Cleveland Monsters at Texas Stars
Saturday, December 16th, 2017
8pm est
H-E-B Center, Cedar Park, Texas
Radio: 99x(99.1); 99x Online
Twitter: @TexasStars, @Monstershockey
Cleveland Monsters, 8-10-2-2, 20 points, .455 win%, 5th Central, 13th West
vs
Texas Stars, 16-10-0-1, 33 points, .611 win%, 3rd Pacific, 4th West
The Cleveland Monsters and Texas Stars meet for the third time this season tonight. Things did not go well for the Monsters during the first two meetings of the season. In fact, in the shortest post-game presser (probably) in Monsters’ history, this is what Coach John Madden had to say when the two first met this season.
“I’ll just make this very simple for everybody here. We were terrible, every single of us. No compete. No urgency. No will to pay a price. No thought process to our game whatsoever.
Unfortunately, the next night had a very similar result.
The Monsters can win tonight’s game. They have all the right parts to succeed. They just need to figure out how to make them fit together.
Focusing on a full 60 minutes of hockey is something which will help the team succeed tonight. The Monsters have continually played in spurts. Almost every team they have played this season has capitalized on this fact, including the Stars.
The Monsters are able to fire off shots left and right. However, those shots tend to end up directly in the pads of the opposing goalie. They need to make their opponents work to save those shots. More than likely, giving a goalie a good work out means you’ll wear them down faster.
Clean up the passing game. At the beginning of the season, the Monsters had a beautiful passing game. Now, it’s a bit dicey. There are too many soft passes which lead to puck fumbling and giveaways.
Season Series
11/24/2017 – Texas (4) at Cleveland (1) – preview – recap
11/25/2017 – Texas (3) at Cleveland (2) – preview – recap
12/16/2017
03/16/2018
Stats Matchup
On This Date
The Monsters have a record of 0-3-0-1 on December 16th. Which means they have never won a game o this date. Last season, the Monsters managed to push the game into shootout but failed to come up with the win.