We are doing much better in Montreal than I would have expected. I think if you would have asked anyone before the season, they would have expected the team with the most rookies on their roster to struggle, but that has not been the case. At this point in the season, Montreal is tied with Kelowna for the second highest average goals per game at 3.19. Not bad for a team where more than half of the skaters are in their first season. The other area they excel is in goals against. Montreal is allowing an average of 2.59 goals against, just 0.01 higher than Kelowna. One of Montreal’s biggest strengths so far this season has been in hits. We currently are first in the league with an average of 19.04 hits per game, which makes me happy, even if my player isn’t much of a hitter. There are some things we need to clean up before the playoffs. The things I think are most important are shots for and against. Right now we are just slightly below the league average in both. 25.48 shots for and 26.52 shots against. Both of these need to improve a bit for me to feel confident going into the playoffs.
What a strange season it has been so far! With so many rookies coming together and getting to know each other's styles on and off the ice, growing pains were to be expected, and the season has started slowly for sure. However, in the past few days, we've really started coming together as a team, and it shows. Galvanized by our veterans (led by Delver Fudgeson, our new captain), and passionately elevated by our stand-out rookies (rookie points leader Luca Veccelli, and our two new assistant-captains, Disisde Dayudie and Johnny Patey), the Lions are surging in the standings, to everyone's delight. And while we still have to improve our play at home (the fans are getting a bit restless, but with a 4-8-1 record at home, can you blame them?), it feels like this team is imposing its will when we're away - never giving the opposing team a second to rest, and playing like our lives depended on it. It's as though those long road trips are solidifying the bonds we have with each other, and I hope that this can bring this team to new heights.
The season has been a mixed bag thus far for the Lethbridge Lions. They currently sit in the 5th spot with 28 points. However, they are only five points away from being dead last in the league which is a scary situation. It does appear that the team is starting to gel however as they have strung together four wins in a row.
The Lions special teams have been impactful thus far. Their power-play sits at 4th place in the league at 19.39% and their penalty kill is first in the league at 86.11%. The penalty kill especially has been important since the Lions have been unable to stay disciplined and actually have the second highest penalty minutes (10.08 per game) in the league while only having the seventh highest hits in the league (16.04 per game).
In order to keep up their winning ways the Lions really need to stop taking bad stick penalties. Doing this will help ensure the Lions get a first-round bye which would be huge for the franchise in their aspirations of winning the championship.
Anchorage is having a tough go at it right now being last in the SMJHL. That being said, most of their troubles come down to them not being able to put the puck in the net with only 2.59 goals per game. Interestingly this is not for lack of trying since Anchorage is third in the J in shots for with 26.63 goals per game. If they begin to find the back of the net with their shots, their record should start to turn around. Additionally their special teams are hit or miss. To start the year anchorage was at the top of the league with 90% PK percentage which now stands near the bottom of the J and their powerplay which once was converting at 7.6% is now at 19%. These inconsistencies in special teams is something they need to sure up likely through line changes. Defensively Anchorage allows 25 shots per game with 3.26 of those shots finding the back of their net. Their defense is not allowing many shots but the shots they are allowing are likely from high scoring positions.
(180 ish words)
puolivalmiste Player Progression Director
Posting Freak
After 26 games played Vancouver is sitting on 9th place of league, with 25 points, 1 point behind Anaheim and Colorado and 2 points ahead of Anchorage. We are currently on 4 game win streak but while ago we had 10 games with record of 1-8-1.
In goals for we are 6th with 2.96 per game which is 0.03 below league average, but in goals against we are currently on 9th place with 3.27, 0.28 goals from average. So it is clear that while our scoring could improve our blue-line will have to work more for their pay, even tho we had our starter goalie called up and our back-up who has started in 3 games isn't up to task to keep our own end clear.
On PowerPlay% we are second with 23.42% which is more than 4% higher than league average. Our Penalty Kill% is 81.72% and that is 5th in league. So combined our special teams have 105.14% and we are sitting on third place less than 0.4% of leading Lethbridge Lions (105.5% combined PP+PK). This clearly shows that our special teams haven't been our problem which leads us to look at our 5 on 5 stats. Out of our 77 goals 26 have been on PowerPlay and 3 have been shorthanded goals leaving us with 48 even strength goals which is less than 2 per game.
Rest of stats are after 29 games.
Vancouver sits on second place on penalty minutes per game with 7.90 minutes while league average is 8.85 minutes so we are doing good job at staying out of box and on average we can take advantage of top powerplay lines.
During offseason Whalers lost multiple centers and it shows in Faceoff% where we sit at 9th place with 49.31%, our new rookie centers are still trying to improve their faceoffs and we should see increase in faceoff wins while playoffs get closer.
This season has been one of up and downs for the Outlaws. A team used to excellence after back to back finals appearances and 1 championship, this year is showing the volatile nature of junior hockey. With a large portion of the runner up team graduating, the Outlaws have been forced to rely on last year's role players and rookies in key spots. One of the biggest issues has been goal prevention. The outlaws lead the SMJHL in goals against, with 100. Last season's starting goalie graduated to the SHL, and if the outlaws want to have a repeat performance they'll have to pick it up defensively. Offensively there has been struggles as well, as the Outlaws are the only team that hasn't broke 80 goals on the season. That will have to change if any post season success is going to come. On the bright side, the powerplay is running at a 22.55% efficiency, good for 2nd in the league. They will have to lean on this powerplay to continue winning games. The team has the puck a lot, thanks to their 2nd place faceoff percentage, giving them time to build some success.
Montreal Militia has done way better than most could have anticipated with most of the team being rookies it makes for an interesting situation. The team shows its youth in its inconsistency at times and it can lead to erratic results where sometimes the team steamrolls someone like shutting out the Falcons to constantly getting blown out by Lethbridge. Ironically, 53.84% of their goals for have been at away games whereas 59.26% of their goals against have been at home which is leading to on home ice not being nearly as successful as away games. Montreal leads the league in hits with 550 which is 61 hits ahead of the second-place team St. Louis. Montreal is playing an extremely physical game, but to make it past the first round, there will need to be a consistency with goal scoring and shoring up on playing on home ice. The good news is the team is young and is only going to keep getting better with an active locker room and continued gains made in TPE.
08-22-2019, 11:27 AM(This post was last modified: 08-22-2019, 11:29 AM by Merica.)
The Detroit Falcons, henceforth referred to as the 'Dirty Birds', are the SMJHL's premier installation of hockey talent and expertise. Other teams routinely try to send in scouts, or better referred to as 'spies' to find the hidden secret that has allowed the Dirty Birds to wreak havoc and chaos on the inferior teams they work for, but sadly they have come up empty handed, especially the poor, poor Colorado Raptors, who are suffering from their inability to draft Landon Flynn and field an offense that doesn't resemble a bunch of neanderthals.
The gloriously Dirty Birds from Detroit are rocking and rolling, leading the league with 107 Goals for, and only 75 goals against, while also pouring in the most shots and taking the most shots. These are championship numbers, and they have achieved this through the pure synergistic chemistry they have with each other. Leader of the locker room and Detroit's #1 pick in the recent SMJHL Draft Landon Flynn had this to say on his teams chemistry: "It's just ELECTRIC out here, we just have this dragon energy, it's hard to explain, we just hit that ice and start sending heaters, we have this telepathy thing going on it feels like- it's contagious...we just wake up feeling dangerous."
S2, S5, S18, S22 Challenge Cup Champion
Hall Of Famers: (S7) Alex Reay | (S28) Daniel Merica
The Armada are back on track after a 2-11-1 record start to the season, which included a 10 game losing streak. During this span, they had a goal differential of -26 (28 GF vs 54 GA). However, things are looking up for them as they have a 12-4-1 record their last 17 with a 7 game win streak to boot. In this time, the Armada improved their game and saw a goal differential of +14 (56 GF vs 42 GA). A large part of their wins has been their ability to convert on the powerplay. They are currently ranked 4th on the PP, with a 20.63% conversion. This number would have been higher if they were able to score on many of those chances as they sported 0% PP rate at the start of the first few games of the season. The Armada have also been great at staying out of the box as they have the least amount of penalties taken to this point at 93 penalty kill attempts. But, the issue with their PK is their inability to kill them off even though they have such a low usage rate. Currently, they have the 7th best penalty kill at 78.49%, but are only marginally better than the Montreal Militia who are only 0.03% behind. This is only one of the many holes that the Armada need to fix as they steer closer to the playoffs. The major issue that has hindered the team is their inability to consistently put the puck in the back of the net. They currently have the 3rd lowest goals per game at 2.84. This may be due to their inability to get good scoring chances or capitalizing on the ones given. The Armada have the 2nd highest shots for at 27.19 and the 2nd highest shots against at 24.29. Rookie goalie, Ian Venables (@toirekari), has been stellar on the current run of success, but they need to be able to bail him out with goals, especially when they are getting a lot of shots on net. In addition, they all need to work better defensively to reduce the workload that Venables as he has taken the reigns over veteran Colt Beckett. They can’t keep relying on Venables to consistently put them in positions to win games. But, if they continue their steady improvement, they should be looking sharp for the playoffs. If the Armada end up placing in the bottom half of the standings, teams should be wary because their team stats have been heavily skewed due to their poor start to the season.
The last few games for the Montreal Militia have been rocky, to say the least. Dropping to fourth in the standings after fighting for the top three seeding has been demoralizing, but the team is going to bounce back. The locker room sticks together and prides itself humorously on the amount of hits they provide each game. Leading the league with a stunning 614 hits, the Montreal Militia play a physical game on the ice. Unfortunately, this means our stats like Shots For/Against, PIM/GP, and Faceoff Percentage are on the lower end, at 88.03%, 9.24, and 44.51%, respectively. The team stays positive and keeps themselves together and composed in the locker room, but players like Joseph Weston are constantly looking for ways to improve on the ice. The team has some great sequences and flashes of brilliance on the ice that they need to expand upon, to make those quick moments last for the entire game. When the team has a five man passing sequence that results in five shots and a goal, the locker room lights up. That's the kind of energy the Montreal Militia need to keep going and happening to find success in playoffs.
At the start of the season, my hopes were not high for the Vancouver Whalers. We had a very rocky beginning, but managed to recover as the season progressed and currently sit amidst the middle of the pack. For a team that is quite young with a lot of new faces joining the locker room, I'll be surprised if we make a deep run into the playoffs this year, but I'll be pleasantly surprised if it works out. Repeating as Four Star Cup Champions is the ultimate goal moving forward but I'm not sure as to how realistic that goal may be. As we continue to push through the second half of the year I look to really start making an offensive impact. With only six points up on the board so far this year, I've been performing far below the standard that I set for myself and it's really quite a shock to see. I'm not sure where that expectation should be moving forward, but I hope that in this last leg I'm able to grab onto an offensive push and really make a run for the top of the point scoring charts for rookies. If not, I'll just be happy to be playing in a great city with some great people.
Rich
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