'My hit on Tait wasn't deliberate or a cheap shot'.

Personally, i didn't think it was a bad hit on Ashley Tait.

I caught him hard, but I wasn't looking for a cheap shot.

Nothing like that went through my mind.

Everything happens so fast on the ice it's sometimes difficult to assess everything.

But I didn't feel it was a bad hit after it had happened - and having studied video tapes of the incident I still think it was OK.

Of course I accept a match ban because I caught Tait with my shoulder as I went in, but that wasn't deliberate.

I went for a fair hit.

In my view six games is harsh.

Tait was skating through the middle with his head down when I hit him. That's part of ice hockey.

There was no way I went in to hurt him and it's good to hear he's OK.

It was a physical match and when Sheffield's Jeremy Cornish goes after our top scorer Sylvain Deschatalets and gets him into a fight I wonder who was in the wrong.

The trip to Sheffield was a tough evening.

I landed a match penalty which automatically meant I would miss tonight's Elite League trip to Belfast Giants, while Paul Sample suffered a knee injury.

It's been incredible how many injuries we've picked up has been horrible.

I've never known a time like it, while Jason Stone has been with the Devils 20 years or so and he says it's the worst he has ever experienced.

Our goalie, Phil Osaer, is out along with Phil Hill, Mike Prpich and now Sample.

And this weekend, against Belfast away tonight and at home tomorrow, bench coach Brent Pope joins the team to help out.

Brent is not in the best physical condition, but he's an experienced hockey player and if he keeps it simple and sticks to being a stay-at-home D-man he can really help us.

If he can give guys like Tyson Teplitsky, Mike Garrow and Stoney a rest by playing some shifts then it will be fantastic.

Our job during these difficult times is to work hard and steal wins where we can.

The guys will give it everything we have and everybody at the club believes we have the capability to finish the season on a high.

We certainly have the ability to do well if we come through this spell of picking up injuries.