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The loss to league-leading Fleet was another offence-starved performance by Toronto
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The Toronto Sceptres have played themselves into a difficult position.
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With a fourth consecutive loss — another offensively challenged 2-1 loss, this time to the Boston Fleet — the Sceptres are mired in the bottom three of the standings along with the two expansion clubs.
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Their season is exactly 40% over and the team has four games remaining before a month long-break for the Olympics, which won’t be much of a break at all for the Sceptres, who are sending six skaters, their head coach, their GM and even their goalie coach and equipment manager over to Cortina/Milan for the event.
Three of those remaining four games before the break are on the road. That’s the bad news. The good news is three of them also happen to be against Vancouver (2) and Seattle (1), the two teams with which they are sharing the bottom of the standings.
Regardless of venue or opponent, the Sceptres need to start locking down some points or they risk returning from the break so far down the standings that even the hope of a playoff spot looks like a fairy tale. Remember, only the top four in the eight-team league make the playoffs.
Once again, the issue Wednesday night — as it has been all year — was primarily a lack of scoring. The Sceptres did eventually get one past Boston netminder Aerin Frankel, but it didn’t come until there were just 1:42 left in the game and at that point the host Boston Fleet had already scored twice.
Full marks to the Sceptres for turning up the heat in those final two minutes and producing the chances they did to tie the game with their own net empty, but where was that offensive urgency for most of the night.
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With the loss, the Sceptres are now a full three points behind the fourth and final playoff spot occupied by the New York Sirens, and four back of both Minnesota and Montreal in second and third. All three of those teams, though, have a game in hand on Toronto.
At some point, the Sceptres have to stop the slide or that return to play after the Olympics is going to look like one gargantuan hill to climb if they want to continue to play past the regular season.
Here are our takeaways from Wednesday night’s game:
WHAT HELD THE SCEPTRES BACK
Normally, the answer with the Sceptres is a lack of finish and that again was an issue, but on this particular night it was the steady stream to the penalty box that kept them from even mounting much of an attack.
The Sceptres took three minors in the first period alone. They would add three more over the final two periods and while they killed off all six, playing short-handed doesn’t exactly aid a team looking to get its offence going.
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Two of those first period penalties occurred behind the Boston net. The third one came as Jesse Compher stepped out of the box and played the puck before both feet were actually on the ice. If you actually knew that rule, count yourself among the few.
In short, the penalties — certainly those early ones — were not the sort of effort penalties about which a coach will look the other way.
DID THEY CREATE GOOD SCORING OPPORTUNITIES?
The game began with an elite opportunity that Frankel foiled as she got a pad on a low shot off the stick of Emma Maltais.
Maltais had another good opportunity swinging around the Boston net and trying to muscle one past Frankel later in the game to no avail.
Linemate Natalie Spooner created a decent chance in the third, spinning off a defender only to have Frankel handle that one as well.
So yes, the Sceptres did have some chances before that flurry in the final two minutes. But when you generate just 21 shots on net against a goaltender who is enjoying her best regular season in three PWHL years, that’s just not enough rubber getting through to give yourself much of a chance.
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WHAT ELSE HURT THEM
A lot of the little things are combining to keep the Sceptres from winning these close games.
For instance, how many times did an offensive flurry end when a member of the Sceptres shot directly into the body of a marking Boston defender as they attempted to get one through a mass of bodies to the Boston net?
Granted, Boston has a lot of really good shot-blockers in their lineup, but once again getting a puck through even if it’s not directly on net is preferable to having it blocked. Toronto, as a whole, need to be more selective in their shots from the point.
Another small area where the Sceptres leave you wanting is in the passing game. While a rookie like Haley Winn makes a tape to tape pass to defence partner Megan Keller seem routine, Toronto struggles to make those crisp, in stride and on time passes, often leading to a loss of possession.
On at least two occasions Wednesday night a simple around-the-boards breakout pass to a waiting member of the Sceptres was either shot too high or too hard and was not handled cleanly on the receiving end, allowing Boston to lengthen an attack in the Toronto zone.
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None of these things are big mistakes in isolation but combined they do cut into time the Sceptres could be spending in the attacking zone.
QUICK HITS
With Elaine Chuli out because of illness, Raygan Kirk stepped back in and once again gave her team the chance to win, only to fall victim to that lack of offensive support. The first puck to get by Kirk came on a deflection. The second was a rebound collected by the same player who made the initial shot and was not picked up as she crashed the net. Kirk does not have a win since the season opener, which is almost unbelievable considering how steady she has been.
… Maltais had a strong game and we agreed with her utter disbelief at the second penalty she incurred on what looked like a good hit on Sophie Shirley.
… Nice to see both Renata Fast and Ella Shelton joining the push deep in the offensive zone. This team does not look like it is going to score a lot of goals, so the more help they can get from the back end from two offensively gifted defenders, the better.
… While the Sceptres got it going later in the game, I miss that physical presence that Allie Munroe brings to the lineup. Hopefully her absence from the lineup is just about over.
mganter@postmedia.com
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