One of the best defensive pairs in the ECHL from last season is back together but in a different jersey, as Colin Felix and Will MacKinnon find themselves looking to create some thunderstorms for opposing defenses after they both signed AHL deals with the Utica Comets but were sent down to Adirondack. Both blueliners had strong numbers in the +/- category as both guys finished the season with a +27; Felix had eight goals and 19 assists for 27 points last season, while MacKinnon finished the year with seven goals and 19 assists for 26 points with a +28. In the ECHL, players are always moving in the off-season, so being able to have a pair as good as MacKinnon and Felix on the same pair together on a different team is rare; however, they are looking to mimic what they did last season in Reading this season with the Thunder, “Ya, we kinda talked about it in the Summer. I didn’t know what his plans were, and I didn’t know what my plans were. I ended up signing, and he ended up signing here as well; it was a nice surprise to hear that he was signing and we’d potentially be playing together; he’s a really reliable guy, we had a lot of success last year, and we were hoping to carry that on to this year, and we’re lucky enough to be paired together” said Felix. MacKinnon and Felix aren’t the only ones that are happy to be together as Head Coach Pete MacArthur mentioned how lucky he is to have these two in Adirondack, “I think it’s huge, they live together down here, they were one of the top shutdown pairs together last year in Reading, and they’re in a groove together, it helps them play faster and protect the net front, especially in the D-zone, they also have some offensive abilities, and we’re lucky to have them as a top-pair” said MacArthur.
MacKinnon and Felix started the season as the top pairing for Adirondack and played six games together on the top pair during that time, MacKinnon only had one assist, and Felix was kept off the scoresheet, but recently, the two have been split up, and since being split up, Felix has found the back of the net in back-to-back games, and Ryan Orgel who he paired with has started to find his game playing with a new partner, has found put up points in three of his last four games (2G,1A). However, Orgel was paired with Topias Vilen over the weekend before Vilen was sent back to Utica on Sunday. Felix said it’s a bit of an adjustment playing with a new partner, but the main thing is communication, “Ya, you have to have a lot of communication when you’re used to playing with the same guy every night; maybe you don’t have to talk as much because you’re used to what the other player is doing, you play with a lot of different guys over the course of a game and the season so when you’re on the same page it’s a lot easier.”
However, MacArthur does plan to utilize the MacKinnon-Felix pair moving forward this season. When I asked him about splitting the pair up, he had this to say, “I think it helps to spread out our grittiness and edginess and filter it through the D core, and then when we need to put those guys together if we’re not playing so well in the d-zone, we always have that options, and depending on how the game is going, maybe they go back together in the third period, but I think it’s important to bring that intensity to more than one D pair.”
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