Challenge’s Ahead For Binghamton Senators On Home Ice

Everyone that is a sports fan is all too familiar with the old adage home ice advantage, but apparently this is not the case for the Binghamton Senators, as somewhere lost in this phrase is the serious lacking of it for the tenant’s of 1 Stuart Place. This was not the situation last season or the previous one, as stressed that made it miserable  for other teams to compete by Head Coach Luke Richardson assertion’s, but now likely just the opposite as the Senators have been walked on at their own game, in their own backyard.

With all the final upgrades and features up and running at the newly branded Floyd L. Maines Arena for everyone to embellish, including both fans and players alike, home ice hasn’t been all that kind as they are off to a paltry 1-3-2 record after just six games. After having successful back to back seasons, 25-8-1-3 (2012-’13) and 24-8-1-4 (2013-’14), they are already 38% there in regular season losses to match.

“We have a lot of size defensively and we want to punish opposing forwards with it, we’re going to make it miserable for teams to come (to Binghamton). And if they want to come here and try to set the tone, there’s going to be someone standing right there to make sure they don’t.” - Luke Richardson, Oct 2012, Press & Sun-Bulletin

The team needs to start piling up some W’s with the next four out of five slated to take place at home and give the fans something to cheer about other than the occasional goal here and there. All tough opponent’s surround the team looking ahead in the next five games remaining in Nov with Manchester this Friday, Albany Saturday, St. John’s Thanksgiving Eve, away on Friday 28th in Syracuse and home the following night against Rochester.

Has the team lost their focus in defending the Division Title or just off to a (mildly put) rough start? Will Coach Richardson have the same effect like in 2012 that will eventually show up? He has some gut check challenge’s ahead in his third year at the helm, unlike the previous two where things fell into place. Some of the pieces are missing from those two seasons, but the core is still around to complete the puzzle, but have been off track to start.

Time for some home cooking stats. The offense hasn’t done that particularly well with only three player’s worth noting and that is Chris Wideman (3 g, 6a), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (3g, 3a) and Matt Puempel (3g, 3a). While on defense the spotlight has been on Patrick Mullen (-5),  Fredrik Claesson (-4) along with Alex Grant (-4) as all three are off to rough starts as the team has giving up an average of nearly 36 shots per outing at home. Speaking of which, Senators have only 18 of the 44 goals to show for while being scored on half of the total of 50.

I crunched the numbers on Andrew Hammond‘s performances and in doing so, I discovered just how bad it really looks at the Arena. He has played in all six and despite the lone win against Portland (Pirates), Andrew sports a 4.16 GAA and a 0.883 SV% and quite frankly, that is downright frightening. It’s mind-boggling. This is in your house, not theirs. Starting back up Scott Greenham might be a refreshing but unproven idea as he has benefited on the road with his two victories. Bringing up stud Chris Driedger from Evansville is possibility, however maybe too premature right now and could backfire stunting his growth.

All not bad news on the horizon as the good news is there’s plenty of time to turn this around. It all begins on how the player’s react with this weekend’s games against the Monarchs and Devils in order to start something in the Eastern Conference as well as the Division, where the Senators currently reside in last place in both settings.

Besides, that’s where you want to end up at the end of the day, at home.

*Cover Pic Courtesy of SenShot’s Photographer Alicia Strauch