Lack of effort in elimination game can’t be sugarcoated

You can sugarcoat certain things in life. How you answer that question from your significant other about her weight. Cheering your child’s few perfect notes among all the missed ones at the piano recital. Faking confidence when telling your employees about the company’s financial stability.

Something you can’t sugarcoat: A best-of-7 hockey playoff series that ends in a sweep.

You can’t explain away getting beat four straight, and you certainly can’t discover anything good with how the Wranglers were dismissed from the ECHL playoffs by Alaska on Thursday night.

You can’t sugarcoat a lack of effort with your season on the line, with playing the first 20 minutes as if in a deep sleep, with getting down and then skating through most of the last two periods as though you are focused more on vacation plans than competing.

It’s too bad. A more complete roster and victories in two inspired seven-game playoff series followed a roller coaster of a regular season for Las Vegas.

The playoffs arrived, and the Wranglers finally gave the impression of a contender.

While the Aces always were the better team in these National Conference Finals, how the Wranglers advanced against Bakersfield and Stockton allowed for the idea that Las Vegas again could play for the Kelly Cup. Boy, was that a far-fetched belief.

Alaska mercifully ended the Wranglers’ season with a 5-1 walkover at the Orleans Arena before an announced gathering of 3,723. It was over when the Aces went up 3-0 35 seconds into the second period. With how the series played out, it was over when the matchup was set.

“I have to take some of the blame here,” Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I’m not going to take all the responsibility but certainly have to share in it. It’s my job to make sure they’re ready to play in the first. We weren’t.

“I don’t like being swept. I don’t think I would have felt any better losing in seven games. You lose, you lose.”

The Wranglers on Thursday got the better of Alaska only during a few fights. It happens when you are frustrated. It happens when you are getting embarrassed on home ice.

The good thing about all those punches thrown was that it proved the Wranglers owned a hint of an aggressive nature, which you never would have known watching their offense in the series.

“Come on, Las Vegas!” one Wranglers fan implored late in the game Thursday. “We need five goals!”

Problem: It might have taken until Christmas to score two.

The Aces outscored Las Vegas 14-3 in the series. The Wranglers entered the conference finals with the best power-play percentage in these playoffs. Then they went 0-for-22 against Alaska.

“(Alaska) is a top-notch team, one of the three best in our league the entire season,” Gulutzan said. “They are very good. … We had 76 points, had 18 playoff games. Probably what some people would consider a success. Although for this organization, our sights are always set higher.

“For this team and maybe the job I did, yeah, it is a success. But is the bar higher for us? Yeah, it is. So in that regard, it’s a failure.”

Which means one thing: Change is coming.

Gulutzan earlier Thursday likened the coming offseason to 2004-05, when the Wranglers totaled 70 points and missed the playoffs. It was then he overhauled the roster and returned the following season with a team that earned 112 points.

He didn’t hesitate when asked if losing as the Wranglers did this series will cause him to pause and reflect on roster moves over the next several weeks. It won’t. He knows what he wants to do now, who he wants to keep and who he wants gone.

“There will be major changes,” he said. “Not bad changes. Just changes. Some of our guys will have a chance to go to a (higher level) and should. Other guys need to move on. There are probably five, six guys we want back. But we will be retooling.”

The promise on paper never translated to results on ice. Gulutzan imagined this team 10 to 15 points better than it proved. His cause would be helped with a healthy defenseman or several, because you can’t fairly judge the season without including all the injuries.

But endings like this leave a bad taste for all involved.

The better team won and advanced. That was clear.

So was this: The Wranglers played Thursday as if they were the ones leading a series 3-0, as if they owned a large margin of error. You can’t sugarcoat that kind of effort. It is what it is. Unacceptable.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.