The year started off with high expectations.  Colorado was keeping some of its veterans rather than searching for new blood.  This meant the Monsters would keep most of its star talent as well as get an NHL regular in the form of Brian Willsie.  With a good number of players sent to Johnstown as reserves, there was real excitement in the air that the team could get to the playoffs.  The coach was even talking about the Calder cup finals.

  The first game at home was a win, and really opened the door for some much needed excitement in Cleveland.  We looked like we had a winning team here.  Good stuff.

  Then when the first long road game started, it fell apart.  The team lost 5 out of 6.  And that was when the team had all these star players.  They were undisciplined.  Taking too many penalties, and the defense was unable to get the puck out of their end which resulted in loss after loss.   Part of the problem appeared to be a lack of players with size to go toe to toe with the larger players on other teams.  So they brought in Jessie Boulerice to add some scrap to the team. 

  Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.  Colorado began taking some players to fill their lines from injuries.  This sort of thing isn't unexpected.  That's what the AHL is for.  We sort of expected to see T.J. Hensick and Brian Willsie get sent up when injuries hit.  But we felt we still had good lines with Per Ledin, Chris Stewart, Sertich and others filling the gaps.

  But Colorado never stopped taking players.  Between our injuries and their injuries, there was a constant draw on our ECHL players to move up to the AHL to fill our lines.

  It didn't stop there though.  We ran out of ECHL players to draw from, and had to start signing warm bodies to Professional Tryout Contracts (Which are short term contracts for evaluation purposes to see if players should be signed to more permanent contracts.)  and some of those players got injured and went on injured reserve, so we signed even more PTO.

  Where we're at now, is that our defense has gotten better.  With some exceptions, the team has stepped up getting the puck out of our end and over to the offensive end.  The problem is that the offense is changed day to day between a reliable AHL stalwart and a couple ECHL or PTO players filling the ranks.  That sort of thing can't win you too many games.

  The team is in a miserable 7th place position and is solidly there.  They need nearly 20 points to get into 3rd.  Which would mean winning 10 games, and having the folks in 3rd losing ten.  A near impossible situation this late in the season now.  So I believe it's impossible for the team to reach the playoffs.  In fact, I'll be amazed if they get out of 7th place.

  The worst team in the division, Rochester, has defeated the Monsters at every meeting so far this year.  The only reason the LEM are on top is because they've met some teams that were in slumps.  Namely the Toronto Marlies (Who the Monsters have beaten in almost every meet so far this year), and the Syracuse Crunch.  Both teams were substantially better last year.  Had they been at the same calibur as last year, I think the Monsters would be dead last in the league and people would be asking for Sacco's head.

  As it is right now, the coaching staff is able to blame the conditions in Colorado for the poor performance of the team, due to injuries and call ups.  But the reality is that the team has good players in its lineup.  And that they are just very inconsistent and often unmotivated. 

  I think that when Dan Gilbert wanted to bring hockey back to Cleveland, he intended the Monsters to be a winning team.  At the very least, a playoff team.  He didn't want to get a loser in the house.  But that's what he has now.  Any way you slice it, the Monsters are one of the worst teams in the league.  If they care...  They'll put forth maximum effort to try and bring the team up from its current statistics of being horrible on special teams, horrible on PK, and horribly behind in points.   If they don't care, then the blame game can start again.  But at some point, the fans won't be there to watch.  Nobody is going to pay full price for tickets to watch game after game of a team losing at home. 

  I believe the team has the talent.  I believe they lack the drive.  Not all of them, but there are those that are daydreaming, playing with minimal effort, and appear to want to be somewhere else.  Maybe they should be.  The coach and especially the GM have to do a better job of filling the lines with players who want to be there and want to win.  Because, as fans, we don't buy tickets to watch player development.  We want to see the team win.

Lets hope by the end of the season the LEM aren't in 7th place.  That's about the best I can hope for.

I suspect that Kevin and I disagree, but I don't know that Cleveland could support an NHL team.  We're close enough to Columbus, Detroit and Pittsburgh that a lot of Cleveland-area hockey fans have probably already gravitated to those teams.  More importantly, over the years, we've had the Barons, the Lumberjacks and now the Monsters.  Granted, a minor league franchise isn't going to draw the same sort of crowd as a major  league team will, but all of those teams have floundered.  We just don't seem to be a hockey town.

Cleveland did have a real-live NHL franchise with the Barons for one or two years.  That team is now the San Jose Sharks and are co-owned by Gordon Gund who is still a minority owner of the Cavaliers and until 2005 controlled Gund Arena (now Quicken Loans Arena).  Because of his stake in the arena, my understanding of it is that even if the NHL were looking to expand they wouldn't have wanted a team in Cleveland, playing in Gund's arena, while he owned the team in San Jose.  Kevin my be able to clear some of that up.