Since the Trade Deadline

[donjohnson]

Well...we're on a bit of a slide and while it's pretty easy to say "well, we lost Mintyukov" I think that there's some other things at play during this 5 game losing streak:

1) Schedule...the first 4 games have been against teams that have made significant additions to their teams. The Soo loss last night was a bad one but it's also a road game and typically a tough trip to make.

2) Overachieving...we are still one of the younger teams out there and I think we are having a significantly better year than expected because of the play of our rookies (Misa, Parekh, Willis). However, they are still rookies and while they're still producing, to make it through a tough stretch like this, you really need veteran leadership and trading Bloom, Hislop and Mintyukov don't help that.

3) Future Schedule...we've already played the easier teams in the East (including a rough loss to Niagara) and the majority of our remaining games (save for a few against Erie and Soo) are against teams with winning records so there will be no nights off going forward. We've got Flint in a couple nights and I'm sure they're smelling blood in the water.

A switch is going to have to get turned on because we still have a lot of talent on this team and I didn't expect the dropoff after Pavel left to be that great even though he was a 1.5ppg guy. I thought others would step up and we just haven't seen that yet. Hopefully we can right the ship and play some good hockey in the second half and win a series in the playoffs.

[eric8199]

This is a great analysis and I agree with everything you said here. I will say I'm much less concerned about losses to London and Windsor than I am about losses to teams like the Soo and Kitchener, two teams that we should still be beating if we're expecting to do much in the playoffs. Add Flint to that list — we'll see how the boys do Saturday at the Dort. Let's hope the frustrating season the Firebirds are having supersedes our frustrating slide and we can get a victory down there.

[spiritfan8]

The schedule is brutal the rest of the way, something that was pointed out early on, but which many of us chose to minimize. (Guilty as charged) They’re going to need those points they piled up early on.

[MidlandSpiritFan]

The losing streak has now reached 6 games with a 4-2 loss at Flint on Saturday night (1/21). Saginaw has won 1 of their 8 games in the month of January after winning 4 straight to close out the month of December.

[MidlandSpiritFan]

Small sample size but Pavel Mintyukov has cooled off since joining the 67s. No goals, 3 assists, and -2 in 6 games.

www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=249248

[swoopster]

He's now playing in a more defensive system, not the freewheeling approach that Laz has the Spirit playing. It will take time for them to find a defense pairing that allows him up into the play knowing he has a safety net.

[MidlandSpiritFan]

Jan 23, 2023 20:10:20 GMT -5 swoopster said:

He's now playing in a more defensive system, not the freewheeling approach that Laz has the Spirit playing. It will take time for them to find a defense pairing that allows him up into the play knowing he has a safety net.

Which is why I qualified my comment by saying it’s a small sample size.