Sheffield Steelers star Cullen Eddy ready to rattle Panthers again

The answer is quite bizarre given the firepower at the champions’ disposal.

Cullen Eddy, the defenceman, has that honour - and he’s quite happy about it.

“I am a Panther killer,” he quips, over his three goals in games in October and November.

“Obviously the puck comes in the right places, for me, against them!

“I always joke with the boys, I am not known as a guy who gets many points, when I don’t score in a game I tell them I just ended a one-game goal streak!

“But hopefully I can continue against teams like that.”

He gets his chance to make himself a hero in front of 8,500 fans at Sheffield Arena, on Boxing Day, when Panthers come to town.

And, goals aside, Eddy is in no doubt what Steelers need to do if they are going to get both points.

“Against teams like Nottingham and Cardiff (second and first in the league) you have to stick together and that is what we are going to do.

“We have to play our team game against them. Up and down the ice, fast pace lots off communication and guys in front of the net.

“We will need a ton of shots on the Nottingham ‘tendy’, crash to the paint and get into those areas where we can score.”

Sheffield go into the game on the back of a 3-2 home defeat against Coventry Blaze

“Coventry was a tough loss,” said Eddy.

“Coming off a five game winning streak, these are the games you look back on and think you’d wish you’d had those points.

“Unfortunately we had some mistakes and gave up goals but we will bounce back, we have two games after Christmas against league competitors and I think we are going to do just fine in them.

“It isn’t a case of picking ourselves up, we’ve just got 10 out of 12 points, that’s a pretty good stretch of games.”

Eddy says his team doesn’t feel it has to “make anything up” to the home Boxing Day fans - and he says it is “just another game” in the sense that the team needs to pick up points, the same as it does when it plays bottom of the league teams.

Meanwhile, Steelers yesterday confirmed that they have parted company with goalie Tyler Plante by mutual consent.

Plante recently sustained a high ankle sprain and has missed the last month with injury.

“With Tyler back fully fit and Marek Pinc playing so well I was going to have to make a difficult decision,” said head coach Paul Thompson

“Marek’s current deal is up in two weeks and at that time one would stay and one would have to leave us.

“I was honest and explained this position to Tyler. I couldn’t guarantee him anything. In the mean time a deal has come up in Europe and having spoken at length with Tyler we agreed it was best he moved on and took the deal on offer.”

“Marek has played exceptionally well for us in the past few weeks,” Thompson added.

“His sharpness and confidence have been there for all to see and I am happy to have him as our guy moving forward.

“He has a strong character and temperament. You need that to be a starter here.

“We wish Tyler well and thank him for his service.”