Game Preview: Checkers at Providence (Jan. 25, 2019)

The Checkers face one more weekend road trip before enjoying some time off for the All-Star break. Here's everything you need to know before puck drop.

1. BOUNCING BACK

The Checkers head out on the road looking to get back on track after a tough pair of games last weekend against Toronto. The defending champs topped the Checkers in overtime in the first meeting before delivering a decisive 5-0 defeat the next night.

“Hopefully we took it to heart that you can’t just show up and play,” said head coach Mike Vellucci of any takeaways from the series.

In hindsight though, that Toronto series came at a pretty inopportune time for the Checkers.

“I think I was a little more critical of us than I probably should have been,” said Vellucci. “We played six games in nine days, they hadn’t played in five or six. That back-to-back is really tough.”

That doesn’t change the fact that the team will have to get back to its game in order to return to their winning ways.

“But saying that, you can’t make excuses,” said Vellucci. “You have to play every game like it’s your last. We’ve got to get better.”

2. POWERING BACK UP

One specific area that the coaching staff want to get better is the power play. Vellucci commented after Sunday’s loss about needed to change some things to get it going and followed through with that this week at practice.

“Personnel-wise, we changed quite a few guys up,” he said. “Trevor [Carrick] is suspended for two games so we take him off and put Bobby Sanguinetti on that unit. [Janne] Kuokkanen is out with an injury. So we moved things around a bit.”

Charlotte’s power play has dropped to 18th in the AHL with just five goals in its last 47 opportunities over 10 games. In hopes of sparking the unit, personnel isn’t the only thing changing this weekend.

“Theory-wise, we’ve been looking to make the perfect play, especially at home,” said Vellucci. “We’re 13 percent at home and 24 on the road. That’s because on the road we’re a more meat and potatoes, move the puck around, get shots and rebounds, retrieve the puck, overall hard work type of power play. At home we’re trying to make the perfect play. We’re going to concentrate on doing some of those things better.”

The Checkers will test out their new-look power play against a formidable Bruins’ penalty kill that ranks third in the AHL before facing the 20th-ranked Wolf Pack Saturday.

3. ROAD WARRIORS

It’s not just Charlotte’s special teams that have been strong on the road this season. The Checkers are 17-5-2 away from home so far, giving them four more road wins than any other team in the AHL. They enter this weekend having earned at least a point in five straight road contests and are 7-2-1 in their last 10.

“I’m not sure what it is,” said Vellucci of his team’s strong play on the road. “We like to play fast and the ice is really good up north since it’s been so cold, I think that benefits us a bit. They’re a young team they all get along really well so they like to get on the road where they can hang out and bond.”

Vellucci’s key to keeping that road success rolling is a simple one.

“What I want to get accomplished is we have to get back to our basics,” he said. “We have to win the special teams battle, we have to bear down defensively and we have to win more faceoffs, we’ve been real light on our faceoffs for a while.”

4. ALMOST THERE

After a busy month of January, there’s no doubt the Checkers are looking forward to the impending All-Star break and the rest it will bring. But they’re not there yet, as two important contests stand between the team and some welcome time off.

“It’s going to come down to our leadership and to myself to make sure we’re focused and mentally ready to go,” said Vellucci of making sure his team doesn’t check out early. “I just had a meeting with the captains about the same thing. We can talk all we want about it but the players have to understand that this is a job, this is a business and you have to play and get that rest after.”

5. CROWDED CREASE

Alex Nedeljkovic impressed in his first NHL start Wednesday, picking up a 24-save win over the Canucks. Now he’ll travel back across the country to meet the team in Providence on Friday. He’ll join up with the current tandem of Callum Booth and Scott Darling, giving the coaching staff plenty of options for these two contests.

“We’re not going to send anybody anywhere,” said Vellucci of his plan for the goalie situation. “All three will be there and we’ll decide who plays once I get to see Ned and see how he’s feeling.”

6. PREVIOUSLY ON

The Checkers and Bruins have squared off four times already this season, twice in Charlotte and twice in Providence. The Checkers took both meetings on home ice before dropping the first contest in Providence and bouncing back with an overtime win two nights later.

Each matchup between the Checkers and Bruins this season has been decided by one goal.

7. KNOW YOUR ENEMY

The Bruins head into Friday’s contest as one of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference, having picked up at least a point in seven straight games to push them into a tie for fifth place in the Atlantic Division, just three points away from the final playoff spot. Despite slotting right in the middle of the pack in terms of goals per game, Providence possesses plenty of offensive pop, driven mainly by draft picks Peter Cehlarik and Ryan Fitzgerald as well as more experienced forwards Jordan Szwarz and the newly acquired Paul Carey. The Bruins’ main strength has been on the other side of things as they rank 10th in the AHL in goals allowed per game. Zane McIntyre and Dan Vladar have more or less split the crease duties thus far this season and the Bruins’ defense have helped boost their netminders by surrendering the second-fewest shots of any team in the league.

8. TUNE IN

You can tune in to this weekend's broadcasts with a subscription to the league’s new streaming platform AHLTV. Sign up here and catch the action on the road.

As always, the radio broadcast will be available via the Checkers app or this link, so tune in and tweet Jason Shaya to let him know you’re listening!