Southern Stampede captain Simon Glass will miss tonight's game against the West Auckland Admirals because of suspension - but it could have been worse.
Glass will be watching from the sidelines for his team's first home game of the season but will be back for the second leg of the double-header tomorrow.
Initially, he received a penalty for checking to the head, causing injuries, during the first round against the Botany Swarm in Auckland.
But the charge has since been reviewed and reduced from a three-game suspension to a one-game ban.
Glass said the suspension would create ''disturbance on my particular playing line so they're going to have to play with different players - with a reserve player, for instance, or a change in the structure of the team.
''Which is a bit of a disadvantage ... which is a shame but fortunately it's just for one game now.''
Glass said the Stampede was ''relatively confident ... but [we're] not going to go into the game too confident''.
He is satisfied this year's team, based at the Queenstown Ice Arena, has more depth than last year.
The Stampede beat the Swarm in the opening game but lost the second in a shootout.
''What's exciting about this team is the Swarm are a good team and there's a lot of players out of the national team on there, and we beat them and lost to them in a shootout.''
He said the Stampede had come out of the summer with less activity on the ice ''and we're already competing well with those teams''.
So far, he said, the New Zealand Ice Hockey League season was shaping up to be ''very balanced''.
''Looking at the results, there's been a lot of team splitting - one win, one loss - so another competitive season, which is great.
Stampede defenceman Bert Haines is carrying an ankle injury and is not a certain starter this weekend, and Michael Weber is still out of action with a shoulder injury.
The Dunedin Thunder has the bye this weekend.
