Video: Proud and desperate to help turn the club around...that's Sheffield Steelers' Ben O'Connor

But Ben O'Connor says he has no regrets about returning to the club and says players must now demand quality displays and winning attitude of each other.

Asked to explain Sheffield's instability, he replied: "If I or anyone else knew what the reason was we wouldn't be so inconsistent. It is very frustrating, we show spells where we are up there with the best in the league and then we show why we are where we are in the league. It's not good enough. We all know that. In Sheffield we don't accept that. 

"Every team goes through patches of this kind of thing but this is an ongoing patch," said the defenceman. 'We need to figure it out and quick. Games are running out, and teams are overtaking us. That can't happen. Where we are positioned in the League and the way we are playing is not acceptable."

O'Connor said they must replicate the intensity they showed recently at Belfast.

"We can't be taking nights off, we can't just waltz in and thinking we are going to roll over someone" he added.

"Everyone cares, they wouldn't be here if they didn't care. For me it's deep, I am a Sheffield boy, I'm a home town guy, and I take it really personal.'

So when he hears people booing and the negative "chit chat" it hits hard, he said. "I don't want to see this club where we are, we should be at the top and that's not going to happen the way we are playing right now. We have got to get back to playing simple hard hockey. The thing is we have shown how we can play. We have shown we can play good hockey, so we need to bring that every night.

As for returning to Sheffield from Leksands IF, earlier this season, he said: "This is my home, I love it here, I'll never regret - not one single bit."