Moose hunt for more goals

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This article was published 19/12/2018 (2741 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was a back-to-the-basics theme at Manitoba Moose practice Wednesday morning.

The Moose, who operate the second-worst offence in the American Hockey League at a 2.40-goals-per-game clip, put an emphasis on shooting with accuracy during their workout at Bell MTS Iceplex.

After the practice session, linemates Logan Shaw and Jansen Harkins stayed behind to fine-tune their efforts — getting pucks to the net from tight spots around the net and firing them over goaltenders.

“The big thing for us is to make sure we hit the net,” said Shaw, who leads Manitoba with 20 points and 11 goals in 21 games. “When we get a chance, just shoot. We miss the net a lot in games, and we don’t get the opportunities to shoot a whole lot, we don’t generate a lot of shot attempts right now, so when we do get the chance, we have to make sure we hit the net.”

Shaw has been a bright light for the Moose since he joined the club after seven regular-season games with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls.

Since signing with the Moose, the 26-year-old from Glace Bay, N.S., potted the first two hat tricks of his seven-year professional career, and the first since scoring three in a game during the 2010-11 season with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

“I didn’t expect that at all, and even the goals that I got, some of them were just lucky bounces, which is nice,” said Shaw, who will probably be centring a line with Harkins and right-winger Marko Dano when the Moose host the Grand Rapids Griffins in a pair of games Friday and Saturday at Bell MTS Place before breaking for the Christmas holidays.

“Sometimes they come, sometimes they don’t. If you go to the net, go to the right areas, I think the goals will come. You can go a couple of games in a row not scoring and get down on yourself, but you just have to get back to the simple and small things.”

While shooting inefficiency has been a major contributor to Manitoba’s slide to the bottom of the Central Division standings at 11-14-2-0, it’s impossible to ignore that head coach Pascal Vincent has nine players sitting on the club’s injured list.

Combine those injuries with the promotion of all-star forward Mason Appleton to the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets and talented rookie winger Kristian Vesalainen’s return to Finland, and the Moose are now playing without seven of their top 10 scorers. To be fair, Vincent warned reporters during training camp that he would have to take a scoring-by-committee approach after losing so many top-end players from his 2017-18 squad.

“I’ve never seen this, not like this,” said Vincent, who is without forwards JC Lipon (upper body), Seth Griffith (lower body), Skyler McKenzie (upper body), Ryan White (concussion), Nic Kerdiles (upper body), C.J. Suess (upper body), Émile Poirier (lower body) and defencemen Tucker Poolman (concussion) and Luke Green (concussion). “It’s the most (I’ve seen), and serious injuries, as well.”

Some relief may be coming after the Christmas break with Lipon, Griffith and McKenzie getting closer to returning.

“It’s been a challenge to simplify the offence, because we have set plays and offensive-zone concepts and ideas to create more offence,” said Vincent, who had five players on professional tryouts at Wednesday’s practice. “Execution is the second part of why we don’t score right now. When we do have a scoring chance, we’re not hitting the net enough. So that’s a mindset to me.

“It’s not like we generate as many scoring chances as last year. But, when we do, you need to hit the net.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14