Last winter, right around this time in fact, the Wolf Pack put up two 6-0 wins in a three game stretch. However, smack dab in the middle of these two wins was a score that was downright frustrating. The Lowell Lock Monsters defeated Hartford 1-0 in a 13 round shootout on Friday, December 3rd, 2004. Even more frustrating, Hartford could not beat Lowell’s goalie once. How a team goes from scoring half a dozen goals on one game night, to not being able to hit water if they fell out of a boat the next is beyond me.
That’s your history lesson for today, now let’s move on to vocabulary. Today’s word is consistency. This is something over the past two seasons, Hartford as a team has simply not been. However, there were some things you could count on in the past. If you saw a game, you could count on these five things to happen (barring injury to one of the players):
1. Jozef Balej would pull off an amazing move, then lose the puck.
2. Trevor Gillies would fight someone
3. Jason LaBarbera or Steve Valiquette would bail us out of a game
4. Ryan Hollweg would knock someone into next week
5. Jamie Lundmark would take a stupid penalty
Other than that, no one really knew what to expect. Our offense was pretty much hit or miss all season long. However, I think we all hoped this season with the new coaching staff in place, and a revamped roster, that we might actually be able to be a consistent team.
However- let’s look at the streaks Hartford has been on this season
W1
L3
W3
L1
W3
L4
W1
L1
Well, the only thing consistent about Hartford’s season is that they’ve been around .500 all year long. Basically, the season has been a bunch of streaks. Already there have been two three-game winning streaks. In fact, there was a point this season where Hartford was on an eight-game point streak. However, the team followed it up by losing four out of its next five games.
To give credit where credit is due, Al Montoya was not in net for our last seven games. During that time frame, we are a whopping 2-4-0-1. The team cannot solely rely on Al Montoya. This season and last season are entirely different. Barbs and Valiquette were interchangeable, if you put either out on the ice; our team had an equal chance to win that game. If we play Bernd Bruckler or Chris Holt over Montoya, the Wolf Pack have a significantly less chance of winning that game. This cannot be the case all season long. It will not work out; as is evidenced by the past three-week’s games. What if Montoya goes down again? What if Weekes or Lundqvist gets injured and he has to play backup for a significant period of time in New York. Well, hopefully they would find a veteran to play backup in New York so that Monty could get some more ice time in Hartford, but that might not be the case.
The team is going to have to find a way to win without Al Montoya. Whether it be scoring a lot of goals, smartening up on defense, or not taking stupid penalties and then allowing the other team’s power play to walk all over them (as was the case in a 5-3 defeat Sunday 11/20 @ Portland, Portland scored 5 PPG’s), this young team needs to improve.
Also, hopefully the team won’t develop into a reliance system. What I mean by that is the team needs everyone to do his part on offense and defense. Alexandre Giroux, Jarkko Immonen, Chad Wiseman, Colby Genoway, and Nigel Dawes are giving Hartford good offensive chances on every night that they are in the lineup. However, aside from those five players (and their 34 goals), the rest of the Hartford roster has only lit the lamp 28 times. Granted, Hartford is averaging 3.647 goals per game, but what would happen if any of these guys were out of the lineup for an extended period of time? The rest of the team would have to pick up the slack and step up. Now, the last thing I want to see is any of these guys out of the lineup, but the NHL is back this season, and their services may be needed with the parent club, should the need arise. Genoway should be offered a contract soon in my opinion; he improved greatly over the summer.
Consistency is going to be extremely important to our team this year. Injuries and call-ups will happen, and the rest of the team is going to have to learn to deal with that. Relying on one group of five skaters for 54% of your goals scored simply won’t work. There’s no guarantee that they will continue to light it up for the rest of the season, and if they trail off, someone’s got to step up.
Retraction- I said in my last column that I don’t think we have a clear starter (in net) right now. Well, I think it’s fairly obvious, following their recent performances, who Hartford’s clear-cut number one netminder is. (Once he returns from injury, of course.)
- Calder
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