Better late than never, it's your preview of this weekend's Steelers hockey action.
This weekend could see the Steelers qualify for the next stage of the Challenge Cup if they pick up a maximum point haul as both games are in the much maligned competition. Both games will give Steelers fans a first look at new signing Andreas Jรคmtin who was unveiled by the Club officially this morning. However like every game, there's no such thing as an easy game in which to debut in these days.
Saturday night sees the boys on the road, and a short trip to go and see this team:
Yes it's the Bears themselves, a team that is probably on cloud nine still after the events of Tuesday night when they became the first EIHL side to make the knockout stage of the Champions Hockey League. You can bet your bottom dollar that Gary Moron has never shut up about it, banging his PR drum so loud about it that he might need a new skin for it. It's a fantastic achievement but will it come at a cost with fixture congestion? Over to you on that Gary.
Panthers roster massively underachieved in the domestic competitions, that's because they were apparently told the sandwich tray was the priority last season. Not that Steelers fans will tolerate that (read the Soapbox if you want to know six just opinions). Only three imports remain from last season's overseas selection which says a lot about what Neilson thought last year. They're pretty handy too, and were 3-0 ahead in ten minutes (now where has that happened before) so on home ice in the fabulous NIC: they'll be looking to impress. We need to silence them early doors otherwise it could be an uncomfortable night in the Lace City.
Sunday night sees us have a visit of the baby sister so to speak, as this team come to Sheffield for the first of a minimum three visits this season:
It's the Purple Army! And they have had a bit of a reshuffle too. No more Finner behind the bench, replaced by former NHLer and DEL player John Tripp who is in only his second ever coaching assignment. The playing staff has been overhauled with only five players remaining from the 2016-17 team, and none of those are imports. One of the new players in purple will be a recognisable face though as on the blue line will be Swede Christoffer Bjorklund who iced in 55 games for us last season, picking up 26 points, before going back to Mora on a hockey transfer deadline deal.
The rest of the roster, bar Brendan Brooks and Craig Cescon who are in his second spell at the Club, are players that a lot of us will probably not know much about. However, there is NHL experience in the mould of centre Ryan Poultny who played 126 games in the Show and scored 32 points for Edmonton in the 2009-10 season alone. He has a pedigree we will have to watch keenly and we can imagine that a lot of Clan's play will flow through. Brooks, now a GB internationalist, scored 57 second natural hat-trick at Guildford last Sunday so our defence will need to be on their collective toes when this speedster is on the ice. It promises to be as tough an encounter as anything we can expect this season.
My predictions? Panthers to overcome us 5-2 on the Saturday, but we will win on the Sunday with 4-2 being the scoreline.
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