Griffins coach implores team to ‘keep it simple’ during slump

GRAND RAPIDS — The Grand Rapids Griffins have struggled this season, as they attempt to defend their Calder Cup title.

On Friday at Van Andel Arena, they lost 4-1 to division rival Rockford, which was their sixth loss in their past seven games.

With the loss, Grand Rapids is fifth in the Central Division with 21 points (9-11-0-3), 15 behind division-leading Manitoba. However, the Griffins could be on the brink of turning their season around.

There’s no denying the Griffins have lost a lot of key pieces from last year’s team. Martin Frk and Anthony Mantha are with the Detroit Red Wings; Tyler Bertuzzi was recently called up to the Red Wings and could stick for a while with Detroit looking more like sellers at the trade deadline each day; Mitch Callahan — despite not being a prolific goal-scorer — is with the Bakersfield Condors; Tomas Nosek is with the Vegas Golden Knights; and Evgeny Svechnikov hasn’t produced offensively since returning from injury about two months ago.

This is the reality of the AHL. Players move on to the NHL, and the prospects coming up from junior teams have to fill the void. Some players take longer to develop, and of course, injuries can stunt development and essentially force players to hit the reset button.

However, Griffins coach Todd Nelson isn’t using the loss of players as an excuse for this season’s struggles. Instead, he said his team is trying too hard to make plays while they find a way to get above .500.

“I can sit here and talk about what we didn’t do well, what we did do well, but the bottom line is we didn’t get the win,” Nelson told Wings Nation. “That’s the bottom line. We had some good chances, we had opportunities on the power play in the third period, and we didn’t capitalize.

“The bottom line is we’re not here to make excuses for anything. We gotta keep on working for it moving forward. Nobody is feeling sorry for us. As a group, we are going to have to do this together. I see guys still trying to do things on their own. Trying to do a bit too much. Until we figure that out, it’s going to be a rough road.”

When asked to elaborate on how players were doing too much, Nelson said: “You have a guy that’s 10 feet in front of you, and the puck moves faster than anybody can skate in the world. Why not move the puck to him and catch up? It’s something you’ve been taught since you were 5 years old is headman the puck. Guys are maybe carrying it a bit more, not moving it. Taking too long to make plays versus seeing an option and keeping it simple.

“That’s why when our team was playing well last year, the simpler we kept it, the more goals we had; that was the bottom line.”

Despite the team’s recent shortcomings, Nelson said there were bright spots in Friday’s loss to the Icehogs.

“There were areas of that game (Friday) that we liked,” he said. “We held the puck down low in the offensive zone, we had good offensive zone time. But against a team like Rockford, because they are a quick hockey team, we have to manage the puck coming up the ice, make sure it’s tape-to-tape pass so it doesn’t go off our stick because they counter-attack real quick. That was very evident in the first half of the second period where we weren’t managing the puck, weren’t getting it in deep. Now, we are playing in our end and now we’re chasing the puck. If we have the puck, they can’t score.”

Griffins captain Matthew Ford said the difference was a couple of Grade-A scoring chances the team was unable to convert.

“Offensively, if we play like that, we’ll see more results on the scoreboard as long as we keep taking care of things in our own end,” he said.

Matt Puempel, who scored the Griffins’ lone goal, said the final score made the game appear more lopsided than it actually was and added the team is close to breaking out of the slump.

“I feel like we’re close. That’s not a 4-1 game (Friday), that’s a 2-1 game,” he said. “They get one late and then they get an empty-netter. For 55 minutes of that game, it’s a close game. It’s a shot here, shot there, good bounce there and we’re up 2-1. That’s the part we have to get to. I think our system has been a lot better, and we made a lot of adjustments and a lot of step forwards in the past two weeks.”

Eric Tangradi sees the improvement, as well.

“We’ve had so many games just like this one (Friday) where we do things in spurts where it’s a no-brainer we deserve to win the hockey game,” he said. “And then it seems like every little hiccup along the way ends up in the back of our net. Progress? Yeah, there were times I thought we deserved a better fate. Hit some posts. Other times, you make one little mistake, and we’re paying for it right now. Just not getting any breaks. We know we can hit another level in this room, especially at home, we gotta take care of business.”