At this stage of the hockey year, every shift is meaningful. You're either battling for a playoff spot, or for future employment.
Or both, if you play in the ECHL.
Under the circumstances, the Ontario Reign's success this season is a tribute to resiliency and a solid system. The Reign fell short Friday night, losing 2-1 to Las Vegas in a shootout and having their Pacific Division lead over the Wranglers shaved to one point with a rematch here tonight.
Still, Friday night's point brought the Reign within one of the franchise record of 82 points in a season, with 11 games still to go.
And they've done this while using 36 players this season, and having eight of their guys called up to the American Hockey League, the latest Friday morning when forward J.D. Watt received his third callup this season to Manchester, the Kings' top farm club.
The latter item is an indicator of success in itself and may be more pertinent, though after two non-playoff seasons in Ontario the opportunity to hang another division championship banner is not only good for morale but good for business.
Still, as Reign coach Jason Christie has noted, the main purpose at this level is player development. And it's evident that Christie and assistant coach Mark Hardy have taken that responsibility seriously.
"I worked with Christie in Chicago and I worked with Mark Hardy in LA," Houston Aeros coach John Torchetti said recently. "They're really good at promoting their players, telling you, 'Hey, you should take a look.' It's a good situation when coaches are always trying to push their players to the next level. A lot of coaches don't do that, trust me. We go through that a lot.
"And we trust those coaches dearly, because callups are big. They can win or lose games for you."
Torchetti's Aeros have gone to the Ontario well three times already this season, for goalie Darcy Kuemper, defenseman Mike Montgomery and forward C.J. Stretch.
Likewise, defenseman Dylan Yeo, who started the season as the Reign's captain, was called up to Oklahoma City. Defenseman Jean-Philippe Cote was acquired by Norfolk. Watt, goalie J.F. Berube and forward Chris Cloud all have been Manchester Monarchs, though Berube — in the AHL for the early weeks of the season mainly as an emergency callup — and Cloud are both back in Ontario.
With all of that roster shuffling, you've got to give kudos to Christie and Hardy for making sure those who are in Reign uniforms are all on the same page each night. Ontario is about to set a franchise record for goals in a season — something the club's big league affiliate in LA should envy — and the Reign's penalty kill is operating at almost an 89 percent clip since Jan. 1, 121 kills in 136 penalties including 2 for 2 Friday night.
"The number one thing is to (stay) consistent," Christie said. "We want a group of guys who can fill in at any time. That's what we're focused on, guys who can compete. It doesn't matter who's in or out, as long as they're ready to play every night."
Forward Kyle Kraemer suspected that some system breakdowns were a factor in Friday's game (though a waved-off Reign goal, the reason of which Christie said was never quite made clear, also had an impact).
"We've been successful staying with that tight system," he said. "Especially when you're short guys, you've got to really have attention to detail. Once you come off that, stuff gets crazy out there."
With eleven games left, division and conference titles within reach and no guarantee that there won't be any more callups, craziness is unwelcome here. |
