Let’s be honest – this was supposed to be a story about everything that has gone right this season for the Cleveland Monsters.
But, at the moment, it’s a story about adversity.
After a charmed start to the season that included wins in 21 of the first 29 games, the top minor league team of the Blue Jackets is facing an extended stretch of struggles for the first time this season.
At one point running away from the American Hockey League’s North Division, the Monsters are 4-7-2 since the calendar flipped to 2024, wiping out what once was a nine-point division lead and leaving the team two points behind Syracuse for first place.
This weekend was particularly frustrating, as the Monsters built a 3-0 lead through two periods in front of a home crowd vs. Charlotte on Friday night in the first game after the All-Star break, only to see the Checkers rally to earn a 4-3 overtime win. Charlotte then left town with a full complement of points thanks to Saturday night’s 4-1 victory over the Monsters that left Cleveland just 3-5-1 as it nears the end of a rare 10-game homestand.
It was a missed opportunity to build momentum going into the stretch run, but to be clear, no one in Cleveland is pushing the panic button, as the Monsters have not only a talented group but one that’s built quite a bond. But head coach Trent Vogelhuber is interested to see how his squad battles its way through the final two months of the season.
“When you have a lot of first-year players, second-year players, you have to go through this sometimes before you come out of the other side,” Vogelhuber said. “You have to stick with it. We’ve gone through a lot of ebbs and flows, but it’s different in November than it is in January, than it is in February, certainly than it is in May and June.
“So you have to learn that how you’ve won games in the past isn’t necessarily good enough to win now. You have to raise your level in moments like that a little bit.”
And if there’s anything that will allow the Monsters to get through this stretch, it’s the relationships teammates have built with one another. It’s not hard to notice that Cleveland has a tight locker room, something that has been true since day one of the season.
“It’s been amazing this year,” All-Star forward Trey Fix-Wolansky said. “Right from day one, everyone has got along with everyone. Our locker room, everyone is pulling for the guy beside them. We’re worried about winning games and being the best team possible, not the best individual player possible. I think that has brought us a lot of success this year.”
Why is that? It helps that there is a solid core of players who have been in Cleveland for a while and have grown up together in the Blue Jackets organization.
Fix-Wolansky is in his fifth year with the Monsters and is now the team’s all-time leading scorer, while fellow All-Star Jake Christiansen is in his fourth season in Cleveland. Captain Brendan Gaunce is in his third year, while alternate captain Carson Meyer is in his fourth. Tyler Angle, Josh Dunne and Billy Sweezey are each in year four in Cleveland, while All-Star goalie Jet Greaves has played three seasons with the Monsters.
“I think it’s a little bit of everything,” Greaves said when asked what has brought the team together. “It’s a lot of guys who have been here three years together, so that time helps, but we have a lot of young guys. And the older guys we have, we like to have a good time. We have pretty similar personalities. We all jell well. We like to have a lot of fun, so we enjoy our time at the rink and we enjoy our time away from the rink. It all brings us closer together.
“Win or lose, we always have a good time together. It’s a lot of fun coming to the rink every day.”
Add in a pretty good dose of talent and it’s easy to see why the Monsters have had success. Fix-Wolansky has been a point-per-game player this year, posting 13 goals and 29 assists for 42 points in 40 games, good enough to tie for sixth in the league.
Christiansen’s 11 goals are tied for third among AHL defensemen and his 31 points are tied for eighth, while the team has gotten depth scoring from Meyer (18-11-29), Owen Sillinger (10-14-24), Gaunce (11-12-23) and first-year Monster Mikael Pyythia (6-17-23). Rookies James Malatesta and Luca Del Bel Belluz each have added 18 points, while Greaves’ 19 wins are tied for second in the league.
Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent spent five seasons as an AHL head coach in the Winnipeg organization and is excited about the success in Cleveland. Having lived it, he knows how much winning at the AHL level can help push an organization forward, something the Blue Jackets saw firsthand when the Monsters won the Calder Cup in 2016, then many of the key players moved up to Columbus and helped start a four-year stretch of postseason appearances for the Blue Jackets.
“Having a team that wins in Cleveland, it’s paramount to the Columbus Blue Jackets because by doing that our young guys, our future Blue Jackets, are learning the proper way,” he said. “So this is fantastic. Hopefully they go on a long run in the playoffs. If they can win, that’s even better.”
Cleveland has 28 games left in the campaign, with the homestand concluding tomorrow night vs. Grand Rapids and the Monsters then embarking on a six-game road trip over the next two weekends.
“We have a lot of time left in the season,” Christiansen said. “We have to learn and we have to grow every day to work toward that end product. We have to get there. We have to build and just keep working through those little kinks. We talk about it, address it, work on it in practice. That’s the only way you can get better.”
