Puck luck is a concept players use to explain the sometimes unexplainable in the game of hockey.
Right now, the lack of puck luck haunting the Toronto Sceptres is on the verge of biblical proportions.
For the fourth time in what are now four losses in their past five games, the Sceptres carried the bulk of the play but wound up on the wrong side of a 1-0 overtime loss to the New York Sirens on Sunday at Newark, N.J.
Worse, the goal that put this one in the loss column by Jesse Eldridge 3:37 into 3-on-3 overtime appeared to be at least two feet offside.
Not only was Eldridge well into Toronto’s zone before the puck crossed the blue line, she was the only player within two zones of the puck when this happened.
How the on-ice officials missed this one, and maybe why a missed off-side on a goal is not challenge-allowable in the PWHL needs to be addressed.
Here are our takeways:
DEFENCE WAS UP TO PAR
For perhaps the first time all season, or maybe the second if you count that 2-1 loss to Ottawa on New Year’s Eve, Toronto’s play in its own zone was solid to outstanding.
The New York shooters, beyond a few times with the man advantage, had little to no success finding lanes to the net from the centre of the ice.
Not even the duo of Alex Carpenter and Sarah Fillier — perhaps the best scoring tandem in the league — could get off any high-percentage shots.
Toronto’s defence was that good. Shots, when they did find their way through to Toronto’s net, were coming from bad angles, allowing Kristen Campbell to simply square herself up to the puck
Toronto’s defence has taken a fair share of the blame for the rough start but no one was pointing a finger in that direction on Sunday.
CAMPBELL’S CONFIDENCE BACK UP
Three periods of shutout hockey have to be just what the doctor ordered for Campbell. She is at her best when her confidence is high and despite the controversial goal that will mar this game until the end of time, there were only positives for the PWHL’s reigning goaltender of the year. Campbell didn’t get the win in her second consecutive start after rookie Raygan Kirk took the net for three consecutive games, but she was stellar in the first period when this game easily could have gotten away from Toronto.
Outshot 10-3 in that opening frame, and under siege for most of it, Campbell calmly kept the pucks out of her net allowing her team to find its footing and finally spend some time in the other end of the rink for the second and third periods.
SPECIAL TEAMS SPECIAL, AGAIN
As mentioned, New York possesses two of the scariest offensive players in the game today in Fillier and Carpenter and they augment that with some pretty versatile and offensive-minded defenders in Ella Shelton and Micah Zadee-Hart. It means the New York power play is one of the more uncomfortable units to go up against and Toronto did so three times on Sunday, without giving up a goal.
The penalty kill was a weapon for Toronto a year ago allowing it to push even a punishing physical approach to another level without any fear of taking a penalty because they knew they could kill it off.
Year 2 didn’t start out that way as Toronto was giving up power play goals at a league-high level. That has been addressed and, including Sunday, the Sceptres have not given up a goal in the past three games, a total of seven successful penalty-kills.
As for the power play, well, Toronto was shutout in two power-play opportunities but that is after the man-advantage team scored in all three previous games.
STICK WITH THE TOP LINE
Particularly in the early part of the season, Troy Ryan likes to mix and match his lines looking to nail down the best combinations. But it’s becoming readily apparent that at least until Natalie Spooner returns from her torn ACL — yes, she’s skating and progressing but no date has been set for a return — Toronto’s best offence is coming from that trio of Sarah Nurse, Daryl Watts and Hannah Miller.
Miller had been moved on that line in the past couple of games, but was back with Watts and Nurse on Sunday and was the most dangerous line in the game. Granted, the line didn’t score but they generated enough chances that it can only be a matter of time before one goes in. Watts alone had three outstanding chances at a goal only to be denied by Corinne Schroeder who was deservedly named the first star of the game.
TESTED AT A NEW LEVEL
The Sceptres, or PWHL Toronto before that, have been through some tough times and come out the other side just fine. They are being tested again right now, outplaying opponents for the vast majority of games but not getting the result. More than ever, the leadership and the maturity in that room has to stand tall and keep the team goals uppermost in everyone’s minds.
The Sceptres deserved a better result than one point for an overtime loss on Sunday but that one point is still a step in the right direction.
The season is now nine games old meaning there are still 21 games left. The team sits last in the six-team league four points behind Boston in fifth with a game in hand on the Fleet.
At some point soon, last year’s MVP Spooner and the offence she brings, is going to return, to say nothing of the depth the debut of the team’s second-round pick in last year’s draft will bring once Meagan Carter, recovering from her own lower body injury, makes her return.
That current last-place standing isn’t easy to stomach, but just as it turned about this time a year ago, the feeling is it will turn again.
This team is just too good for that not to occur.
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