1.

This year the Vancouver Whalers will be handing out something special to all fans who join us in the arena for a viewing of other playoff games. To show support and appreciation to the fans for their dedication we’ll be handing out the most high quality playoff rags in the world. The rags are made from the finest of silk from the steppes of western China, and woven by hand using techniques that date back to the days of the Roman Empire. The fine silk is processed and finally we print onto the rag, “We Tried”. The slogan encompanses the effort and quality of the Vancouver Whalers team throughout the season. Make sure to pick up yours for $50 on the first day of the SMJHL finals where Detroit and St. Louis will face off!

2.

Mike Izzy had a decent SMJHL season, putting up 10 goals and 9 assists for a total of 19 points in the 50 games played. This put him at a .38 point per game rating with a good corsi of +19 over the season. While these stats are nice, especially the corsi of +19, it still wasn’t an exceptional season by the rookie forward. That being said as the playoffs started Izzy stepped up into a pseudo leadership role that Kelowna believed he could perform in all along. This is especially demonstrated in the Game 3 loss to Detroit in the 1st round of the playoffs. Now, just because this game resulted in a loss we shouldn’t ignore Izzy’s individual efforts. Izzy stepped onto the ice and up a goal and 2 assists in 20 minutes of ice time. That’s a very impressive game for Izzy, and it put him in a position to get the 1st star of the game. Not only that, but Izzy threw 5 hits to ensure his team was playing hard and physical and still dominate the +/- category by being a +3 in a Kelowna loss. Overall Izzy really broke out this game, and we’ll probably see more of this Mike Izzy next season.

3.

It’s only fitting I do the final game of the playoffs here, since I had the pleasure of doing the PBP for the last battle between the Detroit Falcons and the St. Louis Scarecrows.

The game started off really well for the Falcons, who going into the series were up 3 - 2, as right off the bat Wright was able to slip one past the Crows defence and their goalie Jimmy Wagner. This would eventually be an indication of what was to come for the rest of the game for both teams. The Falcons did a fantastic job of playing solid offense and absolutely dominating the possession game, all while playing a disciplined game as well. That being said, we shouldn’t rule out some of the Crows defensive efforts as well. While the defence wasn’t great, and Wagner wasn’t playing that well, their PK was absolutely killer. The Crows took a total of 8 penalties, which totals to 20 minutes of being a man down (give or take) and they killed 100% of those power plays. If the Crows had kept this defensive effort up and played a better offensive game, we might have seen a far closer game. Detroit as well, had a good defensive game as they limited the Crows to 9 shots on goal. Not for a period though, the whole game. Detroit had arguably one of the most dominant playoff games in SMJHL history absolutely limiting the Crows chances on offense. Another interesting stat to look at in this dominate Detroit victory is faceoffs, but surprisingly we see that faceoffs we’re relatively even for both sides as Detroit had 37 wins total and St. Louis had 40 wins total. Overall the game was really interesting too look at, especially stats wise because some were so close (faceoff wins) and some were so vastly different (shot differential being 33 - 9), but in the end it was a dominate 4 - 1 performance with Arrivabene, Rossi, Gauthier putting up 2 points to help their team win an easy game.



4.

Vancouver Whalers - Oh Whale, We’ll Get Em’ Next Season!

#HurryForMurray
#CamOmlette
#Magar34in34’


5.

Top 5 dirty players in the SMJHL (As of when the index was last updated, which because Allen is ded does not pertain to the finals):

1. Dani Forsberg (PGF) - As of the last update, Forsberg led the league in penalty minutes during the playoffs. Despite being in the box for 18 minutes, Forsberg still played a crucial role for the firebirds putting up 8 points in 10 games.

2. Tae McDonald (MTL) - In 4 games McDonald put up an impressive 15 penalty minutes. That’s a pretty large amount of minutes in the box considering the amount of games she played. Tae also only put up a single point in all four games, which furthers the effect of her time in the box. If Montreal had lasted longer it’d be very interesting to see where McDonald falls on the board here.

3. Jake Brosnan (COL) - Brosnan, one of the Mammoths rookies, is #2 in penalty minutes in the index at the moment. He currently leads all the other rookies, the next one coming in at 3 minutes behind him. To be honest, Brosnan didn’t have a great playoffs only throwing 17 hits and 5 shots, while only netting 4 points and a -1 corsi. That being said 5 of his minutes came from a fight that he won, so that shouldn’t be overlooked.

4. Roddy Hawkins (DET) - At the time Hawkins was having a pretty unimpressive playoffs. He only put up 5 points with a -1 corsi in 10 games, all while playing around 24 minutes a game for his team. And worst of all, he had a whoppin 12 minutes of penalty minutes. With that ice time Hawkins was expected to put up more points and stop playing an undisciplined game.

5. Otto Lahti (DET) - Lahti, another Detroit player, was another person similar to Hawkins had a pretty unimpressive run in the playoffs. He had 12 minutes of penalty minutes like Hawkins did above, but his stat line was rather dull. He played decent, but nothing amazing. Maybe if he wasn’t chillin in the box with his boy Hawkins he would have put up more points.

(Don’t take this list personally, it was a jape)