It has been said the strongest of people are those who battle through the most adversity. If this is true, the Charlotte Checkers ought to feel good about their chances heading down the season’s final stretch.
The team got a big win Wednesday evening over the Cleveland Monsters. While there were certainly struggles throughout the game, they would ultimately show off their resolve, twice fighting back from deficits. The chain of events that unfolded can be seen as something of a microcosm of the team’s entire season thus far.
The defending champions have endured quite the whirlwind since taking home the Calder Cup last June. The attrition from the 2019 summer alone was significant, even potentially crippling for a young squad. Trevor Carrick was a mainstay on the Charlotte blue line for the last five years.
He had 20 goals and 91 points over the last two seasons while serving as an alternate captain. He was traded to San Jose. Patrick Brown, the captain, heart-and-soul type glue guy, signed with Vegas.
Nicolas Roy joined him in Sin City, heading back in the Erik Haula trade. Andrew Poturalski, the team’s leading scorer and the third member of the team’s leadership/captaincy core, signed with Anaheim. Sniper Aleksi Saarela, who led the team in goals with 30, was traded to Florida. Martin Necas graduated to the big club.
Unsurprisingly, the Checkers struggled a bit out of the gate. There was still legitimate potential on the team with numerous players possessing abundant talent and draft pedigree such as Jake Bean, Julien Gauthier, Janne Kuokkanen and netminder Alex Nedeljkovic.
But after a loss to Lehigh Valley on December 21 had them sitting at 13-14-3 on the season and really struggling to find consistency (they hadn’t won more than two consecutive games to that point), it was fair to wonder if this was simply going to be a transition year.
Then, suddenly, the team ripped off a six-game win streak. After dropping one game, five more consecutive wins came. Another five-game streak shortly after that. In the blink of an eye, the Checkers turned back into one of the deadliest teams in the AHL and looked like a true contender for another Calder Cup.
Unfortunately, once again, attrition came. This time in the form of the NHL Trade Deadline.
With significant injuries to the parent club and one of the deeper prospect pipelines in the league, Carolina GM Don Waddell decided to cash in some futures in order to help the team in the present. Julien Gauthier, who has taken a big step forward this year in turning his significant toolset into production, was traded to the Rangers for defenseman Joey Keane. Janne Kuokkanen was packaged with Fredrik Claesson to New Jersey in the Sami Vatanen deal and Chase Priskie and Eetu Luostarinen went to Florida for Vincent Trocheck.
These weren’t just mediocre AHL players, folks. These were top players on the team, all having NHL experience or NHL potential (or both).
On top of that, Morgan Geekie, who had become the Checkers’ leading scorer amongst its forwards after the departures, was called up to Carolina. Lastly, both Petr Mrazek and James Reimer were injured in a game you’ve all likely heard of by now (David Ayres, Canes Legend), meaning both goaltenders, Alex Nedeljkovic and Anton Forsberg, were recalled.
Unsurprisingly, again, the Checkers had some struggles. Lineup slots where first and second round draft picks once suited up became ECHL’ers and amateur tryout signees. Guys playing further down the lineup were pressed into featured roles.
But things have trended the right direcion since the 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Atlantic-leading Hershey Bears in the first post-deadline game. They’re coming together and as games like this one show, you can count on this team to keep battling and figure it out.
The Checkers had plenty of reason to lose. The lack of chemistry and time spent together. Or maybe Alex Nedeljkovic, making his first start coming off an NHL stint that started quite poorly in Dallas, but ended in sparkling fashion with 28 saves in Pittsburgh, could have been discouraged or disinterested after his demotion.
Perhaps the Checkers’ offense could have taken some blame, could have fallen off after hitting the crossbar or the numerous other near-misses, such as multiple chances during net-front scrambles that were blocked or sent wide. Even Jake Bean and the Charlotte blue line could have crumbled as twice they lost their defensive discipline and allowed men to get in on Nedeljkovic unmarked. Or maybe the team could have folded when the referees called two questionable third period penalties, giving Cleveland two golden opportunities that neither the team nor crowd were happy about.
But none of these things happened. Alex Nedeljkovic was stellar, making numerous athletic, sliding saves crossing his crease and displaying excellent rebound control all night long. “He’s a pro,” Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky said postgame. “He was obviously disappointed to get sent down, but it did not change how he treats his body and gets prepared. (He was) really good.”
Defenseman Jake Bean, the team’s leading scorer, didn’t hang his head when he hit the crossbar late in regulation, causing the red light to come on and fans to go wild, despite the emphatic waving-off signal being given by the referees. Instead, he later found a lane, walked in and utilized his lightning-quick release to wire a wrister beautifully into the top corner and tie the game. No matter how bleak things look, how much is working against them, this team just keeps coming at you. The goal got Bean into double digits for the second straight year.
The Checkers had to overcome a somewhat slow start, but always had an answer. The team settled in, got to its forecheck and mounted pressure more and more consistently as the game went on. The aforementioned players and aspects of the game were huge, as they have been all season. However, the hero on this night was obvious and he’s a young centerman that’s making a name for himself in a big way this year: Steven Lorentz.
Coming into the 2019-20 season, very few had even heard the 23-year old’s name. To be fair, he was a 2015 seventh-round pick that had struggled to crack the AHL roster consistently in his first two professional years, so why would they have? But now, with Geekie plying his trade (and tearing it up) in Raleigh, Lorentz is the unquestioned 1C for the Checkers.
He’s undoubtedly made a few believers as he’s now up to 23 goals and 46 points, the former number leading the team, the latter ranking second. He factored in on all three goals, scoring twice and adding a helper on Bean’s marker. Not bad for a kid known for sound defense and excellent penalty killing, eh?
When he released a cannon of a one-timer from the right circle into the top corner in overtime, it was easy to see more than just a run-of-the-mill grinder. He also nearly had a highlight-reel shorthanded marker earlier in the game when he walked his defender with a gorgeous inside-out move before deking to the forehand on Cleveland’s Matiss Kivelenieks, but the Latvian goaltender slid across to make the save. The kid has legitimate offensive upside and his growing confidence as the season progresses is allowing it to shine through.
Perhaps no current Checker embodies their season more than this kid. He’s been a long shot ever since his initial draft year in 2014 when he went unselected. He simply went back to Peterborough and took his game up a notch, continuing to push toward his dream of playing in the NHL.
Then, when he was taken in round seven, he surely heard the talk of the unlikelihood of players from that round ever making it. But here he is, probably on the short list of call-up candidates should anything happen in Carolina.
“There were some frustrating moments in that game when the bounces weren’t really going our way,” Lorentz noted, “But we stuck with it, and that just says a lot about our group. With a lot of new faces in our lineup, guys are stepping up.”
There’s still a good bit of uncertainty within this roster. If Morgan Geekie continues to put on a show in Raleigh the way he has, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be back down on the farm. The playoff race in the AHL’s Eastern Conference is extremely competitive (much like the NHL’s) with the fourth through tenth-place teams separated by a mere seven points with around 15 games remaining.
And that’s not to mention the uncertainty surrounding the hockey world in general as we await word on the next step for other sports following the suspension of the rest of the season by the NBA in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. But for now, the Checkers are battling and refuse to give an inch.
“We were resilient and it paid off in the end,” as Lorentz put it. There may be a lot working against them, but if the Checkers can carry on the urgency and willingness to battle displayed tonight, it just might pay off in the postseason again, too.