Steelers' owner receives a jab at centre ice!

And flashback to February 29, 2020, the businessman must have felt pretty satisfied with his lot as he sat in the Arena balcony watching his side hammer Fife Flyers 8-2 to go three points clear at the top of the EIHL table.

Little did he know at that time, everything was to come crashing to the ground.

Just over a week later, Steelers' season was essentially axed, one of many sporting tournaments to fall victim to the pandemic.

There were to be no fresh Steeler games scheduled until the Government finally gave its consent and backing to a mini-series which starts for them on April 3, 2021.

So it will have been just shy of 400 days between the revenue of their last home attendance by the time the puck drops at Nottingham Arena next month.

These are some of the thoughts that will have gone through Smith's mind, recently, when - with huge irony - he and his wife received their coronavirus vaccination jabs on the very Arena flooring that had remained ice free for so long.

"We were sat centre ice at the Arena a couple of weeks ago - the closest I will ever get to centre ice," quipped the Elite League chairman.

He will have his second shot in May, by which time the EIHL series will have been completed and his GB skaters will have had some preparation ahead of their world championship training camp.

Smith and the Government's negotiators have, at times, have had a brittle relationship. When talks collapsed in February, he said the EIHL had been "shafted." But fences were mended.

And one thing Smith has never had a problem with is the Government's forensic attitude towards making the tournament as Covid-free as possible.

"We want to keep the teams as clean as possible," he said, of Steelers, Manchester, Nottingham and Coventry.

"We decided Nottingham was the safer option as a venue as we were not comfortable with the players travelling between rinks for games, that can run a risk of covid coming into the clubs.

"We will be testing these players every single day, in this series."

Guildford Flames were the only English team from the EIHL who decided against any direct involvement - Sheffield will benefit from the services of Joshua Waller, from the Surrey outfit, next month.

"They wouldn't do it, if I am honest" said Smith. "They looked at it and decided it is a lot of work, and in a nutshell we finished up with the four English clubs going, Guildford preferred to just wait and go in September."