Capitals will give extra push against Braehead on '˜Pride Night'

After a cluster of seven games in 11 days up to Tuesday’s 12-1 shellacking at Nottingham Panthers, the Murrayfield men have only one date this weekend when John Tripp’s play-off chasing side make their way along the M8 in the search for points.

But Plews reflected on the past week that saw Capitals ship 35 goals in the past four games and lose five players prior to Tuesday’s trip to Nottingham, admitting the volume of contests has had a bearing on him and the players.

“It’s been a tough one for us and the amount of games we’ve played in a short space of time has taken its toll,” the 20-year-old said. “We’ve got a short enough bench as it is and we’ve had to turn to young guys, who themselves are playing a lot of minutes.

“It’s all getting a bit much, but the end of the season is coming. In a sense, it can’t come quick enough and it’s been a difficult one from start to finish. It’s happened, it’s been one of those seasons and hopefully the Caps can turn it around next year.

“Braehead haven’t had a good season themselves and are locked in a battle for the last play-off spot. Our previous games, apart from the last couple, have been close, but we fell short. But it would be pretty good to get something from this.

“They’re out to pick up as much points as they can with the play-off place up for grabs and with the club having Pride Night, we’re hoping to see a big crowd turn up and not only support the event, but support the team too.

“Beating Braehead is always a sweet one for us, because of the Scottish rivalry thing, but to get a win here would mean a lot because of how hard we’ve played recently and the run we’ve been on so it would be a great one in front of the home crowd.”

Caps’ record against Braehead this season has been poor, with no wins to show from their seven Elite League meetings so far and there have been clashes that have been closer than others previously, which is why they could manage to turn it in their favour.

Their previous clash was only a week past Wednesday in Glasgow and despite going ahead through Mike Cazzola in the opening minute, Braehead turned the game around and soundly beat Edinburgh 7-2.

As Plews admits, it’s been tough behind the scenes as the losses stack up and the scorelines get more and more one-sided almost with every game,.

As he spoke about the depleted team that travelled to Nottingham in midweek the defenceman explained how difficult it’s been in recent games, with an already shorthanded team further hampered by injuries and illness. But he admits he’d love to see interim coach Mike D’Orazio return and given the chance to work with his own group.

Plews added: “It’s extremely hard to get yourself going when things haven’t gone as we would like then we go to Nottingham without a few more players. We all do our best when we’re out there and we’ve got to work, but when you get to that third period, it’s tough going.

“The games we’re playing right now, we’re just trying to get a win for the fans and give them something to cheer about and we always go in with a positive attitude. The outcome maybe always doesn’t come out that way, but it doesn’t stop us and we’re desperate for that win.

“But I think since Mike came in, he has done well considering. He took a team like this on with little in the way of preparation time and we’ve done things in practice we haven’t done before, which we all like.

“I noticed since he took over, we want to play harder for him and he’s done a great job and his experience here would set him up for any other coaching jobs he could get. I’d love to see him back and see what team he would bring in.”