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jumpSeat · 07-21-2022, 07:25 AM

For all the loyal fans in and around Portland and the great state of Maine. Hello everyone and away we go, with another edition of the Maine Timber show! On this week's program, we 'll take a special look back at the first eight games of the season to see exactly how the Timber stack up against the opposition! As you might expect, the competition in the SMJHL is always tough, but our boys are looking mighty sharp and ready to chop down whatever gets in their way!

On tonight's show, we'll take at look at this year's three star selections, our current top points leaders and a very special profile on our fine goaltending trio! It's a jam packed program, so without any further adieu, let's kick it off with a look at the results from the first eight games:

[Image: Regular_Season_Results_10.4_10.19a.png]

[Image: Regular_Season_Results_10.4_10.19a.png]

As you can see, the Timber have been absolutely red hot over the last four outings, during which time we've only surrendered three goals! The offense is firing on all cylinders and the defense is aggressively clearing the front of the net! Then if you add strong goaltending on top of that, it's not hard to see just why our favorite team is on a great early roll of 6-1-1!

We'd also like to draw your attention to the three star selections for each of our games. Please notice how (over the last four contests), we've completely dominated in that category by sweeping all 12 available spots! This is a great indication of just how deep our club is in the zone right now, and just how hard we need to work to maintain it as best we can.

Just for fun, we thought we'd play a little game and assign three points for a first star selection, two points for second star honors, and a single point for third. Based on this scale, the Three Star Timber of the year (so far - with six points) is our very own Nibbles The Squirrel!! Whoop, whoop! Yay

Moving on to the points leaders, let's take a look at where everyone stands after eight games played:

[Image: Players_Points_One-8.png]

The superbly talented Gravy Train continues to lead the way with 11 points in the first eight games! Moving into second place is Daniel Swift with 8 points, followed closely by Perry Theplatypus and Iam Downski with 7 points each. What this says to me, is the attack is very evenly balanced across all three lines, which helps explain why the opposition is having such a hard time trying to shut us down. On a good night, you can check one line into the ice, but when the other two are just as prolific at scoring, it becomes way too much to handle!

And now as promised, a special look at the goaltending situation in Maine:

[Image: Goalies-8.png]

While most teams in the league use a tandem system, Maine is a little different in their deployment of a goaltending trifecta. So far, it's working beautifully, so why argue with success? If we take a close look at the stats, you'll see all three netminders have excellent save percentages of .957, .942 and .921 respectively. In all honesty, any team would love a starting goaltender with a save percentage of .920 or higher. That's basically all you can ask for on any given night, to give your team a chance to win.

The other stat that totally jumps off the screen is the goalie game rating. Here we see 84, 81 and 75. Please trust me when I say, these are all excellent numbers. Anything 80 and above is all-star caliber and other worldly, while 75+ is great for any starter. With such a bevy of talent at our disposal, it's hard to imagine goaltending not being a key positional strength throughout the season!

This week's tallest Timber award goes to LD Tam Bunnings for a remarkable (and team leading) 23:37 in average ice time! (From what I hear the coach loves this player so much, he never wants to take Tam off)!! And the Unsung Hero award goes to G Lachlan Moon who's only had one start, but has certainly made the most of it with an incredible goals against average of just 1.00! Gimme lots more of that please!!

Well, according to the old clock on the wall, that's all the time we have for this week. Hope you enjoyed the show and until next time - keep the Timber rolling! Timber