Mavericks: Gimme A (All-Star) Break!

When we last checked in with the Kansas City Mavericks, they were obviously coming out of a holiday food coma and packed a few too many leftover turkey dinners to work. Since coming out of the Christmas break on December 28th, the team had picked up four losses over six games and tumbled six points back of first place. They’ve now added to the dismal total, dropping 2 of 3 to have lost six of nine since the holidays. Managing to pick up a pair of points in a 7-6 OT win against Cincinnati is pretty small consolation. They’re now not only a whopping ten points back of the Mountain Division leading Oilers, their next closest opponent is the third place Utah Grizzlies, and even that is an eight point gap. The All-Star Break goes fron January 19-24th, and it sure looks like it couldn’t come at a better time for the team.

GAME BY GAME:

JAN 8th: KC Mavericks 2 @ Indy Fuel 4- LOSS

JAN 11th: KC Mavericks 7 vs Cincinnati Cyclones 6- WIN (OT)

JAN 12th: KC Mavericks 0 vs Cincinnati Cyclones 2- LOSS

THE SQUAD:

Leading scorer Mark Cooper was loaned out to San Antonio as of January 14th, so he’ll be missing from the lineup indefinitely. The good news is former scoring leader Jared Vanwormer is finished his loan stint to Milwaukee and should be back in the fold shortly. Until that sorts itself out, the Top 5 for the team in scoring has remained the same since our last update.

In the blue paint, neither Flames prospect goaltender saw a start in the last three contests after some rough recent outings. Ben Halford took the reigns for a pair of starts, while Max Milosek saw one. That leaves prospects McDonald and Schneider with their same stats since our last update, a slight edge going to Mason in the numbers department.

Up Next:

The slight upside to losing 2 of 3 is that they were against Central Division opponents and weren’t any four-point games. Next the Mavs will head back on the road for one more, against divisional foe Wichita, then settle in for a massive homestand. Starting back from the All-Star game break on the 25th, the Mavericks will host 9 straight contests though late January and early February. This means 11 of their next 13 games will be inside friendly confines where the team has fared substantially better than the road this season with an 12-3 record, which will present a big time opportunity to get back towards the division lead. Six of those nine home games are also against divisional teams, so there’s opportunity to make some hay here and get back in the race. Check back with M&G in two weeks to see how the Mavericks fare!

by MilhouseFirehouse