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*Zerg* · 06-09-2021, 12:02 AM

What positions do the Colorado Raptors need most based on their playoff disaster, and what holes should they seek to fill through the draft?

The Colorado Raptors S59 season was an unequivocal disaster. This was the team's year, their best chance at the Four Star Cup with their current core. They gave a solid performance in the regular season, finishing well enough to secure a bye week in the playoffs. We all know how that ended. The team, with some of the best goaltending in the league, hot young forwards, and a solid defense, was swept in four games by the Anchorage Armada.

This disaster has been largely overshadowed by current media scrutiny of certain roster management tactics employed by the Kelowna Knights. In an ideal world, the most controversial thing about Kelowna should be their atrocious goal song, but the Raptors have been more thankful for this controversy than anything else, as it's shifted focus away from the fact that they may have just blown their best shot at a cup in the foreseeable future. That ends today. We're now going to take a cold, hard look at what went wrong for the Colorado Raptors, and the kinds of players they will need to target in the upcoming draft if they plan to challenge for a cup again before their S58 class ages out of the juniors and begin their SHL careers in earnest.

Game one of that playoff series hardly portended a sweep, at least at the time. A 4-2 loss is not the way any team wants to begin their postseason, but it's not exactly getting Brazil'd. However, if one looks at the individual performances of the players the Raptors were counting on to step up for these playoffs, one will see that the game was more worrying than its scoreline.

Yanno Rosejac, it must be said, bears absolutely no blame for this sweep. In this first game, he posted a spectacular .925 save percentage. The fact that he still recorded a loss on a performance like that is a well-deserved indictment of the skaters in front of him. He fared far worse in game two, getting flamed with a .794 save percentage, but in games three and four he dominated with a .923 and a truly spectacular .944(!) save percentage respectively. This series clearly cannot be blamed on the goalie; the skaters blew what would have gone down as an all-time, legendary SMJHL performance by their goalie in his final year in the J had they been able to net him even one single win.

With the obligatory nod to Rosejac's greatness out of the way, let's look at the rest of this Raptors team. The goalie wasn't the one who choked, so who did?

In game one, the Raptors' three best players were RESO, KEKW Kekkonen, and Tokke. Their analytical overall game ratings were 67, 63, and 61 respectively. Tokke was in his rookie season, the other two were in their final years in the junior league. Tokke did not contribute to the scoresheet and registered only a single shot on net, but if the team expected their rookie power forward to carry the team through the playoffs, the problem was not with the rookie. Kekkonen was one of the only two players on the team to finish this game with a positive plus-minus rating. (The other was his center, Sonata Diamante, who did not register an assist on either goal the Raptors scored in game one.)

To see what went wrong, and see what would continue to go wrong for the Raptors through the remainder of the series, we need only look at the team's middle line of Artemius Nystrom, Leon Schweingruber, and Eero Makinen JR. Each player on this line finished with a -3 and a defensive game rating of 50 or lower. If one removes Makinen, the other two players on this line had a defensive game rating under forty. While Nystrom did generate some buzz on offense, with a rating of 63, none of that buzz translated into points.

The only goals scored by Colorado this game were by Jack Nishimori and KEKW Kekkonen, as mentioned previously. These are not Colorado's big scorers. Sotakov, Kekalainen, Makinen, and Diamante were all held scoreless by Anchorage. Colorado simply wouldn't be able to win this series unless someone stepped up and scored goals.

No one did. In game 2, the wheels well and truly came off. The Colorado Raptors quite literally got Brazil'd, a 7-1 massacre at the hands of a clearly superior Anchorage Armada. True credit for this game would have to go to the Armada, who ran absolutely roughshod over a Colorado Raptors team that had been favored going into the series. But we're not here to break down the series as a series, or give credit where it's due, we're here to analyze what went wrong and how the Raptors can try to rebound via this year's draft. So, let's dive into this hideous mess of a game and see where the darkest spots were for the Raptors, and what few bright spots they had.

Colorado's young defensive pairing in Josiah Hansen and Karl Detloff were absolutely victimized this game. But just like Tokke in the previous game, if the Raptors were trying to rely on those youngsters to eat tough minutes and shut down the opposition, the fault was not with the kids. Hansen and Detloff were thrown into the ring with opponents they were unprepared to face. However, none of the Raptors' defensemen fared particularly well this game, regardless of age. Not one Colorado defenseman finished with a plus minus of even zero, which several Raptors forwards did. Among those forwards were Nystrom and Makinen, both of whom registered assists on the Colorado Raptors' sole goal of the game, which was scored by none other than Angus McFife XVIII, a defenseman. If the final score is 7-1, and the team's one goal was scored by a defenseman, it's unfair to blame the result on one particular corps within the team. The defense couldn't defend, the offense couldn't score, and not even a superhuman goalie like Yanno Rosejac could bail out that kind of performance.

The bright spots for the Raptors in game 2 were mostly from the forward group. Nystrom, Diamante, Sotakov, and Tokke had overall game ratings of 71, 70, 65, and 65, respectively. Of these players, only Diamante is set to leave the team this offseason. Nystrom in particular seemed just on the edge of scoring the whole night. Surely, one of these will eventually go in, one might have thought as he set up chance after chance, earning an assist and a 78 offensive rating on the way, but none did, and none would. Diamante did his best, but his shot was snakebit; none of his attempts actually got on net. Sotakov proved more of an enabling physical presence than a scoring threat that game, registering no shots on goal at all despite some good blocks and hits. Tokke, finally, did the same thing but outdid Sotakov in hitting, and when Eric Tokke does this it's playing his role. Tokke is a brilliant power forward, but if one had to pick the goal scorer of the two one would always take Sotakov.

The other silver lining for the Colorado Raptors was that the best offensive threat from their blue line, McFife, will be around for two more years. However, wasting RESO's 71 defensive game rating in a 7-1 obliteration speaks to some work required by both the players to pick up his slack, and the front office to draft a replacement for him.

Game three was the Raptors' best chance to get back in this series. Had they been able to claw out an overtime victory here, they would've had the momentum going into game four. They would've had a solid chance to even out the series, and who knows what happens from there. Even if they were to eventually lose this playoff series in six or seven games either way, the Raptors' outlook this off-season would be very different from what it now must be after being swept out of the playoffs by a lower seed that could barely slip a puck past Rosejac under even the best of circumstances (barring the catastrophic dumpster fire that was game two.)

This was a 2-2 game heading into overtime, and it stayed that way until the Armada slipped one through to seal the game and take a near-insurmountable 3-0 series lead.

This game was perhaps Nystrom's best individual effort of the series. With a 79 defensive game rating and a 73 overall game rating, he took his coaches' words to heart and focused on defending this game. He did it fairly well, even killing a penalty (something that's ordinarily not part of his game) but finishing with no points and a 0 plus minus. Eric Tokke, his fellow Swedish bash brother, came back to Earth for this game, finishing with an unremarkable -1 despite doing his part in the physical game.

The Colorado Raptors' two goal scorers this game were RESO, who also registered an assist, and centerman Noel Blanchet, who finished with two points as well. The other assists came from Ruggs McOoooh and KEKW Kekkonen. Of these four players, three of them are leaving Colorado to advance to the SHL this off-season. Finishing with a negative two plus minus were again the pairing of Hansen and Detloff. I would like to stress once again that the purpose of this article is not to crucify Colorado's rookies. They played as well as they could and gave full effort every shift. The team simply was not able to shelter them as much as they should have, and Anchorage's veterans took full advantage of this. To blame the series result on the rookies is to fail to understand both the sport and the development of young players.

Indeed, a Raptors team with Yanno Rosejac in net should have been able to survive giving up two goals in regulation. Someone should have been able to put the team over the edge; someone needed to step up. Noel Blanchet did his best with a 76 offensive game rating, but the snakebite award for this game has to go to either Feodor Sotakov or Jarmo Kekalainen, both of whom had respective 66 and 67 offensive game ratings but registered no points. Like Nystrom in the game before, they did the work, but didn't get the results.

Game four was do or die, in front of one of the most spectacular netminding performances in recent memory. Yanno Rosejac dragged this Colorado Raptors team to overtime at the end of a 1-1 game. The Dinos had every opportunity to win this game, to at least salvage some dignity from this series, but simply couldn't get it done. The Anchorage Armada completed the sweep with an overtime goal in front of their home crowd and sealed Colorado's fate.

Four players stood out positively for the Colorado Raptors in this elimination game. RESO, with an overall game rating of 80 and an absurd defensive game rating of 92; Ruggs McOoooh, with his overall game rating of 72 and his defensive game rating of 88; Jarmo Kekalainen, his 72 offensive game rating boosting his overall game rating to a solid 70; and Artemius Nystrom just behind him, with an overall game rating of 69 deriving from an offensive rating of 72 and a defensive rating of 64. This was Nystrom's best game of the series, reminiscent of his game three performance but better rounded. McOooh and Shimizu-Okoli gave the league one last reminder of why they were the top pairing on a very good Colorado Raptors team. Kekalainen showed genuine poise in the highest pressure game yet.

But they couldn't get it done. There is very little point in addressing how Anchorage was able to score two goals in a 3-2 league. "You score three, you win, you don't, you lose", as the saying goes. All the Raptors had to do to keep themselves alive and avoid a sweep was score two goals in four periods, and they failed to do so. The scorers were again held silent. Once again, the only goal came from a defenseman, and in RESO, it was a defenseman the Raptors are about to lose to the big show. To point out Guy Fieri's excellent save percentage of .964 misses the shot total of 36 to 28 in favor of Anchorage. In a game where the forwards needed to break through, none of them did, and the Raptors went home with their season over, and not a single playoff win to show for it.

So, where do the Raptors go from here?

Their top pairing is gone. McOoooh and RESO, easily the Raptors' best skaters this series, are gone to the big league. Sonata Diamante, their only top-flight centerman, is gone as well. Feodor Sotakov's once-promising development has gone into a slide. Yanno Rosejac is gone. The team won't be able to rely on best in class goaltending next year.

But you don't address immediate weaknesses through the draft and expect those players to take over the very next year. Excessive expectations may have been exactly what sank Josiah Hansen and Karl Detloff in this past playoff series for Colorado. This was Colorado's best shot with this group, and now it's gone without even a single win to show for it. So, if you can't address it through the draft for this coming year, what do you do?

Look at what the Raptors already have. Players like Nystrom, McFife, and Gobbledeygook are set to reach their junior league peak this season. Players like Eric Tokke, already excellent even as a rookie, and equally promising young goalie Senji Seteki, will be completing their adjustments to the new league and will hit their own junior caps the following year.

Ultimately, the Raptors loaded up on the S59 class, and should time their next Cup push with that class' final year in the SMJHL.

So, what roster spots do the Raptors want this new crop of players to be just cresting their adjustment period, that legendary 350 cap, just as this new core ages out of juniors?

Defense is, perhaps surprisingly, not the issue I believe the Raptors should focus on. Angus McFife XVIII is part of that S59 core. Hansen and Detloff will learn from this experience and perhaps form the backbone of their own Dinos core one day. Two seasons from now, they'll be veterans at their junior cap, which will combine with McFife to give the Raptors one of the best organically grown defenses in the league. Nystrom, Sotakov, Gobbledygook, Nishimori, Kekkonen, and Tokke will all be at their junior caps. That leaves one clear hole in the Raptors roster.

Center.

Of the Raptors current center pipeline, only Diamante has been consistent in the league, and he's the player the Raptors are about to lose to the SHL. Players like Blanchet and Schweingruber could continue developing, but aren't certain to. McDangle is a similar case.

Obviously, any scout will tell you to take the best player available, and the Raptors should do so. However, if the Colorado Raptors don't come out of this draft with at least a couple of likely center prospects, they may not be in much better shape come the S61 playoffs than they were for these S59 playoffs.

I do believe that S61 will be the Raptors' next great shot at glory, unless they make a major trade to prop themselves up for a run this year. I believe this would be a mistake; there's no need to rush what's already a good organic build of a contending team, especially not with Senji Seteki still being a bit raw. If anything, the team should go all-in on S61. They invested a great deal in players that came into the league during S58, and their peak with the SMJHL will be in that Season 61.

For now, it's on the players to learn from the sweep, and on the front office to do their level best to make sure it doesn't happen again.

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Graydonsanatomy · 06-09-2021, 10:42 AM

Great read! Raptors

Talls · 06-09-2021, 11:20 AM

Jumbobone19 · 06-09-2021, 04:41 PM

Oh man I hate the Recap of the playoffs. But what a great motivator. And solid look into next season.

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