Edinburgh sign another, look better than last year

[Shaggy]

Edinburgh sign Andrej Racjcak

PR: www.edinburgh-capitals.com/news/detail.php?id=139

Stats: www.eurohockey.net/players/show_player.cgi?serial=19708

Looks useful.... in fact, the Edinburgh team as a whole look a lot more useful than last season. Could be some good games there...

[Deleted]

Looks decent, I think Zvolan is the team who won the continental cup 2 years a go, who beat dynamo moscow in the final. The top team in slovakia and to play for them most of your career, there must be something very good about him

[Helen B]

Do they have a coach yet?

[gazzathedevil]

helenb said:

Do they have a coach yet?

Not officially, many believe Scott Neil will take the reigns himself though

[ted]

I imagine Scott will be coach this year. He coached them to 5th in the 12 team BNL when they would have finished third had of had four of the team not gone down with chicken-pox heading into the last weekend!

[Helen B]

Okey dokey Ted... I can go with that.

[jrm]

Very pleased with this signing.

Was a Slovak All Star in 2001. Has scored for the Slovak national team. Was fifth top goalscorer in Slovakia in 2002. Was signed by Russian Superleague team Sibir Novosibirsk but never played for some reason. Has the best Extraliga stats of anyone in the UK.

A line of Cingel - Rajcak - Slak could be very dangerous, all we need is Martin to stay injury free for a season.

[belak]

Personally I hope the Caps are much strnger this year, as it's (obviously) more beneficial not only for themselves, but also the league.

I'm slowly getting enthusiasm for the forth coming season...

[ted]

Thought youd gone JRM!

Bet your gutted to be missing a season eh!

[pantheruk]

Caps are going to do a lot better than some people may think this year, overall i think they are going to finsh the around mid table 5th or 6th

[Rich]

hate to buck the trend but I cant see them doing anything this season. With no Hand, no toughness,no coach and Dino Bauba another year older I really beleive they will struggle.
If they finish 5th or 6th who will be below them? The league is looking better this year and I wudnt class them as being as strong as manc or Bstoke and defo not near the top5 (Cov,belfast,panthers,sheffield,newcastle)

[sabre48]

pantherrich said:

hate to buck the trend but I cant see them doing anything this season. With no Hand, no toughness,no coach and Dino Bauba another year older I really beleive they will struggle.
If they finish 5th or 6th who will be below them? The league is looking better this year and I wudnt class them as being as strong as manc or Bstoke and defo not near the top5 (Cov,belfast,panthers,sheffield,newcastle)

Sure we've lost Hand but i think this seasons Caps team has alot more balance on the forward lines and a huge amount of experience in the defensive unit. Personally i think the team has alot more quality in it than both the Phoenix and Stingrays. But im not going to bother predicting were the Caps will finish cause you just never know what will happen.

[Rich]

sabre48 said:

pantherrich said:

hate to buck the trend but I cant see them doing anything this season. With no Hand, no toughness,no coach and Dino Bauba another year older I really beleive they will struggle.
If they finish 5th or 6th who will be below them? The league is looking better this year and I wudnt class them as being as strong as manc or Bstoke and defo not near the top5 (Cov,belfast,panthers,sheffield,newcastle)

Sure we've lost Hand but i think this seasons Caps team has alot more balance on the forward lines and a huge amount of experience in the defensive unit. Personally i think the team has alot more quality in it than both the Phoenix and Stingrays. But im not going to bother predicting were the Caps will finish cause you just never know what will happen.

I totally agree you cant predict week to week let alone a whole season, thats the good thing about the league.

I just meant other teams have built strong teams this season. Id like to see the caps starting to sign a couple of tough guys now to protect their euros

[ted]

I dont think they will be the auto pushover they were last season. I really hope that a edinburgh match is a REAL challenge.

The squad they are building suggests that while they may not win anything... its a vast improvement over the last season.

[Paul]

helenb said:

Do they have a coach yet?

I know my brother had a phone call from someone in Scotland after last Sunday ;D ;D ;D

[sabre48]

pantherrich said:

sabre48 said:

Sure we've lost Hand but i think this seasons Caps team has alot more balance on the forward lines and a huge amount of experience in the defensive unit. Personally i think the team has alot more quality in it than both the Phoenix and Stingrays. But im not going to bother predicting were the Caps will finish cause you just never know what will happen.

I totally agree you cant predict week to week let alone a whole season, thats the good thing about the league.

I just meant other teams have built strong teams this season. Id like to see the caps starting to sign a couple of tough guys now to protect their euros

The Caps have one import slot left to fill. Personally id like to see a player in mould of Stevenson-Moore or Mike Kiesman. Not a goon but a gritty power forward who can contribute points wise but isnt afraid to drop the shoulder and play a physical game. I think the need for a fighter is diminished under the new ZT rules. Plus with the import quota down to 10, is it realy worth using one of those spots on an out and out fighter?

[Rich]

sabre48 said:

pantherrich said:

I totally agree you cant predict week to week let alone a whole season, thats the good thing about the league.

I just meant other teams have built strong teams this season. Id like to see the caps starting to sign a couple of tough guys now to protect their euros

The Caps have one import slot left to fill. Personally id like to see a player in mould of Stevenson-Moore or Mike Kiesman. Not a goon but a gritty power forward who can contribute points wise but isnt afraid to drop the shoulder and play a physical game. I think the need for a fighter is diminished under the new ZT rules. Plus with the import quota down to 10, is it realy worth using one of those spots on an out and out fighter?

In my opinion? Yes it is. No offense to the caps but they wont have the pulling power of the big teams and could get a cheap fighter to allow everyone else to play hockey. The only rule to do with fighting that has changed is your allowed 3fights before getting kicked out, it encourages one on one fights more than punishing them so ZT is not an issue. Every other team in the league has 2or3 guys who will fight, even Hull have 2 guys who will fight if needed and they were looking like pushovers.

I think this is where you will down, im not stereotyping but alot of the caps players wont like being pushed around all game and getting back up after every hit they take

[Adam]

sabre48 said:

pantherrich said:

I totally agree you cant predict week to week let alone a whole season, thats the good thing about the league.

I just meant other teams have built strong teams this season. Id like to see the caps starting to sign a couple of tough guys now to protect their euros

The Caps have one import slot left to fill. Personally id like to see a player in mould of Stevenson-Moore or Mike Kiesman. Not a goon but a gritty power forward who can contribute points wise but isnt afraid to drop the shoulder and play a physical game. I think the need for a fighter is diminished under the new ZT rules. Plus with the import quota down to 10, is it realy worth using one of those spots on an out and out fighter?

Where's Travis Lisabeth gone now?

He's a player i wouldn't of minded seeing down here this season!

[sabre48]

adam said:

Where's Travis Lisabeth gone now?

Who cares. He never put any effort in playing for the Caps and left at the first opportunity he got, total waste of time

[ted]

I think IIRC.... he went off to run a resteraunt and never bothered turning up for training or matches

[Adam]

sabre48 said:

adam said:

Where's Travis Lisabeth gone now?

Who cares. He never put any effort in playing for the Caps and left at the first opportunity he got, total waste of time

Shame.

He looked to have plenty of talent!

[sabre48]

ted said:

I think IIRC.... he went off to run a resteraunt and never bothered turning up for training or matches

That was Paddy Lochi. There was never an official anouncment about that, so Caps fans are still asking "Where's Paddy Lochi!??"

[SS12]

An important point, Caps don't have Tony Hand this season so how can they possibly be better than last season when you consider Hand's points average?

[jrm]

ski12 said:

An important point, Caps don't have Tony Hand this season so how can they possibly be better than last season when you consider Hand's points average?

We've lost one top Brit in Tony but have gained another in Murphy so it's not like a Tony Hand for Neil Hay swap in terms of points.

Yes, we will miss Tony's production but there are a lot of other parts to Tony's game that a lot of Caps fans are very glad to see the back of.

It's hard to tell with so many players new to the country but the pedigree of most of our new imports is very good indeed. How many EIHL players have scored a goal for the World Champions? How many were top goalscorers in Pool A nations?

And yes Ted, I have gone. I'm in Amsterdam at the moment, Berlin tomorrow. It will be poo poo to miss the season, especially when I start to get excited about new signings but on Tuesday I see Kosice vs Zilina.

[Shaggy]

ski12 said:

An important point, Caps don't have Tony Hand this season so how can they possibly be better than last season when you consider Hand's points average?

Because the rest of the team as a whole is an improvement? (or, at least at this early stage, certainly looks to be).
Sure, they've lost Toe-Knee-Hand and his points... but as good as he is, he's only one man - and there's only so much one man can do. Plus the fact their defence appears to have firmed up quite a lot - and conceding goals was a bit of a problem for them last season.