Falcons' GM takes stock of 'frustrating' season


Veteran goaltender Manny Legace filled a crucial role for the Falcons, who found themselves in serious need of goaltending this season. Photo courtesy of the Springfield Falcons

April 23, 2012

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

SPRINGFIELD — It was a year of significant improvement for the Springfield Falcons.

In the hunt for a playoff spot until the last week of the season, the Falcons posted a 36-34-3-3 record, their first winning season since the 1997-1998 campaign when they finished first in the New England Division.

The 78 points marked a three-point improvement over last season, despite the fact the American Hockey League (AHL) re-aligned and shortened the regular-season schedule, allowing the Falcons four fewer opportunities to score points.

They also finished the season on a tear on home ice, winning 14 of their final 17 games at the MassMutual Center (14-1-1-1).

But despite all of the encouraging signs, for Falcons President and General Manager Bruce Landon, another word better describes the way the season went.

"It was a frustrating season," Landon told Reminder Publications. "We had the makings of a team that could not only go to the playoffs, but go deep into the playoffs. I really felt coming out of training camp that we could be a Calder Cup contender."

However, injuries both on the Columbus Blue Jackets' roster and several on the AHL level quickly dismantled a Calder Cup-quality team.

"Columbus had players miss 400-plus games combined because of injuries and we had close to that as well," Landon said. "Then the injuries started piling up, the wheels fell off."

In the end, the Falcons finished five points short of the eighth and final playoff spot. Shortly after the season ended, Columbus opted not to extend the contract of coach Rob Riley, whose deal was up for renewal.

"Rob is a great coach and a wonderful person," Landon said. "I think the Columbus organization thought that Rob did a good job, but the way they explained it to me, they felt a different voice was needed. We didn't make the playoffs in the two years he was here and sometimes that alone can be the measuring stick."

Landon said Chris McFarland, the Blue Jackets' assistant general manager, has asked him to come up with a short list of recommendations for the job.

Despite losing players to call-ups and injury, the Falcons continued to remain competitive in the league, something Landon credited Columbus with.

"Whenever someone went down or had to be called up, Columbus did their best to replace them the best they could," he said. "Once the season starts, it's hard to find players of the same quality as the one you lost."

One of the most apparent holes for the organization was goaltending, which was anticipated to be a strength with the additions of former AHL All-Stars Mark Dekanich and Curtis Sanford. Sanford spent the season with Columbus, starting 32 games as the backup to the struggling Steve Mason. Dekanich was hurt in training camp, returned for five lackluster games, then finished the season inactive.

"It was a bad situation. Whether it was Dekanich or Sanford, one of those guys was slated to be our starting goaltender," Landon said. "If Sanford had been in Springfield, it could have been a great season for us because he proved with Columbus that he can win some games on his own."

Because of the injury to Dekanich and the early-season struggles of Allen York, the Falcons called on Manny Legacy, a 38-year-old NHL All-Star and Stanley Cup winner who formed a terrific tandem with NHLer Nikolai Khabibulin in Springfield in the mid-1990s.

Legace ended up leading the team in wins for the fourth time in his career, having also accomplished the feat in consecutive seasons from 1995 through 1997.

"Manny gave us some great games and we lost some games that should have been wins for Manny because we couldn't score for him," Landon said.

When Legace went down with a knee injury himself and then later an eye problem, former University of Massachusetts star Paul Dainton took over and was on fire, winning three-straight games following his call up from the Chicago Express of the East Coast Hockey League.

"Paul was the fifth or sixth goalie on our depth chart to start the season and he showed he was capable of performing and winning at this level," Landon said.

Despite the discovery of those diamonds in the rough, Landon pointed to the crease as the area that needed stability that was just never available.

"If you look at the teams that are in the playoffs, they all had that one goaltending stud," he said. "We had good goaltending in spurts, but we never had consistency."

The defensemen positions in front of the goaltenders were also a revolving door as Columbus suffered heavy losses right from the start of the season.

Because of that, Springfield's top-two defensemen — John Moore and David Savard — spent significant time with Columbus. Aaron Johnson, who was also a candidate for the Falcons after recording 35 points from the blue line with Milwaukee last season, spent the entire season in the NHL, appearing in 56 games.

"It started with the [James] Wisniewski seven-game suspension and never really stopped. [Columbus] just lost player after player," Landon said. "Goaltending and defense is so important in this league and it is so hard to replace when you lose players. Columbus did what they could to help us out, but when you're losing your top two or three defensemen, it's hard to recover from that."

Offensively, the Falcons also showed promise that was not always fulfilled because of injury, none bigger than the ones sustained by Nick Drazenovic.

"Nick had two significant injuries, which meant we spent most of the season with a great offensive player," he said. "He only played 41 games, but in those 41 games, he had 41 points. If we had that point-per-game production for an entire season, things could have been very different."

However, the Falcons did have their share of offensive firepower. Cam Atkinson led the team with 29 goals, finishing behind only current Philadelphia Flyer Daniel Briere on the all-time rookie goal-scoring list, despite being called up at the end of February and not returned until the final weekend of the season.

"Cam is probably the most dynamic player we have had since Danny Briere," Landon said. "He has a knack for the puck and people don't realize how strong he is for his size. He's strong on the puck, tracks pucks down and has great speed."

Martin St. Pierre also came as advertised, finishing tied for 10th in the league in scoring with 64 points 11 goals, 53 assists.

The big offseason signing for the Falcons was Alexandre Giroux, who joined the team after a cup of coffee in Columbus at the beginning of the season, scored 28 goals and assisted 26 others.

"The interesting thing is that 28 goals for most would be a tremendous year, but in our exit interview with Alex, he apologized to us," Landon said. "He said, 'You paid me to score 40 goals, not 28.'"

Despite a strong showing in the second half of the season in terms of attendance, including the team's first sell-out in three years, the overall average attendance numbers were very similar to the year before.

"If you look at the time between October and Christmas, it's so tough to get people out to the games," Landon said, explaining that group sales are hurt in the early months because the schedule isn't released until August, offering a very short window to sell. "I've broken down all of the numbers and we're looking at how we are going to attack that and resolve these problems."

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