Visiting the Sirens in New Jersey for that team’s home opener is a tall task for a Toronto Sceptres team that has shown some inconsistencies in their first three games of the new season.
Visiting the Sirens in New Jersey for that team’s home opener is a tall task for a Toronto Sceptres team that has shown some inconsistencies in their first three games of the new season.
The Toronto Sceptres have mixed results to show for the first three games of their 2024-25 season. They opened at home with a solid 3-1 win over the Boston Fleet, which included a jailbreak goal from Sarah Nurse, and a power-play game-winning goal by Hannah Miller.
They then went to Ottawa and showed a lackluster effort and lost (deservedly) 3-2. Players and coaches alike agreed that the game was uncharacteristic, with a lack of connection between defense and forwards, some simple mental mistakes, and perhaps trying too hard in the early going with new teammates.
“We talk a lot about the decisions we make in the game, and we don't want our decisions to be at a point where there's just no other options to be made,” said coach Troy Ryan.
“And I thought we were running ourselves into bad ice and then panicking with our decision at that point instead of making purposeful plays.”
After the loss to Minnesota, Ryan said, “We didn't have a good first ten minutes so we’re down 1-0. It's just something we’ve got to look at a bit more internally to see why that happened. You know, are we preparing properly for games or what are we doing as coaches, is that what is setting them up for success for a good start? And some athletes just look internally to make some adjustments so that doesn't happen again.”
Defender Allie Munroe was confident in the defense’s path forward: “I think we're all just getting used to each other right now. But we have a lot of skill and a lot of grit back there, so I think we'll figure it out in no time.”
After the break for the Euro Hockey Tour, the Sceptres travel to New Jersey to face a very confident New York Sirens team in their own home opener at the Prudential Center. With Sarah Fillier and Alex Carpenter lighting up the league and sitting on top of the individual stats leaders, Toronto knows they will be facing a stiff challenge.
Coach Greg Fargo has injected a fast-speed, push-the-pace offense into his playbook, knowing that he has some talented players who can make this approach work by capitalizing on turnovers.
And turnovers are something the Sceptres have been guilty of as they stumble with breakouts and haven’t been connecting with clean passes through the neutral zone.
Special teams have been another issue.
“I think our team’s penalty kill was around 93% last year, and I think we worked on it once in practice,” commented Ryan. “We talked a lot about it, we presented a lot about it, but we have a lot of players on our team who are just naturally really good penalty killers.
“I sense there will be a little bit more time spent on the power play this year, as there will be other people who get that opportunity. It doesn’t mean it can’t be equally successful; it’s just going to look a bit different for us.”
Creating offense will be a theme for the Sceptres who are without leading scorer and league MVP Natalie Spooner. So far, they’ve managed to score by committee, with Sarah Nurse leading the way, and Daryl Watts, Hannah Miller, Renata Fast, and Jesse Compher contributing.
Still, the message seems to be about staying the course and remaining positive. The effort and the outcomes have been there, just not consistently.
As Ryan put it, “It may be good to not necessarily add a ton of new concepts at this point. Maybe try to focus on what has already been taught, pull some game footage of some areas that we can improve or some areas that we're doing well.”
Wednesday’s game is at 7 pm Eastern at the Prudential Center, with coverage on TSN and MSG networks.