The Orlando Solar Bears went to the midwest for a little break. A break they desperately needed from the difficult Southeast Division.
They got it and took advantage picking up wins against the Norfolk Admirals, the Kalamazoo Wings and Fort Wayne Komets. A loss to the Indy Fuel was not met with panic.
Then the Solar Bears returned home to face the Manchester Monarchs, a much different kind of opponent. While the teams Orlando faced on that long three-week road trip were good teams and some ahead of Orlando in the standings at the time, none of them were playoff teams currently.
Manchester was and is. And the Monarchs proved it in a three-game sweep of the Solar Bears last week at Amway Center.
The first two games saw Manchester dominate with a 3-0 and 3-1 win before the team came from behind for a 4-3 shootout win to close the set.
The Monarchs are currently second in the Eastern Conference and leading their division. They are one of the best teams in the league, 21 points ahead of the 17-18-2 Solar Bears near the bottom of the standings.
It was a tough challenge, one the young Solar Bears proved not quite ready to tackle.
“I think you’ve got to win it the right way against these types of team,” coach Anthony Noreen said following Orlando’s 3-0 loss Wednesday to start the set. “I think sometimes things get masked when you have more offensive talent than a team and maybe you just make a couple plays and you finish and they don’t. When you play teams that are bigger and older and heavy and don’t give you an inch and you have to earn it, nothing is getting masked.”
Against the top half of the Eastern Conference, Orlando is just 7-17-4. Not helping matters is the entire Southeast Division outside of Orlando is in line to make the Playoffs in the top half of the conference.
The Solar Bears have to be on top of their games at all times, it would seem.
They were not in those first two games against the Monarchs last week. They were a bit lax defensively to start the games and lost focus for long stretches. That gave Manchester the opportunity.
It should take all 60 minutes to defeat these kinds of teams and the Solar Bears have not quite matured to that level yet.
Orlando has shown gradual improvement in these mini series with teams. The Thursday game against Manchester was better than the Wednesday game and the Friday game better than that.
That improvement is good. But the were still no wins. One point in three games is not helping Orlando climb up the standings to reach that third consecutive playoff berth. Orlando sits seven points behind that final playoff spot.
And despite a home-heavy February — the Solar Bears play just one road game in February in Estero, Fla., against the Everblades — the schedule does not lighten up much. Tough teams will be coming to Amway Center to challenge the team and it will have to be ready to score some victories from the start to take that step up.
Orlando is a young team. There are constant call ups for the Toronto Marlies to deal with. There is plenty of adversity this group has to go through on a daily basis in preparing for these games.
That has been reality now for 41 of the 72 games the team has played. The Solar Bears have to be about winning at some point. That is what the coaching staff still expects.
To accomplish their goals, they need to be ready to step up a weight class.
[…] its Midwestern road trip two weeks ago. The Solar Bears have had difficult defending home ice and difficulty against teams in the playoff picture like the Swamp […]