Andrew Lord has paid tribute to the four players who are central to everything for Cardiff Devils.
Head coach Lord talked about the contribution from Devils’ Canadian centres Joey Martin, Paul Crowder and Layne Ulmer plus influential Welshman Matthew Myers.
“We know what we have, arguably the best four centremen as a package in Elite League,” he said. “It took a little while to get the boys going, but they have found their form now.
“Martin is Joey Martin, the guy we all know, while Crowder is back to where we knew him. He is solid on the puck, protects it so well, and has unbelievable vision.
“We know what Myers does in the face-off circle, in front of the net and he grinds hard minutes for the team.
“Ulmer has his boots going, is excellent on the powerplay. He is a smart player and a fantastic leader for us. He keeps the tempo high in the room and on the ice.
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“Depth like that through the middle is critical.”
Lord leads his Devils team to Scotland on Wednesday for their third Elite League match in five days. They have earned six successive victories in league and cup and travel to play Dundee Stars in good form.
Justin Faryna, Martin and Gleason Fournier scored for Devils in a 3-0 win against Belfast Giants away and they followed that success with a 7-2 home victory against Edinburgh Capitals at Ice Arena Wales.
Cardiff fired 46 shots at Giants goalie Jackson Whistle and Lord said: “Any time you go into Belfast, put up that number of shots and shut them out is a big day.
“We defended hard and they had very few second shot opportunities. Bownsy (netminder Ben Bowns) was solid and it was a big road win, a highly professional job.”
Mark Louis and Joey Haddad are both ruled out by injuries, although both are making good progress towards fitness, while Patrick Asselin was troubled by illness last weekend.
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“He was extremely sick, but wanted to help the team and was, as ever, smooth as silk,” said Lord.
Devils play Fife Flyers at Ice Arena Wales on Saturday (7pm), before travelling to play Nottingham Panthers on Sunday (4pm).
Guildford Flames visit Cardiff Bay on Friday, December 8 and Devils have confirmed a 7pm face-off time.
Around 200 people have already purchased match tickets and the kick-off time shown on those is 7.30pm, but the game will start half an hour earlier.
“We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause for fans of Devils or Flames travelling to the game on a Friday evening,” said a club spokesman. “The change is to alleviate the potential congestion of hockey spectators and public skaters entering the Arena at the same time.”
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