Sheffield Steelers coach Aaron Fox in favour of changing Elite League play-off format

As it stands, teams who finish in the top eight are drawn against each other on a seeding basis for home and away quarter-finals with the aggregate winners going forward to the traditional season-ending Final Four Weekend at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena.

And while Fox acknowledges the concept of the finals weekend - with two one-off semi-finals on the Saturday followed by a single game final on the Sunday - is unlikely to ever change, he believes there is scope to at least switch a best-of scenario in the first round.

The American initially floated the idea following his team’s 5-4 aggregate win over Glasgow Clan last weekend, which set up Saturday’s semi-final showdown against Nottingham Panthers.

Fox’s team lost the first leg in Glasgow 3-1 before winning by the same scoreline at the Utilita Arena two nights later, their passage to the final four secured with a Patrick Watling strike just over two minutes into 3-on-3 overtime.

While understandably delighted to see his team to progress over two legs and maintain their bid to retain the play-off crown they won in Nottingham last year as part of their memorable 2023-24 treble campaign, Fox favours the more traditional play-off format, one that is utilised by virtually every other hockey-playing nation around the world.

The world’s top league, the NHL, stages best-of-seven play-off series, while other leagues favour five or three-game contests.

“I think the aggregate is a bit outdated in my opinion, although I understand where it came from,” Fox told The Yorkshire Post.

“To be perfectly honest, I feel like we should probably have been playing in Glasgow on Thursday, in Sheffield on Saturday and if that series was tied 1-1 there shouldn’t be any aggregate goal differential in that - if you win a hockey game, you win a hockey game and then there should have been a second home game on Sunday for the higher seed.

“You play 54 games of pretty intense hockey to put yourself in a top four spot - but where’s the advantage?

“I know people will say well, the advantage is that you get your home leg second for that 3-on-3 overtime and penalty shots but to play two hockey games like that for 120 minutes and then throw it down to five minutes of 3-on-3 and penalty shots just seems that we’re missing the point a little bit

“And I don’t think logistically it would be that hard to organise. If it’s only two games it is only two games, but it (a three-game series) also gives the higher seed an extra gate which is another advantage of finishing in the top four.

“It’s just my two cents when it wasn’t sour grapes after a loss due to aggregate or something like that and so I feel it is a good time to throw it out there.”

When asked if he would like to carry the best-of format through all three rounds of the play-offs, Fox added: “Well, I don’t think you can, I think the play-off Final Four Weekend is something that will never get changed in this country because it is such an event and whether you like it or you don’t like it, it is something that is very traditional and part of British hockey.

“I like the Final Four concept but, I mean, if you want to give me a best-of-seven for three rounds, I’ll take that all day.

“But we know that is not happening, so let’s start small.”