Menace season in review

[hockeyis66 143]

The Moscow Menace came into the season with hopes of contending for a playoff spot with their younger roster and while the season started off promising, their youth showed throughout the middle and second half of the season as the team fell out of playoff contention in the European Conference.  The Menace finished the season with a 23-40-9 record which was good for 55 points and a 7^th place finish in the conference.  They were 20 points out of the 5^th and final playoff spot and 9 points back of 6^th place. 

 

Moscow ranked 11^th out of 16 teams with 237 goals scored and ranked 12^th in defense with 283 goals scored against.  The average for both was 252 goals, so the Menace were just short of average in goals scored and above average in goals given up.  The goal difference of -46 ranked third worst in the league.  The Menace were also the most penalized team in the league which put a lot of pressure on the penalty killing units to deliver but they were 12^th in the league at 77% stoppage rate which was below league average.  The power play converted on about 19% of its chances which also was slightly below league average as well.  The team did like to throw the body around and ranked 8^th in hits and was slightly above average in that category.

 

Idaho scoring one of his team high 41 goals on the season

 

The Menace won 5 out of 6 games against Helsinki with the other game being a loss in a shootout and won 3 of 4 games against Toronto.  The team also went 2 and 2 against New York and Riga while having a losing record against the other teams in the league.

 

The Menace goalie duo of Andrew Bowman and Papa Emeritus faced a lot of shots during the season with Bowman seeing the bulk of action in 56 games.  He posted a 17-27-4 record with a 4.11 GAA and a .896 save percentage.  He did post one shutout on the season and had a .444 penalty shot percentage.  Emeritus saw action as a rookie in 31 games and had a .924 save percentage and a 3.20 GAA.  He did not have a shutout and posted a .636 penalty shot save percentage.

 

Rookie Emeritus making a save in his VHL debut

 

Winger Philip Stein led the team in assists with 64 and points with 87 on the season.  He also had the most power play points on the team with 26 while playing around 25 minutes per game.  Winger Duncan Idaho was first on the team in goals with 41 and scoring the second most points with 84.  He also had the most penalty minutes with 185, hits with 329 and shots with 453.  Center Paul Atreides was the only other Menace player to average more than a point a game with 82 points on 32 goals and 50 assists. 

 

The defense was led by the duo of Aurelien Moreau and Hard Markinson as they complied 66 and 64 points respectively.  Markinson had 27 goals which ranked 4^th on the team and his 18 power play goals led the team as well.  More importantly, both players were above a +14 on the season and logged over 27 minutes a game while averaging less than a penalty per game.

 

The offseason is interesting really for any team and more so now for the Menace as they do have their own first round pick.  Will they try to nab a free agent or two or continue with the current course of adding a veteran through a trade and letting the younger players develop?  The next week or two will be telling as a trip to the playoffs are on the horizon.

 

word count: 610

[JB123 728]

Review: This is a terrific article. I like the review of the season and how you talked about key stats and players. Pictures are cool and add another layer to the media spot. Format is good, paragraphs and captions are used appropriately (like the italicized captions). Well done, 10/10