WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR: Dundee’s case to remain relevant

Let’s be honest.

Unless you’re a Dundee fan, the Stars are never really prominent on your EIHL radar. Aside from what was a shocking turn around in the 2013-2014 campaign (finishing 3^rd in the league and were Gardiner Conference champions), the Stars can usually be found chipping away at the bottom of the field. Is that their fault? The majority of it is no, it’s not.

You can only do so much when you’re handed a budget that is probably half of what teams like Nottingham, Belfast, Sheffield and Coventry are dealt. You’re limited to a few imports and can’t ice an entire roster of Canadians and Europeans like certain clubs. Some fans might get frustrated year after year of this but in my opinion, this makes your club that much better to not only watch but to cheer for.

The players on the Stars realize the reputation they have and that’s going to make them work harder than ever to eventually erase that. They need to be seen and they need to be heard in the mainstream EIHL world.

One thing that Dundee does for not only their team, but for the good of UK hockey in general is their use of locally and nationally developed players. The budget constraints forces them to work with what they have in front of them. Case in point locally developed defenseman Sam McClusky and national team phenom Paul Swindlehurst have cracked their own dents into the EIHL foreground.

This upcoming season poses to look a bit different.

Throwing away the prominent player/coach role that has seemed to serve the Stars well in the past and going with one permanent man behind the bench seems to intertwine a new era of sorts. To me, that sounds like the club has a bit more money to dish out.

The appointing of Marc Lefebvre as coach seemed a fair bit scary to me. Hear me out! This story has a happy ending, I promise!

Lefebvre had a decent playing career, there’s no doubt about that. Prior to the EIHL, Lefebvre’s only coaching jobs however came in the form of the Federal Hockey League, a league I’m fairly acquainted with unfortunately (I got to lift the championship with the Akwesasne Warriors, but I digress.). The skill level of that league at that time well, was terrible. It was pretty much a free for all. Locker rooms were very rarely kept and I heard a few behind the scenes rumors that would make your skin crawl.

I mean, when your whole play is “keep Pierre Dagenais cherry picking the blue line so we can get the puck to him better”, you’ve got problems. (That wasn’t Lefebvre’s team by the way.)

I wrote a piece last season praising Coventry for appointing Lefebvre as their head coach. Looking at his past with the FHL, I cringed but after spending a year assisting with the Sheffield Steelers, (which is whether you like it or not, a very successful hockey organization), I figured he may have learned a thing or two and this would turn out great.

Obviously it didn’t.

I won’t get into how much a travesty that season was for Coventry, but a lot of the blame was put on both Lefebvre and the players. As it usually does. I got to thinking and in my thoughts I came along the notion that Coventry was too big of a club for Lefebvre to man without any major head coaching experience.

Which is why he’s going to be a great fit and will do great things for Dundee.

The Dundee Stars are the perfect mix of low key media presence, reasonable expectations and players for Marc Lefebvre to commandeer. He can learn from the mistakes made in Coventry and grow on successes he built in Hungary from last season. Now that Dundee has a guy that can focus 100% of his time on coaching, you might just see a bit of difference in the Stars this season. Not saying that nobody exceled in the player/coach role but that can’t be easy, especially mentally.