As they depart to play a pair of road games against San Antonio and Texas starting this Friday, the Checkers can look at their last set of games and see a 5-3-2 record that, while not exactly lighting the world on fire, is better than any other 10-game segment of their season despite tough travel and tough opposition.
There’s certainly still plenty of work to do with the team still sitting in 13th and eight points out of eighth. Rather than set specific goals or benchmarks for where they want to be at a particular point in time, the Checkers regroup from their various vacation destinations focusing on the task at hand.
“Just chip away,” said coach Jeff Daniels. “I think we’ve been doing that for the last month or so where we’ve had some good stretches. It’s a cliché, but the focus is on tomorrow night and finding a way to get it done. We’re doing that right now with finding ways to win games and get points. We’ve got to climb up that ladder.”
In order to do, the team will have to put together the kind of streak it’s struggled to produce all season, having won consecutive games on only one occasion back on Nov. 29 and 30. Much of their schedule consists of consecutive games against the same opponents, with most of them resulting in splits rather than the sweeps they’ll need moving forward.
What might help them achieve that goal? First is a kinder setup in terms of their schedule. This weekend will mark the final time they’ll have to travel between back-to-back games and last week was the last time they’ll have to play three games in three nights. Although the team has never made excuses for it, two of their last three regulation losses came during such stretches.
Things are much more spread out immediately coming out of the break. After playing six games in 11 days before, they now begin a stretch of six in 17.
There’s also a recent boost in personnel, with reigning AHL goals champion Zach Boychuk and captain Michal Jordan returning from long stints in Carolina and Brody Sutter healing from injury. That, along with the successful experiment of using Justin Shugg on the point, has immediately helped a power play that followed up a 1-for-41 slide with four goals in its last 12 opportunities.
“As bad as our power play has been, the movement has been good when we do get set up and right now we’ve scored a couple of goals,” said Daniels.
Despite the confidence that comes with beating the league-leading Oklahoma City Barons while playing for the third time in three nights in their most recent game, the Checkers will now be wary of the kind of slow start the experienced upon returning from a holiday break of similar length – one that saw them go 0-3-1 in their first four games.
“We’ve learned that we can’t kind of test the waters,” said Daniels. “We’ve got to jump in and be ready to play.
“Hopefully the guys are refreshed and ready to go.”
Daniels said that forward Brendan Woods, the team’s third-highest scorer with 18 points, would travel with the team this weekend and is considered day-to-day. Woods suffered an upper-body injury on a late hit from Oklahoma City’s Travis Ewanyk on Jan. 23, one that the AHL saw worthy of a one-game suspension.
If Woods, who was a limited participant in Thursday’s practice, is unable to play, one option would be to use Jared Staal, who has played the vast majority of his five full professional seasons on the wing, at the center position.
“It’s something we’ll look at,” said Daniels. “(Staal) played a few shifts there last year, he’s a big body down the middle and he knows how we want to play down low.”
Daniels also said that forward Kyle Hagel, who missed the team’s last game, and defenseman Beau Schmitz would be available this weekend. The Checkers gave Schmitz clearance to play prior to the break but had the luxury of being able to ease him back into the lineup due to extra defensemen on the roster.
“Just the way the schedule’s been set up with us being on the road and then the All-Star break, he hadn’t got a chance to get a lot of practice time,” said Daniels of Schmitz. “The week before was a lot of conditioning, now he’s got a lot of practices under his belt and he’s an option to play.”
