Soo Eagles goaltending shakeup
Losers of three straight games and four of their last five, Soo Eagles have addressed their shaky goaltending situation.
The Eagles, who are clinging to fourth place in the North Division of the North American Hockey League, one point ahead of Springfield Jr. Blues, have returned goalie Landon Trutt to Cape Cod Islanders of the Northern States Jr. Hockey League.
Trutt, who started off strong after joining the Eagles in mid-December from Cape Cod, has struggled in his last two outings, giving up 8 goals in 77 minutes of action.
The release of Trutt coincides with the imminent return of second-year Eagles goalie Paige Skoog, who has been sidelined since mid-November with a concussion.
Skoog, who was just recently cleared to return to the ice, has started a conditioning program and won’t be ready for active duty until later this month.
In the interim, Nathan Klebe will be the Eagles starter, backed up by Jared Sauve of the Soo Indians major midgets.
Klebe, who began the current season in the North American 3 Hockey League with the Flint Jr. Generals, has a record of 6-2-0 with a 2.58 goals against average and .925 save percentage in an Eagles uniform, though he has not been sharp as of late.
Simply put, the Eagles — who head out west to Wenatchee to play the Wild of the Midwest Division for a pair of games this weekend — will need better goaltending down the stretch if they are going to hold onto a playoff spot, said coach-general manager Bruno Bragagnolo.
With 47 points from a record of 20-19-7, the Eagles have 14 games to play in the regular season.
Randy,
I spent the entire 2nd period of the game on the 7th standing behind the Warriors net waiting to take photos – there were 5 shots on goal by the Eagles with the last 2 coming in the final 30 seconds of the period. I suppose that’s the fault of the Eagles goalies too? I was at all 3 games and the entire TEAM played poorly – dump and chase, no-look passes to the opposing team, spending entire power plays in their own end. At what point do you stop blaming the goalies and look at the poor coaching and overall team play? The goalies need to play better but the defense should not be allowing the number of shots on goal (47 in the game on Friday) that they are. This team was winning not too long ago, with the same line up. So it’s certainly not the goalies’ fault that the players in front of him can’t get it together. The players take direction from the coaches, so any changes in attitude need to start at the top. Shame you must not have been at the games or you would have clearly seen how poor the entire team played.
Wendy, the fact of the matter is, whether you like it or not, the Eagles have chosen to make a goaltending change with the imminent return of Paige Skoog.
They had to choose between Nathan Klebe and Landon Trutt. They kept Klebe and released Trutt.
No need for you to resort to blaming coaches or blaming me for that.
The problem doesn’t lie in the goaltending its the coaching if the forwards are coached at a slow speed at practice that’s how they will play.
It amazes me how there are so many people out there that have no idea they don’t even break a sweat at practice. COACHING!!!!
Randy,
You’re ignoring the obvious – your article completely blamed the “shaky goaltending” for the team’s problems and ignored the appalling play of the rest of the team. At least put the blame squarely where it belongs – on the ENTIRE team, not just the goalies. No matter how well the goalies play, they can’t save a team without any offense. The goalies should stop the pucks, but at what point do you look at the bigger picture and stop the high number of shots on goal? If you’re going to write about the poor play of the goalies, at least acknowledge that they’re not the only ones to blame for the losses. If the entire team doesn’t play (like the offense not showing up), that is not the fault of the goalies. I truly hope that bringing Paige back aids the team. But the Eagles were in last place when they took the two #1 goalies in their respective leagues and expected them to be their saviors – and for a little while they were – but there’s more to a losing team than poor goaltending and that should be acknowledged, not ignored.
Wendy,
Where — in your words — did I “completely blame” the goalies for the team’s “problems”? Where does it say that?
In actuality, the Eagles have chosen to make a goaltending change and to not change forwards or defencemen.
Those are the facts, Michelle. You can’t change them and neither can I.
I stand corrected – it’s the coach who said they need better goaltending and failed to acknowledge that the rest of the team isn’t bothering to show up. You only quoted him. It’s truly a shame that the coach is blaming the goalies and not his entire team – better goaltending down the stretch won’t help much if there are still 47 shots on goal per game. I never said anything about changing forward or defensemen – I said the entire team needs to play better, NOT just the goalies. Wonder why neither you nor the coach can acknowledge that there’s more to winning games than good play from the goalies? A goalie can save or lose a close game – but if the rest of the team isn’t doing their part, scoring goals and stopping breakaways, then it’s not going to make much difference. You can pass that along to the coach since he seems to think that only the goaltending is to blame for his team’s lack of effort.
Hi Wendy – I was at both Games that you speak of in Flint and I must say that the Soo did not recieve very good goaltending. That is not to say they have not or will not but refering to the 2 games that you mention the Soo’s goaltending was below average at least in my opinion.
I agree the goaltending was not very good, but as a scout what did you think of the play of the rest of the team? Especially the first game where they allowed 47 shots on goal? Do you think that the goaltending was solely to blame? All i was saying was that the team needs more than just better goaltending. In my opinion there were too many dump passes, no power play and no defense. No teamwork.
To be honest Wendy the Soo should have come out of Perani with one Win – the game they were winning 3 to 1 Warriors came back to Win & helped by a couple of soft goals.
NAHL = diluted talent. Too many teams.