The Ottawa Charge sit last in the PWHL in goals scored, last in power play percentage, and now last overall in league standings. The team must find a way to score.
The Ottawa Charge sit last in the PWHL in goals scored, last in power play percentage, and now last overall in league standings. The team must find a way to score.
The Ottawa Charge are entering February's international break in a place they didn't want to be, last overall. The main reason? Ottawa is also last by a landslide in another category, goals scored.
Ottawa is the only team in the PWHL, and for that matter, the only team in North American professional hockey at the PWHL, NHL, AHL, or ECHL levels, to be averaging under two goals per game. Ottawa's number is 1.8 goals per game. It's a mark of futility that no team can win with, no matter how strong their goaltending is, or how solid your defensive play.
And Ottawa has received strong goaltending. Emerance Maschmeyer has been one of the top netminders in the PWHL this season from day one, and Gwyneth Philips became the first rookie netminder to record a shutout in the PWHL. The duo has given Ottawa a chance to win, but you can't win without scoring.
Where are Ottawa's leaders?
When you look at the PWHL's scoring leaders, there isn't a sign of an Ottawa Charge player. Every team in the PWHL aside from Ottawa has not one, but at least two players who have hit double digits in scoring. Considering Boston, Montreal, and New York all have two games in hand on Ottawa, it's clear that the Charge do not have any player leading their attack. The five game absence of Katerina Mrazova certainly hurt, but it can't be to blame for the absence of scoring up and down Ottawa's lineup.
Ottawa's leading scorer, Tereza Vanisova, is tied for 22nd in league scoring. In a six team league, it's miles down the chart. Last season's leading scorer and team captain Brianne Jenner has not been dangerous. Jenner has only one goal and six points through 13 games. Last season she had nine goals and 20 points in 24 games. Jenner isn't the only one who has yet to make an impact offensively. Emily Clark, Mrazova, and Gabbie Hughes are all struggling to find the net. Hughes in particular has yet to score this season and has only two assists through 14 games. Last year she tied with Jenner for second on the team in goals with nine.
The team's veterans know they need to produce more.
“It's on us to execute and put some of those away," said Emily Clark following Ottawa's 4-2 loss to Toronto Saturday. "We had so many chances tonight. I think that's why all of us have our heads pretty high. Of course, it stinks to lose. We had a lot of opportunities to tie it and win, but I think you just have to keep going on. The only way through is getting those good looks. It's a matter of inches and just bearing down a little bit. I think the biggest change that our team has seen is just getting more shots on net in the last few games. We're going to increase our chances if we keep doing that. So, we have to do some fine-tuning to finish those plays.”
Power Play Lacks Power
Ottawa's power play sits at 9.7%. The next lowest power play in the PWHL is 18.4%. It's been a point of continued conversation among the Charge.
“I think there’s lots of positives in our five-on-five game. We feel that we are really getting ourselves to a level that we like," said head coach Carla MacLeod following Ottawa's loss to Toronto.
"We got to sort our special teams out, on both sides of it. We seem to have lost our confidence on the penalty kill. We'll re-route that one and get that sorted. Power play is getting better and better but obviously a little confidence would happen if we could pop one or two goals. All in all, it's not bad. You can't lose sight of the fact that in our first 15 games, we truly played 11 on the road. It's been a great adventure, but we get the chance to go home for the second half of the season and it's going to be our job to take advantage of that.”
Is Carla MacLeod's Job In Question?
Not yet, but time is ticking to get this team performing. Ottawa missed the playoffs last season, and they're on track to miss them again this year. If the New York Sirens make the postseason, Ottawa would be the lone PWHL franchise not to make the playoffs in the league's first two seasons. MacLeod is abundantly positive in the media when discussing her team. With Team Czechia, one of the biggest things MacLeod achieved to help them get over the hump was to believe in themselves, and to motivate the program through confidence. What Ottawa needs, that they currently aren't getting however, is more structure and guidance in their systems. No one wants to take away their skill and creativity, but sometimes focusing in on a few specifics will keep players who right now look lost and disengaged on the ice in position and in viable scoring areas. It was a critique from within Ottawa's room last season when they missed the playoffs that the team was lacking structure, and they look like that the case again while attacking offensively and on the power play. Fans have already started openly questioning MacLeod, and while it's premature to even consider her job to be at risk, everyone in Ottawa, from the veteran players to the coaching staff need to look at their struggles with more urgency.
Will another trade happen?
The deal sending Savannah Harmon and Hayley Scamurra to Toronto in exchange for Jocelyne Larocque and Victoria Bach was likely a step backward offensively, and competitively for this team now and in the long run. There aren't a lot of pieces Ottawa could trade at the moment that other teams would value without breaking their core wide open again. The only place Ottawa could go is depth for depth, perhaps looking back to Toronto when they need to make another roster move to welcome back Natalie Spooner. Gabbie Hughes is probably the forward underperforming the most, but at some point, Ottawa will need to look at why players like Scamurra, Harmon, and Hughes were unable to get on the board systematically, rather than individually. Right now Ottawa continues to try the same lineups over and over without avail. Their offseason acquisitions of Rebecca Leslie and Alexa Vasko have a combined zero goals and one assist in 24 combined games. Leslie is a player, along with Anna Meixner who could, and likely should be given top six looks in hopes of sparking new chemistry. With few trade options remaining, internal shuffle is the likely next step. At this point, moving Jenner, Darkangelo, and Bach out of the top six is warranted, and shifting others up the depth chart could and should occur before it's too late.
Home Ice Advantage In Ottawa
Ottawa has one of the best fan bases in the PWHL. Time on home ice as MacLeod says should give Ottawa extra rest and opportunities to work on special teams, but special teams alone will not bust the team's scoring drought.
At some point, an individual player in the Ottawa lineup will need to step forward, whether it's Jenner, Hughes, Clark, Mrazova, or rookie Danielle Serdachny, who has looked more threatening of late. Serdachny could be the key to Ottawa's offensive struggles.