The Anchorage Armada had high hopes for the start of the season but have since stumbled, going 0-3-0 in the first three games while failing to put up the high offensive numbers that we all expected. In a complete contrast to their preseason performance where they had high flying offense, solid defense and goaltending, the Armada have failed to match that early on. With blown leads, shaky play, and inconsistent efforts from top to bottom, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to match the team that we saw last season and in preseason.

The first game saw them face off against the Montreal Militia, a team that is expected to compete for a title as well this season, where they traded goals throughout the game but weren’t able to keep up to their lethal offense as the game went on.  Montreal was able to pot one midway through the second period and at 6:49 in the third to ultimately seal the season opener. They were able to chase Anchorage’s starting goalie, Larson, from the net early in the third while they cruised to the victory. The team played very loose defensively in front him for most of the game and essentially left him out to dry. This game was an indicator that a better effort was going to be needed in order to be successful against the other top teams in the league, but they weren’t able to find a response the following game – At least offensively.

In the second night of the season, the Armada were preparing to face last season third place finishers in the Kelowna Knights, who only finished 1 point behind Anchorage. This was going to be the bounce back and statement game they were looking for after falling flat on their face in game one. Their star goalie, Larson showed up to play by stopping 22 of 23 shots, as the team played solid defensively in front of him only to be disappointed by the lack of offensive opportunities at the other end of the ice.  The Armada were able to muster up 17 shots on the Knights while failing to find the back of the net. Their meagre offensive performance led to them falling 0-2-0 on the season against the league’s top competition but their solid performance in their own end was a bright spot to build on for the next game against the Halifax Raiders, who are having a bounce back season after finishing near the bottom of the standings last year.

Anchorage welcomed Halifax to the Sullivan Center as they looked to pick up their first win of the season. Things looked promising for the Armada as they came out with the early 2-0 lead. The offense that had been missing in the previous games looked like it was ready to break out, but that wouldn’t be the case. Following the first intermission, Mike McKorsky would shut the door as Anchorage would fail to score another goal, while Halifax would chip away at the lead, ultimately sealing it with less than five minutes to play in the third causing the Armada for fall 3-2 and dropping to 0-3-0 on the season.  

Despite the fact that it is important to start the season off on the right foot, I don’t get the sense that there is any panic in the Armada’s dressing room as they believe this can be used as a learning experience to build on going forward. Sophomore defensemen Johnny Sins feels like they can learn from the first three games “It obviously sucks losing the first three games of the year, especially in the way that we did, but the team is not worried at all. You go through ebbs and flows all throughout the season and I think it’s important to use those moments as a learning experience. We have enough good players here that we will get it together and start winning games. We are all still becoming acclimated to the changes from last season so it just needs a little time”. He also added that a lot of good things have come from the previous three games saying that “We did a lot of good things in each of the first three games, now we just have to put that all together to play a complete game”.

With the season being so young, there is obviously no cause for concern for the Armada as they still have a long season ahead of them. As easy as it is to nit-pick parts of the game that need improvement, they have lots of time to improve going forward.

Things won’t be getting easier for them any time soon as their next game will be a rematch of the season opener against the Montreal Militia. Montreal will be looking to remain undefeated and improve to 4-0-0 on the season while Anchorage will try to snap out of their early season slump.

Other areas that the Armada will be looking to make major improvements on are their special teams. Their powerplay is currently running at 20% which places them in the bottom half of the league, while their penalty kill is second last in the league at 71.4%. 

Once again it is still extremely early in the season so take anything written here with a grain of salt, as the season goes on things will begin to work themselves out and we can expect to see Anchorage back in a position to compete for a championship.