Tony hand excited as Murrayfield Racers drop the puck on a new ioce hockey season

Racers travel to Kilmarnock Thunder for a Stuart Robertson Cup group match, looking to regain the trophy they won last year along with the Scottish National League title in what was a fantastic debut season for the newly formed Edinburgh club.

Racers will once more be in for a busy schedule, competing in five separate league and cup competitions and Hand, who has brought in seven new faces to the squad, said: “The boys look good, it’s going to take time but I think we’ve brought players in that can help improve us as a team. Of course, we did great last year but we’ve always said our goal is to improve year-on-year. We’ve taken our time to try and ensure we’ve brought in the right players, we’ve put together a younger squad which was something that we were looking to do. Everything bodes well for the future as we look to progress to the next level.

“We wanted to add more depth, our D is definitely stronger and we’ve picked up some players from other clubs up front that will help us improve in that area. We’ve also got some good juniors playing at Murrayfield that we’re keen to bring through.”

Hand seems to be delighted with the energy his team have brought both into training this week and last weekend’s 5-2 pre-season win over Dundee Comets. However, Racers bosses have arranged one final friendly match as they take on Paisley Pirates at Murrayfield tomorrow (face-off 6pm). The first time the two sides have met since last season’s SNL play-off final – a game the west coast outfit won 5-0.

Hand continued: “I’m really pleased with the players’ attitudes, they’ve come in fit and hungry, they’ve been working hard through the summer on fitness plans we gave them last season, and that’s been proven by the fitness test we gave the guys last week.”