Game Preview: Checkers at Toronto (Nov. 16, 2013)

With home ice not being kind to them this season, the Checkers are hoping that a return to the road will provide solutions to a recent funk.

After an unsuccessful four-game home stand extended the team's losing streak to a franchise-record-tying five games, Charlotte departs to Toronto to face the Marlies for the first time since the Checkers joined the AHL prior to the 2010-11 season. With the two meetings taking place in a four-day span, it will be a relatively relaxed trip compared to the last time the Checkers hit the road, when they played six games in nine nights, and never in consecutive locations.

The upcoming away games will be relatively rare for the Checkers, who are the midst of playing 16 of 19 games on home ice. That stretch ends with a pair of games against the Marlies on Dec. 20 and 21, concluding the long-awaited season series with Toronto.

Charlotte

It would be difficult to imagine the Checkers being a worse spot than they are right now, coming off the biggest regular-season defeat in franchise history, an 8-1 loss to Hershey that extended their losing streak to match the team record and dropped them to a staggering 0-6-0 on home ice to start the season.

That lopsided loss to Hershey on Thursday was particularly disappointing given that the team played much better one day earlier in a 5-3 loss to the Bears but wasn’t able to earn the victory due to some bad bounces and a shaky performance by goaltender Rick DiPietro.

“Tonight is pretty much rock bottom,” coach Jeff Daniels said following Thursday’s game. “We’ve got to look up now. Less than five games ago we were going pretty good then all of the sudden five games later we’re struggling big time. It’s part of their development and part of this league.”

To Daniels’ point, the Checkers were sitting at a respectable 5-3-1 before their current losing skid began with a road loss in San Antonio on Nov. 2, a defeat that the team was willing to live with at the end of a grueling trip. Despite the team’s struggles at home, it maintains a strong road record at 5-2-1.

For most of this season, it’s been tough to make a case that some sort of change in the team’s mentality has caused its dramatic home/road split, but there are certain things that have made the team successful in away games that it’s hoping to get back to this week.

“When we were doing pretty good on the road we were tenacious on pucks, we wanted the puck, we were confident and we were grittier,” said defenseman Mark Flood, who scored goals in each of his first four road games this season. “(At home) it just seems like we’re losing a lot of battles on pucks and when we get down a couple of goals we get deflated.

“We’ve got to build from the ground up. We’ve got to win battles, we’ve got to be tenacious and we’ve got to want the puck. We’ve got to win, is what it comes down to.”

If nothing else, a change of scenery could do some good, as could the type of bonding that from a road trip with plenty of down time mixed in.

“Just to get away is probably good for us right now, just to be together,” said Daniels. “We’re going to get out of his together with the group of guys that are in there.”

Toronto

As a team that has played in the Eastern and Western Conferences, the Checkers have experienced more of the AHL than most other teams in the last four seasons. That said, there are still a select few groups they have not faced, a list that will become shorter today.

Despite nearly meeting in the first round of last season’s playoffs, the Checkers and Marlies are complete strangers to one another, with Toronto one of three Western Conference teams (Hamilton and Rochester) that Charlotte has never met. Though a handful of Checkers players over the years have called the Toronto area home, avoiding the Marlies hasn’t necessarily been a bad thing in the past, as the Marlies are a perennially tough team that made it to the Calder Cup Final two seasons ago and earned the West’s No. 2 seed last spring.

Though the Checkers will certainly be more focused on their own game, the timing could actually work out in their favor, as Toronto is off to an uncharacteristic 6-6-1 start to this season, including losses in each of its last three games, all on the road. The Checkers and Marlies have combined for a single victory – Toronto’s triumph over 2-8-2 Utica on Nov. 5 - in 10 November games.

Led by Spencer Abbott, an undrafted 25-year-old who has 18 points (one goal and a league-leading 17 assists) in 12 games, including at least one point in each game he’s played, the Marlies have three players averaging over a point per game. Among them is defenseman T.J. Brennan, who made headlines with two hat tricks in his first three games and still leads AHL defensemen in goals with 10 in 13 outings – four more than any other blueliner. Abbott and Brennan rank tied for and seventh and tied for ninth in overall AHL scoring, respectively.

Forward Trevor Smith, who the Checkers saw as part of Norfolk’s historic 2011-12 team two seasons ago, has 12 points (4g, 8a) in seven games but joined the Maple Leafs in a Friday transaction. Coming the other way is veteran NHL defensman John-Michael Liles, who has five points (1g, 4a) in eight AHL games this season - his first since suiting up for Hershey during the 2002-03 campaign.

Veteran goalie Drew MacIntyre, a 30-year-old who has 291 career AHL games under his belt, has received the bulk of the action for Toronto by appearing in all but three of the team’s games, with the three games he’s sat out all resulting in regulation losses. MacIntyre’s 2.39 goals-against average ranks 20th among AHL netminders.

Checkers Notes

Losing Skid

After starting the season with a record of 5-3-1, the Checkers have lost each of their last five games, tying a franchise record set from Nov. 24-Dec. 6 of last season. It also ties the longest losing streak than an AHL team has experienced this season, with Bridgeport and Utica having snapped out of earlier five-game funks and Hamilton also experiencing an active five-game skid.

Trouble At Home

The Checkers are 0-6-0 at Time Warner Cable Arena, setting a new franchise record for longest home losing streak and marking the longest home losing streak of any AHL team this season. There were only three losing streaks of six or more games in the league during the previous season, with Worcester dropping their final nine games, a league high. Utica (0-4-2) is the only other AHL team that has yet to earn a victory on home ice this season.

Dating back to last season's playoffs, the Checkers have lost eight straight home games. Four of those games were decided by four or more goals.

Tough Night

The Checkers' 8-1 defeat to Hershey on Thursday marked the most lopsided regulation loss in the team's four AHL seasons, home or away. Prior to that, the team's largest loss was by six goals in an 8-2 home loss to Abbotsford on April 8, 2012.

Thursday's final score tied another 8-1 game that occurred during Game 4 of the Checkers' playoff series with Oklahoma City on May 3, 2013, for the worst defeat in team history. That game was the start of the team's current eight-game home losing streak that spans both seasons.

Muse's Run Ends

After allowing three or fewer goals in each of his first five starts this season, goalie John Muse allowed a franchise-record seven goals in Thursday's 8-1 loss to Hershey. Prior to that, a Checkers goalie had allowed six goals in a single game on eight separate occasions, including two by Muse last March.

Muse, who entered Thursday's game leading the league in goals-against average (1.29) and save percentage (.957), now ranks 11th with a 2.25 goals-against average and tied for seventh with a .925 save percentage.

Rare Territory

A 2-1 loss to the Chicago Wolves on Nov. 9 dropped the Checkers to 5-6-1 on the season, marking the first time they had been under the .500 mark since starting 0-1-1 in Norfolk on Oct. 7 and 8, 2011. With the team now 5-8-1, this is the latest in a season that the team has been under .500, with the 2010-11 Checkers evening their record to 7-7-1 on Nov. 11, 2010, en route to an eventual run to the Eastern Conference Final.

Since joining the AHL, the Checkers have been under .500 for just 44 total days, 29 of which came during the team's inaugural season, when they hit a record-low four games under .500 (2-6-1) on Oct. 29, 2010.

Youth Movement

Elias Lindholm, the fifth overall selection in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, made his AHL/Checkers debut on Nov. 7, becoming the youngest player to ever play for the franchise at 18 years and 340 days. Defenseman Justin Faulk, who debuted with the team following the end of his freshman season in college, had the previous record at 19 years and 40 days, set on April 20, 2011. By scoring his first AHL goal on Nov. 13, Lindholm became the youngest Checker to score a goal or record a point at 18 years and 347 days.

Lindholm is the second-highest-drafted player to suit up for Charlotte behind Rick DiPietro, the 2000 first-overall draft choice who made his debut with the team earlier this season. Manny Malhotra (7th overall in 1998), who has since signed with Carolina, gives the team three top-10 picks this season alone. Prior to this season, the highest-drafted player to ever play for the team was defenseman Ryan Murphy (12th overall in 2011), who played his first game with the team last March.

Divided Division

In 14 games, the Checkers have played against their own division, the West, just three times (2-1-0) and will not play another game against a West team until hosting San Antonio on Dec. 10. No other AHL team has played fewer games within its own division.

Quick Hits

• After going through an 0-for-13 drought over three games, the Checkers have three power-play goals in their last two games (3-for-10: 30 percent)
• The Checkers have allowed multiple power-play goals in four of their last seven games
• Defenseman Rasmus Rissanen is tied for second among AHL defensemen with 11 minor penalties
• Despite not scoring a goal since Oct. 26, Mark Flood is tied for fourth among AHL defenseman with five goals and ranks tied for fourth with three power-play goals
• The Checkers' one overtime game is tied with two other teams for the fewest in the league
• Charlotte is one of four teams that has yet to score a shorthanded goal

Player Streaks

• Elias Lindholm has points in each of his last two games (Nov. 13-14; 1g, 1a)
• Brett Sutter has assists and points in each of his last two games (Nov. 13-14; 0g, 2a)

Milestones

• Elias Lindholm scored his first career AHL goal on Nov. 13 and recorded his first AHL assist on Nov. 14
• Nicolas Blanchard recorded his 350th penalty minute as a Checker on Nov. 14
• Nicolas Blanchard is 2 goals away from 25 Checkers goals
• Michal Jordan is 3 assists away from 50 AHL/Checkers assists