As we are into the stretch of the season, I wanted to take a second to look into how MTL has played during the S79 season. There is no denying MTL has been rough over the past few seasons. So much so, the season I was drafted to the team we tallied 3 total points in the standings. Those days are *almost* long gone as MTL is making strides to push for the playoffs. I will admit I was shocked to see our play significantly improve as we have already surpassed last year's season total of 35 points (we currently sit at 40). This has almost spoiled me in the sense that I want more for us. I want to see us make the playoffs, and I want us to do it bad. I know that it is not a realistic hope to have as the East is a beast when it comes to teams in the middle level in terms of TPE. If we were in the West, a much more polarized division, I think we would almost be guaranteed to make the encore to the regular season. Alas, Manhattan is slightly ahead of us in the rebuild and I do not think that Atlanta or Buffalo will fall off planet Earth and lose their playoff positions, leaving the Pats once again hanging up the skates. At least, that is what my brain is telling me. My heart on the other hand looks at the MTL schedule and sees that of our last 16 games 11 of them we play teams outside of the top 8 in the standings. In my opinion these are the types of games we can win, or keep close enough to secure an overtime loss in. Meanwhile, Manhattan only plays 8 of their remaining 15 games against teams outside of the top 8. Knowing MTL has a game in hand and an easier schedule gives me that extra glimmer of hope not to give up just yet.

Turning to Chopper's stats for a brief moment, I was also pleasantly surprised with his play. Eight goals are not glamourous by any means but that in combination with 15 assists leaves me satisfied as Chopper has only -9 on his plus minus and the team currently sits at -44 overall. I think while his play has been lacking at times that overall, he is improving as I keep feeding him TPE and eventually he will be a monster in this league. Further, Chopper got into a fight this year and took the victory, setting his professional career record at 7-0, man can this kid throw some hooks. 

The future of MTL looks bright as we currently sit at 15th in total TPE in the league. The beautiful part about that is we do not have a single player in regression this season. Nor do we have a single player in regression the following season. Nor do we have one in the 3 seasons from now. Teams above us in the 25,000 TPE range will lose thousands of TPE a season as their team ages out. The kiddos in the province of Quebec won't deal with this issue for a while as we shall continue to grow as a team. Even when we hit regression, the league is very forgiving with it, so we will still continue to pile on our TPE. Better watch out, Pats on top soon!