Cardiff Devils v Sheffield Steelers - Aaron Fox hails team-first mentality as Steelers look to extend Elite League points cushion

Since beating Cardiff Devils 4-0 at the same venue back on December 23, the Steelers have only further enhanced their hopes of landing a first regular season championship since 2016.

This weekend’s home game against the Clan – 24 hours after a trip to Glasgow to face the same opponents – will mark their eighth in 15 days. They have won the first five in that sequence – don’t bet against them winning the remaining three.

The Steelers, for want of a better word, are hot, right now. The 4-1 win at Manchester Storm on New Year’s Day stretched their winning streak in all competitions to nine games, eight of them in the league in a run which started back on December 10 with a nail-biting 4-3 win at Fife Flyers.

Their penalty kill is the best in the league, their power play second only to Glasgow’s. Fox is getting scoring from all four lines at the moment.

All of these reasons are why, ahead of tonight’s first trip of the regular season down to South Wales to take on second-placed Cardiff, they find themselves eight points clear at the top of the standings, with games in hand on all of the teams beneath them, with the exception of second-bottom Nottingham Panthers.

The Steelers could not be in a better position as they enter 2024. They – along with their fans – have been here before of course, in each of Fox’s three previous seasons in charge.

Each time, the Steelers couldn't maintain the form which had put them in such promising positions by the turn of the year.

And even though this campaign feels like the best chance the Steelers have had to end their wait for regular season success, Fox is determined not to dwell on past failures as much as he is keen for anybody on his team to look too far ahead.

There are, after all, 32 games remaining before any trophy can be lifted aloft.

“There is a lot of hockey still to come here, we’re not even at the halfway stage,” said Fox.

“We’re obviously not taking anything for granted.

"We’ve been in similar positions to this before, although maybe not with the kind of gap we currently have and with the games in hand that we have.

“I think we’ve always been in a pretty good spot come this time of year, so we’ve just got to focus game by game, keep collecting points and make sure we don’t have any complacency in our game.”

Of the current Steelers’ roster, 12 are new this season, meaning there is little baggage carried over from the previous campaigns under Fox which came up short.

“Each year, the group of guys you have is different,” added Fox.

“And I don’t think guys that have been here before are going to look back and point the finger at certain things – we’re just going to prepare the same way every day.

“Right now, it’s a very deep, team-first group, there’s not been a lot of issues inside the locker room at all this year and it’s been a very positive place to work.

“The guys are very professional and overall we’re a bit younger than we’ve been in the past, so it’s injected a little bit of youth into our group and maybe for some of the veteran guys, having a little bit more youth has also helped them, too.”