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*slothfacekilla* · 10-14-2019, 01:24 PM

With 26 games played, the New Orleans Specters are just a game over the midway point of their season. Unfortunately for the Specters they are having their worst season in franchise history, currently at 11-14-1, and sit at 4th place in the Western Conference. The Specters are tied for the second most goals as a team so far, but are staring at a minus 4 goal differential thanks to giving up the most goals of any team so far this season. New Orleans should look to tighten up their defense in the second half if they don't want to fall out of the playoff picture.

Now on to Jimmy's personal play. Last season I spent the entire year on the third line as the center after training face offs in the offseason. After being a winger for my entire career, I struggled not only in the face off circle but all over the ice. Even though I played 14 more minutes than my rookie season, I managed to finish with one less point in Season 49. I regressed in goals and only had 1 more assist than the previous year. I managed to play slightly better defense, coming in at minus 1 instead of my rookie season's minus 11(!!), but otherwise I saw a dip in almost every statistical category. The point total could partially be due to the team removing me from the power play (I saw 128 power play minutes my rookie season vs. 37 my sophomore season), but that doesn't account for my other stats being garbage too.

This season, the Specters moved me back to wing after I had a poor preseason as the third line center again. I actually was placed on the top line for the first few games of the season, with Piotr Czerkawski centering Nic Williams and me. After some line juggling I played a few games on the second line, still with Piotr as a center and Roman Augustus on the other wing. I am currently back on the top line with Piotr and Nic and I'm straight up having a good time.

26 games into Season 50 I have managed to match my career high from my rookie season with 24 points. In fact, I've matched my goal and assist total from that season exactly, so my next goal will be a personal best. I'm looking forward to setting new career highs in goals, assists, and points. I even manage to notch the first hat trick of my career (SMJHL included)!  Also, I've noticeably rounded out my game despite getting more minutes. While I have never been positive in my plus minus in my career, I'm currently third on the team at +6. I should easily out perform my career high in shots (111) since I have 88 shots already. It does look like I am hitting and blocking shots at a slower rate than previously in my career, but that is probably due to having beasts on my line in Czerkawski and Williams. I've rediscovered some of my power play prowess with 2 goals and 2 assists so far, but that's still off the pace of my rookie season.

Now onto the probably controversial part of my thread title, could I be a nominee for the Aidan Richan trophy this season? I went to look at the Season 49 awards show to see if they talked about why each of the players were nominated... but there was literally nothing there. Shout out to the SMJHL awards show for discussing these things! I remembered the great @BDonini wrote up an entire article on his ballot, so I'll use that. Ignoring the goalie nomination, it looks like Winter got his nom from 33 points as his career high to 53 points in Season 49. Barret McCarthy went from 25 points the season previous to 47 points as a defenseman, also smashing his career high of 34 points. BDonini also pointed to both player's over 250 minutes of special teams play.

How do I stack up? At my current point per game pace, I am looking at 47.5 points to finish 50 games. I'm guessing I won't keep this pace up, so not only would I round that down, but I would be super happy to hit 40 points this season. Both previous season totals and career high totals from Winter and McCarthy eclipsed my career high of 24 points (and 23 points last season). So that is slightly in my favor as far as I am theoretically improving more (or at least from a shittier version of me!).  But even if I do not regress my point production, I will only match McCarthy's total as a defenseman, and fall short of Winter's total by 6 whole points. Not great. Then to look at special teams minutes, I don't play penalty kill and if I double my power play time it only hits 134 minutes, which is quite short of BD's two skater nominees. I could be lucky if most of their minutes were still on the power play, but I didn't look into it! BD also mentioned their rankings in league scoring, currently I sit 14th (tied through 19th though) in SHL season scoring. I imagine that I will slip a bit, so that isn't looking great either. Honestly if I was top 30 in scoring to finish Season 50 I would personally be ecstatic.

Verdict: Probably Not. While I'm having a much improved year, I think the lack of top end ranks for my points total will overshadow my lackluster two season in the SHL compared to the previous nominees. I also don't play many special teams, nor block a ton of shots or hit. I can point to my plus minus being drastically improved, especially being top 3 on the Specters, but I am unsure if the awards voters weigh plus minus that much in relation to shot blocks and hits.  If I keep up my point pace I may be able to sneak in as a nomination, but I am not holding my breath. Just glancing at the current top 20 point scorers so far, I can see some players who would probably have a better claim than me.

Still, I am extremely happy with my season, and excited to see how it ends up.

***JKortesi81*** · 10-14-2019, 01:34 PM

Glad to see Jimmy finally showing everyone why he was worth being the first pick in New Orleans Specters History. You can really only continue to get better from here!

ACapitalChicago · 10-14-2019, 01:40 PM

You're still my hero sloth, excellent in-depth article! Love the comparison of stats and the inferences that come with them.

S66 Damian Littleton

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*slothfacekilla* · 10-14-2019, 01:49 PM

10-14-2019, 01:34 PMJKortesi81 Wrote: Glad to see Jimmy finally showing everyone why he was worth being the first pick in New Orleans Specters History. You can really only continue to get better from here!

Thanks boss Heart

*slothfacekilla* · 10-14-2019, 01:49 PM

10-14-2019, 01:40 PMACapitalChicago Wrote: You're still my hero sloth, excellent in-depth article! Love the comparison of stats and the inferences that come with them.

Thanks man, I enjoy looking into SHL stats (mostly when they favor my player!), and with all this time at work... y'all are going to be sick of me!

Tomasnz · 10-14-2019, 04:28 PM

So since you asked nicely.

Here is my richan nom approach.

For forwards I tend to keep it simple, I am looking for big ratio improvements from previous years. Traditionally the ratios needed seem to be between 1.8 and 3.

For defenders that are above 1.6ish I'll also check some of the defender stats, shot blocks and hits. To see if there have some big trends.

Also if someone hits a big milestone number for the first time say 50 points, 200 hits, or 80 shotblocks. If they have also had a big points improvement I might also consider them, even if their ratio was lower.

For me personally. Once you have a few seasons of 35+ points I kinda discount you because I tend toward the breakout aspect of this award as well as most improved, ie. You have already landed on the scene. The same applies to lower point total players with big improvements. Like 5 points to 20 is a huge improvement, but I don't feel you have Broken out yet(although for a dfd with big other stats might still get the nod).

Hope that is interesting. Also. I am happy for people to critique what I have said above. But keep in mind this is one of the two super heavy judgement awards and tends to have a lot of interesting divergence by the committee.

*slothfacekilla* · 10-14-2019, 04:38 PM

10-14-2019, 04:28 PMTomasnz Wrote: So since you asked nicely.

Here is my richan nom approach.

For forwards I tend to keep it simple, I am looking for big ratio improvements from previous years. Traditionally the ratios needed seem to be between 1.8 and 3.

For defenders that are above 1.6ish I'll also check some of the defender stats, shot blocks and hits. To see if there have some big trends.

Also if someone hits a big milestone number for the first time say 50 points, 200 hits, or 80 shotblocks. If they have also had a big points improvement I might also consider them, even if their ratio was lower.

For me personally. Once you have a few seasons of 35+ points I kinda discount you because I tend toward the breakout aspect of this award as well as most improved, ie. You have already landed on the scene. The same applies to lower point total players with big improvements. Like 5 points to 20 is a huge improvement, but I don't feel you have Broken out yet(although for a dfd with big other stats might still get the nod).

Hope that is interesting. Also. I am happy for people to critique what I have said above. But keep in mind this is one of the two super heavy judgement awards and tends to have a lot of interesting divergence by the committee.

Thank you for posting this! It is always interesting to hear the voters' thoughts especially since I'm on the J committee. Like, I think I was including your break out thinking in my evaluation of the award too, and I didn't really connect that it could be a different view of looking at "most improved" in comparison to other voters.

Hopefully Jimmy's improvements at least warrant some consideration at the end of the season!

Tomasnz · 10-14-2019, 04:41 PM

10-14-2019, 04:38 PMslothfacekilla Wrote:
10-14-2019, 04:28 PMTomasnz Wrote: So since you asked nicely.

Here is my richan nom approach.

For forwards I tend to keep it simple, I am looking for big ratio improvements from previous years. Traditionally the ratios needed seem to be between 1.8 and 3.

For defenders that are above 1.6ish I'll also check some of the defender stats, shot blocks and hits. To see if there have some big trends.

Also if someone hits a big milestone number for the first time say 50 points, 200 hits, or 80 shotblocks. If they have also had a big points improvement I might also consider them, even if their ratio was lower.

For me personally. Once you have a few seasons of 35+ points I kinda discount you because I tend toward the breakout aspect of this award as well as most improved, ie. You have already landed on the scene. The same applies to lower point total players with big improvements. Like 5 points to 20 is a huge improvement, but I don't feel you have Broken out yet(although for a dfd with big other stats might still get the nod).

Hope that is interesting. Also. I am happy for people to critique what I have said above. But keep in mind this is one of the two super heavy judgement awards and tends to have a lot of interesting divergence by the committee.

Thank you for posting this! It is always interesting to hear the voters' thoughts especially since I'm on the J committee. Like, I think I was including your break out thinking in my evaluation of the award too, and I didn't really connect that it could be a different view of looking at "most improved" in comparison to other voters.

Hopefully Jimmy's improvements at least warrant some consideration at the end of the season!

I'll keep it simple for you... Baring other people being amazing, hit 50 points and I think you'll be a shoo-in, 45, maybe.. Ahh

Glad you found it interesting.

***luke*** · 10-14-2019, 04:50 PM

Here’s an answer: no

*slothfacekilla* · 10-14-2019, 05:15 PM

10-14-2019, 04:50 PMluketd Wrote: Here’s an answer: no

Thank you for agreeing with me

Mayuu · 10-15-2019, 02:44 AM

10-14-2019, 04:41 PMTomasnz Wrote:
10-14-2019, 04:38 PMslothfacekilla Wrote: Thank you for posting this! It is always interesting to hear the voters' thoughts especially since I'm on the J committee. Like, I think I was including your break out thinking in my evaluation of the award too, and I didn't really connect that it could be a different view of looking at "most improved" in comparison to other voters.

Hopefully Jimmy's improvements at least warrant some consideration at the end of the season!

I'll keep it simple for you... Baring other people being amazing, hit 50 points and I think you'll be a shoo-in, 45, maybe..

Glad you found it interesting.

I had one decent season S47 I think. 30 points but was mostly carried by my line. Next season my player did worse. Then last season I got about 180 more hits and went from 24 points to 44.
I don't think I was even on the radar.

RETIRED

Tomasnz · 10-15-2019, 02:53 AM

10-15-2019, 02:44 AMMayuu Wrote: I had one decent season S47 I think. 30 points but was mostly carried by my line. Next season my player did worse. Then last season I got about 180 more hits and went from 24 points to 44.
I don't think I was even on the radar.

So like. It's definitely one of the more multiple factors awards. Becuase of that I think it is one people should be cautious about suggesting they should or shouldn't have been nominated (I know you didn't). But for me, three players nominated, you need to be really making the case on both the most improved aspects and the breakout aspect.

Like ?-30-24-44 season, the 44 was obviously your breakout season as you say. But was it the top three breakout seasons across 50 odd eligible players? I don't remember. But it is worth keeping that context around these discussions. Individual performance can be great and amazing even, but it isn't a threshold thing it's who else was amazing during the same season and how amazing were they.

Hope that is useful context. I am definitely pushing for us to publish our long list, becuase I think there is little worse than being the 4-6th best players in a category and not knowing that. Just knowing you pleated amazing. But missed a nom... That's rough. I think it helps to know if you were close.. maybe I am wrong though.

Mayuu · 10-15-2019, 03:54 AM

10-15-2019, 02:53 AMTomasnz Wrote:
10-15-2019, 02:44 AMMayuu Wrote: I had one decent season S47 I think. 30 points but was mostly carried by my line. Next season my player did worse. Then last season I got about 180 more hits and went from 24 points to 44.
I don't think I was even on the radar.

So like. It's definitely one of the more multiple factors awards. Becuase of that I think it is one people should be cautious about suggesting they should or shouldn't have been nominated (I know you didn't). But for me, three players nominated, you need to be really making the case on both the most improved aspects and the breakout aspect.

Like ?-30-24-44 season, the 44 was obviously your breakout season as you say. But was it the top three breakout seasons across 50 odd eligible players? I don't remember. But it is worth keeping that context around these discussions. Individual performance can be great and amazing even, but it isn't a threshold thing it's who else was amazing during the same season and how amazing were they.

Hope that is useful context. I am definitely pushing for us to publish our long list, becuase I think there is little worse than being the 4-6th best players in a category and not knowing that. Just knowing you pleated amazing. But missed a nom... That's rough. I think it helps to know if you were close.. maybe I am wrong though.

It's all good mate. I'll take cups over awards any day of the month Smile

RETIRED

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