A 6-3 loss to the visiting Minnesota Frost on Saturday has left the Toronto Sceptres with a losing record. It’s not exactly unfamiliar territory for a team that lost four of its first five games last season before reeling off an 11-game win streak to win the regular season in Year 1.
But as head coach Troy Ryan will tell you, one season really has nothing to do with another. This is a new challenge and another test the Sceptres will have to take on.
Here’s a few observations from what we have seen thus far.
COHESION TAKES TIME
The Sceptres desperately want to avoid the poor start they had in Year 1, but despite their best efforts the team is on that same path as a year ago.
After an opening win at home, the Sceptres have lost two in a row, but more troubling than the results are the fact that both losses looked very similar.
There was a general sloppiness to both losses in Ottawa on Tuesday and at home Saturday against Minnesota.
Hemmed in their own end for long periods of time not only tires the offence, it gives confidence to the opposing team. There were plenty of such periods in both games.
The other noticeable trend was the number of passes that are just missing the mark as would-be breakouts just get gobbled up at the blue line and punched right back in behind the Toronto net.
If there is a bright side to this it is that not one line has returned intact from a year ago. There are newcomers on all four lines Ryan throws out there, not to mention two new faces in his bottom six defenders.
The hope is that all these wayward passes and poor breakout attempts are nothing more than just players still getting on the same page.
Remember training camps were basically cut in half in Year 2, meaning fewer reps for everyone.
A little time to jell might be just what the doctor ordered for this team, and they will get that this coming week with the league on International Break.
WATTS IS NEXT LEVEL
Through two games, Daryl Watts had shown signs of what was to come. Saturday, in a losing cause, Watts gave us all a little taste of just what that next level looks like.
With her team down a goal, Watts read the play opening up in front of her like an open book.
Toronto native and Minnesota’s high-scoring defender Sophie Jaques attempted to backhand a pass ahead as she came out from behind her own net.
Watts, lurking in between the Minnesota forwards already breaking away, jumped at exactly the right moment and stole the pass to put herself in alone on Minnesota netminder Maddie Rooney.
With very little room to work, Watts dipped her right shoulder and froze Rooney and, in even shorter space, got the puck to the left side and deked around the fallen Frost netminder.
It was elite level skill that left even her veteran coach somewhat in awe.
“Very few people in this league can do that with that level of quickness after a turnover and then being that in tight with sticks coming at you and still being able to make that type of move, it’s just a high level, high-skill move,” Sceptres coach Ryan said. “I’m sure it will be one that will talked about at the end of the year as one of the season’s best goals for sure.”
We have very little doubt it will be her only one.
PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING
It’s almost a cliché as it gets said so often in sports, but it’s worth repeating at this time of year when the quick start you might have hoped for doesn’t occur. The two short words, “it’s early,” while cliché, still apply.
The Toronto team coming together right now is a mere shadow of the team it will become.
Ryan is still toying with lineups, players are still learning his and his coaching staff’s ways. It’s a process and it’s still in the very early going.
For the third game in a row, Ryan altered his lines with Watts moved down to the second line alongside Victoria Bach and Hannah Miller while Emma Maltais moved up to the first line joining Sarah Nurse and Izzy Daniel.
The big line of Miller and rookie Julia Gosling with Jesse Compher on the other side was also broken up. It’s going to be that way for a few more games before Ryan and his staff start to see some chemistry form or perhaps even determine that the fit is just bad and change it.
Ryan and his staff had only one practice between the loss in Ottawa and Saturday’s matinee defeat to Minnesota. They didn’t even really practice, preferring to work on angling instead, which he actually saw an improvement in on Saturday.
Ryan knew full well that might not be the best thing if he were looking for a result on Saturday, but in the long run he deemed it best for his team and worth it.
Three games into a 30-game season is not a lot and 1-2 might not be the start he or anyone else wanted, but it’s not season-defining by any stretch.
This team is only just getting started.