Things continue to go from bad to worse for the Nailers as they failed to earn a victory in three opportunities last weekend. With five games left on the season, what do they need to focus on here at the end of this long season?
It can definitely become a bit of a slog once you’re guaranteed to miss the playoffs. Add to that the fact that all of their games last week were against teams who are already playoff-bound, including a Cincinnati team that had won 15 of their previous 17 games coming into the weekend series with the Nailers but were embarrassed the previous night to the tune of 11-0 against South Carolina, and it was a recipe for disaster. On the same Friday night that the Cyclones were being handled by the Stingray, Wheeling came up on the short end of a 3-1 decision against the Indy Fuel thanks to two early first-period goals by the home team. With those three losses, the Nailers have managed to go 3-10 in the month of March and start April off with an 0-2 record, and it moves them to 6-14 over their last 20.
Tough to have that happen when Wheeling was well within a playoff race with Ft. Wayne back towards the end of February, but that’s the way it goes in sports, where the cream always finds a way to rise to the top. For some teams to make the playoffs, other teams have to miss, and the Nailers just didn’t have it in them to make it happen this year.
That being said, all is not lost for a suddenly very young Nailers team.
Wheeling now features seven players who have joined the team since the end of their collegiate/junior hockey seasons, and all are getting the opportunity to show what they can do at this level. Sometimes making that jump can be overwhelming for a player, but luckily, they’ve shown the ability to join the roster, figure out how things work for them on a team like this, and work hard to contribute to what’s quickly become a lost season.
At this point, I think it benefits these players to try to focus on “small victories.” Getting the wins in these games unfortunately doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things (although it still feels good to win games, so don’t think I’m suggesting they won’t be working for that). But there’s definitely small milestones that players can work towards in these final five games to show they’re ready for next year, which is where the focus has turned towards as of now.
While that may not be what the fans who are starving for victories by this team want to hear, the players would be best served trying to look at their game this way the rest of the way.
You mentioned in your previous answer the “small victories” the Nailers need to focus on. What do you mean by that, and how can that help them over the next two weeks?
“Small victories” can be a concept that is hard to define overall and is definitely something that differs from one player to another, based on skill or current development level or what they have been focused on improving throughout their season.
For some, it could be as simple as trying to score their first professional goal and prove they can do that at this level. For others, it could be trying to work their way up the lineup, moving to a higher line and getting more playing time. And for still more players, it could be working on taking fewer penalties and showing that their value to this team is in being on the ice and using their skill to make other teams pay. Every player has to have in mind what they want to show to themselves, the coaches, the fans, and the league that they are capable of, in hopes of having a spot to play next year, whether that’s here in Wheeling or elsewhere.
In a season like the Nailers are having, this can be downright impossible sometimes. Frustration can set in, infighting can occur between teammates, and things can go from bad to worse in the locker room and on the ice, especially for guys who spend so much time around each other. Personally, I’ve been in a similar situation.
My junior year of high school, our football team managed to go 1-9, and let me tell you, the locker room was downright poisonous at times. Half of the offensive line wouldn’t speak to the other half, the so-called “skill” position guys wouldn’t acknowledge that they were part of the problem, and eventually, it got to the point that the coaches couldn’t even reach our group and practices became borderline tortuous. When that happens, you can feel like all is lost and just accept the foregone conclusion of what your season is and perpetuate the terrible play.
Luckily, I haven’t seen anything like that with this Nailers team. They are still going out on the ice and working hard for victories, whether big or small. They’re trying to work together to show they understand their place on the ice and what their personal positives are for a team. Not every player can be the guy who scores every time.
You need guys who are going to be willing to block shots, who will dig hard to try to stop icing calls, who will make the necessary pass to help set up a teammate instead of being selfish and try to create for just themselves. These are the “small victories” that help a team build a roster from top to bottom, and it’s what I see these players trying to achieve.
I hope they continue to focus on these skills that are necessary for a complete hockey team and bring those skills back with them to the Friendly City next year.
Speaking of “small victories,” sometimes it’s hard to see them along the way during a season like the Nailers are having this year. What have you seen during the year this year that you would think of as “small victories” for this team?
Lost seasons can tend to weigh on the minds of people associated with the team, from the players to the coaches to the front office. Even the fans can find it tough to look back at the positives in a season where the team is guaranteed to finish up when the regular season ends, especially in a year when there was a lot of hope before the season that a postseason appearance would happen. Things obviously change during the course of 72 games, even more so when you’re an affiliate team who is responsible for providing for the teams above you in the organization or allowing your players the chance to play at a higher level, even if it’s outside of your team’s structure.
People tend to focus on the most recent activity for a team, and when you have a team that has been losing like the Nailers have, that becomes what everyone remembers about this season.
But there’s definitely a number of “small victories” that this organization and these players can take away from this season. For the whole Nailers organization, they can look at the fact that 17 players who appeared in Nailers jerseys this season got the chance to play in the AHL this year at different times, which tells me that those teams see what Wheeling is doing with these players and their development and believe that they’re producing quality guys that deserve a chance to move higher.
I also think that Wheeling can point to the fact that, up until and through February, they were very much in the thick of the playoff race. After the last series in February where they managed to take two out of three games from Norfolk, the Nailers sat just five points back of Ft. Wayne for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Central division.
Most of the teams who will miss out on the playoffs have known their fate for a lot longer than the Nailers have, so the fact that this team has given their fans a reason to believe right down to the stretch run should be commended for a team that will ultimately miss the playoffs by a considerable margin.
On the player side, a number of guys have managed to set new personal records in several categories. Tyler Drevitch has the most goals, assists, and points he’s earned in a single season in his professional career (16-15-31). Brooklyn Kalmikov, despite being a rookie this season, has managed to almost hit the 20-goal plateau at the ECHL level while having a number of opportunities to play for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, something that can be quite daunting for such a young player. On the defensive end, David Drake has also eclipsed his previous personal best in goals with three this season while also achieving his highest plus/minus (+9) of his professional career, all while appearing in every single Nailers game so far this season.
So, while this season as a whole might not have gone the way everyone involved had hoped it would at the beginning, there are still positives that can be taken away and seen as these “small victories.”
The Nailers have managed to go 13-17-4-0 in their 34 home games thus far this season, compared to 13-19-1-0 through 33 road games. How odd is it for a team to have such close records between home and away, and how much of a factor do you think that was on how the Nailers season went this year?
Generally, bad teams will have bad records no matter whether they are playing on home ice or away. Conversely, good teams will have good records in both cases as well. For teams closer to the middle, which I would consider Wheeling to be, I’d expect them to have a much better record at home than on the road. Normally, those teams excel in front of their home fans, draw from the energy of those screaming from their seats, and use their knowledge of their home facility to their advantage. If you think about it this way, every team will play on their own home surface 36 times, whereas some teams they have come through may only get the chance to play there once or twice during the season.
The team with that knowledge of the facility should have an advantage, such as knowing if there’s a dead panel on the boards, how the dimensions of the ice affect the movement of the puck, and so on. Home ice advantage is definitely a thing at a level like the ECHL, and middling teams and higher should be able to take advantage of it.
So, what does this mean in terms of the Nailers, who are pretty much equal in terms of their records at home and away? Well, it could be looked at in a few different ways. Maybe it means that they’re not as much of a middling team as I originally thought. Being as far below .500 in terms of win percentage in both situations as they mean that they might actually be on the lower end of teams in the league to some extent, but I don’t think that’s what this is.
A major factor in this could be how bad things have gotten throughout March and now into April. Prior to this extended downward streak they’ve found themselves on, the Nailers had a record of 12-13-4 at Wesbanco Arena and an 11-11-1 record away from the Friendly City. That looks to me like a middle-of-the-road team if I’ve ever seen one.
My personal theory for why their home and road records are so close to equal is that the Nailers felt more comfortable on the road than expected. They were able to go into another team’s barn and implement their own game plan. They blocked out all the extra noise around them, focused on playing their way and working hard, and were average on the road.
To me, the more concerning one is the below .500 record at home. If you think about it, if they could have found a way to turn that part around, they could have been in a playoff spot entering March, and who knows how things might have shaken out at that point. That, to me, is the bigger wonder, and I definitely think it affected where this team is finishing up the season.
Finding greater success at home next season, while maintaining at least a .500-win percentage on the road, would go a long way towards making them a playoff team in 2024.
The Nailers have managed to go over 73,000 fans in attendance this season with just one home games left on the schedule, which eclipses the 60,000 who went through the turnstiles last year. What do you think has made the difference this season to bring more fans through the doors?
Despite their lack of success on home ice this year (as discovered in the previous question), the Nailers have done a fantastic job of getting people through the doors and in seats. I think there are several factors that could play into this, and I really hope this team plans on continuing these efforts next year to keep growing that number for years to come.
One major factor is their community outreach activities. If you follow the Wheeling Nailers on their social media pages, you consistently saw where they were going to schools and reaching out to the children of the Ohio Valley. This is a wonderful opportunity to introduce the game of hockey to a younger generation.
This in turn could encourage these kids to want to come to a game and see what it’s all about, which will make the whole family come along and introduce them to the environment of a live hockey game. I’ve heard many times in my life that a live hockey game is completely different to what you see on the television, and it makes me chuckle every time.
I absolutely love live hockey, getting to feel the energy of the arena from what’s happening on the ice, feeling the coolness in a room being kept at a temperature low enough to maintain an ice surface. If you’ve never been, I highly encourage you to go experience it at least once.
Another important aspect is all of the fun activities they planned this season. Between the fantastic giveaways, the discounts on beverages on Frosty Friday home games, while still maintaining a familial atmosphere means there’s something for everyone at the Nailers games. You want to try some local restaurants that you haven’t had the chance to try before? There’s a number of them in the arena that you can get food from.
Looking for something fun to do on a date or with a group of friends that is really fairly priced for what it is? The prices for tickets to a Nailers game are surprisingly low for how much fun it is being at the game. And if you think this is something you might want to do a few times throughout the season, you could always go the route of getting a partial or full season ticket package and guaranteeing yourself the best prices you can get on those seats.
I would love to see the Nailers continue to grow hockey in the city of Wheeling and throughout the Ohio Valley, but the only way for them to do that is for more people to show up. So, consider being there next season to see what they come up with to help enhance the experience.
