VIDEO: Christiansen happy to embrace the pressure at Steelers

The Steelers open their 2013-14 campaign under their new coach with two Challenge Cup games, the first at Coventry Blaze tonight before an early-season meeting on home ice with 2012-13 treble winners Nottingham Panthers on Sunday.

Christiansen, brought in from Belfast Giants to replace the axed Ryan Finnerty only days after the play-off weekend in April, has been busy during the summer, bringing in eight new imports.

He believes last week’s three-in-three European pre-season tour has worked wonders for team-building and likes what he has seen so far ahead of Saturday night’s trip to the Skydome Arena.

“I’m very much impressed (with what I’ve seen so far),” said Christiansen.

“We’ve got a team that works very hard and competes and if they can work that hard and compete that hard every night we’re going to have a very good team when you combine that with our skill level and talent.

“I’m very happy with the team (we’ve put together). We’ve got a little bit of everything, I think our defence is outstanding and I think that was reflected this past weekend in Slovakia and Hungary.

“There’s no question that Frank Doyle is going to be one of, if not the top goaltender in the league. Up front, we’ve got a little bit of everything. We’ve got some grit with Tim Spencer, Hewitt and Jonno is obviously outstanding but we’ve got a number of goalscorers - Max Lacroix, Stefan Meyer, hopefully Aaron Nell can pot a few

“And of course there’s Jeff Legue and Ryan Galiardi who were big for us last weekend.”

Expectations will be high for the Steelers, as always, and particularly with a Elite League championship-winning coach in Christiansen, who also secured a third-place finish and a runners-up spot in his two other seasons with Belfast.

Pressure is something Christiansen knows comes with the territory and, after two years with no silverware, he will be fully aware of how desperate Steelers’ fans are to enjoy some kind of success.

“Having had the experience I did in Belfast for the last three years, where there are similar types of expectations, it’s nothing new to me,” he added.

“We’re going to put some pressure on the players but we told them from day one when recruiting them that this is a championship organisation that and that is what is expected.

“But my primary goal is to make sure we’re there and, hopefully, on that night you get the calls and bounces to go your way and you end up as champions.

“My main focus is for us to be there - obviously we want to go deep into all three competitions and if you put the right team together and the right pieces together you get that success in the end.”

NEW COACHES ALL ROUND PLEASE

Doug Christiansen believes Coventry Blaze boast one of the most explosive lines in the Elite League as his Steelers team prepares for a Challenge Cup showdown on the opening night of the 2013-14 season.

The Steelers, starved of success since a league title in 2011, open their 2013-14 campaign tonight with a Challenge Cup trip to Blaze, themselves boasting a new coach in Matt Soderstrom after Paul Thompson’s departure to Sweden.

It has been a busy summer of recruitment in South Yorkshire by Christiansen, who begins the season with eight new imports on his roster. But he believes Coventry, who have former Steelers forward Ashley Tait back in their ranks, have also recruited well, particularly with their leading forward line of American Ryan Ginand and Canadian brothers Adam and Michael Henrich.

“I have a board with all of the other teams’ line-ups on so I can compare them to what we have,” said Christiansen. “I think the line of Henrich, Ginand and Henrich is about as good a line as you can have in this league - it’s an extremely explosive line with a tremendous amount of offence.

All eyes will be on Soderstrom as he follows in the footsteps of Britain’s most successful hockey coach, but his opposite number on Saturday night expects him to succeed in the role.

“I think every new coach has a high learning curve,” said Christiansen. “It is difficult, it’s a tough job otherwise everybody would do it. But Matt’s been there a long time, he’s learned a lot through Thommo and Thommo has been very helpful to me throughout my career - no question about that.

“And I’m sure that if Matt’s been able to learn what I’ve been able to learn then he’ll get off the ground running and, hopefully for him, he can have a good start after they’ve played us.”