An accusation often thrown at Andrew Lord during his time in Cardiff was that it is easy to have success when you can “buy the best players.”

Undoubtedly having access to large purse strings and the backing of a strong ownership group and management makes life somewhat less taxing. 

However, continuing to deliver winning teams is not the easy task many fans believe it to be.

When he opted to leave Cardiff and head to Greenville, the enormity of the task at hand was not to be downplayed https://wp.me/p2gDti-VX

Lord made a promising beginning with Carolina’s ECHL affiliate https://wp.me/p2gDti-13m 

There have certainly been some dips along the way, though nothing to derail the overall goal of attaining a playoff berth at the first attempt.

What stood out is how difficult his team was to beat this season.

Greenville won twice as many games in regulation (38) as they lost and picked up an extra fifteen points in OT/SO losses.

Eighteen games into the 2020-21 campaign, the team was at somewhat of a crossroads.

Greenville was picking up points, but a 6-5-7 record may not have looked so good had they endured a losing slump.

Greenville would use 41 skaters and five goaltenders during a campaign like no other.

Any coach will tell you that many players coming in and out of the line-up is problematic for numerous reasons including systematic and building chemistry.

What is particularly notable is how the team finished the season. 

Through the final twenty-five games, the Swamp Rabbits picked up seventeen regulation wins and three extra points in OT losses to place second in the Eastern Conference.

Again remembering this is a team that had previously made the playoffs just once in four completed seasons and were likely to miss out in the 2019-20 campaign cut short due to the pandemic.

There was no fairytale ending for the West Vancouver native in his first year coaching in North America.

In a shortened playoff format, Greenville took out Indy 3-1 in a best of five series and faced South Carolina in the next round.

With the winners progressing to the Kelly Cup Final, it was always going to be a series in which small margins mattered.

That proved the case in an enthralling four games.

The teams exchanged blow-out wins in games one and two before the Stingrays won a dramatic game three.

South Carolina scored three goals without reply in the third period without reply to eradicate a 2-0 deficit. The game-winner was netted with twenty seconds remaining.

Greenville attempted to repay the favour in game four but came up short in a 2-1 loss.

Regardless of the heart-breaking result and finish to the campaign, it’s been nothing but a successful first season for Andrew Lord.

In his rookie year, he has proven many doubters wrong.

Lord has brought together a diverse roster of players including rookies, showing that he is far from being a one-trick pony, reliant on a stack of cash to build a winning team.

Andrew Lord might not be high on the list for any of the AHL jobs currently available. 

However, do not be surprised to see his name crop up in the future if he carries on in the same vein with the Swamp Rabbits.

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