San Diego has a full roster with more bodies coming back by the day
The San Diego points streak was at fifteen games before this most recent stretch of action; they had won their first game without Max Jones and Troy Terry, but a constant state of uncertainty hanging over the parent club has meant an ever-shifting roster and ice time is suddenly hard to come by for a group that had once shown signs of almost invincibility.
News and Observations:
Roster Moves:
It has been more than a bit difficult to keep track of the last few weeks roster change that saw the Gulls swap in ten different players over a span of three days.
As of writing this the current plays with the Ducks and Gulls are as follows:
Ducks:
Adam Cracknell
Jacob Megna (recalled yesterday)
Korbinian Holzer
Patrick Eaves (not officially announced as recalled or reactivated off IR but reported to be skating with the Ducks)
Gulls:
Andrej Sustr
Sam Carrick
Max Jones
Troy Terry
Jacob Larsson
Andy Welinski
Justin Kloos
Josh Mahura
Kiefer Sherwood
Ben Street
You can expect Jones, Terry and Larsson to get called up before the Ducks next game in Winnipeg. It looks like Megna has earned a promotion over Larsson while Eaves, Silfverberg and Perry look like they are ready to play – meaning that Jones and Terry can stay with the Gulls. So with that I expect the Gulls’ line up to look like the following for their upcoming battle at home against the Reign.
The Jones-Carrick-Berry line has excelled in hemming opposing teams in the offensive zone and causing turnovers down low. They score from the dirty areas or draw calls with strong play. De Leo, Kloos and Sherwood havent quite clicked yet but you can see what Eakins is trying there. All three have very good foot speed; all they need now is to develop chemistry. Chase De Leo has suffered the most at the hands of the Blandisi trade, scoring just one goal in five games. It would be good to get him firing again and hopefully pick up Sherwood along with him. Steel and Terry have been good together; I had initial misgivings given the obvious chemistry Terry already had with Jones, but in the time since Steel has looked a hell of a lot better playing alongside Terry. Kopacka complements the line well as a natural sniper who loves following the play. Then there is the fourth line. Right now it resembles the spare parts but the very strong spare parts at that. With the current state of the health of the rosters of both clubs, I am sad to say that Dostie might not be able to see much more time down the stretch and things are going to get even more tricky when Cracknell, Roy and Kossila eventually come back.
Excess Defense
Now that both the Ducks and Gulls are healthy on their blueline, it means more than a few extra bodies between the two clubs. The acquisition of Trevor Murphy to cover the frequent recalls of Andy Welinski has now made things a tad awkward; Dallas Eakins is now left with a conundrum of which in-form players to ice on his blueline.
In the most recent game he made the seemingly painful decision to sit Simon Benoit, as well as third year veteran Keaton Thompson. The pairs looked as follows:
Megna – Murphy
Mahura – Welinski
Larsson – Sustr
Currently Holzer and Dotchin are in Anaheim but I would assume Larsson gets called back up along with Sustr and we see Benoit and maybe Holzer together on the third pair.
Megna appears to have earned the promotion with Dotchin being sent back, while Larsson stays down but the point still remains. This leaves at least one spare defencemen for each club – Holzer for the Ducks and enough for two extra pairings for the Gulls. It is the strong play of Benoit this season, combined with the acquisition of Murphy as well as the possible plateau of Andy Welinski’s development that I am re-iterating once again – I could see him being dealt at the deadline or allowed to walk after this season.
Injury Updates:
In case you missed it – Jack Kopacka made his long awaited return to the lineup this past weekend and looked very good. He scored a goal- slowing up on the play to ease himself into a soft area to wire it through traffic. The twenty-year-old now has three points in five games.
Deven Sideroff also returned from the hand injury he suffered in an early game fight against the Reign a few weeks back.
More importantly – with all respect to Mr Kopacka and Sideroff – is the news that Kevin Roy should resume skating in a week. You read that right.
Kevin. Roy.
By The Numbers:
Through 40 games the Gulls have been out-shot 1261 to 1252, picking up 22 wins. They have the 8th best points percentage in the league with 0.613. They have won a total eleven games – so half their overall wins – when being out-shot and have won twelve when scoring first. Out of their 40 games they have been outshot in the first period 19 times, the second period another 19 games and the final period 14 times.
The numbers last season told a story of the Gulls consistently being out shot but somehow still winning essentially by overpowering opponents with timely scoring from experienced snipers. This was ultimately their downfall when those players were called up to the Ducks later in the year. This season tells a different story of a younger team that has learned to come out fast, get a lead, and- most of the time – hold it. When that game plan isn’t always able to be followed, Kevin Boyle has been able to steal a game here and there. The outliers are the games where the Gulls themselves have run into a hot goalie, such as the loss in Iowa at the hands of Kahkonen or against the Reign when Petersen has managed to spoil things.
So About That Boyle Guy…
Remember when I gave Kevin Boyle an A-grade in my mid-year grading and some of you respectively disagreed? Well look who made the All-Star game bitches? Yes I realise it was to replace Terry, but they could have picked Sam Carrick (20 goals tied for 4th in AHL) or any other goaltender in the AHL, but they logically went with the goaltender who now has the second most wins in the league, tenth in GAA and seventh in SV% (over twenty games played). He has a 17-6-1 record, looking at that again, he is responsible for 17 of the 22 Gulls total wins thus far. He has looked almost unbeatable in the Gulls’ most recent action and the only aspect of his game that looks at all shaky right now is the speed at which he gets back into position – sort of like how Gibby used to look when he first broke into the NHL. This second half stretch (and hopefully) deep playoff run will be a true test of how he handles big time pressure situations.
Troy Terry Still Leading
Troy Terry leads AHL rookies in points per game with 1.09. Jordan Greenway is technically still the leader, with an impressive four points in two games for the Wild, but among active rookies Terry’s 37 points in 34 games is tops. Max Jones has snuck up and caught him in the Game Winning tally race, with both rookies now sporting three game deciders each – placing them tied for second overall with a few other players.
Looking At The Standings
The Gulls are now fourth in the Pacific in points and third in points percentage. If the playoffs started today they would face the Roadrunners in a first round best of five match-up without home advantage – historically this has not worked out well, so San Diego will need to get hot again in this final stretch to ease themselves into a first or second place position in the division. If one thing is for sure- they do not want a repeat of the “falling out of a playoff spot” losing streak that they ended things with last year.
Up Next
A rematch with the Ontario Reign this time at home tonight. Will we see the debut of the newly acquired Grundstrom? Then Kloos faces his former team mates as the Wild come to San Diego Saturday night. Followed by a Wednesday and Friday night home and away with the Reign.
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