Ontario Reign: Pluses and Minuses From Week 5

+: Martin Chromiak gets the call to the Kings

Martin Chromiak played in the Reign’s first game, but not the second two, for good reason. The 24-year-old earned the first call-up of his pro career with the Kings, with Mats Zuccarello placed on IR, and made his NHL debut on Halloween as Adrian Kempe was out of the lineup. Chromiak was immediately inserted into the top line and had one shot on goal, one hit, had power-play time, and had 17:31 of ice time.

+: Hampton Slukynsky shines in his start

Of the three goalies, Hampton Slukynsky performed well in his start. Despite the 3-2 loss to Tucson, Slukynsky was the only reason the game was close. He made a career-high 40 saves on 43 shots (.930 SV%), but is still searching for that first win of the season.

+: Jared Woolley close to returning?

After missing the last seven games with an injury, the Reign may have gotten a positive update on rookie defenseman Jared Woolley. Head coach Andrew Lord didn’t provide a specific date for when he’ll be back in the lineup after Saturday’s game, but hinted he could be back practicing this week. If so, that’s a good sign.

Minuses:

-: A winless week

For the first time this season, the Reign have lost all of their games during a week. Out of the 180 minutes played, I would say the first 40 minutes in the first meeting against Tucson was their best; the other 140 minutes I thought they were outplayed

-: Losing streak hits four games

The losing streak hit four games. That is the longest in Andrew Lord’s one-plus season as head coach. They’ll look to snap that streak tomorrow.

-: No home cooking

The Reign have five wins in 11 games, but four have come away from home. In five home games, the Reign are 1-4-0-0 at Toyota Arena. They’ll have one more home game before a weekend trip to Abbotsford, then a five-game homestand in the middle of this month to right the ship.

-: Five goals against in the third period in game one against Tucson is a season-high

The Reign looked like they were well on their way to two points in Friday’s 5-4 loss to Tucson. They controlled the game through 40 minutes, then the third period happened. Turnovers, sloppy play, and two soft goals against in 20 minutes undid all the good they built up through those 40 minutes. Tucson’s five goals in the third period are the most in a single period the Reign have allowed this season (so far).

-: Scoring first, but can’t hold the lead

The Reign have struggled to score first all season. They finally opened the scoring in back-to-back games for the first time this season over the weekend against Tucson. They even held a 2-0 lead at some point in both games. However, when the final buzzer sounded, they were on the losing side in each one. The Reign finally scored the first goal of the game but couldn’t hold it, which was probably the second-most frustrating part of the weekend.

-: Vojtěch Čihař loaned back to Kelowna (WHL)

This one drew mixed reviews late Sunday night/early Monday morning. The LA Kings assigned 19-year-old forward Vojtěch Čihař back to the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL. Čihař recorded one assist in eight games for the Reign and recently played on the fourth line.

Look at it this way: he’ll get more minutes, a bigger role, play in all situations in Kelowna, and take what he learned during his cup of coffee with the Reign and apply it to his game in Kelowna. One issue I had the last two games was that he was playing fourth-line minutes.

A player like Kenta Isogai, who excels in a fourth-line role, or Jack Hughes, shouldn’t be getting second-line minutes over a 19-year-old prospect. Teams have development days where players sit for a game to see the game from the press box point of view and better understand the time, space, and speed of the game, but giving him sheltered minutes in a league for development is odd.

Perhaps this trial run was to see how he handled the pro game, therefore sheltering his minutes. Personally, I would’ve preferred him to play a bigger role while working on his areas for improvement, even if they were going to send him back to the WHL. Either way, he won’t be eligible to join the Reign until Kelowna’s season ends or next season.

GAMES THIS WEEK: vs San Jose Barracuda (11/4, 7 PM), @ Abbotsford Canucks (11/6, 6 PM), @ Abbotsford Canucks (11/7, 4 PM)