COMMENT ONE: Armada Overwhelms Lethbridge's Defensive Fleet

-Defense undid Lethbridge yet again in this blowout, as a couple goals were the result of the Armada getting sustained pressure with multiple shots in a row at even strength. The Lions goaltending routinely faces 30+ shots a game and are high on the leaderboard for shots allowed in the J. The odd turnover during the neutral zone breakouts didn't help matters either for the Lions, and two of them led to goals by Eero Niemi and Maxime Bouchard that helped ice the game for the Armada. Struggles are to be expected for a fresh expansion team, but the Lions went downhill after a preseason that wasn't totally terrible for them. Thats pretty concerning......

COMMENT TWO: Young Lions Lacking Claws In The Present

-Lethbridge may be good in a year or two, but right now the team's got all sorts of problems. The forward and defense corps are overworked on the depth end, as they're only rolling 3 lines and 3 pairings as opposed to 4 and 4. Several rookies have been benched, presumably for not putting out the required effort, but the answer may not be overworking the 3rd line and pairing to the tune of 18-20 minutes per game when they aren't ready to handle that. Even if the plan is to tank and build up, they could've done what the Outlaws did and secured several veterans and free agents to fill out the roster, adding some contributors in the first season to be in the playoff hunt. At least Monkey D Luffy is looking like a real find for the Lions, and could follow up his high draft position with another one next year at the SHL draft!

COMMENT THREE: Anchorage Analysis

-Top draft pick Olivier Cloutier got his first career assist for the Armada, and you know they want that to keep happening. Him, Johnny Sins, and Kalevi Karhunen are developing well so far according to Armada brass, and will hopefully translate that development to the scoresheet soon. Andris Dzerins is also progressing well, although he got burned badly in the faceoff circle tonight and will want to work on improving that. 2 for 12. Yikes. Overall, Anchorage looks to be good value for a playoff spot with eight returning veteran forwards, although the race is tight right now with 8 teams bunched closely together. Even though developing the rookies is important, getting another depth piece to take some even strength burden off of defensemen Jacob Geza and Leopold Lockhart might help them to win now......