By Kris Smith
The Stars new Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations returned to the club this summer after a six-year spell away coaching teams in North America and Europe, but he arrived back into Dundee with a newly-built squad that is prepared to put the team back on course in their hunt for silverware.
After taking a few days to refamiliarize himself with the city, LeFebvre commented: “I am settling back into the city well, not too much has changed, apart from down at the waterfront obviously with the V&A and the hotels.
“I walked into town and took a drive around and it all came flooding back to me.
“At the arena, the dressing room has changed a little bit too and now you see all the sponsor boards everywhere, so it is good to see that and everyone at the club again, it is all very positive.”
With the team’s two-week preseason training camp due to start on Monday and with two friendly fixtures during each weekend, the Canadian coach was happy to see some of his players here in Dundee already and hard at work on the ice this week.
He said: “It is great to have some of the guys here already, so they can get settled into the city and accustomed to driving on the other side of the road, all those kinds of things.
“Also for them getting used to a different way of life as well but we are all excited to get everyone in over the next few days and get things going on Sunday.”
With two exhibition games against their biggest rivals, Fife Flyers at the end of the first week of training camp, LeFebvre wants to nail down the basics early, as he placed importance on structure and fitness.
Marc explained: “Our big thing is making sure our structure is in place but also our conditioning, because we want to be game ready by the time the first two matches against Belfast roll around.
“We are going to use those first four friendly matches to get everybody in shape, work on our conditioning, get our structure in place and work on those finer details of the game.
“It will be a work in progress throughout camp and the start of the season, making sure we are doing the right things because obviously nothing will be perfect, so it is just about fine tuning those things.”
Finally, LeFebvre discussed the style of hockey that Stars fans can expect to see over the first few weeks, as he wants his side to fear no team.
He added: “It will just be a real grinding style, I do not think we are going to play a sexy style of hockey.
“We are going to play the right way and make it difficult for teams in our zone, the neutral zone and in the offensive zone, so we just want to make sure that we have that puck on our sticks and grind teams down when we don’t.”
The Stars face the Flyers home and away on September 9th and 10th with the first game in Kirkcaldy facing off at 7:15pm and Sunday’s match in Dundee starting at 5pm, get your tickets HERE!
They then also face two European sides at the Dundee Ice Arena the following weekend as Romanians ASC Corona Brasov and Dutch side, Tilburg Trappers will test LeFebvre’s men.
