John Richards is scoring at a higher rate than I had expected. He is scoring at just under a point-per-game at 0.66 ppg with 2 assists in 3 games. His first ever assist and point came in his first career VHLM game against Mexico City in a 6-2 loss. He didn't contribute offensively to the team in any way in game 2 however, we ended up losing that game too. Games 2 and 3 were close games but we lost both games by a goal losing to Saskatoon and Philidelphia. During game 3 against Philidelphia, the team had an unexpected offensive surge to help us to 3 goals. Though we scored 3 goals we could not defeat Philly and we ultimately lost that game 4-3 in regulation. John Richards contributed with another assist to give him his second point in three games.
John Richards in three games had scored no goals two assists for two points he has 12 shots giving him an average of 4 shots per game. He also contributed defensively blocking 5 shots which averages out to 1.6 blocks per game. With the blowout loss we suffered in game 1 it surprises me to see that John Richards after 3 games ended as a plus 2 in the plus/minus collumn. Although it is a very short sample size, John Richards is the only player on the Marlins who is a positive in the plus/minus collumn. He threw three hits in three games meaning obviously that he averaged a hit per game.
Overall I think the team is just excited to be a part of the experience and so am I. We seem to be optimistic about the future and what the team could do in the following season. John Richards seems to be a positive, impactful player when on the ice and he is producing everything and more than I had anticipated. I will keep building him to be a scoring/two-way winger and hopefully as the seasons go by and my player develops he will be able to be the primary scoring option or a reliable shut down winger who can shut down opponents lines and has the skills and capability to finish the play at the other end of the ice. I'm positive that if Richards keeps shooting at the pace he is he should score his first goal in the VHLM for his team the San Diego Marlins very soon, maybe he'll even keep his positive plus/minus through the season. These are all just speculation and maybe's but it doesn't hurt to be optimistic.
There was only one player on the Marlins who shot the puck more in their first 3 games than Richards and that was Sadie St. Louis who had finished with 14 shots but no goals to show for it. Richards and Sadie seem to be comfortable with shooting the puck but maybe they have no puck luck as they have a total of 26 shots and none of them went in the net. Again it is only three games so we cannot get too frustrated and just keep on focussing on doing everything we can to help our squad win games.
I think Richards has a bright future as a two-way scoring winger in the VHLM and the best part about him is that he's done all this in three games at the young age of 16 years old. Excited to see how Richards, the Marlins and of course Richards' teammates finish the season he hopes everyone finishes strong and that we can put together some wins and just generally finish the season on a good note.