HOUSTON, Texas – Halway through the Houston Aeros’ season, it’s becoming easier to consider this squad on its own terms rather than compare it to last year’s team.
As the club sits teetering on the good side of .500, the inconsistency that has plagued them since the beginning of the season is still a hallmark.
It seems there is no deficit too great to overcome and no lead too solid to squander, both with jaw-dropping speed. From scoring three goals in the final minutes to tie a game up to giving up five goals in the third to lose the game, the speed with which the Aeros’ fortunes change could
Photo by Jason Villanueva
Challenges on Every Front
While the inconsistency on the ice is within the team’s control, off-ice challenges have plagued the Aeros as well. The NHL parent Minnesota Wild has struggled for most of the first half of the season with injury and performance problems, resulting in numerous call-ups, including offensive catalyst Krys Kolanos and defenseman John Scott.
There’s no doubt Kolanos’ scoring prowess has been missed, as the team has gone 5-7-0-3 since his mid-December departure. Given fellow center Benoit Pouliot’s disappointing performance so far this season, and Wild star Marian Gaborik’s projected 10 to 14 week recovery from hip surgery, Kolanos’ return to Houston seems unlikely.
Further, Scott impressed Wild coach Jacques Lemaire enough to send defenseman Erik Reitz to the press box through most of Scott’s five game call-up, but Marc-Andre Bergeron’s return to the line-up from a knee injury bumped Scott back to Houston earlier this week.
The team has also missed several key players for long stretches due to injury. Forwards John Lammers, Ryan Hamilton, Bryan Lundbohm, and defenseman Clayton Stoner have each missed at least 10 games. Stoner’s plus-9 rating leads active team members by a significant margin, and his absence on the blue line is palpable, while such forwards, when healthy, have been critical to secondary scoring efforts.
Another challenge for the team has been a grueling schedule, even by minor-league standards. While players and coaches are clearly hesitant to make excuses, the constant effort of three games in three days, and often four in five days, has worn the team down. Particularly brutal was a recently concluded stretch that took the team through 12 games in 17 days, mostly on the road, in seven different states, covering nearly 5,000 miles.
But Coach Kevin Constantine stressed that players should look situations like this through opportunistic eyes.
“It’s two things for me: it’s opportunity here because there’s some guys who get the chance to play a different role, and then it’s opportunity for each of the guys who goes on the ice because of what’s going on in
Photo by Jason Villanueva
“Right now there’s lots of reasons to be motivated to play–opportunity here and opportunity up there, so our players just have to recognize that and get their energy through the motivation of what opportunities may exist for them.”
Lemonade-Makers Emerge
In spite of the one-step-forward-two-steps-back nature of the season, a few players have shown an aptitude for making lemonade out of lemons.
On the blue line, Maxim Noreau was praised by Constantine for his relatively unaffected effort given the condensed schedule and for showing up most days with more jump than expected. That jump has shown up on the scoresheet, too, as Noreau continues to lead AHL defensemen with seven power play goals and is tied for first among defensemen in overall goals with nine.
Up front, Jesse Schultz emerged late in the first half to become the Aeros most productive forward, putting up a point per game since mid-December and displaying the talents he used to help last year’s Chicago Wolves squad win the Calder Cup. Last Sunday, he tied his season high three points against his slumping former team.
Photo by Jason Villanueva
After a dry November, center Corey Locke has resumed his scoring dominance with 42 points in 40 games played. More so than any other player on the roster, Locke’s scoring tends to be the harbinger of good things for the team; they are 8-1-0-3 when he buries the puck. In addition, Locke was selected, along with goaltender Barry Brust, to represent the Aeros in the 2009 AHL All-Star game later this month.
Peter Olvecky is finally finding his niche on the Aeros roster as a set-up man for the team’s primary scoring arsenal. After putting up modest numbers the last three years with the Aero, Olvecky has already eclipsed his assist total for all of last season (16) and is fourth in points among active Aeros forwards.
Similarly, center Marco Rosa, who appears to have found a good chemistry with Locke, Schultz, and Olvecky, is on pace to significantly improve his numbers from last season. He is currently one goal and one assist away from matching his scoring numbers for all of last season.
Off the score sheet, the addition of scrappy defenseman Mitch Love has helped fill the energy-and-grit void left by hard-hitting agitator Cal Clutterbuck, who was called up to the Wild early in the season. With 15 fighting majors under his belt so far, Love has also made the shift to playing forward as the team struggles to get its wingers healthy.
The Second Half
Currently, the Milwaukee Admirals lead the West Division by 10 points, but the next five teams are all within two points of each other. And though the worst of the Aeros schedule is behind them, a vast majority of the
Photo by Jason Villanueva
At the halfway mark, the Aeros are third in the league in penalty killing, up from 11th just a month ago, and up to 15th from 17th on the power play. Defensively, at least, the team seems to be in lock-step most of the time. It’s goals-for that are sometimes the challenge.
One area the team knows it must fix in the second half is its 2-7 shootout record. The season started with Brust letting in 10 of 12 shootout shots over the course of three games, a result so bad the team has resorted to pulling him and putting Nolan Schaefer in if a game goes to a shootout.
Though Schaefer has played well, even when put in the net cold for the shootout, the problems have shifted to the other end of the ice as Aeros shooters have had trouble burying the puck during two of Schaefer’s four shootout contests.
That said, Brust may get his first “pressurized” test of the work he’s done to fix his shootout problem (including working with a sports psychologist) in the Shootout competition at the All-Star game, unless the team decides to keep him in for a shootout in one of the four Aeros games before the break.
The next two months will decide the season for the Aeros, as continuing to loiter around .500 won’t be sufficient to earn a playoff spot. With a less dense schedule, healthy players returning, and stability in the Wild roster, the Aeros must look ahead to taking the progress made during the first half of the season and converting it into wins in the second half.
Contact the author at heather.galindo@prohockeynews.com.
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