S15A3 - SFHL XtraStats Fun: By Greg S.

We’re past the 50 game mark so now is a good time to look back at the season that has been and see if any players could potentially help or hurt your team in the stretch drive of the regular season. These stats are updated as of Monday’s sim and for this analysis, I’ve removed any player that has played <500 minutes of total ice time to show a better reflection of full time players only without punishing players who have missed some time due to injury.

Average Minutes Played/Game

Good indicator of the most and least used players who have suited up in the majority of their team’s games.

THE MOST

D Sharky Fletcher - Atlanta - 29.5 Minutes/Game

D Seabass Cypher - Boston - 27.8

D Janne Niinimaa - Atlanta - 27.1

D Sergei Zubov - Vancouver - 26.4

D Vladimir Malakhov - Boston - 26.3

D Nicklas Lidstrom - Carolina - 26

D Andrei Markov - Philly - 26

THE LEAST

RW Martin Gelinas - NYRangers - 10.4 Minutes/Game

LW Andrew Cassels - Edmonton - 10.4

D Luke Richardson - Carolina - 10.8

LW Stephane Richer - Vancouver - 11.1

RW Brian Gionta - SanJose - 11.4

C Boyd Devereaux - SanJose - 11.5

D Calle Johansson - Edmonton - 11.6

Ice Time per Penalty Minute

Good indicator to see the Lady Byng type players who have played the most and least amount of ice time before getting a penalty minute.

THE MOST

D Sergei Zubov - Vancouver - 1397 Minutes on ice before getting a penalty minute

RW Mike Modano - Atlanta - 1312

D Jaroslav Modry - Buffalo - 1303

C Trevor Linden - Edmonton - 1292

D Neil Strachan - Winnipeg - 1271

THE LEAST

D Bob Boughner - Carolina - 7 Minutes on ice before getting a penalty minute

D Andrew Ference - Calgary - 9.8

D Jason Smith - SanJose - 10.5

D Craig Rivet - SanJose - 10.7

D Luke Richardson - Carolina - 11.5

Points Per 20 Minutes on Ice

Good indicator to see the most and least offensively productive forwards. I excluded defensemen on this.

THE MOST

C Clay Jackson - St.Louis - 1.11 Points per 20min Icetime

C Trevor Linden - Edmonton - 1.11

RW Daniel Alfredsson - Carolina - 1.1

C Pierre Turgeon - Winnipeg - 1.1

C Mats Sundin - Carolina - 1.09

C Joe Sakic - Philly - 1.08

RW Wes Walz - Edmonton - 1.01

THE LEAST

RW Brian Gionta - SanJose - 0.2 Points per 20min Icetime

C Boyd Devereaux - SanJose - 0.22

LW Cliff Ronning SanJose 0.36

RW Dallas Drake - Phoenix - 0.44

C Shawn Horcoff - NYRangers - 0.46

RW Bill Guerin - Edmonton - 0.47

RW Kris Draper - Vancouver - 0.49

Shots Per 20 Minutes on Ice – Forwards Only

Good indicator to see the most and least offensively productive forwards. I excluded defensemen on this.

THE MOST

RW Owen Nolan - Phoenix - 2.82 Shots per 20min Icetime

RW Alexander Mogilny - Toronto - 2.77

C Doug Weight - Phoenix - 2.68

LW Kirk Muller - SanJose - 2.65

RW Teemu Selanne - Boston - 2.62

RW Eric Lindros - Philly - 2.61

RW Milan Hejduk - St.Louis - 2.6

LW Robert Reichel - Winnipeg - 2.6

THE LEAST

C Boyd Devereaux - SanJose - 1.13 Shots per 20min Icetime

LW Matthew Barnaby - Philly - 1.52

LW Keith Tkachuk - St.Louis - 1.56

C Michael Peca - Boston - 1.56

RW Jere Lehtinen - St.Louis - 1.62

C Bryan Smolinski - Edmonton - 1.66

LW Radek Bonk - Edmonton - 1.72

C Saku Koivu - St.Louis - 1.74

Shots Per 20 Minutes on Ice – Defensemen Only

Good indicator to see the most and least offensive generating blueliners. I excluded forwards on this.

THE MOST

D Sergei Gonchar - Edmonton - 2.22 Shots per 20min IceTime

D Sandis Ozolinsh - Vancouver - 2.09

D Derek Morris Philly 2.08

D Vladimir Malakhov - Boston - 1.98

D Bryan Berard - St.Louis - 1.88

D Neil Strachan - Winnipeg - 1.84

D Sergei Zubov - Vancouver - 1.76

THE LEAST

D Darryl Shannon - Toronto - 0.9 Shots per 20min IceTime

D Adam Burt - Buffalo - 0.91

D Jason Smith - SanJose - 0.91

D Craig Rivet - SanJose - 0.92

D Paul Laus Toronto 0.93

D Luke Richardson - Carolina - 0.94

D Jason Marshall - Calgary - 0.95

Heavy Hitters

Good indicator to see the most physical hit-generating players in the league.

THE MOST

D Dave Manson - SanJose - 4.1 hits/game

D Adam Foote - Phoenix - 3.3

C Keith Primeau - Winnipeg - 3.2

D Jason Smith - SanJose - 3

D Zdeno Chara - Boston - 3

D Chris Pronger - Toronto - 3

D Jay Mckee - NYRangers - 2.7

D Andrei Markov - Philly - 2.7

D TJ Hunter - Calgary - 2.7

That's it for this year's edition!

S15A2 - 30 Game CheckIn: Carolina Hurricanes: By Greg S.

Raleigh, North Carolina (AP) – We’re at the 30+ game mark for teams in the SFHL and now seems like a good time to take a look at how the new look Carolina Hurricanes have been playing. We talked earlier about the significant amount of moves made this offseason to bring new faces after back to back seasons of missing the playoffs since their move to Carolina. This offseason, the team moved on from the likes of D Hedican83, W Bertuzzi81, C Nylander81, D Svehla80 and W Kozlov79 while bringing in W Alfredsson83, D Haller83, W Fleury80, D Boughner79, W Holmstrom78 and W York76 along with a multitude of picks and cash. So a lot of turnover, so how have they fared?

Playing their best hockey of the season, the team has won 4 straight and 7 of their last 10 and sits 17-13-1 on the year in their very tough Wales Conference. That means despite being tied for 1st in the Conference with 35 points, they are just 5 points away from being outside the playoff bubble with Atlanta currently siting in that 5th spot. Daniel Alfredsson has been every bit the elite player the team was hoping he would be when they acquired him as he leads the entire league in goals (23) and points (44). Other standouts in the early going are Eli Sykes (17 goals and 32 points with a +16 rating), Mats Sundin (32 points) and Vincent Lecavalier (30 points). Eli sits tied for 4th in goal scoring while Sundin is tied for 2nd in assists across the league. On defense we see Lidstrom (25 points) and Haller (23 points) both within the top 5 in league defenseman scoring. Heck even Boughner leads the league in PIMs, something the team has been lacking in recent years so it’s nice to see that physicality back in Carolina colours. Overall, the offensive unit has been at elite levels again this year, leading the league with 123 goals scored in 31 games.

Much like last year however, the team continues to allow a heck of a lot of goals. Sure these high scoring games are making for some great entertainment value for fans but, at 111 goals allowed the team is 3rd worse in the league (and just 2 goals away from leading the league in both goals scored and goals allowed). While Chris Osgood has been good lately, getting a shutout and playing well in a key rivalry win over Toronto on back to back games last night. However he still sits at 3.47 GAA which is rather terrible. Scoring winger Petr Sykora has struggled this year on the defensive side of the ice with a team worse -10 rating. FA signing Boughner has brought a good physical game to Carolina as we’ve talked about but he’s also a -9 which is not what the team was looking for when they signed him given they wanted his shutdown DF style to cut down on the goals against.

Still time to correct all these numbers but this version of Carolina sure feels the same as last year – scoring lots but leaking goals against. Look for the team to continue to explore possible defensive or even goaltending changes in an effort to change that narrative.