Sheffield Steelers and why accountability is so crucial for their Elite League play-off chances
EVEN in the cold light of morning, during a video session before Friday practice, Sheffield Steelers’ performance in South Wales on Wednesday night made for grim viewing.
Head coach Aaron Fox pulled few punches in the immediate aftermath of his team’s 5-0 capitulation at Cardiff Devils, blasting his team as “bad, lazy and soft”.
That take hadn’t softened at all by early on Friday afternoon when Fox spoke to The Yorkshire Post just a few hours after making his players watch a selection of video “nasties” from the Vindico Arena ahead of a final weekend of the Elite League regular season that brings a double-header against Glasgow Clan, the first encounter being on home ice on Saturday.
“It was pretty apparent (what I thought) on the evening and, after watching the tape back, it’s still pretty apparent,” said Fox.
“So the video session this morning was pretty ugly – but that’s the reality of this business, there has to be some accountability.”
With the two-legged quarter-finals of the play-offs just a week away, Fox is looking for something to give him and his staff encouragement going into the post-season.
On their day, Steelers have been good enough to beat any other team in the league – including regular season champions Belfast Giants back in November.
The problem at the moment is that the Steelers are finding it difficult as a team to be on their ‘day’.
The Steelers head into the clash at the Utilita Arena still able to clinch second place but, as Fox pointed out on Wednesday, it matters little where they finish with a tough opponent guaranteed in the first round of the post-season.
“Again with two games to play before the play-offs I just think it is really hard to be a light-switch on-and-off team,” he added. “So you are just looking for some kind of life and momentum, to see some belief within the group, to each other and to the staff and to the fans and to the organisation that guys want to be here, they want to win, guys want to do the right things to be ready for the play-offs
“You’re just looking for guys to show up and play the right way and do the types of things that, when we have played really well, there have been some nice stretches of play for extended periods of time.
“And if you want to look at the tape on those games against the last little bit here, it is night and day and that’s just about a want and a will and a willingness to play the right way and compete – that’s what you are looking for.”