So Its Nearly The End!!

Were near the end of March which can only mean one thing its nearly the end of the elite league hockey season a part of the season that lets be honest no one likes. It been a strange season not a season that everyone expected! Before the season started and with the appointment of Doug Christiansen in charge we all thought we'd be on for a championship and with the players recruited we probably should have had one but how was we supposed to know we'd have injury after injury and we was struggling to keep players fit from pretty much week one of the season. I remember from really earlier on in the season we had the likes of Chad Langlais, Danny Meyers and Dustin Kohn all out injured for weeks and having a team that usually consists of 6 D men suddenly became 3 and we was looking stretched. The season started brilliantly with a 4-2 win in Coventry on the opening night but we was soon brought back down to earth on the Sunday by them lot just down the road. Our team didn't really start well and people had a lot of doubts at the start of the season I mean take Frank Doyle for example he didn't look all that at the start of the season but if you look at him now he is the stand out man every single night and gives us the opportunity to win every single match night.

It took the team awhile to pick up a four point weekend as the players just didn't seem to making the scratch and that showed after just 6 weeks when Rylan Galiardi was released from his contract and I think that was down to the fact he just wasn't better than anything we already had or could replace him with it would however be interesting to find out what went on with Galiardi! Sheffield fans have seen several players come and go this season and it was a pleasure to see the likes of Ilpo Salmavirta put on the orange jersey despite only being in Sheffield for a month and we unfortunately wasn't treated to a goal we did see him show what he can do with the puck and that was countless assists on match nights and how good did he look with DiCasmirro and Sirianni? those three were dangerous on the same line and that's another player that has since left and that's Robert Sirianni who had a clause in his contract which eventually meant he left to return to Italy! but does anyone remember Sirianni's debut?? a hat trick against the Cardiff Devils and it was that night I think everyone saw what a player we had and during his time at the club he certainly put up his fair share of points.

So its been a mixed season with players coming and going which saw Sirianni leave and Steelers sign Chris Blight who had just been released from Cardiff at the end of January but the end of a small era was coming and it came after the 1st leg of the challenge cup semi-final, Sheffield lost to Nottingham and it saw the end of Doug Christiansen despite the recent good league form with a good winning streak in December and January including three wins v Panthers in a row but it just wasn't good enough and it had been prove that Christiansen was the wrong man for the job and Tony Smith took the blame for that and admitted the appointment was wrong and both parties separated on good terms in which since then Christiansen has became the bench coach at Dundee but before his sacking also saw Marc LeFebrve leave for the head coach job at Coventry. Captain Steven Goertzen took charge of the team but unfortunately suffered a concussion in Cardiff which also meant he couldn't full fill his duties and Sheffield went out of the cup after a defeat in the second leg as well and within a couple of weeks ex Sheffield player and ex head coach of the Cardiff Devils Gerad Adams was appointed head coach of the Steelers and what a difference we've seen and in his short stay so far we've seen some fantastic games and performances and has only lost two of his games in charged which were both unfortunately in the Hull arena obviously not a happy hunting ground at the moment.

Gerad has a cracking playoff record getting Cardiff to the final four weekend for 10 successive seasons but unfortunately wasn't able to win it for the Devils. After two years away Sheffield are looking to make it this year and I think Gerad Adams is not only the person who can get us there but who can end our trophy drought. Bring on Coventry in the quarter-finals!.

So really what can we say about the season players were unaware how important the league was over here but eventually stepped up their game, we struggled to put a winning streak together and I think the slow start to the season is what really cost us. Just the number of injuries we have had throughout the season is damaging as I think we had suffered up to a 100 injuries before Christmas alone but we wasn't the only team as Nottingham and Coventry had injuries after injuries and then when you look at Belfast who have been so consistent throughout the entire season and have had very few injuries compared to the other teams and it just makes you think though what was it about the Giants that made them so great during the league season. Belfast won the elite league championship as well as the Erhardt conference with Dundee winning the Gardiner conference and Belfast did have a chance to make it 3 out of 4 trophies with the playoffs still to be played when they faced Nottingham in the challenge cup final but Nottingham created an impressive comeback in the second leg of the final to win the challenge cup for fifth successive season to take away any chance of a grand slam for Belfast. Next up is the playoffs one of the best parts of the season and were guaranteed to be in for a roller coaster ride for the final two weekends :).

So good luck to all eight teams in the playoffs and may the best team win!

Thanks for reading guys. Any questions or comments please get in contact with the Frozen Steel Team on this article or via Twitter:-
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@AwkwardGinge
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Let's Go Steelers!

Tom
@TomWalkeden
(Follow me on Twitter for Live Updates on Games)

The Sheffield Steelers Merry-go-round - An "Awkward" Analysis

Hello folks! It's been a while!

I think we're all pretty aware of the crazy events of the last week or so but I've waited a short while before blogging again to see how things have panned out in the wake of some big changes.

I'll start with Marc LeFebvre leaving the club, followed by Doug Christiansen's sacking, then go onto last nights performance (if you can even call it that...) and then finish with how things turned out tonight.

It's gonna be a long one, so make sure the kettle is boiled and prop your feet up with a nice cuppa.

Big Doug Christiansen Sacked!!

So at 4:30pm the news that shocked everyone involved with the Sheffield Steelers was announced and that was that Doug Christiansen had been released by the club.

I think its safe to say that its been a very inconsistent season and even though Doug wasn't expected to win anything this year but Tony Smith just wasn't happy with the team performances for week and lets be honest guys all season we have been miles away from where we should be despite the dominance of Belfast. Take the Belfast weekend for example and actually many other games there has been games where we have been so dominate and just haven't been able to find a way to score enough goals to win games and there is a lot of games that we've lost that we should have win, Maybe its his tactics? Maybe its his man management? but at the end of the day its a result driven business and when it matter we just haven't been getting the results. Yes were third in the league, Yes were in a challenge cup semi-final, Yes were in for a shout for the playoffs! But like I've already said so many times this season we haven't performed when it really matters and Tony Smith has had to make a decision that is best for the club to try and get them results and keep the fans happy! For example at the final buzzer last night I saw a fan go down near the bench to say something to Doug and all I caught of what he said is that it isn't good enough. Does this gentleman have a point? Tony Smith seems to think he does.

In an Interview on BBC Sheffield at 5:20pm Tony said that the decision wasn't taken after later nights result and that he hasn't been happy with the team performances for weeks and then he spoke about how its a result driven business and he has to keep the fans happy because just like in any sport the fans come first, He said he didn't have anyone in mind as an immediate replacement but there had been several applicants within the hour of the news being released. Tony Smith said that when he appointed Doug back in April he thought he was the right man to take us forward and now were in February he believes that he made the wrong decision and admits that and he also said that him and Doug sat down during the afternoon and spoke about the decision and Tony said he is doing what he thinks is best for the Steelers. Tony also spoke about how he wants to get fans back in the building and at the moment the teams just are not playing the type of hockey that will attract fans to games to get attendances back up.

There has been mixed reactions on this decision today especially on social media like twitter for example and I've got a few peoples opinions on the decision as well a tweet by Shaun Smith that I'm going to quote which was very interesting:-

Shaun Smith @Smith_S08 wrote:

Interesting responses to release of Doug. Deep down this should have come sooner. Nice guy but not for Steelers #truth

Andrew Gibson @Steelergibbo wrote:

Doug was just the wrong man for the job. Tony has admitted he made a mistake. right decision for me. now it's time to move on

Diane Sockeet @Bigd173 wrote:

Why did smith not sack him sooner if he was not happy. At least we may have had a chance of CC. Now what!!

Dorian Franklin @dozfranklin wrote:

Timing is right if you think of saving PlayOff's after losing CC Semi Final like we did #DifferentView

Kirky Steeler @KirkyS12 wrote:

Things were not right, better to make a decision now than carry on when you know what the problem is Shaun Smiths tweets are revealing.

Tom Duroe @TommyLee_93 wrote:

DC sacking in my opinion, wrong move and bad timing. Players fault for not turning up not his. Now we have no coaching staff leading up to 2nd leg of cc semi final. It's a joke, This organisation is a laughing stock, If he was disappointed with DC why not let him go earlier instead of this late. And personally deserved at least a year

And the final one was wrote by Joe Hattersley @JoeHattersley in which I think was the best tweet of the day:

Whether you agree with the sacking or not. Tony Smith has got to be applauded for having the balls to do this. As he says the fans come first.

Captain Steven Goertzen is in temporary charge while the Steelers look for a replacement for Doug Christiansen and I would like to put on record my thanks to DC for his effort and commitment to the Sheffield Steelers, it is just one of them things that didn't work out and I want to wish him all the best for his future coaching roles and especially with Great Britain.

Thanks for reading guys. Any questions or comments please get in contact with the Frozen Steel Team on this article or via Twitter:-
@IAmMcCausland
@TomWalkeden
@AwkwardGinge
@FrozenSteelBlog

or Email the team at frozen.steel.91@gmail.com

Keep Supporting The Boys!!

Tom