This happened last season to Fife & they lost their way a bit when their top scorers got injuries.
The problem last year was we lost our top scorer (Bloodoff), goalie (Iles) and best Dman (Young) at the same time. Plus that all happened as the schedule got crazy busy because, for some reason, we'd had a lot of 1 game weeks early in the season. We were left playing as many as 5 games in a week while short those guys (plus others). Not many teams would pick up many points in that situation, and we just didn't have the depth to cope and dropped from 3rd with games in hand to 7th very quickly. This year we've added a couple of decent brits in Mckenzie & Buesa, and they can soak up a decent amount of ice time. Adding Bulmer, Crowder and Basaraba has definitely strengthened our offence, the D I'm not so sure about but it's getting better, and while Isles was a great goalie for us, I do think Owen is better. Overall I think we're going to be a better team this year than last with a little more depth. Hopefully we'll see more ice time for youngsters Chad Smith, Cally Robertson and Reece Cochrane too, and make them regulars in the EIHL. Dutes seems to be making an effort to get them out on the ice for the odd shift this year which is a positive improvement from last year.
Crowder seems to be a good fit for us. His family seem to be settled and his son is in the learn to play team. Much as you all think Cardiff is much better than Kirkcaldy you need to look at the wider area to understand why he's happy here. Fife is a beautiful Kingdom, and there's lots to do with kids on their doorstep. A great coastline to explore and more great golf courses than you can shake a club at. Then you've got Edinburgh half an hour away in one direction, Dundee the same distance in the other, and you can be in Glasgow in and hour and a half if you're desparate for a big dirty city!