|
(Graded) S56 Deep Dive - Main Timber - Positives and Negatives
|
SewingWithNancyRegistered Posting Freak
The Maine Timber are entering the regular season with a disappointing preseason and a slow first two games. It is odd to think how a team that is so deep with talent is struggling so much currently. Preseason saw the Timber give up six losses out of seven games. After watching nine games so far, I see two big glaring reasons this team is having a difficult time. One is lack of depth in the defense lines, and the other is taking a lot of penalty minutes.
In nine games, this team has spent 95 minutes in the penalty box. They are in the penalty box on average of ten and half minutes per game. Across the nine games, they have successfully spent less than 6 minutes in the box, once. ONCE! Now, one would assume that with all of these minutes playing with a man disadvantage, the Timber would be getting blown out on the scoreboard, but that just isn’t the case. Three of the four games where the Timber took more than 10 minutes of penalties, they only lost by a single point. Granted, nine games is not a huge sample size, but it is enough to see a few patterns. What does this potentially tell us? This tells us that while their defense might have a few holes, it also tells us that their offense is potent enough to close the gaps when their penalties and lack of depth in the defenders drop the ball, their 3 full lines of dominant forwards can get some pucks on net. Rikard Bjerg and Adrik Baranov will need to step up and really lead the defense as they are the seasoned vets of that core. Sean Gatez, Hanke’s Spride, and Franz Zipfel are really showing their rookie status. Three defensmen combined for a -12 while on ice in the preseason. This is not sustainable going forward. Thankfully they have reigned those numbers in and are +1 in the first two games of the season. As a whole, this defense has had 11 giveaways, while only notching 5 takeaways. Thankfully they have sacrificed themselves and tallied 15 blocked shots. Now lets stop talking about all the negatives and focus on the positives. This team knows how to score. In just two games, the Timber have found the back of the net 7 times. And these 7 goals are not from just one or two players. No, so far those goals are spread out among six players. Talk about depth. Alex Marshall, Walton Stromberg, Victor Ball, Calvin Hobbes, Kyle Sutton and Lucas Johansson are just the ones with goals. Some vets like Alexander Oscarsson, and Patrick Shepherd have yet to find the back of the net, but with a combined 10 shots on goal, its only a matter of time before they join the others on the score sheet. Just like every team in the league, the Timber are trying to find a way to work with what they have. On the surface it seems they have an embarrassment of riches, however, unless they can bring those penalty minutes down, and train those defensemen up, those riches might be spilling out the bottom of the treasure chest. I for one am excited to see how they handle themselves the rest of the season. GO TIMBER!!  Word Count - 613 APPROVED +5 TPE @SewingWithNancy |
|
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »
|
![[Image: d2EaZfr.png]](https://i.imgur.com/d2EaZfr.png)
| Users browsing this thread: |
| 1 Guest(s) |
