Sheffield Steelers look to bounce back against Nottingham Panthers as father takes on son at National Ice Centre

Whistle Snr returned to UK hockey after a seven-year absence last summer when appointed as the first-ever head coach and GM of NIHL National outfit Leeds Knights.

Soon after, his youngest son followed him over to West Yorkshire from Canada and, before the season started, secured himself a two-way deal with former club Sheffield Steelers.

Whistle was sacked by the Knights in mid-January after being told he would only be required to continue in the GM role. Brandon hasn’t played for Leeds since January 30.

But former Steelers, Cardiff Devils and Belfast Giants coach Whistle wasn’t out of the game for long, making a brief return home to British Columbia before being offered the chance to return to the UK top-tier as assistant coach at Nottingham Panthers.

The Panthers host the Steelers at the National Ice Centre tonight, with Brandon expected to once again be part of Aaron Fox’s line-up.

While there has been no official announcement from either team, Whistle Jnr is, in effect, a Steelers player first now, a turnaround from the arrangement at the start of the season.

For Whistle Snr – who had a short spell as Steelers’ coach in 2005-06 – it will be the second time in four days he will find himself up against one of his sons, the Panthers coming off second-best in the semi-final of the Challenge Cup on Wednesday night when elder son Jackson – also a former Steelers player –back-stopped Belfast Giants to a 2-1 win.

“It is interesting how it has all turned out,” said Whistle. “It isn’t something either of us would have predicted back in August. I was happy going to Leeds but things didn’t work out. I couldn’t have found a better place to come than Nottingham, though.

“It is the first time I’ve coached against either of my sons. It’s interesting and a little different. I’m obviously always wishing them both to play well all the time – it’s just that when my team is playing them, it doesn’t matter who is on the other team, I just want to win.

“And people have grown up with that all of the time, brothers in the NHL playing against each other, willing to fight each other during a game sometimes, just in order to win.

“It’s just another part of the sport and players know that, they understand that.”

And all our players know that I have two boys playing elsewhere in the league. So while I wish them well, every time we play either of them, I just want us to win.”

Both sides will go into tonight’s clash licking their wounds having both fallen at the semi-final stage of the Challenge Cup in midweek.

Nottingham found themselves edged out by Belfast Giants for the second time in four days, losing 2-1 at the SSE Arena having lost on a shoot-out at the National Ice Centre on Sunday. The Steelers’ last four defeat at the hands of Cardiff Devils also came after a weekend shoot-out loss to the same opponents, but it was far more comprehensive, Fox’s players hammered 5-0 on home ice in front of the live Premier Sports TV cameras.

Head coach Fox was keen to ‘close the door’ on his team’s performance, determined to ensure they don’t give up their current pole position as leaders in the regular season Elite League standings.

“We still have two months of pretty important hockey here, we’ve put ourselves in a pretty good spot these last six months,” said Fox.

“Focussing on league standings is the only option we have right now, Belfast are right on our tail now and Cardiff aren’t far behind. There are 18 or 19 games left in the regular season and if we play like we did on Wednesday it’s going to be a long 18-19 games.

“So we’re definitely going to have to sort it out here this week and get ready for a huge weekend. It’s really important that we focus on what we’ve been good at these first six months, what has put us in this position and close the door on this one and move on.”

Whistle knows the Panthers, currently sat a distant fourth in the standings, will have to be on top of their game in order to heap further misery on his former club.

“It will be an interesting night,” added Whistle, who was brought in earlier this month to assist player-coach Mark Matheson, himself another former Steeler. “Sheffield are a really good team. I’ve seen them play live a couple of times this season and I felt they were excellent from top to bottom. So, we’re going to have our work cut out for us but they are such exciting games between the two teams.

“It will be awesome if we can score first because that building will erupt, it will get the home fans going. The last couple of games at home they have been loud and very supportive and they are trying to get us going. They are loud when guys have put in a good shift, or a good hit or a good play, it doesn’t have to be a good goal, they’ve really got behind us the last couple of games.

“It has a positive impact on players and you can sense that on the bench.”