Pain of shock play-off defeat should serve Finnerty well

Conducting post-match interviews is a requirement of the job for any sports coach - some love them, many regard them as a necessary evil.

It would have been understandable if Sheffield Steelers’ player-coach Ryan Finnerty had hid himself away after watching his team suffer a shock Elite League play-off defeat to Hull, a team they had beaten on many previous occasions this season.

But the 31-year-old Canadian came out of what was no-doubt a thoroughly depressed dressing room to conduct the usual round of media interviews, however unpleasant it must have been reflecting on what had happened out on the ice a short while before.

Finnerty will return next season as coach only, a longstanding back injury forcing him to finally hang his skates up after an 11-year pro career which began with the Peoria Rivermen in the East Coast Hockey League back in 2001.

His biggest success as a player came at the Steelers under former head coach Dave Matsos - a league title and two play-off trophies - but ending his playing days the way he did on Sunday is the last thing Finnerty would have wanted.

The 5-2 defeat and 7-4 aggregate loss to Hull will no doubt serve to remind Finnerty how much it hurts to lose when it really matters - his dismay was clear for all to see - and use that to drive him on next year in what will still only be his second campaign as a coach.

He was, as usual, gracious in defeat, acknowledging that Hull deserved to go through over the course of the two legs - but it didn’t take any of the sting out of a totally unexpected loss.

“It’s tough to get any words out now,“ said Finnerty. “I’m 100 per cent stunned by what’s happened, you never think it will happen.

“It’s a huge disappointment not to reach the final four. We let down every fan, who’s paid a penny to watch us play - we let them down.”

Both coaches - who displayed the obvious respect they have for each other in the post-match handshakes - said the play-off quarter-final would be determined by goaltending and special teams, as is often the case. And so it proved.

While Christian Boucher stood on his head at one end of the ice for Hull, it seemed every rebound to come off Steelers’ No 1 goalie John DeCaro fell kindly for the visitors, with former Steelers’ forward Derek Campbell - a ‘Marmite player’ if ever there was one - the man often in the right place at the right time to force the puck home, eventually grabbing himself a match-winning hat-trick.

There’s no doubt Hull had some luck - a deflection off Jason Hewitt for their fourth goal the most obvious example. But they certainly worked hard enough over the course of the two legs to earn their good fortune and, given the difficult season they’ve had on and off the ice, few would begrudge them a place in the final four in Nottingham - certainly not the many Steelers fans who stuck around to clap them off the ice.

Coming back into Sheffield after a 2-2 draw in Hull on Saturday night had left Finnerty optimistic and happy that his players had shown the kind of commitment at Hull Arena that had perhaps been missing in a run of four defeats in five games leading into the play-offs.

The effort was there again on Sunday night, for the most part, but they came up against a Hull side determined to get in their faces from the off and intent on causing a massive upset.

Last week Finnerty referred to having a number of ‘passengers’ on his team - now he has the chance to send them on their way, not far behind forward Colt King who was controversially sacked three days before the play-offs.

“I thought after the game in Hull we had played well there and perhaps deserved to be up by a few,” said Finnerty.

“We had a lot of confidence coming into our building, but there’s that old saying that if your goalie gets hot in the play-offs you can do wonderful things and I think we witnessed that. We threw everything at him, but we couldn’t get it past Boucher.

“Johnny (DeCaro) didn’t get tested much, but it seemed every time they came down the ice the bounce or rebound went their way and it ended up in the net.

“In the end, we should have beaten them but we weren’t good enough. They deserved the win and deserve to move on to Nottingham so good luck to them.”

While Finnerty will this week turn his attentions to next season and rebuilding his squad with a bigger, more competitive budget, there will still be one team using Ice Sheffield to prepare for the final four weekend in Nottingham.

The staging of the Division 1B Women’s World Championships at Hull Arena means Sylvain Cloutier’s team have no ice, forcing them to head down the M18 to the Steelers’ second home where they will begin plans to cause what they hope will be at least one more play-off surprise.