By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Around 10 p.m. on Friday night, following a 12-3 shellacking of the best team in the AHL’s Eastern Conference, the Rochester Americans could not have possibly been feeling better about themselves.
On Sunday evening, following a second consecutive past-regulation loss to the worst team in the conference, the Amerks were in a state of team depression.
“We know it’s not good enough,” defenseman Nathan Paetsch said after Sunday’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Binghamton Devils.
From domination of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to back-to-back losses to Binghamton in less than 48 hours. A Binghamton team that, heading into Saturday, had won just 13 of 51 games.
From comfortably in second place to soon to be in fourth place if they’re not careful. A loss to the Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday night at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo and the Amerks (26-13-8-6, 66 points) will have fallen a month behind the Toronto Marlies, and points and/or percentage points behind the Utica Comets and Crunch.
“I’m not happy about how we’re playing,” said Amerks coach Chris Taylor, whose club has won just three of the past 15 games. “We have to be tougher, grittier, win our 50/50 battles, care more about each other.”
Those are things Taylor never had to mention through Dec. 29, when the Amerks were 20-7-3-3 following a 2-0 victory at Toronto.
But since then they’re not even an average team (winning just six of 19), which is why they’ve been tracked down in the standings by Utica and Syracuse.
A great deal of the problems start with how they’re playing as a team. They could have used four fourth lines on Sunday and probably won, because as center Kyle Criscuolo pointed out, the line of Dalton Smith, Justin Danforth and Arvin Atwal probably did more things right than the other three lines combined.
Criscuolo’s 15th goal gave the Amerks the lead at 8:50 of the second period but Jake Walman tied it with a rocket slap shot just two minutes later. Walman was then the shootout hero, scoring the only goal in the three-round skills competition.
Taylor had hoped Friday night would be a jump-start to consistent productivity for second-year winger Alex Nylander. The Sabres first-round pick in 2016, he has been far from effective again this year.
But against the Penguins he scored two goals and set up two others. Sure, pretty much everybody enjoyed an offensive feast on Friday. But Nylander did a lot of good things; he was on the wall, not reaching; he battled for the puck, he didn’t do the fly-by; he went to the net and got inside position, he didn’t zip through and escape to safety.
But Saturday and Sunday? Where’d he go? Which is why, through 31 games, he has just 4 goals and 9 assists. He had just one shot on goal Saturday at Binghamton. He didn’t have a shot on Sunday, even as the Amerks’ third shooter in the shootout.
“I’m not sure if he poke-checked it or if I lost control,” Nylander said.
Regardless, he had a chance to be a hero and instead left with nothing.
“He has to get hungrier,” Taylor said. “If you don’t shine in this league, where else are you going to?”
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