Thunder’s scoring woes no quick fix

The Thunder is about to be far removed from a recent stretch in which it has scored three goals in three games, which makes this a perfect time to address those scoring woes.

Friday’s home game against Colorado begins a stretch in which the Thunder plays nine hockey games in 16 days. A failure to add offense — no easy task during the season — could make it difficult for Wichita to emerge from the bottom of the ECHL Central division over the next two weeks.

On Wednesday the Thunder traded for Atlanta’s second-year forward, Todd Fiddler, who had 29 points in 58 games for two ECHL teams last season. The acquisition proved not to be an immediate addition, though, as Kenton Miller was promoted to the American Hockey League a day later.

“(Fiddler) is available, and we’ve got some young guys on our team that still aren’t proven,” Thunder coach Kevin McClelland said. “The lack of scoring is not (because of) them. We’ve got guys who were here last year and a couple years ago, and they’re just not scoring.

“We have three goals in the last three games, and two of them are by defensemen. So you’re always looking, you’re always looking.”

Miller had two goals before his callup, but last season’s two leading scorers, Danick Gauthier and Ian Lowe, have yet to score a goal in regulation.

Wichita is also suffering from the departure of defenseman Mike Wilson, who scored 50 points in 72 games. Aside from his scoring, Wilson was an important piece of the Thunder’s special teams, and Wichita has converted 1 of 23 power-play chances so far without him.

“He brought that puck up on the power play,” McClelland said. “That’s what we’re missing right now, we’re missing a power-play defenseman. Now all of a sudden we’re left trying to patchwork back there for a real good, productive power-play defenseman.

“We don’t have that, so we’ve got to try to find it. But you don’t find that this time of year, so maybe we’ll have to move a couple forwards back there.”

The Thunder has averaged 25.4 shots, not an unhealthy number but not one that lends itself to high output from a team without many proven scorers. The Thunder’s best offense has come from its third line, especially 20-year-old rookie Anthony Deluca, who has three points and a plus-2 rating.

Wichita has eight goals from forwards during regulation – Lowe scored in a shootout victory – in five games. Some of that can be credited to a tough schedule, with four games against teams with winning records, and some blamed on below-average production, so far, from previous top scorers.

“Usually the players you need are good players,” McClelland said. “You’re not going to get them on the waiver wire from another team, so you’ve got to wait to come across the board that is available, and it’s going to cost you something good off your team.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Thunder’s scoring woes no quick fix."