It's been a hectic week, on and off the ice, but I believe we are in a better position now than we were a week ago.

I would like to thank all the fans that took the trouble to come out for the fans forum last Thursday.

It was important for Steve Thornton and me to be open and honest with the fans about the difficulties we've had off the ice.

We are determined to make Bison a club we can all take pride in, this season and beyond.

I think honesty played a large part in our win in Edinburgh. In many of our games, we've been frustrated by the odd goal or two, but to fall behind by four goals was simply embarrassing.

When a guy like Steve loses his temper, you listen. During the first break, he challenged all of us to be honest about our individual contributions. The response was awesome.

It was also great for Greener (Dan Green) to finally get that win that he so deserves for his efforts.

Being the back-up netminder is the hardest job on the team, but having seen him play these past few weeks, I have 100 per cent confidence in him and will not hesitate to use him as the season goes on.

I've mentioned before about the positive locker room we've got here.

Of course, it's easy to be positive when you're winning. What matters more is how we deal with disappointment. I know we'll hold our hands up when things go wrong.

My own third line were not doing their job against Newcastle, so I benched them, knowing how they and the rest of the team would react.

Our match against Cardiff will be important this weekend. They've turned their season around and are getting impressive results against strong opposition.

Fingers crossed, we'll be unaffected by injuries and can take a full squad down to Wales.

We then look forward to seeing you all at the Belfast game and hopefully a win on home ice.

Now, wouldn't that be nice?

Ryan Writes appears in every Thursday Gazette on the Follow the Herd page