With the Nailers preparing to play three games in three day (all on the road) this weekend, they now sit five points behind a playoff spot. How important do you think last weekend was for their potential playoff entry?
Entering play last weekend, the Nailers felt like they were dead in the water in terms of a potential playoff berth. Wheeling sat nine standings points behind Ft. Wayne, with the Komets having a game in hand. That felt like an insurmountable lead, especially with how well Ft. Wayne had been playing going into that, and the fact that the Nailers had managed to lose two of three to a really poor Iowa team. Luckily, the (almost) best-case scenario came about last weekend, as the Nailers went 2-1 against Norfolk (should’ve been 3-0, but we’ll get into that shortly), while Ft. Wayne managed to lose all four games last week (as well as their game on Wednesday this week against Toledo), allowing the Nailers to get back to within five standings points of the fourth and final playoff spot in the division, with both teams having played 52 games. Now, Wheeling is right back in the race, with games this weekend at Indy on Friday, followed by games at Ft. Wayne on Saturday and finishing up with at Toledo on Sunday. If things continue to go the Nailers way this weekend, it’s possible Wheeling could find themselves in a playoff spot after the games are finished on Sunday.
The importance of last weekend’s results can’t be overstated. It was hard seeing a path back into a playoff spot for the Nailers, not only because of their inability to take care of business against a bad Iowa team the weekend before, but also because Ft. Wayne had gone 11-3 in a month’s worth of games prior to last weekend (January 20 through February 19). To have a team on that much of a heater all of a sudden lose four games in one week, all in regulation, all against teams that Ft. Wayne should’ve had a good chance at beating (South Carolina, Atlanta, and Savannah), is unbelievable. Then, on top of that, the Nailers came within less than 10 minutes of finishing their weekend at 3-0 (thanks to some really bad zone play and rough goaltending down the stretch on Sunday allowing a three-goal lead turn into a one-goal regulation loss) allows Wheeling to feel like they’re right back in this thing, and they are.
Granted, their games this weekend won’t be easy for the Nailers, kicking it off with an Indy team who currently sit third in the division but have gone 4-6 in their last 10 games. They then follow that up with their first of three games against Ft. Wayne in the next week and a half on Saturday with the chance to keep the Komets’ losing streak alive and (hopefully) giving the Nailers a chance to get within one point of that all-important fourth and final playoff spot in the Central division. Their last game of the weekend on Sunday is against Toledo, the team Wheeling absolutely does not want to see right now. Toledo has managed to win their last 10 games in a row, and are 12-0-0-1 in their last 13. For those who don’t know what that means, their only loss since the calendar flipped to February was in a shootout to Cincinnati back on February 4. Then again, Ft. Wayne found a way to slip up when they were on a heater, so there’s no reason to believe the Walleye can’t do the same thing and allow the Nailers to play a strong game against them and hopefully come away with at least a point. If they manage to earn five points this weekend, with Ft. Wayne losing their games against the Nailers and Iowa this weekend, Wheeling would find themselves in a virtual tie for that spot, and they can absolutely look back at this past weekend as the turning point to get them back into that position.
As you stated earlier, the Nailers had every chance to go 3-0 against Norfolk last weekend until a big collapse in the third on Sunday gave the Admirals the win. What effect does something like that have on a team moving forward into their games this weekend?
There’s definitely a few different ways something like this can go, when your team got embarrassed right at the end of a game like that. And make no mistake about it, it was embarrassing to watch the Nailers find a way to let that game slip through their fingers when they absolutely had their thumbs on Norfolk’s backs and were ready to squash. After allowing Norfolk to find a way to stay in the game Friday while still earning the 2-1 victory in a shootout, the Nailers managed to turn it on during Saturday’s game, scoring three times in the third to earn the 6-3 victory, then managed to go into the second intermission on Sunday with a 4-1 lead. After Brooklyn Kalmikov found a way to put the puck into the net about halfway through the third period to extend the lead to 5-1, everyone (apparently including the players on Wheeling) felt like their victory was all but assured, and it probably should have been.
But Norfolk didn’t give up, they forced Wheeling to play in their own zone most of the rest of the way, getting pucks on net almost at will at times, and forcing inopportune turnovers to allow them to score four goals in a row, including the game winner with 2:57 left on the clock. The Nailers never really managed to turn it back on after that final goal went in, and one of the worst comebacks given up by Wheeling this season was complete with the 6-5 Admirals victory. You could see it on the players faces after the game that they knew they let it slip through their fingers, that they felt embarrassed for letting it go, and they wouldn’t forget that feeling any time soon.
Now, going into this weekend, there’s two possible ways this could go with that being the last time you were on the ice in a game situation before this weekend. The preferable way is to use it as motivation, which I believe the Nailers will do. Remember that you had a considerable lead, that there were a number of miscues that allowed it to get away from you, and if you can work on tightening those up, there’s no reason a team should be able to do that to you again. Learn from it, allow yourself to remember those feelings as you skated off the ice, and push yourself harder to play a complete 60 minutes next time instead of sitting back on your heels after 50 minutes and get pushed around. The worse way for this to go is to allow a loss like that to fester, allowing it to create doubt in your mind as to your ability to win games like that, and basically forcing you to accept defeat before the game has even been played. Like I said, based on what I saw from the players coming off the ice on Sunday, they realized what they let get away from them, and they looked determined to not let that happen again. We shall see this weekend if they learned from it and come out with that fire in their game to try to get that bad taste out of their mouth.
Despite how things finished up on Sunday, it’s hard to see last weekend as anything but a success for the Nailers both as a team and for the players. Who impressed you the most during the Norfolk series, and what do you want to see from them going on the road this weekend?
Any time your team has a strong weekend as Wheeling did, there are some players who manage to step up and lead the team both in terms of statistical output as well as on ice play that deserve to be recognized. The player who stuck out the most to me in both categories was Tyler Drevitch. Drevitch managed to earn five goals (including a hat trick on Saturday) and one assist for six points in the three games against Norfolk. He now has 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points this season through 52 games played, after only earning nine points total last season in 45 games played. Not only did he contribute on the scoresheet last weekend, I saw him work hard on the ice to create opportunities for the Nailers even when not scoring points. Drevitch skated hard with the puck, worked hard in corners and in puck battles, and forced a number of bad plays by Norfolk in the defensive zone that allowed for chances going the other way. Without his strong play in those games, things could have turned out much differently for the Nailers over the weekend.
While I would say Drevitch earned my number one star for the weekend, some other players who had really strong games were Cedric Desruisseaux, who managed to earn three goals and three assists for the weekend (and has managed to score goals in five straight games now), as well as Justin Addamo, who earned three assists in Sunday’s game before being recalled back up to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton again and playing in the Baby Penguins game on Wednesday, scoring his first two AHL goals of his career in a 5-3 loss to the Hershey Bears. In his first professional season, Addamo has managed to score 21 goals and 12 assists for 33 points in 42 games at the ECHL level, and based on his production, as well as his performance up in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season, should probably get a look next year at earning an AHL contract off the bat, hopefully still in our organization, as I believe he has earned it.
During the game on Saturday, DJ Abisaleh, the voice of the Nailers, introduced the idea of what he calls the “Deej Club”, which is players who have earned 10 goals, 10 assists, and 100 penalty minutes in the same season. If you were to create a “Jeff Club” with some statistics that you look at as important in hockey, what stats would you use and what’s your threshold for them?
To this point in the season, only four players (Ross Olsson of Orlando, Mitchell Heard of Toledo, Michal Stinil of Wichita, and Danny Katic of Norfolk) have earned the stats necessary to enter the “Deej Club” for this season. There are a couple players who are very close to joining them, with Andrew Nielsen of Utah needing one more goal to hit his 10 goals and Wheeling’s own Tyler Drevitch needing just one more minor penalty to reach the 100-penalty minute mark. It’s a little strange that not that many players have managed to reach those three specific marks, but thinking about it, this particular set of numbers would probably be a rather strange grouping. The players in question would need to have a considerable amount of offensive skill to net their 10 goals, good linemates and passing ability to hit the 10 assists, while playing a tough brand of hockey up to and over the edge to earn the 100 penalty minutes in a season. It’s definitely interesting to think about what type of player someone has to be to hit those marks in the same year and what they probably mean to their team. They’re obviously valued enough to get the playing time to hit those marks, but the team runs the risk of facing a penalty kill with them out there, so it’s an interesting contrast of statistics for sure.
If I were to consider what statistics I would look at when considering having players in the “Jeff Club,” it’s hard to pick ones that would be effective for forwards and defensemen alike. One thing the “Deej Club” will never include obviously is goaltenders, so maybe I would create a statistical club for those guys. There are certain stats for goalies that will always be somewhat tied to one another, such as goals against average and save percentage, and they are normally inversely proportional to one another (the higher the goals against average, the less saves being made, therefore the lower the save percentage). So, if a goalie is having a good year, they’ll have a low goals against average with a high save percentage. I would also expect these guys to be the regular starter for their team, so having a high number of games played (as well as wins) would probably follow as well. I think for my club, I want to consider goaltenders who have a goals against average below 3.00, with a save percentage over .910 (as I would consider those really good numbers for a goalie at this level), while playing in at least 30 games for their team and over 15 wins on the year (meaning they have a winning record for the year). I know I’m using four stats to determine my club while DJ only used three, but this is my club, not his, so I can set my own standards. To this point in the season, there is only one member of my club, Cam Johnson of the Florida Everblades, who has a line of 2.67/0.915/39 games/21 wins. There are a number of players who are close, only missing by the games played or just short on wins, but that’s probably because there’s still a month and a half left of the season, so I fully expect my club size to grow as we go further into the year, but for now, my congratulations to Cam and good luck on staying in it the rest of the way.
The Nailers return home next Wednesday against Toledo at 10:45 am in their annual Education Game, where they invite local schools to bring their students and pack the arena for their game. How exciting is something like this for both the team and the kids who get to enjoy the game?
While I’m not a big fan of the early start time for players who are used to playing their games in the early evening or night, as it might interrupt their regular schedule for gameday activities, I do think it’s an excellent opportunity to reach out to a younger generation and get them excited for the game. As I’ve said before, getting the youth involved in the game is instrumental in growing the game of hockey not just in Wheeling, but worldwide, and setting it up so they get the chance to come and see a game in person, something that some of them may never get the chance to do otherwise, is just a fantastic idea. It might introduce the game to a kid who has never had the chance to see it before and they could fall in love with it. I mean, there was a time where I had never seen hockey before myself, and without the chance to watch it and learn it, I wouldn’t be able to do something like this or have the knowledge of the game that I do, so getting these kids there and giving them the chance to experience it is a wonderful idea.
This is also a great time for the players, the early time notwithstanding. With all of those kids in the stands, they can feed off of the energy brought to the arena by over 5,000 area children in the seats, screaming their heads off for the action on the ice. If the players are able to go out there and give those kids their all and have the game of their lives, maybe it’ll inspire some of those kids to get involved in hockey themselves, or at the very least hopefully convince their family to come back to a game another time with them and get the chance to watch them again. I can’t wait to see what Wheeling is able to do in front of all of those children and hopefully bring that fire down to the ice and beat the Walleye (hopefully for the second time in less than a week after their game on Sunday).
