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TheOPSquid · 10-12-2023, 01:34 PM

Tentacle Tales #1

Good day SMJHL! In this first edition of Tentacle Tales I'll be going through some of the happenings of the season so far, and plan on covering more as the season rolls on!

Quebec City Citadelles Making a Push for Playoffs

After a successful draft which saw the Citadelles take 9 players, with 4 of their selections coming in the first two rounds, the rookies have been making a big impact on the team so far. First season Left Winger Celeste Desjardins has pushed their way into being possibly the biggest steal of the S73 SMJHL Entry Draft, the 5'8 173lb forward has lit up the league alongside current league leading scorer Jeff Hunziker. The top line of the Citadelles has been electric so far, with Alternate Captain Ryland Murphy playing the right side with Desjardins and Hunziker potting 20 goals each already. The line stays intact even on both the 5 on 4 and 5 on 3 power play units, with Hunziker currently playing on the 1st 5 on 4 and 5 on 3 Penalty Killing units. With a PDO of 100+ for each player, the line may be getting some lucky bounces but not enough to blame their great season on. A Corsi-For% of 56-57 for the entire line, including defencemen indicates that this line has been able to out work their opponents and possess the puck to keep the pressure up and score lots of goals.

Going under the radar a bit more is the rest of the S73 SMJHL Draft class, with twin sisters Sonja and Froya Solberg both cementing their spots on the all-rookie second line with Shawn Pawn sliding in on right wing. The defensive pair of Leo Roze and Juan Tymer have been great additions through the draft, with each player averaging around 20 minutes of TOI, both averaging close to 3 minutes on the penalty kill each game.

Lean On (Coconut Mall) is the third highest TPE forward on the squad, behind only Hunziker and Murphy and has been very productive playing on the third line, putting up 21 points so far, as well as their two wingers Nico Nurminen (19 points) and Tom Sperado (17 points) supplementing the team with depth scoring. Rappaz-Creek and Johnny Patey V2 have been placed on the third pair defence, with both defenseman playing more of a two-way style with high Offensive Read and Defensive Read stats. Both defenders have excellent Corsi and Fenwick percentages and have been playing well so far into their first SMJHL seasons.

Net Man has been a solid starting goalie for the Citadelles, as their captain he has posted a 12-9 record with a .905 save percentage after facing 749 shots in those 22 games. Quebec has been getting peppered on defence, with Net Man facing an average of 34 shots against per game and Fergus Stewart facing an average of 28 against in his 6 games played. The goaltending duo have been playing well so far as they continue on their quest to get Net Man his Cup.

The Quebec City Citadelles are currently sitting at 5th in the league with a record of 14-11 with 28 points, 2 more than 8th (St. Louis) and 9th (Carolina) with Quebec having 2 and 3 games in hand on them. Quebec has been flying high on offense, scoring the second most goals in the league so far, with 115 in 25 games. With 2 top 5 point scorers and 2 20 goal scorers only 25 games in, we will see if Quebec can keep up their offense as they keep their goal output for the rest of their regular season run.

Vancouver vs Anchorage

The Fight for First Place

The Vancouver Whalers and Anchorage Armada have been in a battle between each other for the first place spot in the league, with Vancouver pulling ahead with a 20-7-0 record with 40 points. Anchorage is very close to them, with an 18-8-0 record, trailing 4 points behind with a game in hand. Vancouver has the highest TPE of any SMJHL team with 6489, dwarfing Anchorage's 6th place 5620 TPE by 869! What seems to be Anchorage's secret weapon though is their defence, ranking first in Average Defence TPE with 411, beating Vancouver out by 1 point on average. The Whalers are top 2 in TPE at every position, finishing with the highest average TPE forwards with 377, and second in defence and goaltending rankings.

Vancouver has 9 players with 400+ TPE, with 7 of them being at 425 or 424 TPE. Compared to Anchorage's 6 400+ players, Vancouver has the edge by a large margin. With Vancouver's high defence TPE total, they are able to run 5 defenders with 400+ TPE, with their top pair having 425 TPE each. Pairing another 400+ TPE player with a maxed out player on their second pair allows them to have basically two top line defensive pairs. Adding onto the defensive depth with a 330+ TPE defense partner with yet another 400+ TPE defenceman makes it a nightmare for line matching by the opposition. Surprisingly, Vancouver's top scoring forward is not a max TPE player, and they don't even play on the first line! Lily Jin Morrow is in her second season of the SMJHL and has potted 39 points so far, playing left wing on the third line, as well as right wing on the first line power play, where she has already added 8 points on the man advantage. Close to her is Inactive Forever, who plays left wing on the first power play unit, as well as right wing on the first line, with 38 points and 9 power play points.

A large part of the success of Vancouver is their defence, with 3 of their defenders already reaching the 20+ takeaway mark, at only 27 games into the season, while still staying in single digits for giveaways. Jaden Tanner, Bob Wehadababyitsaboy and Bellamy Blake, lead the team in takeaways with 27, 25 and 22 so far. The Whalers are currently averaging the third highest goals for per game, with 4.3 / game, and first in goals against per game with 2.89 goals against per game. The Whalers are most likely going to continue their tear through the SMJHL this season as they seem unstoppable so far, and with 7 of their max TPE players in their final season of the SMJHL it is going to be a cup or bust season for them.

The Anchorage Armada are cruising through the SMJHL so far, sitting at second place in the standings while getting scoring from all spots on their roster so far. Current team leader is SMJHL S73 drafted rookie Deep Thought, who has 29 points so far with 13 power play points playing first line right wing and first line power play left wing. Joseph Reed is the center for the first line, currently at 28 points with max TPE. Hazbite rounds out the top line with 25 points on the left side, while the second line of Blackwood, Fedorov and Bongo have 27, 27 and 22 points respectively. 5 of the defenders for the Armada are currently sitting with 13+ points, with Cheeks Klapanen leading the way with 9 goals, 12 assists and 21 points. The Armada are poised for success this season but only have 3 of their top TPE players leaving at the end of this season, with Reed, Johnston, and Klapanen eligible to return next season.

The Armada's strength so far this season is their 3.08 goals against per game, currently second behind only the Whalers. Their power play sits at an impressive conversion rate of 23.1 scoring 24 times on their 104 attempts with that being ranked 3rd. An issue I could see going forward is that while they are converting a lot on the power play and have gotten a lot of opportunities on the PP, but that isn't a guaranteed way to run your offence. If the game gets tight and the power play runs dry they could be in some trouble scoring wise, hopefully their depth can get it done and keep shutting down their opponents in order to win those tight games like they have been doing so far.

If I had to place a bet, I'd bet on Vancouver finishing first, but don't count out the Armada just yet.

If you're still reading, I'd like to say thanks and hope you enjoyed the first iteration of Tentacle Tales I hope to do this semi regularly, maybe weekly or bi-weekly, if I forget to do it then maybe only a few times this season but more will be coming for sure!

9961 characters / 2010 words

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