Neilson - Jay Will Deliver

Nottingham Panthers player-coach Corey Neilson has told skysports.com that he expects a big game from new signing Jay Henderson in Wednesday's Challenge Cup semi final against Sheffield.

Former NHL forward Henderson, 31, arrived in Nottingham on Monday and Neilson has confirmed that he will debut against the Steelers.

With so much at stake, Henderson is stepping into the biggest game of Nottingham's campaign so far, but player-coach Neilson believes it won't be a problem.

"It's not a very hard thing to sell to a player because a lot of these guys have played in big games before," Neilson said in an exclusive interview with skysports.com.

"Once you get to the occasion and you see seven thousand people in the stands, it's easy to understand and adjust accordingly. I've heard he's a big game player and that's what we expect from him."

The Panthers enter the game coming off back-to-back defeats against the Belfast Giants, which saw them concede first place to the Coventry Blaze.
Poor

Despite the setback, Neilson has been quite satisfied with his team's performance in the last two months.

"In the last 15 games or so we've only really put in one poor performance and that was on Saturday in Belfast," Neilson added.

"On Friday we were a better club but the puck just didn't go in the net and different things happened. For the most part we've been a strong team recently, but didn't get a result on the weekend.

"I don't think it's a case of us getting back on track. We've been on track - we've been in good form."

Nottingham aren't the only team with a new addition on parade as the Steelers line-up will feature recent signing Mike Sgroi, who was brought in to add toughness to the roster, especially after Sheffield coach David Matsos accused Panthers defenceman Dominic D'Amour of taking liberties.

Matsos said last week that he will see just how tough D'Amour is now that Sgroi has signed.

After Wednesday's first leg in Sheffield, the Panthers host the return fixture on February 10th.