Steelers move quickly to bring in Christiansen

SHEFFIELD Steelers will unveil Doug Christiansen as their new head coach today.
NEW MAN: Doug Christiansen, left, has suggested there will be many roster changes at Sheffield Steelers. Picture: Dean Atkins.NEW MAN: Doug Christiansen, left, has suggested there will be many roster changes at Sheffield Steelers. Picture: Dean Atkins.
NEW MAN: Doug Christiansen, left, has suggested there will be many roster changes at Sheffield Steelers. Picture: Dean Atkins.

The Elite League club have moved quickly to secure the services of the 34-year-old American, who has spent the last three seasons at Belfast Giants.

The deal was sealed with Christiansen, a former player-coach with Edinburgh Capitals, shortly after he saw his side go down 3-2 in the play-off final against Nottingham Panthers on Sunday night – a result which saw the East Midlands club clinch the treble.

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Christiansen guided Belfast to the league title last season and is known for his meticulous preparation. He takes over from Ryan Finnerty, who was sacked by the Steelers last week after two trophyless seasons.

Talks were held with a number of candidates before and during the recent final four play-off weekend in Nottingham, which the Steelers failed to make for a second successive year, leading in part to Finnerty’s dismissal. But it is Christiansen who has been handed the responsibility of bringing back the glory days to the South Yorkshire club, their last silverware coming in the shape of a league championship in 2011 under then player-coach Ben Simon.

Steelers owner Tony Smith will be hoping his new coach can end Steelers’ barren spell, as well as curtail the dominance enjoyed by arch-rivals Nottingham this season.

THe Giants said they had been left “shocked” by Christiansen’s decision to jump ship after three years, while Smith admitted he was surprised he was able to land the right man so quickly.

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“I thought finding the right candidate for the job would take a little longer,” said Smith. “However, after speaking with Doug, I was sure we had the right man right in front of us.

“Our fans deserve the best we can find and a man who has strong leadership qualities, technical ability and motivation powers to get the best out of our team every single night.”

Before he can have much impact at the Motorpoint Arena, however, Christiansen’s main job over the next 10 days will be to hook up with several of his new charges in preparation for Great Britain’s World Championship in Hungary which starts on Sunday.

Ashley Tait, Jonathan Phillips, Danny Meyers and Mark Thomas have all made head coach Tony Hand’s squad, with Christiansen having worked as an assistant for the last 18 months.

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Steelers’ forward, Jason Hewitt, reduced to a bit-part role in the Olympic final qualifiers held in Latvia in February, has not made the squad this time around, with defenceman Rod Sarich ruling himself unavailable.

The 22-man squad – revealed on Tuesday morning – flies out to Budapest on Friday and begin their Division 1A campaign against the hosts on Sunday.

Further games follow against Kazakhstan – who beat them 6-0 in Latvia – Italy, Japan and Korea.

As well as the Steelers’ quartet Hull Stingrays’ netminder also included alongside Belfast Giants’ goalie Stephen Murphy, although Bowns’s club team-mate Matthew Davies – named in the preliminary 40-strong squad, again misses out on a first trip away with the national team.

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“They will be five difficult games for us,” said Hand. “I would love the team to come away with a medal.

“We are taking a strong team away with us, even though we have key guys out.”

Unusually for GB squads it will be the third get-together this season, following their initial success in Olympic qualification in Japan last November, before the dream of making it to Sochi 2014 was ended comprehensively in Riga.

GB SQUAD – Netminders: Ben Bowns (Hull Stingrays), Stephen Murphy (Belfast Giants).

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Defencemen: Luke Boothroyd (Manchester Phoenix), Stevie Lee (Nottingham Panthers), Danny Meyers (Sheffield Steelers), David Phillips (Belfast Giants), Mark Richardson (Cardiff Devils), Mark Thomas (Sheffield Steelers), Jonathan Weaver (Nottingham Panthers).

Forwards: David Clarke (Nottingham Panthers), Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils), Robert Dowd (Troja Ljungby), Robert Farmer (Braehead Clan), Phil Hill (Cardiff Devils), Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham Panthers), Matthew Myers (Nottingham Panthers), Aaron Nell (Swindon Wildcats), Greg Owen (Basingstoke Bison), Craig Peacock (Belfast Giants), Jonathan Phillips (Sheffield Steelers), Colin Shields (Belfast Giants), Ashley Tait (Sheffield Steelers).