JASON CASSELLS has a double major in criminal justice and sociology and eventually wants to be a policeman back in Canada.
Right now, the Canadian hitman is trying to work out how Edinburgh Capitals can pilfer four points from two tough road games this weekend at Nottingham tomorrow and Coventry on Sunday.
Cassells, the Elite League's Player of the Week, is well awar
e of the enormity of the task. But he has been buoyed by back-to-back wins – over Newcastle Vipers at Murrayfield last Saturday and an impressive road victory at Cardiff Devils the following day.
The 27-year-old, who grabbed this week's top player award by recording three assists against Newcastle followed by two goals and an assist at Cardiff, said: "I believe we can take at least two points on the road this weekend."
Currently, Capitals have 36 points from 49 games, three ahead of play-off rivals Hull Stingrays, who have played the same number of games. However, only one of Caps' five remaining games is at Murrayfield.
At the other end of the table, tomorrow's opponents Nottingham are third, two points behind Sunday's rivals Coventry, who sit in second.
Hull, who beat Coventry on Sunday, have an easier schedule as they travel to sixth-place Cardiff tomorrow before entertaining rock-bottom Basingstoke Bison on Sunday. As a result, it seems fair enough to assume they will earn at least two points at the weekend.
However, Cassells, whose father was born in Lanarkshire, remains upbeat. He said: "If Hull can go to Coventry and win then so can we. It's a difficult place to play. The fans are right on top of you. We may face a backlash as the Coventry fans won't like the fact that their side was beaten 4-1 by Hull at home.
"However, we went to Cardiff last Sunday and they had been beaten 4-1 by Belfast in the Knockout Cup and we still won. The good thing is that we have two games nearby at the weekend so we'll be able to recover from Saturday.
"Nottingham on Saturday is a huge game for us but it is my favourite place to play in the league. The rink has a great atmosphere and the fans really back their team. If you can't raise your game to play at Nottingham then there is something wrong.
"If we stay focused for 60 minutes anything can happen." The recent form of netminder Pasi Raitanen has been a massive bonus for the Edinburgh outfit, according to Cassells. He added: "Pasi has done a great job for us. He has made some terrific saves.
"It's great when he does as this boosts our confidence."
Cassells' confidence has certainly been boosted by his goals and assists return last weekend. He admitted: "It was a big weekend for me. It's also been frustrating for me since I came.
"I've come close to making an impact with goals and assists and I've tried to stay positive, but now that monkey is off my back I should hopefully be able to kick on."
The former Telford player admits he has taken time to adjust from the English Premier Division to the pace of the Elite League.
But he added: "Elite League players are a lot smarter and you can't just run around the ice with the puck. It's an all-round better game in the Elite and it's all about passing the puck to the right guy, who is in the right place at the right time. Ice hockey is a simple game. If you play the system and stick to the gameplan then it works."
Another must is keeping cool and the recent game against Coventry at Murrayfield has, he admitted, proved a watershed for the team.
Cassells said: "Doug (Christiansen, Capitals' director of coaching) told us we were killing ourselves. We were in games until the point we started losing our cool. Doug said that we could win those games if we stayed focused for the entire 60 minutes.
"We are more focused now and we don't let referees' calls distract us, that's whey we're winning."
The 7-1 blitz of Newcastle last Saturday was also massive, and Cassells said: "We knew we only had two home games left so we had to make it count. Our system worked and that gave us real confidence for the Sunday."
