In our first deep dive we took a look at the team that was the best team in the juniors when I joined at the trade deadline and in this one we’re headed to the opposite end of the spectrum to look at the worst. The Nevada Battleborn, despite their epic branding, were sitting at a lowly 13-30-5 at the trade deadline and looked completely dead in the water. They were last in points scored and had allowed the most points in the juniors up to this point. In fact, they’d allowed double digits more goals than any other team. Their plus minus was sitting at -70 which beat out the next closest team by 18. This team was sitting in an absolutely tragic spot and it seemed that more than likely, their season was over. But how did they get here? As usual, it all starts with the players.

Unlike our previous team where almost everyone seemed to be playing at an all star level, the Battleborn did not have a single player with a positive plus minus. In fact, their best player overall was left winger Chad Danger at a plus minus of -5. He led the team in points at 27 and led the team in goals with 17. His 10 assists seemed lacking though and it was unclear if this was due to his selfish nature or because of the lack of overall talent on the team. Center Kenji Sugimoto and right winger Wet Jeans provided minimal support, but they had the most efficient plus minus at -2 and -5 respectively. Neither one seemed to be able to score much with one scoring only three goals and the other six and to make matters even worse, they seemed to struggle to find open players as well. Sugimoto managed 13 assists and Jeans only managed 7. Despite that, the only thing you could say positively here is at least they weren’t making many mistakes between them. As bad as it was, it only got worse from here.

With Lebron Brady, Dane von Gucci, Igor Isyanov, Marcel Beck, Daryl Urquhart, Major Chip Hazard, and Brent Ashe you had 7 players in the bottom 20 in the plus minus. They had ONE! One single player in the top 40 in goals. With 12 teams that seems like some sort of statistical anomaly. Not a single player in the top 15 in assists. Their best player in total scoring sat at a desperate rank 30. This team had a grand total of 14 players with double digits in the plus minus, which seems to be an absolutely absurd number. 75% of their team seemed to be dragging them down, but when you have a percentage that high can they really be the ones to be blamed? This team absolutely was not getting it done in any phase of the game. Scoring, defense, even the fundamentals came apart at the seams and if this team wanted to be even average by the end of the season, they’d need to go on an absolute tear. Would they make it? Could they bounce back? As unlikely as it seemed it wasn’t impossible and only history would be able to tell us if they pulled it off.

Approved, +5 TPE for @WithTheMoose