Interview with Sheffield Steelers' head coach Aaron Fox ahead of his team's Champions Hockey League showdown with Czechia's Dynamo Pardubice
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00:00What do you feel that this CHL campaign has done for you as a club, and also looking at
00:15wider terms really, the league in general?
00:18I think it's good for the league, I think it's been good for us as a club to show that
00:21we can play with these teams and be competitive.
00:25Obviously we'd love to advance, if we don't advance that's our own doing with the position
00:32we're in right now and controlling our own destiny.
00:37I'd still say that the campaign was a success regardless of the situation with how well
00:42we've played some of these games.
00:45Like I said before, it definitely puts a different strain on your group, mentally and physically
00:53by playing in it, but that's part of the excitement of it as well and we're really
00:59happy we were able to showcase ourselves in the league the way we have so far and we'll
01:04see what tomorrow brings us.
01:05Do you think it's made other parts of Europe look at the elite league a bit differently?
01:10I definitely think so.
01:11More favourable to them?
01:12I definitely think so.
01:13I mean Belfast had a decent campaign last year, they had a really nice campaign last
01:18year too.
01:19And then you saw them kind of struggle with some stuff early doors last year as well.
01:27So it's not abnormal, we'll make sure that we make it right here because our goals are
01:34pretty standard and what we're expected, what I expect out of our group, what I expect out
01:41of myself is to be competing for as many trophies as possible.
01:47Just looking forward to tomorrow and seeing where things go.
01:49We've spoken before about how much of a challenge it is for the players to raise their game
01:53against some of the teams you've come up against.
01:55For you as a coach, on a more personal level, have you enjoyed the challenge of raising
01:59your game in that respect as well?
02:01Yeah, I think we're pretty detail-oriented coaching staff and we try to make sure the
02:07guys are as prepared as we possibly can to what we're going to see from each and every
02:11team and we can put pieces in place, but the players are the ones who have to go out
02:17there and execute and compete and play a certain way, which they've done.
02:25So credit to how they've reacted in these situations.
02:29For me personally, it's been fun just seeing, you know, you pick up a few different maybe
02:34tricks of the trade when you watch some of these other teams, how they operate and some
02:38system stuff, some face-off plays maybe, some stuff like that that maybe you don't
02:42see a lot of, but yeah, it's been definitely challenging.