Near-miss of playoffs last year motivation for Wichita Thunder ahead of new ECHL season
The agony of missing the Kelly Cup playoffs last season by a single point is still fresh on the mind of Wichita Thunder coach Bruce Ramsay entering the 2023-24 season.
And with 12 returners back from last year’s squad, it’s safe to say the late-season swoon that cost the Thunder a playoff spot will serve as motivation for this season, which kicks off Friday when the puck drops at 7:05 p.m. at Intrust Bank Arena between Wichita and the Kansas City Mavericks.
Since joining the ECHL in the 2014-15 season, Wichita’s minor-league hockey franchise has qualified for the playoffs just twice and has yet to win a postseason series. That’s a trend Ramsay hopes to change this season.
“It definitely still bothers me, and I think it still bothers everybody else who was here last year,” Ramsay said. “We talked about it before training camp started in my opening meeting, about how important every game is in the 72-game schedule. We missed it last year by one point. You think about how many opportunities we had to make up that one point, so being ready for every game, being focused, that’s what we’re focused on.”
When Wichita was playing its best — the Thunder were 25-16-3-0 at one point — last season, it had an opportunistic offense paired with a steady defense. When the defensive level slipped, that’s when the Thunder spiraled down the ECHL standings over the final two months of the regular season.
A new-look core of defensemen has Ramsay optimistic that Wichita’s defense will be improved this season.
The affiliation agreement with the San Jose Sharks has already helped with the additions of defensemen Matthew Sredl and Roman Kinal being sent to Wichita ahead of Friday’s season-opener. Returners Dominic Dockery and Xavier Pouliot, plus 6-foot-5 newcomer Jeremy Masella have impressed in training camp, while 21-year-old rookie Lleyton Moore and Dmitri Yushkevich could provide a spark.
In the net, Trevor Gorsuch returns from last year’s roster with newcomer Beck Warm expected to make an immediate impact after impressing last season in Cincinnati.
“We definitely want to be better defensively,” Ramsay said. “We’ve worked hard in training camp. We’re hoping we still have that same upbeat offense and can create scoring chances off the rush. We want our special teams to be where they were last year because they were really good. Other than that, we just really want to tighten up our D-zone. That’s really the only thing I had a concern about. For the most part, we had a very good hockey club last season and we want to continue that.”
It appeared early in the offseason that Wichita was losing top point-scorer Michal Stinil (79 points), but the 24-year-old forward from the Czech Republic ultimately returned and should spearhead the team’s offense once again.
Wichita’s offense should be a team strength with five of its top-six goal scorers from last season back: Stinil (31), player-coach Jay Dickman (26), Brayden Watts (23), Peter Bates (22) and Jake Wahlin (13).
“We’re fortunate to have a good core of our top players coming back from last season’s team,” Ramsay said. “Up front, I think we’re definitely going to be capable of putting the puck in the net.”
