Sheffield Steelers hoping quick turnaround in schedule can yield return to winning ways
AARON FOX hopes a quick turnaround in the schedule will present his Sheffield Steelers team with the ideal opportunity to bounce back swiftly from an early setback in their Elite League regular season campaign.
Wednesday night’s game at home to Nottingham Panthers signals a return to the Challenge Cup group phase for the Steelers, where they currently sit third in the standings behind leaders Coventry Blaze and Cardiff Devils.
The Panthers sit a point further back in fourth with only the top two guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals.
Sunday saw the Steelers take an early hit to their regular season league ambitions when they went down 3-2 at home to Glasgow Clan.
While coaches sometimes prefer to spend more time on the ice in training working through any deficiencies they may see in their team’s play - which Fox saw on Sunday - the Steelers’ head coach believes a quick return to competitive action could work in the Steelers’ favour this week.
“There is still a lot of hockey left to be played and sometimes your best practices can be games and the best thing for us, probably is a quicker game,” said Fox.
“I felt like we were just okay (against Glasgow). There was some positive play at times but it obviously wasn’t good enough for 60 minutes
“I think Glasgow probably plays the most similar to how we play with their systems and their retrievals and regroups and they just did it a little bit better than we did and they were the ones that got the two points.
“It’s just frustrating this business but it’s game two of the regular season and there is a long, long way to go yet. We’ll refocus and get ready for Wednesday.”
The frustration will have been harder to take for Fox given how well his team had played the previous night when beating Dundee Stars 6-1 on the same ice.
Defenceman Jordon Southorn led the way with two goals, with others coming from Kevin Tansey, Evan Jasper, Ryan Tait and Joona Huttula.