This year's Hull Stingrays were supposed to be rough, tough and good enough.
Jonathan Bernier, Jake Riddle and Rick Kozak were expected to form the core of a team built around power, size and an eagerness to drop the gloves.
Not for long.
Less than two months into the season all three have moved on, forcing the Rays to adjust and find their identity again.
Enter Konstantin Kalmikov.
Since arriving in Hull, the Ukrainian power-forward has notched five points in three games, breathing new life into the drowning Stingrays. Kalmikov converted his penalty shot in the 4-3 win against Newcastle on Saturday and, together with Matt Reynolds and Lee Mitchell, has quickly given Hull coach Rick Strachan a go-to forward unit.
"They just all gelled together quickly," Strachan told skysports.com
"We've been fortunate to get a guy with stats like Kalmikov. Until he joined us, he hadn't played a proper game since last April. Kalmikov does a lot ofthings right, he's a not a flashy guy who will score a highlight reel goal, but he shoots the puck extremely hard and will create space for his line-mates."
After previously favouring European imports when Hull joined the Elite League, Strachan turned to North America to beef the Rays up. However, with Kalmikov the Rays have a balance of muscle and flair that may tempt Strachan back to Eastern Europe as he tries to find another replacement forward.
With pink slips and P45s being handed out left, right and centre as the economic slump continues, we've now seen a couple of job losses in the Elite League. Albeit, not entirely due to financial reasons.
Rod Hinks has become the latest casualty of the EIHL season, being axed by the Cardiff Devils this week.
While hearing the words that were made famours by Donald Trump and Alan Sugar come out of Devils coach Gerad Adams' mouth must have been tough to take, Hinks reacted with professionalism.
"I didn't come in and perform," Hinks said in an interview with skysports.com
"I didn't come in and play the way I wanted to. I'm probably the hardest person on myself. I don't blame Gerad at all for doing what he had to do."
Adams stated that the decision to release Hinks was "part salary cap, part performance."
Considering that Hinks had notched 11 points on a Devils team that has been up against it so far this season, his performance wasn't that bad.
But when those points were matched against Adams' expectation of playing Hinks on the first line, and therefore paying first line wages, it's not hard to understand the present situation.
You can read Hinks' entire interview with skysports.com here.
"Hand feeds the puck to Molin... GOAL!!"
"Hand passes to Tallari... GOAL!!"
"Hand finds Beauregard... GOAL!!"The year has changed, the players have changed, but the outcome remains the same. Tony Hand has unearthed another gem in Phoenix forward David Beauregard (14 goals, 9 assists) and has re-established the playmaker-sniper relationship that has worked perfectly for the last two years in Altrincham. Beauregard, a former San Jose Sharks draft pick, previously scored 47 goals in the UHL and is tied for the Elite League lead with Belfast's Paul Deniset. The scary thing is that he says he's never played with an All Star playmaker like Hand before."Before I came over to the UK everybody was telling me how many goals I would score just playing with Tony," Beauregard told the Manchester Phoenix game programme."I can understand that now. Throughout my career I’ve been scoring goals without really playing with a true playmaker on my line. "You can read the entire interview in this week's Manchester Phoenix match night programme.
