This season has been something more of a grind while they contend with player turnover. A good AHL affiliate produces players for its NHL team and Cleveland did exactly that last season for the Blue Jackets.
After storming through the playoffs last season, a return engagement this spring will take some work for coach John Madden and his team. Madden replaced Jared Bednar, who was hired by the Colorado Avalanche on Aug. 25, 2016.
Cleveland is fifth in the Central Division and chasing the fourth-place Iowa Wild, who they trail by six points. The top four teams in each division qualify for the AHL postseason. The Monsters visit the Wild on Wednesday. Iowa has an eight-game point streak (6-0-2-0) that includes back-to-back wins at Cleveland last weekend, but Cleveland has four games in hand.
"We're going to be in a dogfight in our division," Cleveland captain Ryan Craig said.
All things considered, Cleveland managed to navigate several first-half challenges.
The Monsters have had to deal with several player losses from last season. Defenseman Zach Werenski along with forwards Josh Anderson and Lukas Sedlak graduated to the Blue Jackets. Goaltenders Anton Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo have juggled assignments between Columbus and Cleveland, as has forward Markus Hannikainen.
Cleveland has had to dig out from a 3-7-0-0 start and has done so inside the difficult Central Division. The Central-leading Grand Rapids Griffins also lead Western Conference and the Chicago Wolves have overcome a slow beginning to become a Western Conference force while they jockey with the third-place Milwaukee Admirals.
Goals have been difficult to come by. The Monsters' are seventh in the AHL with 2.70 goals allowed per game but their 2.50 goals per game is 26th. Forward Oliver Bjorkstrand leads Cleveland with 14 goals even though time spent with Columbus has limited him to 35 AHL games.
But a run of nine wins in 11 games in December have the Monsters in contention. They also got a key win Tuesday in defeating Milwaukee 4-1 to start a two-game trip.
"We've put ourselves in a good spot," Craig said. "But we've got to continue to get better. That's our goal in the second half. We were kind of in the same situation last [season] where we continued to get better throughout the [season] and then hit our stride in the second half.
"That's our goal. John Madden has done a great job with our group coming in and not really knowing anybody on short notice, and I think it's a testament to how he has tried to coach our team."
Craig believes that tapping into the experiences of last season will help.
"I think the fundamentals of our team are still the same," Craig said. "We're still a team that competes, that works. We play a 200-foot game, and we have good goaltending. For us it's a matter of sticking to the identity that we've created and playing that way."
