TWO MINUTES FOR THOUGHTS: MARCH 28TH, 2024
Mar 28, 2024
Only four weekends remain in the 2023-24 AHL regular season. For the Hartford Wolf Pack, it’s officially crunch time. The club has lost eight of its last nine games but still sits firmly in control of its destiny for a return trip to the Calder Cup Playoffs.
This weekend, the Pack hosts a pair of key Atlantic Division tilts at the XL Center. You don’t need me to tell you this, but it is officially go time for the Wolf Pack.
Onto the blog.
1.) Alex Belzile turned in arguably the most impressive performance of any Wolf Pack player this season on Sunday afternoon in Belleville. Belzile, a key leadership cog, rallied the troops for a vitally important game against the Belleville Senators.
The veteran forward didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk. Belzile scored twice, including the game-winning goal, and fired a career-high ten shots on net.
That’s leadership right there.
2.) Belzile wasn’t the only player to turn in a great showing on Sunday in the 3-1 victory over the Senators that snapped Hartford’s seven-game losing streak. Goaltender Olof Lindbom made a career-high 37 saves to secure the first victory of his AHL career.
Lindbom was calm, cool, and collected for the Wolf Pack, exactly what they needed as the Senators pushed.
Congratulations to Lindbom on win number one in the AHL!
3.) Speaking of firsts, defenseman Ryan Siedem made his professional debut on Wednesday night for the Wolf Pack against the Charlotte Checkers. Siedem turned in a steady performance, looking very much like he belonged at this level.
Siedem is currently on an amateur tryout agreement (ATO) that was signed on Tuesday. The former Harvard Crimson and Notre Dame Fighting Irish defenseman will begin a two-year AHL contract with the Wolf Pack next season.
As a right-shot defenseman, he’ll certainly be in the mix come training camp in October to earn a full-time spot for the 2024-25 season.
4.) Figuring out the Checkers will be a key for the Wolf Pack the rest of the way. They still play the Checkers three times in the final ten games and could possibly face them in the opening round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
The Checkers have won six straight games at the XL Center, six straight games overall against the Wolf Pack, and already clinched the eight-game season series by winning the first five matchups.
The matchup has been a rubrics cube for the Pack, one they are still looking to solve this season.
5.) The good news? The Wolf Pack did a really good job on Wednesday night of limiting the Checkers offensively. Until late in the game, when Hartford was pressing for the tying goal, the Checkers were largely kept to the outside and didn’t have many high-grade scoring chances.
That kind of defensive effort will go a long way for the Wolf Pack as they try to clinch a playoff berth and make a bit of a run here.
6.) The thing the Wolf Pack will need to figure out is the offensive side of things. As of this writing, Hartford has scored just 178 goals through 62 games. That has them 25th in the AHL in goals.
The good news is that the Wolf Pack certainly has the tools to get the guns firing again. Solving this current offensive slump might just be the key to what happens the rest of the way.
7.) As an example, the Wolf Pack are 1-6-1-1 over their last nine games. In that span, they have scored just 14 goals. Five of those goals came last Wednesday night in Rochester, meaning the Wolf Pack have scored just nine goals in the other eight games.
That needs to change in the final ten games of the season. The smart money is on that taking a positive turn for this group in the final few weeks. There’s just too much talent here for them to not break out of this.
8.) It was great to see Brandon Scanlin in the lineup for the New York Rangers on Tuesday night when they battled the Philadelphia Flyers. Scanlin has been one of the hardest-working players in Hartford since he turned pro in March of 2022. He’s earned the opportunity to play in the NHL.
Interim Head Coach Steve Smith called Scanlin “arguably the most improved player since the start of last season” during a postgame availability shortly after Scanlin’s two-year contract extension with the Rangers in February.
Scanlin is, without a doubt, a development success story. He went from an undrafted free agent with little buzz around him at the time to a workhorse on the blue line for the Wolf Pack and an NHL’er.
9.) Goaltender Louis Domingue remains out day-to-day for the Wolf Pack, and it’s unlikely he’ll be an option for the club this weekend against Springfield and Hershey.
Defenseman Connor Mackey, dealing with an upper-body injury, would be a big boost to the Wolf Pack down the stretch.
10.) Hartford’s magic number to clinch a playoff spot is down to 13 thanks to their victory over Belleville last Sunday. Tomorrow night’s game isn’t quite a playoff game, but a regulation victory over Springfield would drop the number down to nine.
A regulation win for the Thunderbirds? That moves Springfield within six points of Hartford for a playoff spot in the Atlantic Division, with two more head-to-head matchups remaining.
It’s a darn big hockey game, folks.
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ABOUT THE HARTFORD WOLF PACK: The Hartford Wolf Pack has been a premier franchise in the American Hockey League since the team’s inception in 1997. The Wolf Pack are the top player-development affiliate of the NHL's New York Rangers and play at the XL Center. The Wolf Pack has been home to some of the Rangers newest faces including Igor Shesterkin, Filip Chytil, and Ryan Lindgren. Follow the Wolf Pack on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.