Newfoundland's season did not great off to a great start.  Starting off with 7 straight losses really puts a damper on the season (go Canucks), but the NL locker room knew we were going to get better as we gelled as a team.  I mean we couldn't get any worse, right? We averaged 4.7 Goals Against per game during that span. Was defense the problem? We averaged 1.8 Goals For per game during that time as well, so was offence the issue?  Management had deep talks about how to fix things, picking up a free agent to hopefully get things going in the right direction. The captains had team meetings to steady the ship and get everyone back working towards a common goal, winning a game. It worked right away.  We turned it around winning our next 5 games.  Scoring at a pace of 4.4 GFPG and letting 1.6 GAPG, totally flipping the script. This is the team we knew we could be. Confident and playing well, you could sense a bit of a buzz in the locker room, more excitement than before. Well it didn't last.  We lost 10 of our next 12.  Allowing an average of 5 GA, getting shut out 3 times and scoring a single goal in 4 others.  What the hell happened?

Week 2 started with a massive shake up. We were in the middle of our second bad losing streak and our ever genius GM Patty decided to really shake things up by starting our backup goalie Sammy Picard for four straight games.  Was this to fire up the team? To get Tummy to play better? Because he forgot to set the lines before he went to the Blues game? We may never know.  What we do know is that Tummy was PISSED!  He was tearing up the LR, screaming about how Patty has no idea what he is doing, trying to start a rebellion.  We thought he was about to pull a Patrick Roy circa 1995.  The screaming and complaining might have worked because Patty put him back in net the next day. Now let me tell you that whatever Patty's grand plan to get the team playing better was did not work.  The teams poor play continued while Tummy kept being mad and still letting in goals.  You knew Tummys head wasn't in the game because he was still bringing up the benching the next day to anyone that would listen. He was not focused, and the rest of the team seemed to have followed suit.
Listen, I am not putting this on our goalies.  As a team we were averaging around 45 shots against per game and 20 shots for. That is not how you win games. We couldn't score, and we couldn't defend, so even though our goalies were putting up 40 saves a night it didn't matter.
Leadership began having huge talks in the LR again. Players are starting to ask questions about their usage and play time. This was causing a bit of a rift and you want everyone on the same page, playing as a team and not for individual accolades.  Management and captains are looking at big lineup changes, a HUGE shakeup.  New offensive dynamic, new schemes, new line mates.  Different defensive positioning, a new special teams look.  Everything was up for a change.  So that is what we did. We changed pretty much everything. Position changes, deployment changes, new line mates, new strategy, new culture. This had to be the huge change that the team needs to get going on the right track, but did we change too much at once?

Of course all our changes worked! We are the greatest and smartest leaders a team could ever ask for! We won our next game with an amazing come from behind win, we looked fantastic out there.  I mean we did lose our next 4, but we can look at the positives for now. Our scoring was up, 3.2 goals for, but unfortunately our D was did not get the same results, with 4.6 against.  We still took this as an improvement, as the underlying metrics showed our corsi and most of that fancy stuff was a lot better.  We also played 5 teams in the upper half of the standings, which we are certainly not.  We were getting more shots, and more chances, so hopefully with a few more tweaks we can turn those scores around and start adding some more to the W column.

After some minor Defensive adjustments, it was TUMMY TIME! Our first shutout of the year! A huge win that of course showed that all that hard work in practice was paying off. That game led off a great day where we got 5/6 points, and the lost point still felt like a win as we tied it up with under 30 seconds left.  Not only that, but the shot totals are way closer than before, faceoffs are doing way better, and further showing that maybe all these new systems and lines are indeed working. Apparently but changes can just take a bit of time.

Week 3 begins!  Not much has changed, we win the live game and lose two quick sims. Obviously something is rigged during quick sims because the game knows we are watching live sims for blatant cheating. Someone needs to look into this.  Deeper into it, the entire teams corsi is up, we have multiple point per game players since we started the BIG CHANGE, yet we still can't make it add up in the win column. We are a little more confident now, and staying the course to get this back on track. With all those fancy stats trending upwards, and normal stats looking a lot better as well, management still felt confident that staying the course with these changes is the right way to go.

That sure was the greatest plan ever! Rattling off 3 straight wins including a shutout sure makes everyone feel better.  Maybe things are finally starting to click with this group.
Heres the deal, I was feeling so good I took my family to Disneyland. Sure its a little early in the season to be celebrating, but who cares, the mouse needs to get paid.  We didn't change anything during my vacation, I mean how could they I am clearly the brains behind this entire operation, and we went 6-5. I mean we had like a .300 Point % before, so this is a huge improvement. Shots against are lower, takeaways are trending up, goals against are down, things are looking pretty damn good going into the home stretch. Maybe other teams need to worry a little bit. Heading into the last week before playoffs brings a lot of pressure to perform, and I think us Zerks are ready for it. St Louis 2019 anyone?

Week 4, final regualar season week, gut check time. Time to prove we belong. Not a good start. What I thought we be a defining moment in our growth has really come to bite me in the ass. Through three days we have gone 2-7, and I haven't written about it because it has been busy behind the scenes trying to figure out what happened to make us bad again. Did other teams adjust to our formation? Are we getting complacent? Are we really that bad? We averaged 5.3 Goals against and 3.1 goals for during that 9 game span. Why does that sound so familiar. Just overall scoring both ways is way up, which feels like it is more of a defensive problem.
the PK was only 21/30 for 70%, and PP 3/24 for 12.5%.  So special teams sure didn't help us win any games, time for some more adjustments there. Outshot in 7/9 games, hitting is fairly even, the giveaway to takeaway is fairly even, faceoffs are around 45% which is still an improvement.  Looking at everything, we really don't seem that far from where I feel the team should be, we just can't seem to put it all together and to win more games.  After some final tweaks we will see how the final 7 games of the regular season go and if we can make a good push and be ready for the playoffs.

Last 7 games we killed it. Team xmas movie night started it all off.  After that night we knew we had to pull it all together and figure it out. I mean how could watching Home Alone as a team backfire? Amazing movie. We won every game not against Detroit (who seem to be a cheat code this season), but even took them to overtime one game. Averaged 4.6 goals for and only 2 against over that span, just a crazy good finish to the season moving us up 2 spots in the standings to finish 10th. Hopefully we can continue this momentum into the playoffs. If not maybe we have another movie night to get everything back on track.

Looking back at the entire season we have a huge imbalance on our play at home vs on the road. We have the 7th best home record and the 2nd worst away record. Is getting our favoured line matchups really that important? My guess is we just have the best fans out there and we play better in front of them. Big leaders for the regular season, Brennan 'BK3' Kennedy III lead the team in points with 64 and also in hits. Line mate Matiss 'Ozone' Ozolinsh took the goal lead by 1 with 31, and edged BK3 in OGR by 1 again.. +/- was lead by Philip 'Wheels' Fry who had an amazing sophomore season leading all defenceman in points as well.  Biggest goon went to Captain Rasmus 'Berg' Bergling with 44PIM, which worked out for him as he lead all D in hits and had the highest DGR on the roster, and did a great job leading by example. Best Takeaway-Giveaway ratio goes to Lester 'Stick' Oiduser with +59. Top Shot blockers goes to our 3rd D pairing Kayden 'KK' King with 156 and Otto 'MIA' Steinberger with 154.  Of course we never would have got this far without our stellar backstop and twine tender Tummy 'TUMMY TIME' Hurts. This season would have been a disaster without him back there. Special shoutout to John 'Hotpotato' Hopoate who took over 1C duties during our big change and really made that line work.  Also Guiness 'BigBear' O'Bigbers who after the big change really brought a new dimension to their game.  Many rookies really stepped it up as well, which I believe is going to make us a force to be reckoned with next season, so watch out for that!
Bring on the playoffs! Bring on Regina!

Game one did not get off the a great start, spotting Reg a 3-0 lead halfway through the game.  We showed amazing resilience and battle back, getting 1 late in the period and 2 more by the halfway point in the third to make it all square. Unfortunately we couldn't manage to take a lead, and ended up down a game in the series. The bigger dead is we were outshot 35-13, and also outshot 40-18. So how we were even close just shows we really stuck with it.
Game two we really even out the shot and hit counts, which ended up helping out on the scoreboard.  Of course it helps to have TUMMY TIME with the big shutout to even the series! Neither team has scored on the powerplay, so who knows if special teams will break through and have a big impact on the series. Back home for game 3, time for our fans to see some playoff hockey again after missing out last season.
Game three got off to a rocky start, going down a goal a minute in with a man in the box. Just leaves more time for an epic comeback right? We tied in up mid first and it was a close tight checking game. We went down again midway through the 2nd and knew we would have to pick it up in the third to show our fans we are worth it.  And we did! Typing it up at the 8 minute mark. Both teams locked it down for the rest of the period and brought it to the first overtime of the series. Home ice played a big part and we got our matchup to start it off, and scored to win the game in the first minute! Very close game in all regards and glad we came out on top.
Game four was rough start again, going down one on the PK 3 minutes in. We are going to have to figure this out for the next games. Good news for us is we battle back right away, scoring 2, including our first PP goal of the series finally breaking through.  The 2nd ended with the game tied again at 3s, and the last frame would decide it. Unfortunately we broke down late and Regina took the lead with under 2 mins to go, then added an EN for the win to make the series a best of 3 coming up. We need to stay out of the box to have a chance this series, taking 6 minors makes it tough to win.
Game five was another tight goalie duel. Each team scored one in the first, then it was shut them down hockey for 35 minutes. Regina finally broke through late in the 3rd, and added an EN. Tummy Hurts could only do so much as we were heavily outshot again, and he kept this one much closer than it could have been. Do or die time, down 3-2 in the series we knew we had to play much better next game. Lets hope home ice helps us out.
Game six, unfortunately, was our worst game of the series. We came out flat, stayed flat, and ended flat. Again we let up an early goal, which we had done in 5/6 games now. But this game we really had no push back, getting doubled in shots and Tummy could only hold us in there for so long. Season over. Who likes deer anyway?

Looking back it was nice to be in the playoffs after missing out last year, and I believe the team showed a lot of growth. The locker room is always a great place to be, and the leadership group is up there with the best of them. The coming seasons should bring higher expectations for the team to do well, and I believe that we will thrive under that pressure and do even better. More consistency, more updates, more fun!

Signing off until next season,
SticK

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