With the Nailers going 1-0-1 last weekend on the road against Kalamazoo and Indy and maintaining their hold on fourth place in the Central division, what are your expectations for this weekend’s series in Kansas City?
Getting three out of a possible four points last weekend against two divisional opponents, and getting the big win (in regulation no less) against the number one team in the division was a great feeling. Of course, it would’ve helped a lot if they could have won both, considering they had a lead late in the third period in Kalamazoo, but being able to earn at least one point there before their victory the next evening still helps. That keeps the Nailers in fourth place in their division, three points clear of Kalamazoo, with the K-Wings only having one game in hand, meaning Wheeling still holds the advantage over them with that in mind. The Nailers will be hitting the 40 games played mark after this weekend’s series in Kansas City, as well as playing their last games in the month of January, so this is when the heat begins to get turned up on all of those teams who are close to a playoff spot. There’s just over two months left in the season, so losing points at this spot in the season can really put a team behind the eight-ball.
Going into Kansas City this Friday and Saturday, the Mavericks currently sit in fourth in the Mountain division with a record of 16-15-5 and having lost their last four games overall, one in overtime. Their last two losses were both to the Allen Americans, who currently sit sixth in their division, so it feels like they’ve come out of the All-Star break a little slowly. Now would definitely be a nice time to take advantage of that and earn at least three more points here. While the Nailers are facing the Mavericks, the K-Wings will be playing a home and home with Toledo followed by a home tilt against Indy to complete a three game series in three days, so hopefully they can stumble a bit and allow the Nailers a little space. It would also be nice to have Toledo lose some games though, as they currently sit ahead of the Nailers by five points in the standings, so having them drop some points would be helpful.
Of course, the only thing the Nailers can control is how their own games go, so they need to focus on what they are doing in Kansas City. Use their speed to their advantage, cause turnovers, and hopefully catch their team sleeping a bit still. The regular starting goalie for KC this season, Shane Starrett, is 11-8-3 this year with a .908 save percentage and a 2.75 goals-against average on the season. Those are a little above average, but the other two goalies on their roster are considerably worse than that. Maybe if the Nailers have some success against Starrett, force his hand and get bodies in his way, Wheeling can take advantage of it and earn enough points to feel a little more comfortable entering February.
The Nailers have again been hit with the callups to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton again, with Josh Maniscalco, Chris Ortiz, and Brooklyn Kalmikov currently up, among others. Who have you noticed that has stepped up with all of the absences the team has endured recently?
Of course, when your team loses as much talent as the Nailers have, including your only All-Star from this season, expectations tend to be shifted a bit. That being said, this team has shown all year that shouldn’t be the first thought. They have managed to take all of the roster changes in stride, welcoming in new players while getting greater contributions from some of the guys who have been here all season who may not have been afforded the opportunity to show what they could do with less ice time than some of those guys got. Coach Army has the unenviable task of having to figure out who to play when, and I think he’s done so extremely well so far this year. He continues to find ways to put this team in a position to win games with the best players available on the ice.
The player who has really stood out to me the most lately with these changes has to be Davis Bunz. From the blue line, he has managed to contribute 10 points in his last 12 games played to give him 15 points this season in 28 games played. This from a young man who only managed to earn 17 points total in his five seasons at Providence College, with his highest point total in one season there being five. He had an assist on the game-tying goal, as well as scoring the eventual game-winner against Indy last weekend. Getting this sort of play out of a guy who didn’t show a proclivity towards offense previously is a tremendous help in making up for what the team has lost out on from Maniscalco. This is a young man who has shown that he deserves the first pairing minutes from Coach Army, and hopefully, he can continue to do these things even after the team gets back to a full roster. I’ll definitely be watching for him the rest of the way to see if he can continue this play.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the continued strong play of Bailey Brkin in net with the continued absence of Taylor Gauthier and the recently returned Tommy Nappier. While Brad Barone has also played rather well, Brkin stands out with a goals against average of 2.68 combined with a .919 save percentage. Those numbers are very strong for a goaltender in a league where offense is expected to be high. I think he has shown an ability to play well at this level and, even if it’s not with Wheeling in the future once everyone comes back, I feel like he deserves the chance to become a regular starter for a team in the ECHL in the future.
When you look at the remaining games on the schedule after this weekend, what do you think could be the underlying storyline to their schedule that could make or break the Nailers chances at a potential playoff spot?
When I look ahead at the remaining 32 games the Nailers have on their schedule, there are a couple things that stick out to me that I think could really change things for this team in terms of where they could end up come April. I know I have mentioned this before, but I think this is when it becomes important to consider the quality of opponent the Nailers have the rest of the way. Of those 32 games remaining on the schedule, they have eight against the Norfolk Admirals (who currently sit at 6-29-1-2 on the season with a current five game losing streak) and nine against the Iowa Heartlanders (who currently sit at 7-20-8-1 and are on a six game losing streak), a team the Nailers haven’t played since the fourth game of the season, which the Nailers won 2-0. That’s 17 of their final 32 games, or 53% of their remaining schedule, against the two worst teams in the entire ECHL. There’s no way that doesn’t affect the standings by the end of the season. Getting the majority of their games against the tougher opponents in early, and finding a way to earn a winning record and being in a playoff spot already, can definitely pay dividends now as the Nailers get to the part of their schedule where accumulating points is absolutely necessary, and should be relatively easy.
However, something else to consider is the fact that, of the 32 games Wheeling has left, 15 of them will be played on home ice, with the other 17 away from Wesbanco Arena. On the season thus far, the Nailers have a 9-9-3 record on friendly ice, while they enjoy a 9-7-1 record while away from home, which is rather strange for a team to have a better road record than home. But that could be helpful for this season’s iteration, considering the breakdown of where they will be playing the rest of their schedule. If they can find a way to maintain a winning record away from the Friendly City, and find a way to turn that home record into a winning record, I don’t see why the Nailers can’t find themselves playing meaningful hockey further into April and hopefully past that.
Overtime hasn’t been very friendly to the Nailers lately, with the Nailers experiencing three losses in the extra period in the last week and a half alone. Why do you think Wheeling has struggled with playing extra hockey, and what can they do to reverse their fortunes?
In looking back at the Nailers schedule to this point in the season, I was surprised to see that Wheeling has only had one game make it all the way to a shootout, a 4-3 victory over Toledo back on November 9. Aside from that one game, six of their other games have gone to extra time, with the Nailers having a 2-4 record in games decided in the extra frame this year, which wouldn’t be a terrible record if you didn’t realize that three of those OT losses have all occurred in the last two weeks (January 14 against Cincinnati, January 15 against Kalamazoo, and January 21 at Kalamazoo). Earning the “loser point” as it is affectionately known is still preferable to losing in regulation and receiving nothing for it. But the question still remains: how can they improve that overtime mark, which would obviously help them more in the standings?
I’ve never been a very big fan of having overtime be decided at 3-on-3. It feels like it’s barely one step up from the skills competition known as the shootout at that point. When you have so few players on the ice, winning faceoffs becomes even more important. Gaining possession and using it to get quality scoring chances drastically improves a team’s chances at winning a game because teams can basically just skate around with the puck until an opportunity presents itself, even going so far as to skate out of the offensive zone repeatedly just to break things up and come in on a rush again. I think the first thing the Nailers could do to help their chances in overtime would be to work harder at faceoffs and improve in the dot. Making sure your team has a possession in overtime should be your biggest focus going into it.
Another thing that would help is making sure your pairings on the ice are players who can play off each other well. It doesn’t help anyone to have two natural shooters (known as snipers) on the ice at the same time, as they’ll both just look for their own shot and not work well together to set up a true scoring opportunity. On the other end of the spectrum, if you put two guys out there who like to defer, then there will never be a shot on net and any prime opportunities that come about will be missed. You also need to consider that you only have one defenseman out there, so a turnover could lead to a two on one going the other way and a quick red light and game over. Finding that balance in your overtime roster is absolutely necessary, and could also help a lot. Of course, if they just took my suggestion and changed overtime to 4-on-4 instead, it would completely change how teams have to prepare for it and would be a lot more fair as a true hockey competition.
Although you’ve spent more time this year than in year’s past paying attention to the Nailers, your first love has always been and will always be the Pittsburgh Penguins. How excited are you for the upcoming Penguins Night promotion during the February 11th game against Norfolk?
I must say, I’ve actually really enjoyed the chance to get closer to and pay more attention to the Nailers this year. While their brand of hockey feels different to what you might see at higher levels, you can definitely see glimpses of those skills that will help these guys as they move up through the levels of the organization. Getting a feel for these guys now will hopefully help me greatly in the future when we see them get to those levels and I can say that I know what they excel at and can see how they benefit the big club. I think that’s the best thing about getting to focus on this team, is knowing that I will get to see some of these guys play in bigger games someday and it’ll allow me to reflect on the time they were with the Nailers and how that might have shaped their game.
That being said, I am absolutely a HUGE fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, having followed them since I was at least five years old. One of my earliest memories is sitting down with my dad to enjoy watching a Penguins game on the old KBL television channel (and if anyone reading this remembers that channel, please, I beg of you, don’t forget to take your baby aspirin in the morning, it helps). I still remember watching live when the Pens won the Cups in 1991 and 1992 in Minnesota and Chicago, respectively. My wife and I have gone to four different road venues (Toronto, Columbus, Nashville, and Carolina) to follow the Pens and watch them, and I hope to one day visit every NHL arena to see the Pens play there. So getting the chance to see former members of the team come to Wheeling and see the fans is obviously a fantastic opportunity.
Francois Leroux (a former Nailer in his own right from 2007-08), J.S. Aubin (the goalie who split time with Marc-Andre Fleury when he first came to Pittsburgh) and Stanley Cup champion Tyler Kennedy will all be present for the game, and I think that’s a really solid lineup of guys. Not only can they enjoy time with the fans, I think it’ll be a great thing for the team to get those guys into the room and hopefully impart some knowledge from their days in the league, let the players now pick their brains a little bit, and show that the big club values what those guys are doing down at this level. It should be a really exciting night of hockey in Wheeling, and I look forward to being at The Bank for that one.
