Braehead Clan head coach Ryan Finnerty is relishing the prospect of starting a season on home ice.

The Clan will play throughout September for the first time in the club’s history, which has been confirmed as the fixtures for 2016/17 were released today.

Finnerty says it will allow the players to settle into a routine better rather than having the month on the road, as has been the case in the past.

He said: “It’ll be nice to be on home ice for the first month rather than be on the road. The guys who have just arrived in the country will get to settle instead of hitting the road for a month.

“Plus there’s the journey to Edinburgh or Auchienharvie for practice every day, which makes things a bit tough.

“We won’t be at home in November though, but at least we’ll have a few months to enjoy it before that happens.”

Once the pre-season programme is out the way, Clan have six games at home in September, starting with a visit by Fife Flyers in the Challenge Cup on Sunday, September 4 at 6pm. There will be two leagues game as well as Nottingham Panthers and Manchester Storm come to Glasgow looking to plunder early points.

One other notable change is that all Challenge Cup games will be standalone matches, rather than combined with league fixtures, where one result carries for two competitions.

This is another move that Finnerty believes is a good thing and reckons fulfilling them early allows his team more focus and a feel for what awaits them in the EIHL.

He added: “Having the Challenge Cup so early means you don’t have the distraction of mixing them into the league schedules, like it in the past.

“It saves doubling them up so you don’t have to get them out the way before the end of the year. That can be heavy on the schedule and tough on the guys.

“Getting them done and dusted early is a good decision and gives us the advantage of sounding out other teams that play in our Conference.”