The Calgary Wranglers’ Achilles Heel, the Henderson Silver Knights

The Calgary Wranglers have worked their way up to the top team in the AHL and have held this spot for the last couple of months. There are some teams on their heels that can challenge their statistical positioning, but there has only been one team that has really given them trouble on the ice this season. That team is the Henderson Silver Knights. What makes this team different from the rest? Let’s explore that.

Switching Sides

There are some common ties between these teams that make their match-up interesting. Current Henderson forward Spencer Foo was a part of the Flames organization from 2017-19 after signing an entry-level contract with them out of university. He played 129 games with the former Calgary affiliate, the Stockton Heat. He then went to play in the KHL for a few seasons and then returned to the AHL this year with the Henderson Silver Knights.

The Vegas Golden Knights also picked up former Heat captain Byron Froese. Froese has played 41 games with the Silver Knights including a couple against the Wranglers, but he is now up with the big club and has gotten eight games in with Vegas this season. Froese had 37 points in 55 games with the Heat last season. 

On the other end, there is one play in particular that swapped from the Golden Knights organization to the Flames organization. That player is Ben Jones. Jones played the last two seasons with Henderson and got into a pair of Golden Knights games in that time. Jones was signed by Calgary last summer and is currently third in team scoring for the Wranglers.

Around The AHL

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• Travis Hamonic – “There’s No Sugarcoating Our Schedule” As the Senators Head To Pittsburgh

This Season

The Wranglers have an exceptional record this season at 36-13-3-0. The shocking part is three out of their 13 regulation losses and one of their three overtime losses came at the hands of the Henderson Silver Knights. The Silver Knights are the only team the Wranglers have faced this year that has a winning record against Calgary and at this point, it isn’t even close.

Going into their game on Sunday afternoon (2:00 p.m. PST), the Wranglers trail 1-3-1-0 in the series and have already dropped their two previous games to Henderson this week.

There are two blaring issues that plague the Wranglers against the Silver Knights: zone access and goaltending.

The Wranglers have an exceptional goaltender in Dustin Wolf and he’s known around the league as elite and extremely tough to beat. However, Henderson have come to read him like a book. They take the hype out of his play and walk all over him when they face each other. Wolf still holds up as much as he can, but no other team blows open games against them the way the Silver Knights do.

Calgary also has issues with the Henderson goaltenders, but that isn’t the worst part of their offensive efforts. The shots are there, but the high-quality scoring chances against the Silver Knights are few and far between. Henderson’s defence keeps them so far away from the net that a lot of time, they throw a shot at the net from the point or from a tough angle and hope to get lucky. The Wranglers struggle to keep up in some games and it is completely out of the ordinary when you watch their games against other teams.

Last Season 

This unfortunately is not a new problem. Last year’s Wranglers — the Stockton Heat — also struggled with Henderson. They clinched the top spot in the Pacific Division and had runs at the top of the league as well, but the Silver Knights remained their Achilles heel.

Stockton’s record (2-1-2-0) was a little better than what it sits at this season. One win came in a shootout and the other was a regulation win through their five match-ups last season. There have been changes on both rosters, but the fact remains that they continue to be a divisional rivals regardless of their space between each other in the standings.

Looking Ahead

If you take a look at the standings, you may be quite surprised this narrative is even relevant. The Wranglers sit at first in the Pacific division and the Silver Knights are second to last in ninth place. That’s why hockey is played on the ice and not on paper, right?

Henderson and Calgary will face each other three more times in the 2022-23 regular season with the next game coming on Sunday, February 26th at 3:00 p.m. MST. They’ll play their last series against each other at the end of March.

We’ll see if this trend continues or if Calgary is able to flip the script in their last three match-ups.