Back from the dead, Edinburgh Capitals will be looking to spring a surprise or two this season.
Another tough season lies in wait for plucky Capitals
The Edinburgh Capitals were as good as gone. They were a hockey team in body but not in spirit. Every other Elite League team circled like vultures and picked them apart. Players padded their stats to earn more lucrative contracts and fans half-heartedly cheered as the scoreboard kept going up and up and up, sympathising with the Capitals' plight.
But against all the odds they somehow survived long enough to reach the end of the season, and surprisingly, almost unbelievably, the Capitals are back.
In a summer when the Newcastle Vipers admitted defeat, Edinburgh have dared to come back and do it again.
2010/11 marked the single worst season in the Elite League since the London Racers collapsed mid-way through the campaign. Edinburgh's only saving grace was that they made it to the bitter end. Somehow, through sheer will and perseverance the Capitals were still standing. Having gone through the double-figure thrashings and what looked like the impending doom, Scott Neil and the Capitals believe they can do it again. It's down to Neil's determination and the support of the fans in Edinburgh that remained until the end that this is even possible.
Scrambling
But with less than two weeks left until the Capitals take the ice for the first time this season, it's hard to imagine them doing any better than last year. At the time of writing, with less than two weeks until the Caps being their schedule against, drum roll please, the Nottingham Panthers, the Edinburgh roster is far from the finished article and reeks of the usual last-minute panic accompanying them at this time of year.
Former Edinburgh and Fife forward Adrian Saul had originally been lined up to coach at Murrayfield, but that move fell through, leaving the Caps in the lurch both in terms of a leader and in recruitment. Since then, the Capitals have been scrambling to make up for lost time and only have a skeleton roster.
The Capitals website lists only nine players. Total.
You could understand the Caps waiting for a couple of imports at the last minute, but they have only two Brits. And one of those is netminder Nathan Craze. On one hand, Craze is being rewarded for his patience backing up Stephen Murphy in Belfast after coming through Cardiff Devils' farm system. It's great to have another Brit besides Murphy and Stevie Lyle given the opportunity at a starting gig, but Craze is going to need a Kevlar suit this season. Bari McKenzie is the only other rostered Brit at present.
The rest of the Capitals roster has a distinctly Eastern European flavour. This term the Caps imports won't be arriving via Virgin Atlantic, they'll be flying in on Easy Jet, without priority boarding and if they're lucky - one checked bag.
The announcement of Richard Hartmann's signing was made on August 16th. Eight days later he was made player-coach.
Scary
The Slovak forward arrives in Scotland after a year in the German Bundesliga. He's spent most of his career in the Slovak Extraliga, posting good numbers and he could well be a solid signing. Hartmann is joined up front by Marcis Zembergs (Latvia), Peter Holecko (Slovakia) and Rene Jarolin (Slovakia).
At least the Caps have three imports confirmed on the blueline with ex-Hull D-man Jozef Sladok alongside Tomas Valecko (Slovakia) and Jan Safar (Czech Republic), who returns after making 15 appearances last time out.
It's a roster half-full of unknown quantities and full of question marks or blank spaces. But it is a line-up that makes far more financial sense for Edinburgh than banking on more costly North American imports and all of the extra paperwork that they require.
Given what happened last season, even if the Capitals fleshed out the rest of the roster with similar imports and managed to cobble together a few more Brits, it would be hard to believe that they could do any better than ninth. With Dundee and Hull trying to narrow the gap on the competition and put solid line-ups out from day one, the Capitals are a long way behind those two teams, never mind the top half of the table.
When it's all said and done, what will have happened more often: Games with the Caps icing a full roster, or games when the Caps concede double figures? I wouldn't like to bet on it, and that is the real scary thing. Hold on tight.
