Login

Urq660 · 11-16-2021, 07:18 AM

Inspired by the PT prompt 2 for this week, I have a few personal observations from the first week of S62, starting at the divisional level, down to a team level, then a personal level.

Division-wise, the Pacific Division is proving to be as tight as a gnat’s chuff. Currently the division leaders, the Los Angeles Panthers, are only 4 points ahead of the team propping the division up, their Californian neighbours, SFP. LA’s 18 points would see them 4th in the Central Division and bottom of the other two! In terms of Goal Difference, only LA have a positive GD, and that is only +1. The other divisions all have teams with much higher GDs, Buffalo for example are currently +56, at time of writing! I don’t believe anyone is under any illusions that a Pacific Division team is unlikely to make a serious run at the Cup this season, however the division itself is still very much all to play for! Unless one team can find a magic bullet and start to pull away from the pack, it could easily go down to the wire, and head to head results will start to become massive. Intra-division games will become what is referred to in british football circles (yes football, not soccer, it’s football) as ‘6-pointers’, although for the purposes of accuracy, as it’s 2 points for a win, they should be called ‘4-pointers’. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s tight in other divisions as well, but each of them has a weak link or 2 that are either going to be last, or are fighting not to be. That isn’t the case in the Pacific, any one of those teams could be Division champs, come the end of the season.

From a team point of view, Seattle have maybe not come out of the gates as they had hoped, especially with a big money free agent signing. They currently sit with a 7-10 record, not stellar but they are only 4 points behind the division pacesetters LA, who they shut out just last night! They have some players popping off, of course. Last season’s breakout player, Kriss Darzins, continues on the tear he started last season, leading the team in goals and points. He is ably abetted by Reid Sutherland, showing himself to be the franchise Centre every team dreams of, joining Darzins on a better than a point per game run. A lot was made of the signing of Bobby Sharp, a bold ambitious move that should cement Seattle’s intentions to take a serious run at the playoffs. Now, he’s not had what you would call a bad start to the season, but for someone just a few season removed from an 86 point season, albeit on a dominant Buffalo team, his production of 1G, 8A for 9P isn’t really where the majority of Seattle fans hoped or expected. I terms of goal scoring, the Argonauts are leaning heavily on Darzins. He has 13G thru 17 games, the next highest scorer on the team is JURT with 6, after that nobody has more than 4G. Seattle have played some very good hockey, especially defensively at times, but they do struggle somewhat to put the puck in the net without Darzins on the ice. They’re no Winnipeg (24GF in 19 games, oof), but they are tied with SFP for least goals scored in the division, on 50. Only NOLA and the aforementioned damned souls of Winnipeg have scored less in the conference. Goaltending has also been something of an issue, with starter Odinson giving up a 3.41 GAA and a worrying .898 SV%. Backup goaltender, RART, has faired somewhat better, in his limited appearances this season. He’s 1-1 in his 2 full games, with some more minutes played in relief of Odinson. He posted a shutout in the win he played in and has an excellent GAA of 1.75 with a .924 SV%. Now, this is obviously an extremely small sample size, and would likely crater if he was given an extended run in goal. But they are encouraging numbers for a backup! As I said, the Argos have been pretty solid defensively, and actually have the lowest Goals Against in the division, with 56! Darrow and Murphy are the ice time leaders, taking the biggest share of the defensive work, as well as the majority of PP and the high end of PK minutes as well, unfortunately the flip side of so much time on the ice is that more goals will go in against you, leading to them having the joint worst +/- on the team, at -12. This is still a solid team defensively, they need to be putting the puck in the other teams’ net more, not just keeping it out of their own!

Finally, from a personal perspective. Daryl Urquhart has definitely taken a step forward from last season, in terms of production. Which is slightly odd, since he is meant to be the more defensive of the third pairing! Last season he had 7G, 7A for 14P in 66 games. They 17 games this season, he has 2G, 4A for 6P. He is keeping pace with some of the bigger names on the team, having the same points total as Dee Centerman IV, despite having an average TOI of around 9 minutes less ice time. Not a bad rate of production, for playing just over 13 minutes per game on average, one of the lowest in the league. He also has the second highest +/- on the team, at +4, just behind the inimitable JURT. He started the season in outstanding fashion, in terms of his TA/GA ratio, with it being 4.00 for a while. It has degenerated slightly, into a more realistic 0.83 now with 5TA/6GA. Game ratings are a bit lower than I’d like still, but all over 50, albeit by just a few points, which marks out definite improvement. This is by no means a breakout season, but after a slightly shaky rookie season, this is definitely more solid and a sure step in the right direction.

All in all, a lot to be excited about, a few areas of concern, that if we could nail down, would do wonders for us in such a tight division.

*Keven* · 11-16-2021, 11:34 AM

I wish every division could be like the Pacific. Great writeup!

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us