Leeds Knights boss Ryan Aldridge looking forward to locking coaching horns with familiar faces

It makes for an intriguing weekend of action for the second-tier leaders, with Bristol Pitbulls’ boss Jamie Elson and Swindon Wildcats’ player-coach Aaron Nell both well-placed to second-guess what to expect from Aldridge.

Of course, that works both ways.

Nell is well-known to Aldridge having first played under him at Swindon before he went on to follow in his footsteps, taking over behind the bench in October 2014 after Stevie Lyle’s short-lived stint in charge.

Elson has plenty of coaching pedigree himself, having initially cut his teeth as an assistant coach in the Elite League at Cardiff Devils, working under the likes of Gerad Adams, former Knights’ coach Dave Whistle and, most successfully, Andrew Lord.

The Devils went on to enjoy great success under Lord, winning two EIHL regular season championships and a play-off title before Elson jumped ship to hook up with Aldridge at the Okanagan Hockey Academy in the summer of 2018.

The pair worked together for three seasons, the second half dominated by the pandemic, while they also enjoyed a short spell alongside one another at Great Britain Under-16s, Aldridge working as assistant to Elson until his commitments at Leeds saw him stand down.

The two have only locked horns once this season ahead of tonight’s clash in Bristol, the Knights romping to a 7-1 victory in Leeds last month, the game coming 24 hours after Aldridge’s team had suffered their first loss of the season in a 7-6 overtime defeat at Milton Keynes Lightning.

The Pitbulls - newcomers to the league this season alongside Hull Seahawks - have found it tough going so far, currently lying third bottom with five wins from 21 games.

But Aldridge has been impressed with the job done by his former colleague and expects his team’s title credentials to be given a serious examination on the road.

“We see the game very similar, for most parts, that comes from when we worked together at Okanagan for two or three years,” said Aldridge. “He’s intense, he likes the details done properly, he likes guys to play in the system and he likes to play fast hockey.”

This past month has seen movement in both directions on the Pitbulls roster, the most recent addition being Canadian import centre Nik Coric.

Aldridge was also impressed with the original line-up that Elson was able to put together ahead of the new season.

“It’s a credit to Jamie that he signed a team nobody really expected him to sign, there was certainly no stone left unturned in the summer when it came to recruiting,” added Aldridge.

“He got players out of junior leagues in North America that people were not thinking about, didn’t even know about and he’s brought them back over to the UK.

“So I think he probably over-achieved in the summer, he did a really good job in terms of the recruitment, some of those haven’t worked out but I think the next few weeks will be interesting for them given the changes they have made at this point in the season.”

Elsewhere,

Sheffield Steeldogs face a tough weekend on the road at Milton Keynes Lightning and then Telford Tigers tomorrow.

Bottom-of-the-table Hull Seahawks will look to furthe close the gap on the teams immediately above them when they follow up tonight’s trip to Swindon with a visit from Bristol tomorrow.