After last night's game in Belfast, reader Roland Hurt wrote the following.
After last nights performance against the Belfast Giants I beginning to wonder what the missing piece is at the Sheffield Steelers.
Is the inconsistency of the team down to the Coaching Staff. Doug Christiansen has coached an Elite League winning team in the Belfast Giants, so he's got coaching experience in the Elite League, or is it due to his Assistant Coach Marc Lefebvre who's new to Coaching in the UK & only got a few years of Coaching Minor League Hockey in North America.
Is it something missing in the on squad as most of the team are new this season with a few returning from last Season & one returning after years of playing outside the UK. Is it due to there being so many injuries early in the season that hasn't given the team proper time to gel on the Ice or is it a combination of both.
It's also a possibility that it could be a combination of all three. Maybe it's us as fans that's expecting to much to quickly from Doug Christiansen. Remember back when Bob Phillips took over as owner & signed Dave Matsos as coach. Matsos was given 3 years to produce a championship winning team and it took two years to three years to build a championship team.
There's a real possibility that this lack of Silverware is due to not building a team up over the seasons that is then ultimately of a sufficient calibre to win Silverware.
How many decent players have the Steelers lost over recent seasons that could have been kept to build a championship winning team? Ben Simon was an excellent Player/Coach and produced a Championship winning team. Paul Regan should have re-signed him before he sold the club to Tony Smith, but then Tony Smith didn't even try and re-sign Ben Simon instead he signed Ryan Finnerty as Player Coach. Finnerty was an excellent Player and an excellent servant of the Steelers an ranks amongst the best players that have served the Steelers over the years, but unfortunately having a great work ethic & fighting for the success of the Steelers doesn't mean that you'll be a great coach.
The Steelers need to go back to the old days of building a team when they used to retain the best players & build upon that over the seasons until you've got a Championship winning team and then try to retain the team as is for as long as possible.
Something needs to be done about it preferably at the end of the season on a playing front as this team seems too volatile to mess around with at present.
On a Coaching front something needs to be done when Tony Smith sees fit.
We may be second in our Conference and still in the Challenge Cup and still in a Playoff position, but an under performing team that looks like a championship winning team isn't going to keep bums on seats.
Sheffield needs a championship winning team back that is value for money and entertaining, especially now that the Sheffield Arena has introduced a booking fee for all ticket purchases.
Roland
@Roly25
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