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**bk1689** · 08-15-2016, 07:09 PM

In the last dozen games, the Montreal Militia are sporting a 9-3 record. This is a far cry from the 9 game losing streak that preceded it. So what exactly has changed in Montreal to begin this massive turn around?

During the losing streak the Militia were outscored by their opponents 41-22. This is an average of 4.55 against and 2.44 for a game. In the last 12 games they have scored 44 goals, while their opponents have 31, an average of 3.66 for and 2.58 against. One things for sure, their defensive game has been stepped up significantly, allowing almost 2 less goals a game on average. While their offense has picked up, the defense and goaltenders have been the standouts for the team as of late.

Rookie Left Winger, Nathan Russett had this to say:

Quote:As a team, our turnaround began once we finally settled on lines that provide the most chemistry possible. I started on a line with 3 Playmakers, and there was just an overall lack of balance throughout the lineups to start the season. We've finally hammered out the kinks and we're now on course for a successful season because of our ability to adjust on the fly.

The special teams have actually taken a dive on one side and stayed relatively the same on other. During the 9 games the Militia were 11/32 on the powerplay, coming in at 34.3%. They were also able to kill 80.4% of the penalties, coming in at 33/41 on the penalty kill. During the last 12, Montreal is 13/52. This works out to an abysmal 25%. While they've been able to up their penalty kill percentage a bit, they have been 35/43 or 81.3%. While obviously they haven't been capitalizing as much on the PP as they would want to, Montreals PP percentage hasn't been much of a hindrance.

While the numbers haven't changed drastically, besides the significant drop off on the PP which should hurt, but apparently hasn't. The Militia have managed to turn things around in a hurry and a big way.

We caught up with Travis Jeziak to see what his thoughts were:

Quote:We all knew this team would turn it around, we had a rough couple of weeks without wins, but now we're getting things rolling. We have a great group of guys and everybody is doing their job and it's working out pretty well as of late.

The mood in the locker room has lightened up quite a bit according to Brennan Kennedy:

Quote:Yeah, I mean we all have always got along. But when you're struggling like that it's hard to not get down on yourself. There was a few players for sure doing that, myself included.  While I'm still not performing as well as I feel I can, I'm just happy the teams winning.

Ilmari Maatta had a bit of advice for the young team:

Quote:Yes some of the younger guys were taking the streak pretty hard, but I told them to just keep working and the wins will start coming. I mean a 9 game streak isn't fun, but there's no point in feeling sorry for yourself. Wins won't come that way.

With Montreal crawling out of the basement in the East, they look to start making some noise in the conference. The back half of this season is looking to be quite different if the way they've been playing keeps up. Montreal was at the bottom of the conference in many experts preseason predictions. The way the season started they seemed to be proving everyone right. Marcos Marciel had a different feeling about the predictions.

Quote:So what? Who cares if we we're at the bottom? We knew that this team would step up to the plate when it counts. It's just taken a bit longer then we anticipated for everyone to feel each other out, but now that we have, I gaurntee we'll be at the top of the conference by the end of the season

So what has it been that's changed? It seems to me that everyone's starting to believe in the system, the team and each other.