The Detroit Falcons being a great team is nothing new to the SMJHL, the reigning champions are once again on their way to claim the regular season lead, but what is it that sets this team Apart from the rest of the league.
So first, let's take a look at a few rough numbers to see just *how* good they really are. Their P% is 0.783, which is 0.026 better than Maine, who currently are leading the league in PTS. This reveals that the main reason as to why the Falcons are not already nesting atop the SMJHL is a lack of GP. Just like in P% in Diff, Detroit also appears to be a step ahead of the league but here the contrast is stark. While Maine and Newfoundland sit at 44 and 40 respectively, Detroit soars high at +64. Well that's pretty damn good, so good in fact that Detroit averages the most Goals per game AND the fewest conceded per game as well. It is interesting that while at first glance these big team stats might make you believe Detroit is by far the best team, but when looking at Shots for and against averages per game, it is clear the Newfoundland Berserkers are in prime position to charge at the top right behind Detroit. They are, so far, only generating 00.02 shots less per game for, and conceding 00.04 shots per game more on average than the Detroit Falcons.

While focusing on the large picture and team performance is great, let us dive deeper and look into Detroit's individual performances, where we can see what really sets them apart from the rest of the league. In the area of individual stats the Falcons present an anomaly, with all the scoring their offense gets done not one of their players has been able to break into the top 5 scorer discussion, instead the Falcons diversify their scoring output with 8 players on their roster currently having scored 10 or more goals. Meanwhile, in Maine only five and in Newfoundland only 4 players boast 10 goals or more. This is not only due to the Detroit's Falcons players willingness to share the puck and scoring opportunities, but also the fact that each player on that roster, including non-starters, all posses a polished and well-rounded style that has been formed by the coaching staff in Detroit. Their offense specializes in finding the open man and each player on the ice is always switched on looking to find the correct spot, which results in a lot of good looks for the Falcons. This also expresses itself in the fact that 3 Falcons are in the Top 10 Assist leaders and except for Hodor all skaters on their team have contributed for 10 or more assists.

While as we can see this well-rounded team focused approach clearly is yielding fantastic results, one weakness in the Detroit's game appears to be speed. While the Falcons have some of the strongest and most enduring athletes on their squad, none of their forwards are particularly fast or nimble. This might make it hard for them to skate past high level defenders when probing for gaps in their defense, or the inability to leave a defender in the dust during a breakaway.While the Falcons Penalty Kill is impecable, their own power plays might be slightly worse than the Berserkers, Grizzlies or Battleborn. So far they seem to largely rely on Bohdan Jarovsky to get things going on the power play. 

But all this is more than made up for by the entire teams' ability to control the puck. Thanks to that and their chemistry the falcons can keep the puck secure for long stretches of time and their accurate passing reduces the frequency of loose puck situations in which their lack of speed and acceleration might show. So far detroit has the fewest give-aways in the league with only non puck dominant teams following behind them. (Sidenote Detroit appears to be so good at controling the puck their take-aways seem to suffer from it.)

All in all, it is clear that the Detroit Falcons are not only one of the most succesful teams in the SMJHL, with a lot of great experienced players on their current roster, but also one of the most unique teams in the SMJHL, choosing extreme team hockey over a star player driven system.

@Estovich APPROVED! +5 TPE