Sheffield Steelers: Why luck hasn’t been on the side of Aaron Fox's team

While Sheffield Steelers have had a reasonable start to the season - four wins and two losses in League and Challenge Cup action - the team has had to bear more than their fair share of bad luck, it seems.
By Bob Westerdale
Published 20th Sep 2019, 11:21 BST
Updated 20th Sep 2019, 20:47 BST
Sheffield Steelers' Marc Olivier-VallerandSheffield Steelers' Marc Olivier-Vallerand
Sheffield Steelers' Marc Olivier-Vallerand

Injuries have been the main bug-bear, with import defencemen Aaron Brocklehurst and Aaron Johnson currently on the sidelines - Johnson is out for several weeks and could necessitate another player coming in.

But a couple of Steelers forwards have been suffering from bad "puck luck," according to coach Aaron Fox.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Chiefly, Marc Olivier-Vallerand, who has been doing everything right barring finding the back of the net.

Read More
Sheffield Steelers set for 'weird night' up against Mathieu Roy

"I feel Vally could have had 10 goals, if it hadn't been for bad luck" said the coach.

"But I don't pay too much attention to that, though. He is creating all the time and that is the important thing. The goals are going to come."

Vallerand, 30, scored once in three pre-season games and twice in the six domestic games, one of them an empty-netter.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In points, he and Robert Dowd are tied at five, behind team-leader John Armstrong.

Other Steeler forwards who could use a goal to support their otherwise strong performances include Brendan Connolly, Nikolai Lemtyugov and Anthony DeLuca.

Meanwhile, Steelers' defenceman Jonas Liwing says he wants to be a champion again, this season.

Liwing won a title at Rouen in France in 2007-8.

He said it would feel really good to repeat the accomplishment.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"It has been a long time since I won anything" he said adding that he felt there was a title to be won for Sheffield, as long as they improved as the season progressed.

*Steelers host Guildford Flames - who lost 4-3 in overtime in the Challenge Cup to Cardiff Devils midweek - on Saturday before Glasgow Clan arrive the day after.

Sheffield's first meeting of the season with Flames last year didn't go well, they lost 5-1 and the Rupert brothers were fired 24 hours later.

Similarly, the first match against Glasgow ended in defeat, (4-2) - that was the first game in the post Paul Thompson era, with Mark Matheson at the helm.

Fox, who is "exploring the market" after recent injuries, rates Guildford as "a skilled team, good on the Power Play."

Related topics:Aaron FoxSheffield Steelers