Analysis of San Diego Marlins after game 42

[JCarson 756]

Today VHLM finished game 42 for all teams. At this point in the season the San Diego Marlins are in first place by 7 points. This article is going to analyze the factors that have led to this outcome. Normally as a member of the media I try to keep my own personal opinions out of my articles but in this instance, I am going to tip my hat slightly. Personally, I believe that a strong hockey team is built from the net outwards, so I am going to review the San Diego Marlins from that perspective. 

 

The San Diego Marlins goaltending has been exceptional this season. First of all as a team the San Diego Marlins have only allowed 68 goals. That is a combined GAA of 1.62 goals per game. To put that into perspective, that is 14 less goals than the next closest team. They have also had 8 shut outs, which is tied for the lead with Miami. San Diego is also the only team that has effectively implemented a primary and secondary goalie with any level of success. In fact, the secondary goalie DJ Fire Dragon leads the league in GAA and SV%. As far as goaltenders go the San Diego Marlins have a great team. 

 

Now that we have established that the goaltending of the San Diego Marlins is fantastic, let's move forward and look at the Defense. The defense of any team has two major jobs. The first is to provide support for the goaltenders, to dictate the play in the defensive zone and to get the puck out to the neutral zone. Second the defense has the job of providing secondary offensive support, helping transition the puck from defense to offense and by being a strong backbone to the goal scoring of the team. Looking at San Diego Marlins the defensive core has been strong. Although I could note specific individuals, I would prefer to look at some larger team defensive statistics. The most impressive of these is that San Diego Marlins have only allowed 804 shots. Putting that in comparison to the worst team for shots who have 1869 so far. In relation to assisting with offense the San Diego Marlins defense have 2 players in the top 5 for points of the San diego team. In total the defense has 37 of the 137 goals or 27% of the total offensive output. The defense has contributed to the success so far. 

 

From a perspective of the forwards, we must admit there are teams that have had higher total offensive output than the San Diego Marlins, but few teams can say they have a player at the top of the point leaderboard. The fact that the forwards are assisting with the defensive duties and have still put up 100 goals on the season shows how well rounded they are. This is a forward contingent that has played a disciplined game and it has shown up on the scoreboard and for that matter as a lack of goals for opponents.

[Scurvy 1,567]

Review:  Overall a great article.  The amount of research you did to provide such detailed stats is great.  I really like how you broke down the comparisons to other teams in the league and showed how team defense is so important to winning in this league.  As a defender (and former Marlin) I like how you emphasized their importance with statistical data.   The only thing I would have liked to see is maybe a photo or some type of graphic added to add to such a great article.  Overall 8/10