Crawford's Pack Report: A Slow Start to 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008 - 5:57 PM
The first week of calendar year 2008 presented the Wolf Pack with a big opportunity, with three home games in a span of four days. Unfortunately, though, the Pack were unable to take advantage of the opportunity, gaining only one point out of those three contests.
One theme was consistent throughout the three games, and that was the Wolf Pack's tendency to come out of the gate slowly in the first period. It was particularly grievous in Friday's loss to Hershey, in which the Pack fell behind 4-0 in the first, but it hurt them in the other two games as well. It's hard for a young team not to start pressing when it gets behind, and that tends to lead to further misfortune. I think we saw quite a bit of that in these three games, particularly Friday night.
The Wolf Pack's Dartmouth Connection helped them to secure a standings point in Wednesday night's battle with Portland, as the Pack fought back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1, in what would shake out as a 3-2 shootout loss. Hugh Jessiman's power-play goal tied the game the first time, then his former Big Green linemate Mike Ouellette knotted the score at two with a shorthanded marker only 12 seconds short of the end of the second period.
That was Ouellette's first non-empty net goal in a Wolf Pack uniform, and was a well-deserved reward on the scoresheet for a guy who does a lot of little things that don't show up in the stats. And Ouellette was a real good offensive player in college, having left Dartmouth as the program's fifth all-time leading scorer, so if he could ever pop home a couple in a row to get him going, I bet he could add some real nice extra punch to the Wolf Pack attack.
Friday's first period went bad from the beginning, the Pack giving up a goal only 46 seconds in, and only got worse. The injury-riddled Bears are a lot less of an offensive juggernaut than their last two year's teams, but you would never know it by the way they came out Friday, jumping confidently on pretty regular Wolf Pack mistakes. A pair of power-play goals put Hershey up 3-0, and then Al Montoya was pulled from the game after a fourth Bear goal found the back of the net with 3:40 still left in the period.
Thankfully, from an entertainment perspective, the Pack were able to right the ship after the first-period meltdown and actually play pretty well the rest of the way. They would go on to outshoot the Bears by a combined 31-9 over the last two periods and, buoyed by a pair of Nigel Dawes goals, both set up by P.A. Parenteau, they got as close as 5-4 by the time it was over.
There is no doubt, though, that internally the post-first period comeback did little to brighten the team's opinion of what they viewed as a dismal performance. I was at the morning skate the next day, and that was as upset as I have seen a group of Pack players, and coaches, in quite a while.
The Wolf Pack had been a perfect 3-0-0 through their first three encounters with the Lowell Devils, Saturday's opponent, but a similar, though not as virulent, first-period malaise affected the Pack Saturday as had struck Friday. It was only 1-0 after the first, as opposed to 4-0, but the home side failed to put much significant pressure on Devil goalie Jordan Parise, playing only his second game in a span of eight Devils outings, allowing him to gain some confidence, and were outshot 12-8. It took until Lowell was up 2-0 before the Wolf Pack started to turn it on, and again they would fall one goal short. They gave themselves three-and-a-half minutes to work with after they got to within one goal, in contrast to the 13 seconds they had Friday after Dawes' second goal of that game, but were not able to beat Parise again after Dawes scored his 14th of the season at 16:27 of the third to make it 3-2.
Too bad to disappoint two pretty good houses on the weekend…the fans came out and made the building pretty lively, but until very late in the games, the Pack did not give them too much to get charged up about. Hopefully some significant time on the bus and in hotel rooms with one another in this week's trip to Norfolk and Hershey will turn the club back in the right direction, and give it some momentum going into its next string of home play, which features another couple of nice Saturday dates later in the month.
Now for some reader input…
Tyrone Lane of Waterbury, CT writes, “Is Francis Lessard out for the season? Also, when is Mitch Fritz coming back? Watching in Bridgeport and seeing how Bridgeport was getting underneath the Wolf Pack players' skin, they needed an enforcer that night to keep the Sound Tigers in check.”
Tyrone, Frankie is indeed out for the season, unless his rehab from knee surgery progresses miraculously quickly. Mitch, on the other hand, will be back at some point, I think in February.
While those are two intimidating presences, and two great team guys, I don't think the Wolf Pack have lost any games this year because the opposition's physical presence overwhelmed them. The Pack has always prided itself on being “team tough”, and I think they are well supplied with grit, even without the considerable contributions in that area from Mitch and Frankie.
TJ from Hartford asks, “Do the NHL clubs require or suggest the farm teams in the AHL 'teach' certain systems of play (even, PP, PK), such that it mirrors the parent club? Also, any Wolf Pack alumni updates?”
AHL coaches are hired by the NHL affiliates, TJ, and are always in close contact with their NHL counterparts, so I think most AHL teams play and teach systems that are similar to, if not identical to, those utilized by the NHL clubs. You always have to tailor your system, your forecheck and defensive zone coverage and your special teams, somewhat to the personnel you have on hand, obviously, or your team isn't going to win many games. I think most organizations, however, feel that they don't want to have players coming up from the development affiliate that are not well-drilled in playing a system that is close to that which they are going to need to execute while with the big club.
As far as alumni go, here are a few names to throw at you. Craig Weller is still up in the NHL with Phoenix. He scored his second goal of the season this past Thursday against Chicago, and had five points and 36 PIM through 22 games. Dale Purinton is back to action with the Lake Erie Monsters. He returned December 29th after serving a 25-game AHL suspension. A recent addition to the Monsters' roster is Jamie Lundmark, who has returned to this side of the Pond after starting the year in Russia. Chad Wiseman is playing for Wolfsburg in Germany's top league, the DEL, and has 10 points in 16 games. Brad Smyth is back in the DEL as well, and had 19 goals and 41 points through 37 games. And Joe Balej is back in the AHL this year, with Manitoba, after playing last season in Switzerland.
And Henry Genga from East Hartford, CT asks, “What is the reason(s) the Wolf Pack have dropped so many games at home--five in a row? With their road record they look great and when they should pile up points at home, they look pathetic.”
I think “pathetic” might be overstating the case, Henry, except for the first period of the Hershey game, but clearly the Pack have not done as good a job as they would like in taking advantage of their home games lately. It's tough to pinpoint a reason, I think if anybody around the team could come up with a cause, they'd correct it and turn things right around.
My observation is that the Wolf Pack seem to play a lot looser and simpler on the road, for whatever reason. They play a more straight-ahead style, and when something goes wrong, it doesn't seem to affect them as much when they are away. Maybe subconsciously they are more worried about putting on a good show for the home fans, so they start to reach for the panic button a little quicker when the game doesn't go their way. If the club has any more stretches like last week at home, Kenny Gernander might have some rooms booked at the Hilton and try to convince the boys they're actually on a road trip.
Thanks for the questions and I'll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can cobble together enough material.
