Photo Credit: Kaitlin S. Cimini

If there is one word to describe the first half of the Buffalo Beauts’ inaugural season, it would be “inconsistent.” While management and coaches remain steady in their design of the team, the style they play, and even the systems they deploy, this is where the uniformity stops.

The team notoriously lost 20 man-games to visa issues at the start of the season. It is also important to note that key players are routinely unable to attend practices. This also extends, at times, to games. This is an unfortunate result of the low salaries offered by the NWHL presently. Often these absences are due to obligations with the player’s primary career, but there is no arguing the adverse effect it has on the team.

Because the NWHL is a part-time league, fans need to step back and look at this as part of a larger picture. The time commitment required to take part in such a league is astronomical. Players travel an entire day on a bus, only to arrive in Buffalo in the wee hours of the morning. They then tack on more drive time as they go their separate ways, travelling hundreds of miles to their homes in different cities, states and even other countries.

It is common in most leagues that players have homes in the cities they play for, but with a league such as the NWHL, players must live a dual life – maintaining a home and a career in one place, but working to form a dynamic bond with a small group of people in another.

There is no question that having time together is crucial to a team’s success. Following Buffalo’s loss to the Boston Pride December 20, goaltender Brianne McLaughlin said, “That’s the first game I really felt like myself.” Some of the issues McLaughlin has had could be attributed to a lack of practice time with the team – getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of the defense and consistently getting time with the players in front of her. A position as idiosyncratic as goaltending is largely technique, but equally important is nuance, which can only be learned over time.

After nine games, the defensive unit is beginning to come together. The relatively small group of players started the season without defenseman Lindsey Grigg and goaltender Amanda Makela. The Beauts dress only five players on defense when Grigg is with the team. Consequently, missing 20 percent of their defensive lineup would have a negative impact on performance.

In addition, a player like Meghan Duggan is a difference maker on any team. She is a physical presence that demands respect and almost invites contact from opposing players. While Duggan commands attention on the ice, her biggest contribution to a team is in the dressing room.

As captain of Team USA and a Beauts’ assistant captain, Duggan is a vocal leader. She is a calming presence for her teams, and can change the face of a game simply by being there. The same is true for practices, from which Duggan is frequently absent, due to her schedule conflicts.

Her position as assistant coach for Clarkson University’s women’s hockey program affects her ability to attend these sessions, which in turn, affects the Beauts.

While Buffalo’s geographic location has worked to its advantage in some regards – Devon Skeats, who leads the team in scoring, has said she chose Buffalo because it was close to home – it poses a disadvantage when it comes to some of the players and their primary careers.

The league finds itself in a strange position. In order to field the best hockey players possible, they have to allow for some of the players to miss time with the team. But the fact that these players are missing time has a huge impact on their performance when the puck drops. McLaughlin is finally settling in, just in time to face the second half of the season. If the Beauts can solidify a top line in the coming weeks and hit the home stretch running on all cylinders, they could see some sustained success.

Buffalo head coach Shelley Looney said, “Because we’re still working on coming together as a team, we’ve been playing increasingly better, while the other teams seem to have plateaued.”

The point cannot be made strongly enough that the Buffalo Beauts are still developing as a team. The visa issues of Skeats, Grigg, Zach, Makela, and Jessica Fickel, have cost the team nearly a quarter of the season in man-games lost. The team has been a complete unit for only five games, and in those five games, these players have made their presence felt.

Makela has had stellar season as McLaughlin’s backup, and her stats are among the top of the league. With Grigg on the ice, the defense has come together nicely, allowing only three goals in the Beauts’ last two games. Skeats is a superstar, through and through. One can only imagine how different their season would have unfolded had it not been for the absence of these players.

It is often difficult to look at the big picture – to step back and really be objective. The season has been an emotional roller-coaster for the league, the teams, the players, and the fans. The Beauts know this first-hand, as they have had to overcome adversity several times in order to accomplish all that they have.

They are hoping that, as the next half of the season begins, the pendulum begins to swing in the other direction. If this happens, the team’s persistent tenacity will result in a more successful second stanza.