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(Graded) Deep Dive #2 - The Metamorphisis of a Whale
#1
(This post was last modified: 01-18-2021, 06:08 PM by StamkosFan.)

The planet Sardang has three moons.  The smallest of these moons, Jelka, was settled very early on in the life cycle of Sardangian culture.  Civilized society was setup on it, and while it was a struggle, the settlers largely did very well for themselves.  That is, until the discovery of the Globudemms.  Globudemms are tiny creatures, with nothing remarkable about them to speak of.  They did nothing, scared no one, performed no useful function, and for all intents and purposes were seen as barely a lifeform.  Some might see them as similar to earth's Tardigrade - nearly impossible to kill, but essentially harmless.

Of course, once you inject a new factor into the lifecycle of the Globudemm, you get something entirely different.  The first signs of concerns among the Jelkan settlers were when the dust cattle began to get violently sick. It happened nearly overnight, with large swaths of the cattle showing up emaciated, or even worse, dead, scattered around their farms. Small ring-like markings appeared all over the hides of the dust cattle, and within a week, almost the entire stock was wiped out on the moon, devastating the food supply for the settlers.

What came next was far worse.

The Globudemms went from tiny, harmless creatures, into massive and violent killing machines.  It turns out that once they got a taste for the nitrogen-rich life liquids inside the dust cattle, they not only became incredibly violent, they grew in size remarkably.  The effects of the Globudemm feedings were not just limited to physical growth, and they began to rapidly gain in intellect as well.  They formed small communities and created plans for capturing and entrapping Jelkan settlers, essentially turning them into cattle themselves, to be harvested for their life liquids.  Though the Jelkans tried to fight back against the Globudemms, they were no match, as the growth within their ranks as they fed, was far too rapid.

Within a month, all of the Jelkan communities had been overrun and enslaved, with even the underspawns being harvested for their life liquids by the Globudemms.  It was a horrific turnaround from a story of great perseverance and hard work, to a cautionary tale of what can go wrong on an alien world (or moon in this case).

Eventually the Sardangs had to deal with the situation themselves, as the Globudemms were growing so quickly intellectually, that there was concern that they would discover space travel and eventually find their way onto Sardang itself.  The decision was made to vaporize the moon, and all life upon it, and only a couple months after the first dust cattle were found dead, the Sardangian space force set upon the moon of Jelka with their guns, and erased it from existence.  It was a dark time in Sardangian history, but in some ways a remarkable story of what can happen when a seemingly unremarkable species hits the evolutionary lottery.

So why do I tell this story?

Well, dear readers, it is because we may be witnessing something similar in the metamorphisis of the Vancouver Whalers from the SMJHL version of the tiny Globudemms, and into the life liquid drinking behemoth that they became.

Let us look at the turnaround that this club has made from the regular season and after the first two rounds of the SMJHL playoffs.  One must wonder if the SHL itself is starting to consider wiping the Vancouver Whalers franchise off the face of the earth as it fears it may soon grow too strong and invade even the SHL itself.  Time will tell.

The Team.

After 66 regular season games the Vancouver Whalers were floundering at the bottom of the SMJHL standings in the West with only 66 points - a .500 win percentage.  With a goal differential of -42, they were more often than not on the losing end of beatdowns, and many had written them off as something to be ignored, or debased. Who could blame them?  What else had they shown?

Their top two scorers,  KnockedOut byOvechkin and Valtterri Kauppinen both had earned 57 points in 66 games and sported matching -19 in the plus/minus category. The team got off to a horrible start to the season, and while they had some stretches where they showed that perhaps they could win some games - on most nights they were barely a factor. But like the rise of the might Globudemm, they seemed to change overnight into something to be feared.

The Whalers now have a 8-1 record in the postseason, and the reasons why are many, and varied.

Leading the charge is Valtterri Kauppinen, who set a new record with a whopping 7 points in a single game. Lest we worry that this was a one off, his tally after only 9 games is a stunning 18 points.  An unnamed shattered Detroit Falcon, let's call him Jeeval Peezwak for anonymity, said after they were swept from the playoffs, "I have never seen such a force in my life before.  It was as if Kaupinnen had injected himself with the blood of a wild horse. He was everywhere at once and yet, when it came time to steal the puck form him, he was suddenly nowhere - gone like a water vapor.  They will speak of his play in the future like they do of the Wyld Stallions and their music."

While on the ice some have said that they can literally see Kauppinen's muscles grow even as he plays, and a heat is emitted from his body. It is almost as if something has fundamentally changed with his DNA.

Another reason for the remarkable rise on the Whalers, has been their team defense. With a combined plus/minus of -287 after 66 regular season games, there was nary a game when the team wouldn't return to their locker rooms having been run out of the rink. The entire team seems to have bought into a new defensive structure and it has paid off massively.  Perhaps the most stark example of this change has been the defensive pairing of Narboza Manyhands and Sarah Burke.  As the regular season drew to a close the two had combined for a total of 37 points in 66 games (a rate of .56 points per game) and a combined plus/minus of -76, as they ranked second last and fifth last in the entire league in that category. After nine playoff games, the pair have now seen 8 pojnts in 9 games (a rate of .89 points per game), but even more remarkably, have a combined plus/minus of +12.  Narboza does not play special teams for the most part, and yet has seen an uptick in his ice time of a few minutes per game.  It appears that now that he is not a massive liability out there every night, that the coach has begun to trust him more in his play. Sarah Burke's four powerplay points in nine games have added a whole new dangerous element to the team's special team play and forced other teams to worry about both units now instead of just one.

Overall team defense has improved across the board.  In the regular season the Whalers averaged 18.3 Hits, 8.6 Give Aways, 6.5 Take Aways, and 14.1 Shot Blocks per game.  After two rounds they have turned things around with an average of 21.8 hits per game, 8.1 Give Aways, 5.6 Take Aways, and 14.2 Blocked Shots.  What we are seeing is a team who has ramped up their physical play to a remarkable degree, is being more responsible with and without the puck, and is still as committed as ever to getting in front of the puck whenever possible.

We must also not forget about the play of goaltender John St. Ark - a fitting name considering how he has rescued the whales time and again from certain doom.

In 60 regular season games St Ark hovered near the bottom of the pack for regular starting goaltenders with a .902 Save Percentage and a .310 GAA. With a .210 GAA and a .926 Save Percentage in the post season, only Chimkin Tendy of Anchorage has better regular stats than he does.  Some have said that he has changed his diet around, but if so, he must be eating the blood of virgins, for his play has been truly legendary in the postseason thus far.

Finally, there is the issue of team morale.  While the Whaler's have always had a fairly upbeat team, even during some of the more difficult times during the regular season, they are coming together at just the right time and the atmosphere on the team shows it.  Disco dance parties, team massages, 24 hours straight of YMCA blaring on the team youtube stream, and manicures every second day, have really lightened things up around the team.  One wonders if this will finally lead to the mating that Manyhands expected all along.

With two rounds yet to go, and more potential upsets on the horizon in the SMJHL, could it be that we are witnessing the rise of something far more dangerous than people want to admit yet?  Perhaps.  We shall wait and see.

Approved +5 TPE @nyumbayangu
#2

Always Remember Jelka. A dark time indeed.

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