FORMER Braehead Clan captain Matt Keith has urged his old team to go for it in their play-off quarter final tie with Cardiff Devils.
Malcolm Cameron’s side, now called Glasgow Clan, have a tough test in overcoming the two-time winners in the Devils to book their place in the four-team final weekend in Nottingham next week.
And Keith, who played for the club between 2014 and 2017, says not making the finals is one of his biggest regrets.
“If I could give any advice, I would basically tell the guys to be ready for the opening puck drop,” he said.
“You have to play right to the end and leave it all out there. It’s only two games and you can’t have any regrets. They have to do everything you can to make sure you get there.
“One of my biggest regrets from my time with the Clan was we never made it to the finals weekend. The one year they did, it was the season before I arrived.
“In my first year, we missed out on actually winning the league by a point then lost to a Hull Stingrays team who went out of business that year.
“Take nothing away from them, but we had nothing left and just couldn’t get it done. It was the same the next two years, against Fife and then Dundee and those games showed anything can happen.”
Keith, now a firefighter in Vancouver, admits he keeps tabs on his old team from afar and is positive about their season, their first after coming out of a Covid-enforced hibernation.
They finished sixth in the standings last week to set up the date with the Devils and spoke of his own experience in the build-up to two huge games.
“You can feel the buzz around the club with the fans as the week goes on and I’m sure the team there are really getting a feel of that around Braehead or on social media,” he added.
“I still watch from afar and still keep in touch with a lot of the same people on social media. I’m still good friends with Matt Haywood so I keep in touch as much as I can.
“It’s an exciting time, with a chance to go to an event as great as the play-off final weekend and there’s so much investment in this weekend, they want their team to be part of it.
“I think Glasgow have a good chance to do it and they definitely deserve it, as do the fans and everyone involved.”
Keith knows his old team won’t take Cardiff lightly and also believes the experience of his former team-mate, Haywood and top scoring forward Mathieu Roy, who won the competition with Sheffield Steelers in 2017, can also help.
“It certainly won’t be easy against a team like Cardiff,” he warned. “Both teams have to travel so it should definitely make for an interesting game.
“I’m sure Malcolm Cameron is telling the guys about the past experience from what he knows and players like Matt Haywood and Mathieu Roy can pass on their knowledge on what to expect.
“It’s a 120 minute game and if you give up a goal late in the first game, it can carry over into the second leg, but if you score, it can give you new life too so moments like that can be huge.
“There have been a lot of things the Clan had to battle through to get to where they are this year so I definitely have my fingers crossed they can get it done this weekend.”
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