Going into the All-Star break, you were hoping the team would be able to pull off at least two wins and gain four standings points. Now, after losing all three games and only gaining two standings points and dropping to fourth place in the division, what do the Nailers have to do to turn it around coming out of the break?
Obviously, with all three games being within the division, all of the points you could earn (while keeping the opponent from gaining any themselves) is extremely beneficial, no matter the time of year. Needless to say, having such a flat weekend, especially coming off of having almost the exact opposite happen the weekend before against the exact same teams, really hurts this team. Wheeling now sits in the fourth and final playoff spot in the division, only two points up on Ft. Wayne, but the Comets have three games in hand right now, so there’s a good chance that, if Ft. Wayne earns the points they’re supposed to, it could drop the Nailers to the outside looking in. The good news is, there’s still plenty of time to pull it together, along with plenty of games against opponents that the Nailers should be able to take advantage of.
The Nailers hit the road each of the next two weekends, with games this Saturday at Kalamazoo (a team currently behind Wheeling in the standings) and Sunday at Indy (the current first-place team in the division). Getting wins there will do a lot to keep the Nailers relevant within the division. Keeping those teams from gaining points is almost as important. Overtime wins still are wins and are still worth two points to your team, but allowing divisional teams, especially ones currently chasing you in the standings, to earn the additional “loser point” doesn’t do enough for you to maintain the distance you need. I don’t want to say the Nailers need to go 2-0 this weekend, but I really do think one regulation win with either another win or an overtime loss for at least three standings points from this weekend are going to be quite important. You can’t be satisfied gaining only one standings point in games like these, so the players will really need to stay focused and play good, sound hockey to earn those points this weekend.
The Nailers were able to finally choose the player from the Greenville Swamp Rabbits to complete the trade they made earlier in the season that sent Ryan Bednard south. What are your thoughts on Chase Zieky, the player that is coming to play with the Nailers beginning this weekend?
First off, I have to say that I bet the Nailers currently wish they had kept Bednard on the team, considering their top two goalies are currently still in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He’s managed to have a pretty decent year thus far for the Swamp Rabbits, going 5-3-1 in his nine games played for them, accumulating a 2.82 goals against average and a .909 save percentage during his time there. Not exactly world beating but doing well enough to hold your own. And considering their regular starting goaltender currently is 9-7-3 with worse statistical figures, it doesn’t really surprise you to learn that they’re sitting in fifth place in their division and struggling to get their footing.
I haven’t had a chance to see much from Chase Zieky so far this season, considering Wheeling doesn’t play against Greenville this year, but I went and looked him up to see what the team is getting. Through 20 games played this season, Zieky has managed to pot six goals to go with five assists for a total of 11 points, and has accumulated 32 points in his 64 games of experience in the ECHL with Idaho and Greenville.
But what I saw that impressed me the most was a young man who wasn’t afraid to use his speed to create shots, both for himself as well as his teammates. I feel like he’s someone that you can slot in on either of your top two lines and he can find a way to fit in with his teammates and help create scoring chances. I’m quite excited to see what he’ll be able to do the rest of the way to help push this team to keep them in a playoff spot. He’ll obviously need more than the one practice he’ll be able to get prior to this weekend’s games to get a good feel for the style the Nailers like to use, as well as some of the plays they like to set up, but I don’t see why he can’t jump into this lineup and become a strong contributor right off the bat.
The team finally announced their permanent replacement at assistant coach and pulled from the list of previous players in the franchise again in the hiring of Kyle McKenzie. What are your thoughts on the new guy behind the bench to help coach Derek Army?
Well, this weekend didn’t exactly go the way you would hope to welcome a new coach into the fold, losing three in a row, with two of those in overtime. I never got the chance to see McKenzie out on the ice as a player, but from everything I saw and read, he was a rather strong stay-at-home defenseman who wasn’t afraid to be tough in his own zone on opponents. Coach Army had a chance to both play with and coach him during McKenzie’s playing days, so I think that should be a definite leg up for both guys, as they’re well aware of what each other brings to the table. I feel like having the opportunity to coach alongside a guy you played for should definitely be an advantage that the players on the Nailers should see in practice and in-game situations.
My assumption, based on what I saw, would be that McKenzie will be taking on coaching the defensemen (obviously) as well as the penalty kill, which should help that unit out quite a bit. Their PK unit has only managed to kill off 78% of the penalties taken this season, which is a rather dreadful number. I think this number needs to be at least above 80%, hopefully closer to 85% in order to maintain success in this league, and I think McKenzie has the knowledge to impart to help get them closer to where they need to be. I feel like this hiring is a step in the right direction for the team, allow them to get comfortable with who their coaching staff is, and should really benefit them the rest of the way.
Based on what they have coming up the rest of the way, what do you think is the most important thing the Nailers have going for them in the second half and what do they need to work on to make sure things go the way they need them to go?
Although this team is in a dogfight right now to hold onto their playoff positioning as they start working on the second half of the season, I still believe the Nailers can and should make the playoffs when all is said and done. They currently are looking at exactly half of their games this year (36 games) remaining on the schedule to try to improve their positioning and stay above that playoff bubble. The good news is, a lot of the games they have coming down the stretch are against the worst teams in the league (Norfolk and Iowa), who currently have a combined 13 wins on the season, not even enough to match the Nailers 17 wins they have to their credit. The other good news is, of their remaining games, only nine are against the teams currently ahead of them in the standings (three against Indy including the one this Sunday, two against Cincinnati, and four against Toledo), so you can make the argument that they should have a strong case in all of their other games this year. If they can find a way to go .500 or better in those games, while having closer to a .750 win percentage in the rest, there could be a shot that Wheeling moves up in the standings and strengthens their playoff odds considerably.
Of course, that’s why they play the game on the ice and not on paper, so the guys on the team better focus up and be ready to play every night to hopefully earn their spot in postseason play. In addition to the rather paltry penalty kill I mentioned above, their power play is still finding it hard to hit the back of the net often enough, only seeing success 17% of the time they get a chance. Those numbers really do need to improve if Wheeling wants to play deeper into April and May. The team overall has a -8 goal differential for the season at the midway point (106 goals scored versus 114 goals given up), but I think finding a way to tighten things up on both specialty teams would go a long way in helping that. Also, I’m still seeing issues with their passing, especially in collecting hard passes across zones. Way too many times, a hard pass is thrown ahead from the defensive end and the forward has no choice but to chip at it into the zone and chase instead of maintaining possession into the zone. I feel like the Nailers have seen their biggest success when carrying the puck in and having a chance to set up a bit for an offensive chance, so working harder at making crisp passes and keeping that possession is something these guys should focus on to help keep their chances moving forward.
With the rousing success of Wizards and Wands night now in the rearview mirror, what other promotions would you like to see the Nailers try next year to help draw the fans into the stands?
First off, I want to congratulate the team on getting that big of a crowd through the doors. Having a sellout crowd of 5,069 people on hand isn’t always easy, so having such a great promotion (as well as promoting it to the public through the media) really helped draw the crowd in. I wish they could’ve come away from that seeing a win, but it was still a very exciting game against Cincinnati, and I really think it could still encourage those who were in attendance to come back again.
With that being said, hockey has always been a “what have you done for me lately” sport, and there always has to be a next time. The team does still have some rather fun nights planned the rest of the way this year, with pups and pucks night on February 4th against Iowa (I might just have to get tickets for that one and bring along my troublemaker to see what he would do in that sort of environment), Penguins night on February 11th against Norfolk (as a fan of the Penguins myself, that should be a very exciting night), as well as teacher appreciation night on March 25th against Reading (being married to a teacher myself, I know how much things like this means to a group who are normally underappreciated everywhere else). Looking ahead to next season though, I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to plan a Wizards and Wands 2.0 next year with how enthusiastic everyone was with the response to it this year. But maybe they don’t have to stop there. Why not find another movie or production franchise (hopefully one that’s also somewhat family-friendly like Harry Potter) and find a tie in to hockey to bring the fans in again? Seems like a good idea after what you just saw last weekend. My suggestion? Lego night, from the Lego Movie franchise. I don’t have any children of my own, but even I enjoyed those movies, and I think the team could find a way to have fun with that. Have Lego building competitions, Lego-themed costume contests, and you don’t even have to limit it to just things to do with the movies. A lot of people enjoy playing with Lego, so maybe the giveaway could be a Lego set that’s something just as cool as those wands they gave away last weekend. I know they’ll come up with some good ideas, as they always do, but don’t forget to enjoy the ones they still have yet to come this year as well!
