Everybody in the league wants to win. The never ending question people should be asking is how. I'm going to take a look at what teams are currently succeeding in the SHL and see if we can figure out whats working. Before you ask, No, we're not just going to say its because of the TPE... I hope.


Starting off we'll look at the current Western Conference leader, at 14-3-1, The Texas Renegades  

First impressions looking at the season stats we see a very balanced scoring effort from their first line.


Chris Valentine © - 34pts (15 goals, 19 assists) and a 20 +/-

Konig Wolf (LW) - 32pts (15 goals, 17 assists) and an 18 +/-

Marton Diehm (RW) 30pts (12 goals, 18 assists) and a 17 +/-

*Notable mentions to second line center Jack St. Clair and Left winger William Tree sporting 11 and 10 goals respectively.*

As we can see these 3 players are accounting for 42 out of a team total 92 goals for the Renegades. With all 3 of these players sporting an 18 in offensive read, 18 or 17 in passing, and 18 or 17 in getting open, We can tell these 3 rely on each other just as much as the Renegades rely on them for success. All 3 players are also very balanced in their defensive stats meaning no one has invested more into being the sole star of the team, and are ready to share the spotlight when the opportunities arise. Chris, Konig, and Marton are on the first line for a reason and Texas knows that reason is to win games. If we're looking at why the Renegades are winning games, the answer may be the most cohesive first line in the league.


Jumping to the Eastern Conference we have the Manhattan Rage  at 11-2-3.


The initial look into Manhattan's roster shows me they have a preference on scoring from the left. 2 of their top 3 scorers are their first and possibly third line left wings while the first and second line right wings drop to 4 and 5.

The top scorers are as follows:


Austin Morley © - 31pts (7 goals, 24 assists) and a 5 +/-

Celeste Desjardins (LW) - 29pts (13 goals, 16 assists) and a 7 +/-

Mary Hollywood (LW) - 19pts (8 goals, 11 assists) and a -11 +/-

You may have read that and saw Mary's -11 and wondered why would they would be included if we're talking about why a team is winning games. I think it proves that much more that Manhattan knows what their game plan is and are executing it to the best of their abilities. Austin Morely isn't particularly set up to be more of a passer via his attribute spread so I'll to assume its his role and Manhattan's tactics that are pushing this performance but he is clearly on the ice to facilitate. Once again another pretty balanced player offensively and defensively so that seems to be the theme of success. Celeste seems to be the biggest beneficiary of Morley's high level play, leading to their current tie for 7th in goals scored in the league. Another balanced stat spread so more of the team tactics pushing Celeste as a scorer instead of a playmaker. On to Mary Hollywood's situation. Mary appears to be a third line winger when looking at the minutes distribution on Manhattan, yet still manages to have the 3 most points on the team. Mary is definitely leaning toward offensive production in her stat spread which probably explains why shes sporting a -11 +/-. Her 8 goals leaves her tied for 2nd on the team with only the previously mentioned Celeste ahead of her. The big suprise here is Mary is nearly 500 TPE behind her fellow left wing. Even with this applied gap, Manhattan's strategies are maximizing Mary's potential and they are succeeding by doing so.



So the two teams atop each conference seem to have completely different reasons as to why they're succeeding. If I've come to any conclusion in this deep dive its this: Building a super team with crazy high tpe players is not the only strategy to winning games. That may have been obvious to some people already but if you watched the Pride's championship season last year and started to lose hope against their power house team, its time to take a look at your strategies and your first line, shore it up and make a play for the top spots.

@Just-Here-To-not-Get-Fined , approved.