The Manhattan Rage’s own Shiny reached out to me to discuss how I was feeling about the SHL and ask a few questions on behalf of the Rage organization. I feel the conversation went well and considering I have no other ties to the league they seem as good a choice as any for my second deep dive.
 
                The Rage are not likely to be blowing anyone away with their performance this season. That’s not to say they’ve had a bad season, they sit fourth in the eastern conference but that may be a little deceiving because they also sit at a very good winning percentage of 67.8%. With 5 teams winning over 70% of their games, and 3 of those teams sitting above them in the East I would say they are holding their own quite well and preforming better than the standings indicate.
               
Let’s take a look at a few of the players who have helped the Rage be successful in the regular season, starting with the great Ola Wagstrom. Ola has notched 25 goals this season- good for almost a goal in every other contest. On top of that Wagstrom has been credited with 38 assists, good for a +/- of +17. If  the rage want to take their strong regular season performance into the post season with them, they will surely look to the right winger Ola Wagstrom to be just as good, if not a touch better in the playoffs. It is also worth noting that Ola is a veteran of the league and has a few years behind them. This will be a tough hole to fill once the grizzled vet decides to hang up his gloves and they will likely look to pick up a solid winger early in this upcoming draft. A guy like Danny C will probably never hold a candle to the greatness of Ola Wagstrom, but he is a steady worker who might be able to provide a stop gap and combine with others to try and fill the hole completely.
 
                Of course fans of the Rage will know Wagstrom isn’t the only wing of note on the Rage’s roster. Austin Roenick has been nearly as good form the left side according to the index. Roenick actually has a slightly higher shotting percentage, up to almost 12 to Wagstrom’s 11.68, which is reflected in the extra goal Roenick carries, 26 to Wagstroms 25. He trails by a bit in the assist column at 30 and has a +/- pf 13. While Roenick certainly has scoring down, one area the Rage will look to him to be better in this post season is the giveaway to take away ratio. At 38 giveaways and just 19 takeaways Roenick has given twice as many pucks as he’s taken. Giveaways have a tendency to leave a team scrambling to cover the net and get set up and lead to good scoring opportunities for the team that comes up with the Puck so the coaches in Manhattan will surely be working on puck handling and passing with Roenick. It should be noted the winger plays a great aggressive gain, sitting at 98 hits so far on the season and he’s almost guaranteed to get that up into the triple digits before the final whistle of the regular season.
 
 
                All this is really to say this: Don’t sleep on the rage. If Ola and Austin can play at the top of their game in the coming weeks, the Manhattan Rage are sure to make a deep push into the playoffs.

Approved, +5 TPE @DannyC