Ice Hockey: Sheffield Steelers launch their Elite League title bid against Coventry Blaze
Sheffield Steelers will launch their campaign to win the Elite League title against Coventry Blaze on September 7.
The full EIHL fixture list has now been published and Aaron Fox's men, who will have played in Challenge Cup action the weekend before against Nottingham Panthers, will begin their bread and butter campaign against Blaze, who finished one place and two points behind Steelers in the previous season.
The two teams pretty much split the win-loss ratio between each other last term.The weekend of September 21 and 22 will be interesting one - Steelers will be up against two teams who gave them some real grief last term - Guildford Flames and Glasgow Clan.
A club spokesman said: "These particular games will fall outside the season ticket arrangement - we are proposing a weekend ticket of just £10 (which covers both games) and are in talks with the Arena about how best to offer this value for money weekend."
Zack Fitzgerald's Clan chalked up 6-1 and 6-0 wins in their last two performances in South Yorkshire.
Fox's first encounter with Cardiff Devils comes on home ice on September 29.His team will have back-to-back games in Scotland (Fife and Dundee) on October 12 and 13 and their first home midweek game of the season is on Wednesday October 16 against Fife.
The reigning champions, Belfast Giants, roll into town on another midweek night, November 27.
And Sheffield will face back-to-back games in Northern Ireland on December 6 and 7.The run-up to the Boxing Day home match against Manchester Storm starts with December 21 and 22 clashes with the Clan.
New Year's Eve will see the Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham host Panthers v Steelers at 4pm, which should be a high octane way of summoning in 2020.
The return leg is 24 hours later at the House of Steel.
Fox wraps up his maiden season in League fare with Cardiff at home on March 29.
Meanwhile, Steelers have again presented the popular £5-a-ticket offer for selected matches - one which saw a big take-up last season.
They are: Wednesday 16th October v Fife Flyers, Wednesday 30th October v Manchester Storm, Wednesday 27th November v Belfast Giants and Saturday 4th January v Guildford Flames.