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UncleLeosKomrade · 06-01-2018, 08:39 AM

As we move into the back half of the season, Maui sat down to give his thoughts about his play thus far, the play of his team, and his overall thoughts on the SMJHL season in general. It has been a whirlwind of a start to the career of Maui, from joining the league to meeting with the GMs of the SMJHL, and then be drafted and be apart of the first season of the rebranded Colorado Raptors; there has been a lot to take in.

Mauiâ€™s Play

Thus far, Maui has had exactly the start he was hoping to have. Through the first 33 games of the season, Maui has put up 10 points with 2 goals and 8 assists. Offensively, this is way above what Maui was expecting to be produce in his rookie season, and there is still 17 games to go. More importantly to Maui is how he has been playing defensively thus far. I look at his secondary stats paints a beautiful picture of the work he has put in.
Defensively, Maui has risen to the level of what an elite defenseman in the making looks like. Sitting at +13 while averaging about 19:30 minutes per game is impressive for a rookie that doesnâ€™t focus much on the offensive side of his game. Maui has added an additional 41 hits and 32 shot blocks, demonstrating that he is willing to put his own body on the line for the good of his team. Whether is be finishing his hit, or shutting down an offensive push, or just stepping up and blocking the big slapper, Maui is ready and willing to do it all.

When you also look at special teams, Maui has found his place at the top of the PK unit. He has logged 69 penalty kill minutes thus far and with the Raptors having a penalty killing percentage of 78.63%, there may still be room for improvement. Maui should look to be playing some more big penalty kill minutes in the future, and must look to potentially improve his puck moving skills to ensure quick zone exits to help kill of those valuable PK seconds.

The Raptorsâ€™ Play

The newly rebranded Raptors came out firing this season. After a disappointing end to last season, the Raptors entered the draft with the hopes to restock and set themselves up for a championship run; and it appears they are well on their way. Currently sitting tied at the top of the SMJHL with 43 points, the Raptors appear to have found their groove. However, with just under 20 games remaining in the season, it is anybodyâ€™s race to win. Vancouver, Kelowna, and St. Louis are all right there with Colorado battling for the top spot in the SMJHL and the honour of having home-ice throughout the playoffs.

The Raptors themselves have seen huge success throughout their lineup so far. The names of Raptors players litter the leaderboards whether it be goals, assists, total points, even shots, hits, and plus/minus; you will find yourself a Raptor in the top 10 of these stats. Currently, the Raptors have the top two scoring centers in the league with Mattias Enqvist and Anders Christiansen having 39 and 32 points respectively; Enqvist is actually even leading the league in assists by 6. The wingers are the team are producing with Ryan Gardiner, Gustav Helzberg, Captain Cash Savage, and Manuel Gotze all over 20 points so far. The defensemen on the team are even showing offensive flashes with veteran Kevin Maddox second in defensemen scoring, and rookie Nico Wallner tied for second in rooking scoring.

Overall the team is clicking on all cylinders, with the lone place for improvement coming on special teams. Now, that is not to say that Colorado special teams are not doing well, but they sitting in the middle of the pack for both penalty kill and power play percentages. Their percentages are not even bad, theyâ€™re just not as good as they could be, and if there was to be improved it would be the special teams.

The SMJHL as a Whole

This SMJHL season has been a crazy one to say the least. With a super deep draft class and many more elite veterans yet to make the jump to the SHL, this season was bound to be a fire fight, and that is has been. As of right now there are four elite teams battling for the top spot in the league: Vancouver, Colorado, Kelowna, and St. Louis. These teams are doing what seems to be everything right, and finding ways to win games.

Detroit is what I am going to call the bridge team at this point in the season. This is because they are 6 points behind the Scarecrows but also 6 points ahead of the next team behind them: Montreal. Thus, the appear to be right in the middle of the bridge trying to push forward to join the 4 teams at the top of the league that have been finding success throughout the season; yet trying not to fall behind and be push out of the playoffs.

The bottom 3 teams are, in order: Montreal, Prince George, and Halifax. Now Montreal and Prince George are understandably at the bottom. Both teams are rebuilding and did have much success last season as well. Both Montreal and Prince George found themselves with a slew of picks and are now trying to develop to hopefully compete in coming seasons. The lone outlier here is Halifax, who is sitting dead last with 21 points. This is a team that had great success last season, and a good post-season run. However, it appears they imploded over the summer and have iced the shell of a team this season. Now there is still plenty of time left in the season to scrape their way into the playoffs, but as of this moment, things are not looking very promising for the Raiders.

The league this season has been full of excitement and hard-fought battles and there are no signs of slowing up. With some close races in all aspects of the league, the final picture could be very different then what we are looking at today. It should be fun for both the players and the fans to see how this one turns out.

We will also be keeping a close eye on all of the SMJHL rookies as we get to the end of the season, as they continue to build their resumes for the upcoming SHL draft.

Word Count: 1092

FlappyGiraffe · 06-01-2018, 03:51 PM

Absolute beast so far this season, can't wait to see you hit your SMJHL prime the next few seasons! Raptors

UncleLeosKomrade · 06-01-2018, 07:36 PM

Quote:Originally posted by FlappyGiraffe@Jun 1 2018, 02:51 PM
Absolute beast so far this season, can't wait to see you hit your SMJHL prime the next few seasons! 

Thanks man! Me too, its all up from here Raptors

InciteHysteria · 06-02-2018, 02:37 AM

You are a fucking monster, Maui. So happy to have you on the squad and cannot wait to see you continue to grow! :D

Amazing article.

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