Finucci writes himself into Flyers' history
Photo: Mark Ferris
In what's been a dark few weeks for Fife, forward Carlo Finucci was able to spread some positivity when he entered the Flyers' history books on Saturday by becoming the team's all-time leading points scorers in the Elite League.
"It was a good thing to finally get over the mark. This was brought up to be early in the season that t was something achievable, and I’m very proud to have done it. I hope I can keep building on it,” explained the Canadian, whose goal against Cardiff wrote him into Flyers’ history. "I’ve had a pretty good stretch of form personally and I was only thinking about doing my job to get us out of the form the team is in- to keep trying to produce and do what I can to get us wins. It was always going to be something I would be able to achieve around the halfway point in the league, or just after."
It’s no secret that this season has not gone the way the Fife Flyers had hoped - the team find themselves last and some seven points off the playoffs. “It’s hard to put into words where we’re sitting right now. I don’t think any team does into a season expecting to be sitting in last place, especially the players that we have in our dressing room,” admitted Finucci. "This form that started just after Christmas with 12 losses in absolutely unacceptable, and something I don’t really have any words left to put my finger on why. There are a lot of variables and it seems to be one of them each night that’s costing us - there’s no one thing, but we’re definitely getting bitten for whichever one it is."
On a run of 12 losses, what has the atmosphere been like in Kirkcaldy? "It’s been pretty gloomy around the rink, but one thing that I have noticed is people are coming to practise ready to work. Everyone is coming in to train ready and we’re not letting it hang over our heads in the week. When the games come at the weekend we really need a special one to get us out of this,” he said. "We’ve been in tight games throughout this whole run and probably had to pull our goalie in at least eight of them. It's been lots of one-goal games with an empty netter so it’s not like we’re getting blow out as you might expect from a last-place team, but that also makes it harder. Ultimately our lack of scoring is costing us games, as well as our special teams."
The obvious question when a team is on a bad run is how they keep themselves motivated. “You just have to hope that guys can find the form they’re used to and get their confidence back,” explained Finucci. “We’re often scoring first in a game and are then not able to build on it, and we get frustrated; we have chances to build on a lead and it doesn’t go in for us and then all of a sudden doubts start to creep in. It’s a troubling thing to be happening to a team, especially when we haven’t won in 12 games."
He continued: “I’ve said it before that we win and lose as a team and as a fan base, and I more than understand the fans’ frustrations about where things are at right now. It’s been so great to see them travelling to support us in Glasgow and Manchester for example - they’re still coming out to back us and sending positive tweets and messages. We know they care, and the reason why they’re frustrated is because they care about the club. Hopefully, we have 16 games in which we can do something about this situation."
The end of season run-in for the Flyers is clear: they’ll need to win as many of their 16 remaining games as they can to get back into the playoff race. “We need to snap the skid now and find ways to win hockey games, it doesn’t need to be the prettiest of games but we need to get that feeling and confidence back,” said Finucci, looking forward. "One of the big things at the moment is that guys aren’t confident - we’re getting chances and not creating. We’re averaging two goals a game in this stretch and that won’t win you many hockey games. Our defense and goalie are going a good job, but we’re not giving them support offensively. Our special teams have also been a big thing because ur penalty kill is leaking goals, and our power play isn’t taking chances to put games away."
