Things getting back to normal for the Sceptres and that’s a good thing

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Routine is a big part of a professional athlete’s comfort zone.

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Take it away and often the ability to be at their best on a day-to-day basis disappears with it.

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Certainly, the consistency of performance is affected.

To say the Toronto Sceptres routine has been somewhat disrupted in this Olympic year would be an understatement.

The Olympics were part of it — as it was for several teams in the league — but so was a unique part of the Sceptres schedule that kept them out of their home rink from Jan. 6 until last Tuesday when they hosted Montreal.

Of course, that absence included a month-long break for the Milan Olympics but there’s also some blame to be shared by the schedule-maker that saw the Sceptres make two trips west for games in Seattle and Vancouver — by far their longest trips of the year — book-ended around the Olympic break.

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It made for a lot of travel, particularly for the nine players on the Sceptres who took part in the Milan Games.

The extended time away from their home rink is also tied to the Boat Show that runs in the latter half of January and utilizes the arena in addition to the Enercare Centre next door.

Fortunately, normalcy and routine has returned to the Sceptres lives and they are finally back to something resembling a normal schedule.

They are back in their home arena and will play six of their remaining 11 games there.

Renata Fast was one of those nine Sceptres Olympians who got hit with both travel barrels before and after Milan in addition to the trip to and from Italy itself.

Going into the break, the Sceptres were running on fumes. They lost seven of eight going into that one-month schedule stoppage digging themselves a hole in the standings the likes of which they have not endured in either of the first two seasons in the league.

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Since the return, with the focus solely on the Sceptres, Toronto’s entry in the PWHL is finally starting to look like a group that wants to make the playoffs.

They have won two of three and lost the third in a shootout to the red-hot Montreal Victoire.

A night-and-day feeling

Fast says the feeling on the ice and in the room is like night and day from those dark days going into the break.

“Definitely,” she said. “I think we just needed a break, a reset. I think we were down bad a little bit right before the break.

“We were still a super-close group and love being together but when you’re not stringing together wins, it doesn’t matter the environment you’re in, it doesn’t feel good. I think we all felt really refreshed coming out of the break.”

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Head coach Troy Ryan says a break that long just allows everyone to start with a clean slate, regardless of what went on in the first half and he says that has played into the Sceptres getting seven of a possible nine points in their first three games back.

“Part of it is that — being back to it just being about the Sceptres again,” Ryan said, “but I think it’s also maybe where we are at in the standings brings a little extra focus for us as well. We know we have to play better to set us up to have a chance at the playoffs.”

Ryan believes the Sceptres have at least put themselves on a path to ensuring they don’t miss the playoffs this year — a goal made even tougher than either of the first two seasons simply because there are now eight teams in the league and still just those four playoff spots.

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The Sceptres aren’t there yet but they can now see a clear path to getting there and it means taking advantage of a more favourable home/road schedule, not to mention the fact that five of their remaining 11 games are against the Ottawa Charge and New York Sirens, the two teams they have to leap-frog to get a playoff spot. They are currently tied with the Sirens at 24 points, two behind the fourth-place Charge. Both teams also have a game in hand on Toronto.

Power-play needs fixing

Going into a Sunday matchup with the two-time defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost, the Sceptres spent time focussing on a power play that has yet to find its footing.

Toronto has scored just four times in 43 power-play chances this year and Ryan is convinced that an improvement in that area can be big for the Sceptres.

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“For us to win games, we need to be able to score the big power-play goal once in a while, or make sure we are killing a lot of penalties,” Ryan said.

The Sceptres know what success on the power play looks like, having seen it last season, but the departures of Hannah Miller, Julia Gosling and Sarah Nurse have affected that ability.
Ryan and his staff are still looking for the right mix but, more than anything, he just wants his group to put early pressure on the penalty-killers.

“My message to them today … was give me the first 15 seconds as a coach,” Ryan said. “Quick shot mentality, quick puck retrieval, that second chance at the net. The rest is you guys.

“I think a lot of times the first little bit of the power play has to break down the penalty-kill because a set penalty-kill against a set power play, the penalty-kill is going to win that battle 90% of the time,” he said. “You just have to find a way to break that down. We want to see that mentality early on. You gotta win face offs. You’ve gotta get a puck to the net and you’ve gotta retrieve a puck and then maybe you’ve got time for your individual or more of the set plays.”

Make it a routine and maybe the Sceptres will be playing playoff hockey in April again.

mganter@postmedia.com
X: @Mike_Ganter

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