Capitals undaunted to be in eye of Storm again

Edinburgh Capitals player-coach Michal Dobron insists practice this week has been business as usual '“ despite his squad producing arguably their worst showing of the season last time out at Manchester Storm.

Jared Staal scored as Caps beat Manchester at Murrayfield in September. Coach Michal Dobron is confident of a repeat this weekend. Pic: Jan Orkisz/SMP

But Dobron insists his side have learned from the 6-2 loss which ended an energy-sapping stretch of five games in eight days for the Murrayfield men.

Edinburgh face what will be a stern test when they travel to title contenders Nottingham Panthers tomorrow, before hopefully giving a much better account of themselves against Manchester on Sunday at Murrayfield (face-off 6.00pm).

Dobron said: “Last weekend was very tough for us. We’d had a long travel day and then a game in Cardiff the night before playing in Manchester. For some of the guys it was the first time they had played two road games like that. Some of us were tired and we needed to keep the game simple. Instead, we made basic mistakes, and a team like Manchester will kill you if you do that.

“We learned a lesson. There will be times again this season when we play games tired and we will do a better job next time by keeping it simple, just shooting the puck and looking for rebounds, especially in small rinks like Manchester and Cardiff. It’s something we’ve learned and it’s the one positive that I will take away.”

Another worrying statistic is Edinburgh’s currently misfiring power-play. Caps were zero from seven opportunities in Manchester and also failed to score from four chances with the extra man in Cardiff.

However, Dobron is planing no major shake-up of the power-play personnel against Nottingham, who last week qualified for the next stage of the Continental Cup, beating Latvian side Leipaja 3-1 in the group decider.

“The guys we have (playing on the power-play), can do a very good job for us. Although, I think next time we play in a small rink we will change the way we do things, but Nottingham is a big rink like ours so we don’t need to change too much.

“We’ve spoken with the guys all this week about how we need to play and everyone understands what I want from them for the team. We’ve been working on our systems and break-outs plus a few special things because it’s Nottingham but what they are will remain in the locker room.”

Sunday’s opponents Manchester this week made front page headlines after Canadian pop superstar Justin Bieber took a break from his world tour to practise with the team before taking them for a night on the town. However, Capitals coach Dobron is fully aware the best way to say ‘Sorry’ to the Edinburgh fans after such a poor showing against Storm just a week ago is to bag the two very important Gardiner Conference Elite League points on offer.

“It will be much tougher for them on Sunday,” said Dobron. “This is our rink and, for some of our players, it’s a big advantage. We’ve beaten them here before on penalty shots and, if we play like we can, we can take the points.”