Down on the Farm: Lalonde recaps 2017-18 season
A disappointing end put a damper to what once looked like a bright season for Iowa
Dan Myers: It was not the ending you wanted to your season, but if I would have told you at the beginning of the year that you'd finish with a winning record and with more points than you did last year, would you have called it a successful year?
Derek Lalonde: That's almost impossible to answer, just because you don't know how things are going to turn out. In some ways, no, because we had a better team [than our record], just the management team's mentality of adding depth obviously made us deeper. I'm not going to go as far as calling it a disappointment ... but I'm gonna call it a missed opportunity. At one time, we were sitting 30-18 and we had just endured some injuries and call-ups. We had seven or eight ECHL [amateur tryout] call-ups and we ended up sweeping Grand Rapids in Grand Rapids. Then we go 1-9-1-1 during [a stretch from March 18 to April 10] and that sealed our fate. I appreciate the fact that we went 3-1-1 in our last five to get ourselves one point ahead of last year because I told the guys it was important we didn't go back as an organization. There was some positives. But this one is going to gut us for a little bit because it was a missed opportunity.
DM: What do you attribute that rough patch of games to?
DL: I don't want it to be about the injuries and call-ups. It'd be so easy to brush it off as that. I want it to still be about winning even though it is a development league. I think if you lose that mentality, you're in trouble. In reality, our special teams fell apart, our team defense fell apart, our goaltending statistically fell apart. We fell apart in every statistical category, and then we got fragile. Within that stretch, in half of those games we were tied in the third and found a way to lose. There was a lot of things to point to, but it was tough to go through.
DM: On the flip side, what were some of the positives that you'll take out of the year as a whole?
DL: The fact that we competed in our division. We have a bear of a division, you look at Grand Rapids and the Chicago Wolves, they spend a lot of money outside of their prospects and they're committed to winning. We went 4-2-4 against Grand Rapids, first time we've had a winning record against them. We went 4-4 versus Chicago, first time we didn't have a losing record. We won the season series against Manitoba, we went 4-4-2 versus Milwaukee. I like the fact that we're not being pushed around, bottom of that division. We pushed back versus some of our top teams, and that's important.
DM: How much fun was it to see the kind of success Nick Seeler had down the stretch for the team in Minnesota?
DL: Nick is very special. Every time you graduate someone and they make an impact, it's great. Nick is special in that it was an entire year and three quarters [of work]. We were hard on Nick, we scratched Nick, we had some really tough video for him. And he never once questioned us. He bought in and just dug in and to see the finished product -- and there's still a lot of growth there -- but it's great. He had trouble staying inside of dots, his stick detail he struggled with, seeing through forechecks, managing of the puck, these are things that were really big issues for him and he worked on every aspect. It's exciting; in this day and age of the NHL, you've gotta hit on some of those guys, and I'm excited that we did our small part to help him.
DM: What did you think of the year Sam Anas (franchise-record 26 goals, tied for 11th in AHL in scoring) had?
DL: Awesome, and he was another one, his play away from the puck ... he was a minus player last year, and a well-earned minus player. He was a top scorer in the league and he made a big impact in the offensive end, but he was a plus player this year, and his play away from the puck was really good. He's now put himself to the next level, he's put himself as a true prospect. I'd expect him to get a good look at training camp next season and through the preseason.
DM: I know we talked about this at the beginning of the season, how last year, the fans really started to come around. Did you see even more buy in during this season?
DL: Yes, we broke the attendance record again, and that's why it was important for us not to go back. I know it's only one point, but we had to grind to get that one point. We went up another spot in the standings, went ahead of Milwaukee, a traditional playoff team. You can see the growth in the last two years; not only are the crowds getting bigger, they're becoming much more enthusiastic. It's good, and I think we're only scratching the surface of what it could be.
