An Iron Eagles Slump

[CowboyinAmerica 2,735]

Vasteras, Sweden -- The inaugural VHLE season of the Vasteras Iron Eagles franchise was living up to its hype through the season's first half. Despite a negative goal differential for much of the stretch, the team's propensity to pull out close games had them at the top of the standings after 36 games played. It was in a tight VHLE, to be fair, but things were looking up.

 

However, the start of the second half has been rough - four straight losses has the Iron Eagles sinking from first all the way to fifth, out of the playoffs with 43 points if the season ended today. Granted, that's with two fewer games played than the Cologne team just one point ahead of them in the standings. But still, it's a cause for concern among some in the Iron Eagles camp.

 

"Every team is going to have a slump eventually, but that doesn't really make it better when it happens," goalie Xavier Booberry said after the team's most recent loss. "This is really the first time we've had to go through something like this."

 

Making it tougher is that the games are close, with three of the four losses in the streak occurring by just one goal. That's difficult to swallow for a team that was pulling off those close wins earlier in the season, but it also provides a bit of hope that they'll be able to turn it around soon.

 

"It's obvious we have the talent and we're in all of these games," Booberry added. "The talent disparity is just so tight in this first season of the VHLE. We need to pull out every trick in the book to make sure we're stealing wins when we have them in our grasp."