Stockton Heat season in one word: Meh

Photo credit:Mrs. Finest -

5 years ago

As the seconds ticked off the clock on Stockton’s season Sunday, Heat fans were left wondering what went askew. The offseason moves brought so much promise and anticipation that gradually faded into yet another disappointing year of missing the playoffs for the Flames’ top affiliate.

This is the third time in four years the crew at Stockton Arena will break up the ice after only 34 games. This article will touch on some high and low points of the season along with some observations from the Heat 365 Bar-B-Que.

Just for fun, I want to start off playing the “What If” game and providing what I believe would have been the outcome. I know you cannot turn back time, but this is how the season looked before it started for Heat fans.

Q: What if Travis Hamonic and Michael Stone did not get hurt?

If Hamonic doesn’t get hurt in Game 1, I believe Rasmus Andersson gets called up after nine games after lighting it up with the Heat. Juuso Valimaki gets sent down after nine games, keeping his slide year contract intact, and he settles onto the top pairing with Oliver Kylington. Based on his 14 points (4-10) in 20 games with Stockton, he goes on to score 14 goals with 38 assists and earns an AHL All-Rookie First Team nod.

If Stone remains healthy, Kylington continues his torrid pace he set to start the season. After 18 games, he had 14 points (7-7). He goes on to record 30 goals and 33 assists. He and Valimaki become the top pair (yes, both are LHD, but the Heat only has 1 RHD on their roster), allowing Adam Ollas Mattsson, Rinat Valiev, Matt Taormina, and others to fill out the defensive unit and better defend.

Q: What if Dillon Dube spent the entire year honing his craft in Stockton?

Dube was named Heat Rookie of the Year, even though he only suited up for 37 games (I thought it should have been Glenn Gawdin or Matthew Phillips since they were here all season). In those 37 games, he recorded 39 points (15-24). If you extend that out over a full season, he scores 25 goals and adds another 45 assists for a 70-point season. That puts him in the top 10 in the league and he joins Valimaki on the All-Rookie team (and probably AHL First Team).

These two things could have been the difference in calling it a season after Sunday’s game and extending the season into May. We will never know, so let’s get back into the present and look at the season as a whole.

SEASON STATS AND THOUGHTS

The Heat finished the season with 235 goals scored, good for 12th place in the league. Their power play ranked 13th at 19.0%. For the first time in Stockton Heat history, the team sported three 20-goal scorers, with Tyler Graovac leading the way with 24. Kerby Rychel finished with 23 as his season was cut short with shoulder surgery at 57 games. Curtis Lazar got his 20th goal against Ontario in the third to last game. Alan Quine would have joined that group, as he had 19 before his call-up, but he still paced the team with 33 assists and a total of 52 points in only 41 games.

What was a strong point last season, the defense is a big reason this team missed the playoffs. The Heat suited up 21 different defensemen during the season, including conditioning stints by Stone and Dalton Prout. Highly-touted free agent signee Marcus Hogstrom’s season was marred with injuries, allowing him to suit up for only 12 games.

The team allowed 252 goals against, good for 27th in the league. Their Penalty Kill ranked 24th in the league at 79.7%, allowing 62 power play goals and league-second-highest 18 shorthanded goals against; only Utica allowed more (19) while playing more games (Stockton did score a league-high 17 shorthanded goals for).

While a good defense can turn a .890 SV% goalie into a .905 SV%, the netminder still needs to make a save in critical situations. Jon Gillies and Tyler Parsons had their difficulties stopping the puck this season. Even with a late-season turnaround, Gillies finished the season ranked 43rd out of 46 qualified goalies (1,440 or more minutes played) with a 3.51 GAA. His .889 SV% ranked 42nd. His record (16-18-5-0) is the worst of his four-year career.

Parsons was not much better, going 9-9-1 with a 3.70 GAA and .898 SV%. While Parsons was sidelined early in the season, Nick Schneider came in and became Stockton’s best cage keeper, closing the year with a 6-3-0 record while posting a 2.45 GAA and a .922 SV%. Stockton goalies never pitched a shutout this season.

I was excited with the hire of Cail MacLean as head coach. He was familiar with the team as an assistant to Ryan Huska and he led the defensive unit last season. The first game of the season was a great foreshadowing of things to come when Bakersfield exploded for eight goals in 41 minutes. It went downhill from there as he constantly changed the lines from game to game and even shift to shift, not allowing the lines and pairs to gel. Rarely were there consecutive games that featured the same lines.

This team was consistently inconsistent. They finished the year at hockey .500: 31-31-4-2, with only 15 wins on home ice (15-16-2-1). Their biggest winning streak was four games, accomplished twice, while their biggest losing streak was three, which happened six times. Interesting fact, the Heat lost the first game of each month except March.

Here is a breakdown of the Heat season by month.

The Heat went 4-4-1 in October, with two of their wins coming in extra time. They allowed eight goals to Bakersfield twice during the month.
In November they went 7-6-0, but were shut out 4-0 by San Antonio’s Jordan Binnington.

SydScout

January was another sub .500 month as the Heat went 4-5-1-1.
Another month, another sub .500 record as February saw the Heat go 4-5-0.
March was their best month, going 7-3-0-1, but two of those losses were to Tucson that effectively ended their season.
They wrapped up their season in April, losing their final two home games en route to a 2-3-0 record.

The rookie group had a good showing this year. In addition to Dube’s numbers, Gawdin and Phillips paced the first-year pros with 38 points each. Gawdin (11-27) made the best of his time on special teams with six power play goals to go along with a shorthanded tally. Phillips (13-25) started slow but came on after his first goal in his ninth game of the season. Both tied Spencer Foo for seventh in scoring, one point short of Dube.

Adam Ollas-Mattsson led the team in plus/minus with a +22. He was the most constant defensemen throughout the season while contributing 18 points (6-12). Named Heat Defensive Player of the Year by his teammates, AOM was on an AHL contract this season. Only 22 years old, he needs to be signed to an entry-level contract as soon as possible. In comparison, Foo ended the year last on the team with a -19.

Curtis Lazar, voted the Team MVP, had the best statistical year of his professional career. He was fifth on the team in scoring with 41 points (20-21). His game winner in overtime on Super Hero night is still one of the best memories of the season. Off the ice, he always made time to sign autographs and take pictures during functions.

Heat Team MVP

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE TEAM BAR-B-QUE – TUESDAY APRIL 2

It was an interesting and rather telling night at the Heat 365 Team Bar-B-Que. It appeared this team is split into two groups. You had one group of players inside the banquet room and another group hugging the bar. There was about an hour before the food was served where fans were able to get autographs and items signed (I now have a team signed stick). Some players were chatty with the fans while other players hardly acknowledged the autograph seeker and just signed. Those players appeared more interested in talking to each other than the team’s most loyal fans. There was one player who was noticeably absent from the festivities: Gillies. No reason was provided and this was a week before his call up.

Before dinner was served, the coach gave a forgettable speech talking about the season. After that, team awards were handed out.

Team MVP: Curtis Lazar
Offensive Player of the Year: Alan Quine
Defensive Player of the Year: Adam Ollas Mattsson
Rookie of the Year: Dillon Dube
Fan Favorite: Ryan Lomberg (as voted on by the fans)
Unsung Hero: Scott Sabourin
Community Award: Matt Taormina

Players were assigned tables to sit at during the meal. The two players at our table were Valiev and Tyler Parsons. While Valiev and his girlfriend were sitting and talking with everyone at the table, Parsons stood about three feet away from his chair, never sitting down or acknowledging the fans around him. After the awards were doled out, he split, never to be seen again. Others appeared to be missing after the speech as well. So many players were missing that there was not a team photo opportunity, unlike the last few years.

Parsons’ body language speaks volumes

On the other hand, you had players like Lazar, AOM, Hogstrom, Graovac, Taormina, Lomberg, Sabourin, and Buddy Robinson signing autographs, talking with the fans, and generally having a good time. Mrs. Finest and I were some of the last to leave and Graovac and Taormina were still there talking with fans.

Graovac and SF

The coaches were buried in the back of the room and, with the exception of MacLean’s speech, were invisible to the room. Once fans started to leave, they slinked out one by one.

In my opinion, the divide in the team is a contributing factor to why this team missed the playoffs and were so inconsistent. When you have two separate factions of the team doing their own thing, there is no clear message or goal. Everyone is on their own agenda.

What could have been done to merge these two sides together? A captain. Captains are the ones who lead by example and set the rules for the players. Alternate captains do not carry the same weight as a team captain. I rest this on the coaching staff’s failure to name a team captain. MacLean said in the season’s first chalk talk that he never felt the need to assign the C to a player, even though there were a few obvious choices.

In my opinion, there were four players that could have settled the room as captain. Sabourin brought eight years of AHL experience along with the grit needed to be a leader. Robinson also has eight years along with 28 Calder Cup games of AHL experience on his resume. With fewer than 70 AHL games but more than 240 NHL games, Lazar brought big league experience that could be passed along to younger players. Lastly, Lomberg has been with the team since the 2015-16 season and has risen from fourth line grinder to multi-purpose player with energy and purpose. He sets the example of what hard work can accomplish.

Pollock and Sabourin

Time now to turn my attention to the Flames playoff run and cheering the former Heat players in their quest for the Stanley Cup. After that, it will be a long summer while waiting for Year 5 of Heat hockey to start.

Pictured in Cover Photo: Hogstrom, SF, Gawdin, Phillips.

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Stockton Heat season in one word: Meh

SEASON STATS AND THOUGHTS

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE TEAM BAR-B-QUE – TUESDAY APRIL 2

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