Claimed:Reviewing Slaughter's First Round

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Reviewing Slaughter's First Round

 

The New York Americans had to wait a long time before they finally got to play in the playoffs this season after the Seattle Bears dispatched the Calgary Wranglers in six games. The Bears winning was the expected result of the first round and thus the Americans were well rested and well prepared to face their west coast foes. The Bears were a largely inactive roster without much spirit and despite the second round series being a hotly contested affair, the Bears remained short work for the Americans as the boys from Broadway knocked the Bears out in five.

 

 

The Americans are now waiting on their VHL finals opponent which will be either the HC Davos Dynamo or the Riga Reign. The Americans are confident against either team and so they are just focusing on playing their own game at this point. The Americans have overall been a fairly even team this season, choosing to focus more on depth this season as opposed to elite goal-tending, which was ironically the reason why they missed the finals last season. The team can score, but as we saw in the second round of the playoffs, they can also play elite level defence.

 

The keystone to the teams success is the elite talent they are able to ice on their second line. Odin Tordahl, Conner Low and Wesley Kellinger make up three of the league's top talents in their respective positions. All three of these players are able to skate on New York's extremely talented second line and with this they are routinely able to overpower other teams' second line units. The Americans top line meanwhile is tasked with shutting down other top lines in the league, a job they have done very well throughout the entire season, but especially proven against the Bears. Americans centre Tom Slaughter has had a poor statistical five games throughout the post-season so far, but digging a little deeper we can see the third year player has been doing exactly what he's been asked to.

 

The Americans allowed a total of five goals to the Bears in as many games with two victories coming as shut-outs. Tom Slaughter had one assist in the five games, making him one of the team's lowest scoring players. To make matters more confusing, Slaughter led the team in minutes played in the first round. Minutes played in every aspect (power play, penalty kill, regular time) and still Slaughter posted only one point. He also lodged an even plus/minus rating in the five games. Moreover, Slaughter currently leads the team in shots taken and yet he didn't contribute to the score sheet much at all! He also managed to win over 58% of his faceoffs against the talented Tyrael.

 

“That's my game and it's always been. My game is about winning games for my team anyway I can. If the coach is asking me to play a shut down role, well that's what I'm going to do. We have a lot of talent on this roster. I'm happy to be playing a role that maybe won't get as much love from the stats guys, but we're winning games. I think we're confident going into the series against our European rivals. We've been the best team now for the past two seasons and we're getting a chance to show it off here on the biggest stage in the VHL. I'm excited to start the new challenge of what should be the biggest games of my entire career. I'm looking forward to continuing my role as the shut down guy,” Slaughter said.

[Baozi 1,658]

We shutting them down all night long!

[Da Trifecta 1,896]

Content: 3/3 Really solid read here. Reached the minimum words and over. There are so many big name players on New York and they have been making a difference. Should be a fun matchup against Seattle.

Grammar: 2/2 Not a lot

Appearance: 1/1

 

defence - defense

centre - center

faceoffs - face-offs

 

FINAL 6/6

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