Sheffield Steelers v Nottingham Panthers: Time management key for Steelers to negotiate hectic spell

The hectic festive calendar starts today with a visit from Elite League title rivals Nottingham Panthers, joint-top with the Steelers but ahead by virtue of having enjoyed more wins in regulation than Fox’s team.

It will be tough on the mind, it will be tough on the bodies over the next week for Fox’s team, who will visit Nottingham’s National Ice Centre on Saturday before hosting Manchester Storm on Tuesday, December 30. They then visit Manchester on New Year’s Day.

“It’s not an optimal time period with the practice schedule we get with that,” said Fox. “But it is what it is and every other team is pretty much in the same boat that way.

“We’ll go game by game, we’ll prepare for each one as if it is the most important one on the schedule and hopefully we’ll find some good form over this stretch.”

Fox may be tempted to throw Patrick Watling into the fray over the coming days, following his return to the club earlier this week - coming out of retirement to fill the roster spot left by the sacked Cliff Pu.

Whenever Watling does start his second spell with the club, Fox believes his arrival couldn’t have been timed any better.

“It’s great timing. We know how important each and every one of these games are and he’ll be a welcome addition to the room.

“Some of the guys who returned (from last year) are pretty fired up that he’s coming back, he was very well-liked in the room.

“For me when you looked at what the market looked like, this was the best-case scenario for us to have him come back into our group.

“With the knowledge he has of the league, of our team, how we play, our systems - there shouldn’t be a huge transition at all, it’s just kind of getting him up to the tempo that we’ll need him up to.

“I’m sure he’ll be able to find his form pretty quickly.”