid core of smart, experienced team members willing to put it all on the line to win a championship.

The BNL playoff semi final against the Bracknell Bees that season was absolutely magical. The penalty shot win against them in their own barn where we hadn't won all season, the tense home leg featuring Bracknell's heartbreaking equaliser with under two minutes to go which sent the game into overtime and John Dolan's winning slapshot which blew the rafters off DIA are all key moments in what makes it so special to be a Stars fan. One of the best remembered series of events over those two games were the three penalty shots Cory took. He scored the winning penalty shot in the shootout down in Bracknell and followed it up in Dundee by converting one in regulation and another in the shootout. Does Cory remember these well? You're damn right he does, and he adds a fact about them that we had forgotten.

I don't think I'll ever forget the series with Bracknell where I scored on 3 different moves in penalty shot situations! Top glove, five hole and back-hand. I always had a knack of finding the net when coming in alone on a netminder.

Remember Cory's first game for the Stars? A much needed win against the Hull Stingrays, after which his first experience with our fans caused him to salute section C with a "we are not worthy" gesture. As Cory tells us, it was something entirely new for him and something which stays with him to this day.

That was my first taste of ice hockey in the UK and I was blown away by the chanting and personalised songs that all fans were a part of! Knowing that the Stars fans were belting out support in every rink in the UK really helped elevate our game. Evan still sings my "Na na na na" song to me via voicemail! I love it.

Of course, no interview here at Sjostrom Towers would be complete without the mandatory "jersey number question". Cory on #26:

I actually prefer to wear #16 but hometown boy Johnny Dolan had it so I couldn't very well ask for it from him. Besides #26 worked quite well that year. I actually wore #4 in Dundee for my first few games. That number did not fit for me, but I still do have that jersey!

Sadly we didn't get the opportunity to find out if many of our championship winning imports would have returned to The Stars after that season. Cory stayed on in British Hockey for the next two seasons with the Newcastle Vipers and it's something we are often curious about and so put the question to Cory as to whether he would have returned to DIA in 05/06.

I would have loved to have come back to Dundee after our championship season, but during those years I was more committed to becoming a firefighter and didn't really know if I was playing from year to year. I stretched it out for 2 more seasons as a Viper but I did start my British ice hockey career as a Star and that will never be forgotten. Especially when we were so successful!

In finishing up the interview, we asked Cory to throw in his two cents worth on the question that has been around British Hockey for many a year. How do our leagues compare with the ECHL? After playing over 100 games on these shores and almost 200 in the ECHL, he let us know that certain teams on this side of the pond can compete and gives his take on the development of British players:

After playing in the UK for 3 years I got a taste of how good the hockey was. Teams such as Newcastle, Nottingham and Belfast could all compete in the ECHL. I found a lot of the local British players were good but still did not get the same amount of ice as north american players at a young age. I think that hurts their development and they find themselves a step behind players of the same age with more of an opportunity.

Huge thanks to Cory for sharing his memories of his time as a Star with us. As always we are blown away with just how well former players remember and enjoy talking about their time in Dundee. As with our Scott Corbett interview, we'll give the final word of this entry to Mr. Morgan.

I would like to thank all the great fans I met in my travels to Dundee and beyond. Nothing but fond memories from inside of the #26 I wore and I hope that hockey continues to excel in Scotland and the UK.

Take care,

Cory.

The Weekend In Review

2011-02-20T23:34:00.001Z

Well a 0 point weekend may be what most of UK hockey's fans had predicted for the mighty Stars this weekend but we felt differently. We felt we might just get something against these two teams for a change but alas it was not to be.

Now, it's great that we've gotten to a stage where the big teams no longer absolutely hump us. We've come a long way, we're competing now, but I think even the most rose tinted among us would agree that 3 - 1 flattered us tonight.

As we were unable to make the trek to Nottingham, we cannot comment too much on what went down during that game. However, as we always assume when we lose a game we weren't present at - it was the ref's fault and we were the better team. We're joking of course, by all accounts it was a dull affair which Nottingham won comfortably. Neebs battered Lee, Lepine battered Tristan and Nottingham came away with the win. The NIC is a tough place to get a road win though and at least we put a few goals on the board.

Tonight against Belfast, we can thank our penalty killers that it wasn't worse than 3 - 1. As we talked about in our blog previewing the weekend's games, cutting out the stupid penalties, powerplays and playing a smart physical game were the keys to victory. We now feel we were remiss in not pointing out the value in actually having a plan when going forward. Once again we took too many penalties, once again we looked dull on the powerplay and once again we were out muscled by the opposition. And while a 3-1 scoreline doesn't look too bad, once again we were bereft of any creativity going forward. We didn't trouble Smurf at all during the game and save for Hughesy's well taken penalty shot, we could well have been shut out.

This is a problem we've been noticing throughout the season. We're actually not that bad when it comes to rushing up ice with the puck, it's just that the opposition's blue line seems to be the door to some weird hockey Narnia where our players run out of ideas as to what to do next. So how do we arrest this trend and start to pepper the nets of the big teams? Well, we're no hockey coaches (apart from our 13 year stint coaching the NHL's California Golden Seals) but we propose reforming the line which produced 6 goals against Hull earlier in the season.

Carty, Hughesy and Dan have shown incredible chemistry and craft in front of goal when they've played together this season but lately we've noticed this line has been used less and less. Far be it from us to say it's been our best line this season, but it has easily been our best line this season. We remember fondly the way these 3 came together just as we turned a corner and started to win some games and we feel the time has come for this line to be made a permanent fixture once again.

Carty in particular has, to quote several fans "gone right off the boil" lately. We remember his goal against Nottingham, his speed, his flair, his creativity and his eye for goal but we haven't seen a whole hell of a lot of it lately. His current line with Jay and Tristan looks damn good on paper but it's not getting the job done half as well as the days when he lined up with his coaches and was scoring for fun.

We can beat the big teams and we'd bet our priceless Magnus Sjostrom signed shirt that we will. Re-uniting this line will only be step one in a journey that includes smarter checking, fewer penalties and more creative powerplays and opposition zone play. We call on you Coach Dan, re-unite the line, and when it comes to penalties, get them telt. It was a bad weekend but it's a good time to be a Stars fan. We will continue to keep the faith here at Sjostrom Towers (and that includes believing we can take something from the Sheffield game in midweek) and with Newcastle and Edinburgh next weekend, we should be taking a huge step towards the playoffs.

Peter Cartwright - could score here all night!

2011-02-18T22:07:00.006Z

Today at Sjostrom Towers, we have the latest in a long line of player features. Today's guest is a native of Anchorage, Alaska, and scorer of a certain goal, snaking the puck between Panthers' player/coach and all-around most arrogant man in the EIHL, Corey Neilson's legs, putting him on his arse in the process, before toe dragging it and launching it into the top corner. Far be it from us to say that it was the greatest goal in DIA history, but it was clearly the greatest goal in DIA history. But did he really mean it? Well let's ask the man in question.

The goal I scored against Nottingham was a 1 on 1 move that most of the time doesn't work. That was just one of those few times that it did. Hopefully its not the last time either.

#37 for the Stars is a rare number, Peter being the only non-netminder to wear it. As we always ask players in our interviews, why did he choose it?

I've worn 37 for the past 7 years, except in Holland because I couldn't pick my number, I arrived late so I was just given 16. There is no sentimental reason I wear 37. I've always just thought was a unique number that looked cool and I think Chris Drury was wearing it when he was scoring big goals for the Colorado Avalanche and I just stuck with it.

Peter became Dan Ceman's first import signing when he put pen to paper for us, but he was not to be entirely alone when he arrived, because we later signed both AJ MacLean and Matt Suderman, who had played with him for the Arizona Sundogs in the 2008/09 season.

It's great to show up to a new team and see a few familiar faces. The hockey world is a lot smaller than you think though. With every new team, there is always someone you played with, or someone that played with a friend and so on. It doesn't take long to feel comfortable, especially in Dundee because everybody was in the same position... new team, new faces. I just remember seeing that AJ signed and saying, "This is going to be a fun year." That kid is non-stop comedy. You should see him on the dance floor.

With us releasing three players though the course of the season and bringing in six more, there has been a lot of changing up of the lines while Carty has been here. It can't be easy for anyone but again, let's ask the man himself.

In most cases it doesn't take that long to adjust to new linemates. By this point in your career you learn how to adapt. But at the same time It doesn't always work out and sometimes changes have to made. But when a line really clicks, they are a tough unit to stop and a lot of fun to watch.

Dan and Peter both scoring hat-tricks and Hughesy going 0+5 in our second win of the season, 9-4 against Hull, is evidence of that!

Being that Peter is our only player who has played in the Australian league, and one of only two to play in the Dutch, we thought we'd ask Peter to make a comparison of the Elite League with those leagues.

The Elite League is a little higher in quality than the Dutch league. For one, there are fewer imports per team in Holland and in most cases the imports are less experienced than the imports in the Elite league. Although there are some impressive Dutch born players, I would have to say that the local UK players have a higher quality of play.

Australia still has a long way to go but they're getting there. The hockey was actually better than I expected though. Their locals are pretty close to the Dutch locals. Only four imports per team are allowed, so the minutes played by the imports are much higher than normal, which showed in my stats.

"He shoots to the left, he shoots to the right, Peter Cartwright, could score here all night!" is Carty's song heard rumbling through DIA most weekends - so as a parting thought, what does he think of the fans who sing it?

Dundee fans are great. It shows some impressive dedication to stick by us through our slow start. Hopefully the word spreads and we can eventually pack that place because a sold out DIA would be one of the best venues in the Elite league. No lie.

Certainly the playoff run in 2004/05 will vouch for that.

Here's to this year's playoffs and the hope that Carty will get to experience what a packed Dundee Ice Arena is really like!

As always, many thanks to Peter for chatting to us, we'll see you Sunday for Dundee Stars vs Belfast Giants, 6:30 face-off at DIA.

Euan Forsyth joins us to talk about the weekend. Plus, our keys to victory.

2011-02-17T11:12:00.005Z

Okay, so we've proven this season that Cardiff are pretty much our bitches but let's be honest, when you think of the Evil Empires of this league you think of Nottingham, Sheffield, Belfast and Coventry.

Over the next three days we face two teams from this quartet of pure evil as we travel to Nottingham on Friday and host the Giants from Belfast on Sunday night. So far we have managed 2 points in a combined 10 games against these two teams and this weekend is the perfect time for that to change. So here they are, the guaranteed formula for victory. We are proud to introduce:

The Sjostrom Towers Keys To Victory:

1) The stupid penalties. Now, we're glad the guys have picked up the Dundee lingo this season but they must remember that phrases such as "punch 'ees puss" and "git intae thum" actually mean "go five hole!" and "deke him out of his jock!". No one would be happier than us if league etiquette called for anyone who scored a goal against the mighty Stars to be cross checked in the face and/or two handed in the shins but it just doesn't work that way. Keep the heed if we go down a goal, be disciplined and be focused. It's the only way to beat these jobbers.

2) Powerplays. We've taken a hell of a lot of penalties this season, let's face it we're a puss punchin', Devil beatin', game-misconduct-taking machine (and generally proud of it). The Panthers, however, are just plain cheats. They are the only team above us in penalty minutes this season and we need to be goading them into taking as many as we can milk out of them and keep ourselves out of the box while we're at it. We only had one major defensive slip up against the Vipers and it cost us a goal, more of the same on Friday and we could be looking at our first win against the Panthers. Our part in all of this doesn't end there though, we actually need to score on the damn things. We need puck movement, guys in the slot and bombs from the point, we've done it before, we can do it again and it generally works.

3) Be physical. This may sound a bit in contrast to our previous points but our best results this season have come from playing a smart physical game. Our first win of the season against Cardiff came as a result of finishing every check, out muscling them for every puck and not letting up for a moment. Belfast and Nottingham are big teams but we need to be bigger, get in their faces and let them know we're not letting go.

Now, as if our key points weren't enough, we thought we'd see how the team are looking ahead to a tough weekend. Euan Forsyth let us know that the while playoffs aren't guaranteed yet, we are doing all the right things to ensure they are. Plus a little bit about the illness currently affecting the locker room.

DSF: It's a tough weekend ahead, a game in Nottingham on Friday, then a day's rest before we have Belfast at home. How are the team shaping up ahead of these games?
EF: Yeah this weekend is a tough test for us, Nottingham and Belfast are quality teams with a lot of depth, we are confident if we stick to our game plan then we can match any team in this league on any given day. We are not in the playoffs yet so every game is huge for us.

DSF:We've heard there is some illness going round the team at the moment, is everyone confident they'll be feeling fine for the weekend?
EF: Yeah a few of the guys are not feeling great, a flu bug has been spreading around the room, I'm sure when it comes to the game they will be able to play through it and it won't affect them too much.

DSF:Does Dan have a certain way of holding training ahead of games against the so-called bigger opposition, or is every game treated the same regardless of who it's against?
EF: Depending on the opposition we may change our fore-check or our special teams but generally we try and stick to our main systems that make us effective and when we do that we can get results.

DSF: Are the team confident about taking enough points from the remaining games to keep Newcastle at bay and get into the playoffs?
EF: We are looking forward not back, we are trying to put pressure on Hull and move up the league, we know we have a lot of work to do before we are in the playoffs. Newcastle have showed great fight despite all the off ice problems they have had, but we are confident that we can keep building and win enough games to cement our playoff spot.

Thanks to Euan for answering our questions, we are just as confident as him that we can pull off a victory this weekend. See you all on Sunday.

"The best I've ever seen" - The Scott Corbett interview.

2011-02-14T23:34:00.005Z

When we first started this fanzine, we did so because we had noticed a distinct lack of them in UK hockey. We wanted it to (at least attempt) to be witty, amusing and a source of fun for our fellow fans who share a passion for the red, white and blue of the Stars as we do.

Now, not even a week old we are absolutely staggered by the response we have gotten from fans, staff and players old and new for the Stars. We've asked former player after former player if they would mind us interviewing them for the fanzine and every single one has been more than willing to oblige.

A few days ago we asked Scott Corbett if he would be willing to do an interview for us and he was quick to tell us that he always had time for his mates in Dundee. We sent off the questions and what we got in return was a brilliant insight into that final BNL season that we will never forget. The opening quote from the title of this entry comes from what Scott had to say about the fans in Dundee, and as you'll read he goes on to talk at length about how much he appreciated playing in front of us for the Stars.

Scott came here fresh off his first pro season with the Augusta Lynx of the ECHL in time for the start of the 04/05 season. It was a regular season we didn't fare very well in, however some key additions to the roster and some clutch playoff performances provided the spark for our Cinderella run to the BNL championship. Scott starts off by talking about how that season was turned around:

It was kind of hard most nights losing the way we were because we all knew how good our team "could" be and to not get the results was disappointing. We had a team meeting around mid-season when guys like Shymr and Lochi and some of the older guys took it upon themselves to make changes to our approach and attitude. I think when we beat out Bracknell, we really thought that we had something special happening. We got some key additions during the season with Evan Lindsay and Cory Morgan, got a lot of guys back from injuries and everything just fell into place. It just goes to show that it doesnt matter how you play in the regular season, playoffs is where it matters most and winning that Championship remains a highlight in my career.

That season wasn't without it's problems for Scott. Just before Christmas 2004 it was announced he would be leaving the Stars due to a knee injury, but as Scott reveals to us there was more than just an injury behind his leaving. We were used to players leaving that season, we had already seen Daymen Bencharski and Glenn Ridler fly back to North America after our disappointing start to the season. Scott, however, was one of our better performers before he left and that is why it came as such a pleasant surprise to us when in late February of 2005 it was announced Scott would be returning to the team in time for the playoffs. As Scott explains, when he left he thought it could be for good and when we asked him if he always knew he was going to return, this is what he had to say:

To be honest, I wasn't expecting it either. I was dealing with some personal issues at the time as well so coming back to Dundee wasnt really something I had envisioned. But, I'm glad I did. I can't thank the Wards enough for giving me the opportunity to come back and be a part of the team. Also, to Coach Roger and my teammates for being so respectful of my leaving, and so open and accomodating in allowing me to return. If I had never come back, it would have been one of my biggest regrets.

As Scott pointed out in his opening answer (and as we at Sjostrom Towers full agree) the additions of Cory Morgan and Evan Lindsay that season really saw us start to move up a gear and grab key wins that we weren't getting earlier in the season. It's an often talked about fact that in team sports, a lot of success depends on how the team gel together and as Scott tells us, that was a big part of why we lifted the trophy that season.

As teammates, you couldn't ask for anything better. Just a great bunch of guys. We played for each other and respected each other. We put team goals ahead of individual accomplishments and everyone bought in to what was asked of us. Thats what good teams do - find ways to win. To this day, it was the best team I've had the priviledge to be a part of.

We're used to players in Dundee telling us how good the fans are. They interact with us after games, sign autographs for kids and generally make themselves available to chat and socialise. However, when Scott left Dundee his relationship with the fans didn't end there and he took the memories of our support with him.

As for the fans? The best I've ever seen. I think one of the things that made losing so hard in the beginning was that we felt bad we let our fans down. We all got to be really close with many of them so we knew the ups and downs we encountered, they went through with us. There were some dark times but they stuck by us.

He also points to one particular game where the fan reaction stood out for him. We think this could be the Fife game from early in the 04/05 season where, when Stars looked dead and buried, we rose to our feet and belted out 'The Great Escape' for the last 10-15 minutes, completely silencing the Fife supporters and letting the team know we were still behind them.

I remember one home game I think we were down about 6 or 7 to 3 with about 10 mins left in the game but you could never tell by the atmosphere in the rink. The fans were on their feet chanting and singing and cheering for the whole 10 mins and never let us forget they were behind us all the way. It was really something very special to be a part of.

As for the one memory that sticks out the most during his time with The Stars? Well, that's obvious isn't it?

It's gotta be winning the Championship! How often in one's career do they get the chance to be on a winning team? It's something you dream about and want so bad, and when you win it, you understand just how special and amazing the accomplishment is. Players play their whole career and may not ever get a chance, so to be there and win it, is just a great feeling.

And it's not just lifting the trophy that sticks out in Scott's mind. The celebration with the fans after the game down in Guildford is still fresh for him.

It made it even better that some of our fans had made the trip to see us bring it home. I'll never forget after the game when we were celebrating in the room. I think, as a team, we had about 5 mins to ourselves to let it sink in and congratulate each other. The rest of the time, it was all about the fans. Everyone who made the trip was in the room celebrating with us, I'd never seen that before. I showed just how much that team was loved and supported and how much we, as players, cared for our fans.

In all of our player interviews we ask players why they wore the number they did while playing for the Stars. This is usually just for a bit of fun and we usually get quite funny and quirky responses along with the usual reasons, such as wearing a particular number as a tribute to a favourite player. Scott's choice of #97 however comes with a more poignant and deep reason than most.

The No. 97. A few years before my trip to Dundee my cousin was killed. He was like a brother to me. We shared the same passion for many sports, but our worlds revolved around hockey. I looked up to him, as all our cousins did, as he seemed to be the glue that held our entire family together. He never played pro hockey and really never went higher than the local leagues back home, but he played his heart out every game and always wore #97. At the time of his death, his newly-wed wife, was just six weeks pregnant with their first child, a son.

Playing in Dundee, gave me the first real opportunity to honour him by wearing his number and I still do to this day. I have a picture on my FB page of the tattoo I've had done in his name.

I will never wear another number.

We would like to extend the greatest of thanks and appreciation to Scott for taking the time to answer with such detail and with such insight into his memories of his time in Dundee. Finding out these things about seasons gone by along with the memories that players have of their time in Dundee is by far the best thing about doing this fanzine. We think it's only fitting to give the final word of this entry to the man himself.

I really appreciate you reaching out and asking me to do this. It's been fun and brings back a lot of great memories.

I would love to get back to Dundee some day soon and see you all again. I was extremely proud to be one Star, in a city with many.

Good luck Stars & all my best to the greatest fans in the game!

Cheers,

Corby #97

Tristan Harper talks about the weekend and more.

2011-02-14T20:54:00.004Z

Today at Sjostrom Towers, we have secured an interview with one of the most popular guys on the team in Tristan Harper. We ask him about the weekend's games, and also what it's like being young talent on an Elite League roster.

The game at Hull did not seem like a 6-3 game - and by all accounts it shouldn't have been, but a lapse in concentration near the end has been very costly for the team. Tristan adds:

This weekend was a big weekend for us, we should have won that game against Hull. It's hard playing games like that when two teams are unpredictable, so you have to play the full 60 minutes. Hull are a good side and so are we. In the end Hull got the upper hand and came out with a win. Its not a good feeling to lose like that, especially when your so close to a win and an important win at that.

With the fourth goal going in so close to the end I'm sure we can understand why the heads might have gone down a little, especially with a must-win game against Newcastle less than 24 hours away. It has to be said though, well done to the guys for keeping their discipline, we couldn't afford to lose anyone ahead of the Newcastle match.

On the subject of Newcastle, we knew that losing to Hull made beating them even more important. We could only hope the players felt the same way; enter Tristan once again to show that they really did.

The game against Newcastle was very important, and there definitely was some tension in the locker room before hand. We knew Newcastle were short of guys which would work to our advantage, so our game plan was to come out really hard, and play our systems and bang in a few goals.

We got three goals quite early so it helped for us, and boosted our confidence from the previous game with Hull. The second period really started to show how Newcastle were getting tired, so we kept trying to take advantage of that. We had to keep going hard the whole game, as Newcastle are an unpredictable team which shows in previous games they have played especially the game against Nottingham.

Before the game I just told myself to keep it simple and play they way I play; bang, hit and crash and hopefully maybe just pop in a goal, Jay Latulippe my line mate was on fire so I managed to set him up quite a bit during the game which worked out as he popped in two goals and we came out with 2 points at the end of the day.

Myself and Mark Nebus knew it was an important game and wanted the 2 points real bad, we talked before the game and told one another that we are gonna keep hitting these guys and try and get under there skin, which at the end of the day is always fun to do to any team! Plus, being able to do that crates space for other players, which allows more scoring opportunities. We were hoping there would be a little fight but we knew it was a slim chance since they were short of guys.

Mark is a great guy for getting under the other teams skin, and is a tough guy too. I like playing with Mark, I know he always has my back if I ever get into any trouble and I think having line mates that you feel that way is a great plus for anyone. Only makes you feel more comfortable in your playing style.

Thankfully, the early goals we did get were more than enough to kill off what little fight the Vipers had, and we ran out handy 4-1 winners in a relatively uneventful game. (Let us be clear though, an uneventful win always beats the pants off an eventful loss for us.)

While we had Tristan available, we thought we'd get a few more words from him regarding his history and the way he absolutely shot out of the blocks this season having signed for the Stars to little fanfare.

DSF: Although you're still young in terms of your hockey career, you do have a fair amount of experience of playing in different countries, and presumably much different levels of competition. How does it feel now that you're back in Scotland playing for the Stars?

TH: I think being back in scotland is fantastic, especially since the stars joined the Elite Ice Hockey League. It is great, as I get to play with players who have alot of experience and have a lot of professional games under there belt from previous leagues they have played in, so I can learn a lot from all of these guys. Being one of the young guys on the team is not always easy you have to earn there respect and prove that you have a right to be there by playing game to game as hard as you can!

DSF: Following on from that a little, how do the other leagues you've played in compare to the EIHL?

TH:I have not played in many professional leagues, only in the Dutch League which the skill level in my opinion does not compare to the Elite League, the EIHL is a much more North American style game. This does help as l played juniors in America and Canada so I like the grit and hitting of the games! The junior leagues I played in, I cant really compare to the EIHL, as I was playing against guys more my age from the ages of 15-21. It's a very different game when your playing against men, and not boys.

DSF:You got off to a great start for the Elite team this season when you joined, picking up four goals in your first five games. Did the start you had surprise you at all?

TH: Scoring four goals in my first five games was a surprise for me but I knew if I worked hard in games these kinda things would hopefully happen and they did. I know my role in the team, so I dont expect to score lots of goals. Personally I'm more happy with getting a big hit during a game than a goal.

So as always, huge thanks to Tristan for taking the time to give us such full answers. It really does make what we do worthwhile to get this kind of insight into the team and we hope you, as readers, appreciate the insight too.

As much as we hope you enjoyed this summary of the weekend's games with Tristan, we encourage you to check back tomorrow for another huge interview with an ex-Stars player. In it, he talks in depth about how the fans, the city and his team mates all rank #1 for him in his hockey career, the special reason he wore his number and gives us a unique look at what it was like behind the scenes in the Stars locker room.

The Scott Barnes Interview

2011-02-13T22:28:00.003Z

BARNESY! *clap clap clap* BARNESY! *clap clap clap*

It's an exciting day at Sjostrom Towers as we are proud to bring you another interview with one of the Stars' BNL Championship winning alumni.

Scott Barnes came to Dundee for the 04/05 season having played in that well known hockey hotbed of Belgium the season before. As Barnesy tells us in this interview however, the Belgian league may be a bit better than we had thought. He also talks about two of his most legendary moments in the legendary red, white and blue. Namely his goal in the 1 - 0 victory over Coventry and the time he introduced that dirty Flyer Adrian Saul to the ice surface via his fist.

Here's what Barnesy had to say.

How did it feel to score the only goal against Coventry when we shut them out 1-0 in February 05?
That was a great feeling to score the goal. If I remember correctly, I think it was a shorthanded goal on a breakaway. Evan Lindsay really won us that game, he was unbelievable. Coventry were undefeated for a lot of games I remember coming into that game so that was a huge win for us and gave us a lot of confidence for the last few months of the season.

When you came to the Stars, a lot was made of the fact that you came over from the Belgian League which was pretty much unknown to our fans. How did that league compare to the BNL?
The Belgian league was a good league. We also played the teams in The Netherlands so it was good hockey. It was a more European style with a lot of Slovaks and Czechs playing, where in the UK it was more North American style with mostly Canadians as imports.

One of our fondest memories of you is in a game against Fife. Near the end of the game, you squared off with Adrian Saul and gave him one of the biggest pastings ever seen at DIA. Do you remember much about this fight?
I remember the fight very well. We were losing 5-1 or something and tried to fight a few guys. I didn't have a great start to the season that year which was usually the case with me every year, so that fight kind of got the fans on my side. If anyone has a video or some pics I would love to see it!

Yourself, Scott Corbett and Roger Hunt all hail from the same town. Did any of you know each other before you played for the Stars?
I played hockey with Scott since we were 7 years old and we've always been the best of friends. I knew Roger a little bit before, our town is pretty small so everyone knows everyone.

Was there a special meaning behind you wearing #96 for the Stars? Is it a number you've worn throughout your career?
I started wearing 96 when I was about 8 years old and I could choose my own number. At that time Gretzky and Lemieux were the best players in the world so it was a combination of 99 and 66. So I wore 96 on any team I could pick my own jersey number which was most of the time.

We notice that you've now started a hockey school, did you retire from pro hockey immediately after leaving Dundee?
Yes we (Scott and his brother Ryan) started a company up, if any readers want to check us out they can visit our website www.premierhockeydevelopment.com. After Dundee, the next season I played in the Central Hockey League and then the year after I played in the United Hockey League. I tore my ACL that season and had my knee reconstructed. That was my last season and I have been coaching ever since.

In your time at Dundee, fans had used words such as 'terrier', 'tenacious', and phrases like 'gets under the opposition's skin' to describe you. Was that always your style of play, as you were never one of the biggest guys on the roster?
Yes I was always known as that type of player, probably from the first game I ever played. I was always a small player, but I loved to play physical and drive the other team crazy.

We'd like to thank Scott for taking the time to give us this interview and encourage any readers who it might be of interest to to check out his hockey school's website.

Keep checking back to the fanzine as we have some more interesting player interviews to come along with unique Stars commentary throughout the season.

Why we weren't wrong with our guarantee and finally we reveal our identities.

2011-02-12T23:29:00.001Z

Final Score: Hull Stingrays 6 Dundee Stars 3.

We were wrong with our guaranteed win against Hull, right?

Wrong.

Yes, Stars 'technically' lost the game but what we weren't banking on was the presence of a certain P. Staniforth as a linesman in said game. Had we known this, such a guarantee would never have been made.

Paul Staniforth's memories of the Dundee Stars at Hull's barn are well documented in our previous blog entry about this game. We, here at Sjostrom Towers, would (genuinely) never question the integrity of an EIHL official. However, we will put forward the infinitely more plausible theory that Mr. Staniforth is an evil genius who has been waiting to plot his revenge from his cavernous lair high atop the pennines.

In short, we would have won if it wasn't for those meddling stripeys :(.

Now. Onto more pressing matters:

The one question we've been asked the most since we started this fanzine is: "Who are you guys?" and variants such as "where do you sit in DIA?". Well, to answer these questions we thought we'd call upon the greatest Italian war hero of all time.

Further to Super Paddio's revelations, and since we can't be anonymous forever we guess it's about time we showed our beautiful visages. We're sure you've seen us sauntering around DIA countless times and will be literally kicking yourselves for not making the connection sooner. So here they are folks, the faces of Sagnus Mojstrom and Hike Marding.

We can't lie, we'd still like to stay a little bit anonymous and thus we have letterboxed our eyes. We are sure, however, the sharp ones among you will see through our image doctoring and still be able to pick us out at games.

Thanks for reading folks and we'll see you tomorrow night as the Stars romp home with another victory against the Vipers.

Ranking the goalies and the fanzine goes 'hollywood'

2011-02-12T18:11:00.002Z

Here at Sjostrom Towers, one of the most pleasurable things we've witnessed this season is how big Ladi has come into the team and firmly established himself as the Patrick Roy of the EIHL. As we're not big fans of hyping up our players to be better than they really are, it has also occured to us that at one time or another we've also had the Martin Brodeur and Dominik Hasek of the British leauges on our books over the years.

The debate: "How would you rank the Stars six professional starting goalies?" It's one that regularly does the rounds in pubs across Dundee. Certainly in the ones we frequent (The Dolphin, The Arctic Bar and ~~The Gauger~~ The Charlie Bar incidentally). Well myself (Sagnus Mojstrom) and my partner in crime(s...against blog writing) Hike Marding have been at loggerheads over this very issue lately.

This is how we see it:

1)Evan Lindsay
Evan Lindsay is an absolute champ. He replaced Glenn Ridler early in the 04/05 season and immediately let in a truckload in a 6 - 0 drubbing by Belfast. So why is our #1 you ask? Evan Linsday dusted himself down, donned his beautiful red pads again, shutout the Coventry Blaze and became an absolute clutch legend in the playoffs to lead us to the BNL championship. That 1-0 victory over Coventry is a momentous occasion in Stars history and the standing ovation Mr. Linsday recieved after that game still rings in our ears.

2) Stephen Murphy
Murph used to come way out of his net for everything and we don't care to watch Belfast closely enough to see if he still does. The point was though, he pretty much always made the save. This Dundee native backstopped us during our years of BNL greatness and even though he had an awesome defense in front of him, he has since shown he is a great goalie in his own right. Even if we do think he's only the 2nd greatest Stars #31.

3) Ladislav Kudrna
Oh Ladi. How we used to love calling you a useless sieve when you backstopped Edinburgh and Hull against us. We cannot apologise enough, big man. This season has been transformed since the clutch Czech donned the famous red, white and blue. His second period performance during our 7-3 nutting of Cardiff alone makes him a leg' in our eyes. Here's to many more elite performances as we power towards the playoffs.

T4) Glenn Ridler and David Trofimenkoff
This is where we were at odds. You see my colleague thinks Rids should be in the #4 spot while I threw myself firmly behind Troffi. This is probably down to the fact that they were pretty much chalk and cheese. Ridler was an infuriatingly inconsistent goalie, he could go from flashes of sheer unbridled genius one minute to painful nothingness the next. Trofimenkoff, on the other hand, was a technically sound and completely unspectacular goalie who would have been better if he didn't let his head drop after letting in a goal. Ridler was let go after just five games and a disappointing 4.72 GAA. There were calls for Trofi to face the same fate as Ridler, but, with no replacement available, he finished the season with the Stars having never shown the form that led him to being the #4 ranked goalie in the ISL only the previous season after a hugely impressing season with the London Knights.

6) Jerad Kaufmann
Errrmmm. Well. You see.... it's not that we think Jerad is a bad guy and we're all wishing him well for his future career but... ach, screw it, here's a picture.

The Fanzine Goes Hollywood!

urbandictionary.com defines going Hollywood as "A phrase which can be used to describe a person as being very superficial, narcissistic, and/or egomaniacal. It is sometimes used after a person made an appearance on television or film."

Well, that description fits us to a tee and while we won't be making an appearance on TV or in a film, we will be appearing somewhere rather more prestigious.

You see, the good people at the Dundee Stars match night programme have offered us a weekly slot. This is an offer than we are honoured to recieve and have accepted graciously. Far be it from us to say that The Stars programme is the best in the league, but the Stars programme is easily the best in the league. So, look out for "Musings From Sjostrom Towers" making it's debut in your match night programme starting next week.

Thanks for your support people, and keep checking back for more player interviews and unique Stars commentary throughout the season.

Hughesy and Zarb: Catching The Rays

2011-02-11T19:02:00.003Z

Earlier this week, we at your #1 Dundee Stars fanzine boldly predicted a 4 point weekend for Stars. Let's face it though, it doesn't take even half the gumption that we have to predict something that the entire hockey world knows anyway. We could have just left our predictions sitting there to come true on their own but no, that's not our style. Instead we contacted two current Stars players so they could tell us why our prediction was going to come true.

Step forward Hughesy and.....Zarby? No, just Zarb. Brent Hughes is our tenacious former captain who has since been stripped of that role by a bitter and twisted EIHL who, let's be fair, have been known to just make things up on the spot. Hughesy happens to be our assistant coach too and they have decided that he cannot possibly have both roles despite the fact he single-handedly pulled everyone to safety during the great Ardler Multi fire of 1979. Hughesy is still the captain in our heart although AJ Maclean (who has the added pressure of wearing a legendary number) has stepped up to the plate like a champ.

Far be it from us to say that Chris Zarb is the most skillful d-man in the EIHL, but Chris Zarb is easily the most skillful d-man in the EIHL. We are often glued to our favourite seats in the front row of section I watching him dazzle his way through countless jobbers. We thank Chris every day for plying his trade with us because he could of course have been the NHL's #1 d-man right now but after being drafted by Philadelphia he obviously felt rather sick and decided against it.

Either way, this is what Hughesy and Chris had to say to us about this weekend's games and we are confident these two and the rest of the legends who make up our team will uphold our prediction from earlier in the week.

DSF: It's definitely a huge week for the Stars, with games against our two closest rivals in the Elite League. How are you and the guys feeling about Saturday's clash with Hull? Do you think it's still possible to catch up to them in the league?
CZ: Obviously this is a huge weekend as we are still confident we can catch Hull. They are a tough team to play, especially on the road, but we're definitely up to the task!
BH: Catching Hull is our goal right now, we're not satisfied with 8th place, we want to finish at the highest part of the ladder possible.

DSF: With Newcastle playing Edinburgh in Whitley Bay on Saturday, you have to assume they'll come away with both points from that fixture. Does that add extra impetus for us to get the win when they visit on Sunday?
CZ: We do need to tighten our grip over Newcastle for 8th spot above all else. Again the team know the size of the task ahead, and we are hopeful we will prevail!

DSF: Brent, the game against Newcastle down in Whitley Bay last month was a bit of a heated affair, with yourself and Steve being ejected from the game as a result of the brawl at the end of the first period. Will you be looking to carry forward the edge from that game, or are you and the rest of the guys treating it pretty much as a stand-alone game?
BH: The Newcastle game is expected to be a hard nose game, they are trying to catch us and we are looking to pull further ahead, so it's going to be a battle. We're not too worried about what happened in the 1st period last game, we just want the 2 points.

DSF: Obviously the fans were very happy to have you as captain for the first half of the season, as you led by example, something which AJ has taken over the reins of very nicely indeed. How much has your on-ice role changed and do you feel, yourself, that you can now concentrate better as a coaching unit with Dan during games?
BH: Being captain was a great honour, it was something I took a lot of pride in and I know AJ will do the same. I don't feel my role will change, your game shouldn't change because of a letter on your jersey because there is a reason why it was there in the first place.

Brent was also keen to thank all of the fans for their continued support, pointing out that all the guys appreciate it.

Well Hughesy boy we appreciate you too. Get it right round ViperRays this weekend and it's playoffs here we come.

The Mark Scott Interview

2011-02-10T16:36:00.004Z

Here at Sjostrom Towers, we're all about supporting whoever dons legendary red, white and blue of the Stars as we look to establish ourselves in the EIHL. However, we're not adverse to a bit of nostalgia either. So, in the spirit of re-living past glories and remembering old seasons fondly, we bring you our first (and hopefully not last) interview with a former Stars player.

Mark Scott came here midway through the 04/05 season when we were on the ropes and were not sure if we'd be able to finish off the foot of the table, let alone lift the BNL Championship at the end of it. Along the way Mark posted 11 points in 19 games plus another 3 points in the playoffs and gained an eternal place in our hearts by scoring the overtime winner in the playoffs against Fife, in front of a raucous DIA crowd.

So without any further delay, here is what Mark had to say about his time in Dundee.

DSF: When you left Dundee, were you still playing pro hockey, and if so, where did you go?
MS: I played in Roanoke, Virginia, and had my best personal season. (Mark went 19+28=47 in 53 games for the Valley Vipers of the UHL.)

DSF: How would you rank Dundee in terms of the teams you have played for, in terms of the guys on the roster and the fans of the club?
MS: One of the best. It was great because of the Cup win and the fans made it a very neat experience, unlike North America.

DSF: Before you came to Stars, your stats suggested you might be a bit of a tough guy, but it didn't pan out that way and you chipped in offensively, was that a conscious effort on your part?
MS: Yes, unfortunately I was always cast in the "tough role". I always made a conscious effort to get out of that, by improving my skills and knowledge.

DSF: Although you were only with the Stars for a short time, was the rivalry with the Fife Flyers apparent to you? How did it feel to score the winning goal in the Playoffs against them in a packed DIA?
MS: Yes. Anytime you score a winning goal, it is great, but I guess especially against them. Thanks for reminding me!

DSF: Would you have re-signed for the Stars in 2005/06 if we had still been playing pro hockey?
MS: Yes I would have. Scott Barnes and I lived together there and now have become great friends. We do a lot of hockey business together and often talk about how great Dundee was.

Mark also revealed to us that he still follows the UK hockey scene somewhat, and is good friends with Nottingham Panthers' David-Alexandre Beauregard. He wore #11 for the Stars because of his hero, Mark Messier.

So there you have it. Huge thanks to Mark for being the first player interviewed on the Fanzine and great to know that he remembers his time here so fondly. Keep checking in for more player interviews and unique Stars commentary throughout the season.

We guarantee a win against Hull on Saturday

2011-02-10T00:19:00.001Z

Back in the old BNL days, you could be assured that the following three things were guaranteed on an away trip to Hull.

1) Slava Timchenko would find a way to remove the finger bones from a member of the Stars roster.

2) The navy and teal colour scheme on their uniforms would make you vomit.

3) Scott Young would punch the ref.

But alas, Oggie has long since departed with Paul Staniforth's stubble burn still on his knuckles, Slava Timchenko was last seen working as the guy who hands out punishment to bread thieves in Baghdad and their jerseys have been resigned to the wallpaper in Rick Strachan's underground shrine to the dump and chase tactic.

As for their new jerseys, we here as Sjostrom Towers don't know what the laws are like on inter-family breeding in Yorkshire, but they are pretty slack in Fife and it's very easy to be labelled a Fifer by association (say, by ripping off their colour scheme).

This Saturday's game throws up a new set of guarantees for what is going to go down in Hull:

1) We won't be kept in touch with Gwilym Lloyd's lush warblings on BBC Radio Humber

2) We will, for once, be the team in Hull doing the dumping and the chasing

and most importantly,

3) We will win the game.

Edinburgh, much as we love them (about as much as a paving stone to the face, to be fair) WILL lose to Newcastle and let's be honest, it would be an insult to the good name of Magnus Sjostrom if we come out of this weekend without our 7 point lead over those loveable Geordies becoming 9.

Ahhh The Vipers. Who can forget the hours they kept us entertained for in the 90s on CBBC?

Sadly the chipper Geordies have fallen on hard times since the cancellation of the show but their legacy upon the EIHL is still quite telling. Former Viper and now beloved former Stars captain Brent Hughes is still heard to joyously yell "WAYE AYE MAN" whenever he tickles the twine with a puck.

This Sunday they return to Dundee Ice Arena where they seldom saw a point in the BNL days and seem to be graciously upholding that tradition in the EIHL. We fully expect to see another Stars victory from our worn out seats at the back of the jumping Section I that we have occupied since day one. Last time out it was a heated affair which saw Steve Makway and Brent Hughes thrown from the game for reasons which we can't remember but which the referee definitely got wrong.

So, all in all a big weekend in which we guarantee four points from the mighty Stars. We'll be there, will you?

Last time we checked, 'Braehead' has two syllables

2011-02-09T00:52:00.001Z

So why, in their weegie drawl, do their fans take it upon themselves to completely ignore that fact and elongate their a's during their magnum opus chant, 'let's go Cla..................................n, let's go'?

Far be it from us to claim our fans are the league's greatest chanters, but our fans are easily the league's greatest chanters. 'Here we go Dundee, here we go.' Simple, effective, and most importantly, doesn't grind on your ear drums like a pumice stone.

To put it in the mildest possible terms, losing to Braehead is worse than the plague and marginally better than losing to Fife. They are an evil empire pushed by the league to do well due to some misguided belief that we need a hockey team from Glasgow. All the while, our plucky band of Stars on the east coast continue to be a self succificient group of Warriors, doing it for Magnus.

Now, onto more pressing matters. The presentation of our first ever ultra-prestigious 'Magnus Sjostrom Extra Effort Award for services to anonymity'. This week's winner was cruelly kept from his adoring fans for a period an a half on Sunday and as if that's not bad enough, has been resigned to the horror of the bland number 33 jersey while the number he made his own is worn by a man who, at best, can be described as "OK, not quite as bad as Mark Thompson". (Admittedly, even that was in the balance for a while.) Take a bow, Super Paddio.