Aeros developing team personality

HOUSTON, Texas – Twenty games is how long Houston Aeros coach Kevin Constantine thinks it takes to really know what kind of team he has on his hands.
 
And while it does appear that the team is a few games away from finding its on-ice identity, off the ice, there seems to be little question as to the team’s personality.
 
Aeros GM Jim Mill purposely went about acquiring players who score high marks for character and teamwork, even if they aren’t sitting atop the AHL scorers list every year.
 
“We’ve surrounded our prospects with good leadership-type veterans, that are able to also go up and play for the Minnesota Wild,” Mill said. “I know every single player that I went out and signed here.”
 
This approach is paying off in a locker room that appears to be as level-headed as they come. Constantine has yet to even assign the captain’s ‘C’ to anyone, just rotating three alternates each game among the wealth of leadership he’s been provided.
 
This character has been evident almost since training camp, but even more so lately as the Aeros have found themselves hitting bumps in the road early in the form of repeated second period collapses, difficulty scoring, and a nearly impossible time scoring on the power play.
 
In the first two cases, the team’s leadership has taken the onus of responsibility on its shoulders.
 
“Our coaches do enough for us preparation-wise. We practice these drills in practice every day,“ said forward Peter Zingoni, after a 5-1 loss to intrastate rival Texas Stars in which the team allowed 4 goals in the second period and only managed one goal for. “I think it comes to the point where we’re going to really have to respond and start producing.”
 
If they needed a sign that the second period problem wasn’t going away, they got it against the Hamilton Bulldogs in their most recent home game. They spent so much of the second period on the penalty kill that they only got one scoring chance to Hamilton’s 12 in period.
 
That said, they ended up winning the game in the shootout after coming back with a strong third period and going goal-for-goal with Hamilton until Aeros goalie Wade Dubielewicz was simply one stop better than Bulldog goalie Cedric Desjardins.
 
But the vets, including forward Jon DiSalvatore, were quick to admit they still needed to address the problem.
 
“It’s a great time to educate yourself. There’s a lot of things we feel we can do a lot better,” said DiSalvatore after the Hamilton game. “There’s a group of us that’s going to address the team and get this thing going. We think we can play better. That was a great team tonight. It was a great win, but we think we can do better.”
 
Back on the road for three games, however, the Aeros have improved the consistency across periods but still can’t manage to bend the twine.
 
What’s more, the team whose bread and butter last season was the power play, is rock bottom in the league with the man advantage this season. With only four power play goals and a 0.066 scoring percentage, add it to the list of problems that will likely require more than a team meeting to rectify.
 
What isn’t a problem, however, is the penalty kill, which is currently tops in the league, having allowed only 2 power play goals in 13 games.
 
Goaltending
Additionally, the Aeros appear to have somewhat weaker goaltending than in the past couple of years, in spite of   rookie Anton Khudobin being very good   in goal, with one shutout, 1.77 GAA, and 0.935 save percentage over a 4-2-0-0 record.  
 
Veteran Wade Dubielewicz, however, has been inconsistent in goal, and while his stats aren’t terrible (2.45 GAA and 0.904 save percentage), if you’re looking for wins from your goalie, his 2-5-0-0 record might be hard to swallow.
 
While 30-year-old Dubielewicz has the leg up in terms of experience, Khudobin’s results early in the season (before being called up to the Minnesota Wild to back up Niklas Backstrom for a few games) led Constantine to all but declare him the #1 goalie in Houston.
 
“They both got two games each of the first weekends. Once you kind of get through that, there’s got to be a performance factor in your decision making, and Anton had just won the first two games,” said Constantine. “We just decided that we’ve been real fair up to now, and gave everybody a chance, and now we have to factor in that Anton won and he deserved the right to play this game.”
 
The third goalie on the roster, Barry Brust, is still recovering from a fractured foot that has been plaguing him since January.
 
Offensive Offense
 
At the other end of the ice, adding to the offensive woes have been losses due not only to a rash of injuries with the Wild, requiring call-ups of Andy Hilbert and Nathan Smith, but also injuries on the home front.
 
Ÿ   Colton Gillies was sidelined with a broken nose that required surgery just 2 games into the season, and it has taken a few games after the surgery to find his stride.
Ÿ   Peter Zingoni, who led scoring and has been a force on and off the ice for the team, has been day to day with an undisclosed injury for over a week.
Ÿ   Cody Almond, who has shown tremendous poise and grit in his rookie campaign, is now out for several weeks with a broken wrist.
Ÿ   Not long after his return from the Wild, Hilbert hurt his knee in a game and looks to be out for another 4 or 5 weeks.
 
While not due to injuries, others who were expected to contribute significantly to the Aeros scoring proposition have not gotten going yet.
 
Ÿ   Offensive defenseman Maxim Noreau, who was one of the top scoring defensemen in the league last season, has only 3 assists in 12 games, in spite of leading the team in shots on goal by a significant margin.
Ÿ   DiSalvatore, who was expected to be one of the top scoring threats on the team, only has 2 goals and 2 helpers thus far.
 
Silver Linings
 
All that said, some pleasant surprises have emerged as the early part of the season unfolds.
 
RW Jean-Michel Daoust, who played the last two seasons in the Penguins organization with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is, at 5’7” and 160 pounds, always one of the smallest guys on the ice.
 
But in addition to racking up 6 points in 12 games, Daoust has shown remarkable versatility. He’s slippery, displaying impressive hockey sense, finding open ice both with and without the puck, but also one of the grittiest, most irritating guys for the other team to play against.
 
Last year’s mid-season trade acquisition, LW Robbie Earl, also appears to be on track for a breakout season and leads the team in scoring with 4 goals and 6 points in 13 games.
 
Looking Forward
 
The team heads into the weekend having just finished one of the toughest stretches of their schedule, and did most of it without their #1 goalie and while battling injuries.
 
With three days off to regroup and a two-game home stand underway, the Aeros will have to use a more forgiving schedule to their advantage and find a way to crawl out of the power play basement. It’s not time to panic but it is undoubtedly time to show some urgency and pick up some points that will be tough to recoup as the season wears on.
 
Contact heather.galindo@prohockeynews.com