Establishing Consistency Priority No. 1 for Graham, Texas

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

Whether at home or away, one thing is certain, Texas Stars’ coach Neil Graham is going to constantly preach one word to his players: consistency.

In their most recent road trip facing the Iowa Wild and Rockford Icehogs, the Stars struggled, going 1-3 in that span. Their single win came in a dominant 8-4 thrashing of Iowa.

“Obviously we're not thrilled with giving up four, but the offensive output was there.” Graham said about the dominant win at Iowa. “We've had success at home, and I think that's part of our group. The next step we need to take is finding that consistency.”

There is no secret in finding consistency, and if there was, Graham and the rest of the Stars would have deployed it a long time ago.

“If there was a magic potion, we would have already sprinkled it,” Graham said on establishing consistency. “The way you find consistency is through your work, is through your repetition, understanding that we don't need to overreact to early failure, but rather recognize areas to focus on to maybe smoothen that curve.”

If repetition is the key to smoothing out the curve, players like Arttu Hyry entering their first year in North America have made an impression on Graham.

“I think Arttu has done a really good job,” Graham said. “Very intelligent person, and to see him pick up our style, the way the games played over here, so quickly, and then to have success on both sides of the puck, you really got to give the player a lot of credit.”

Despite being an older rookie at 23, Graham does not look at age as a detriment to the Finn’s development into the next level.

(Credit: Ross Bonander/Texas Stars)

 “I think from a development standpoint, we couldn't be happier with the early success.” Graham said. “We're going to keep working with him. But to be honest, he's not far off from the next level.”

Besides his viral overtime goal this past saturday, Cameron Hughes has risen quickly within the organization, earning the distinction as alternate captain for the Stars after being signed earlier this year from Coachella Valley.

“The players gravitate towards him. He has such a charismatic personality, and he's responsible as well when he plays the game,” Graham said. “He's had some good success in terms of point production, but I think we're only scratching the surface on his entire body of work, and we're only going to see him improve.”

Called up to the AHL club on Tuesday morning, Ben Kraws has found success this season holding a record of 5-1-1 with the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads. Graham prefaced that this was development for the goaltender to get reps at the AHL level again.

“We want to make sure he's rewarded with strong play and whether or not he sees the crease in the next handful of days in a game,” Graham said. “It's still important that he gets reps at this level, under this speed and under our structure.”

Facing two formidable opponents in the Ontario Reign and the two-time Western Conference champions, Coachella Valley Firebirds, Graham isn’t getting ahead of himself as they depart for their west coast trip, focusing on establishing his team’s culture.

“It's still in the early stages of trying to make sure our own identity is staying consistent,” Graham concluded. “Right now, it's about preparing our own fundamentals, making sure we're predictable to ourselves, and start building some chemistry and consistency within our own game.”

The Stars will face the Ontario Reign Friday night at 9 PM at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.