London Secondary Support review at game 65

[JCarson 730]

I am writing this media spot after the sim of London game 65, London continues to be a significant presence in the European conference and currently sits with 89 points. This puts them with a strong hold on fourth place in the European Conference, within 2 points of third. As indicated in the Media spot prior to this season opening, this season’s media spot (except for theme week) will look at how depth players play a role in the success of a team. We are doing this by evaluating the contributions of three players: Sjin, Ivan Retoslav and Thor Odinson.  

    

The last review was done after game 37 and this is how the three players were situated:    

                                  Sjin      Ivan    Thor    

Goals                          9          10         6     

Assists                        11         9          2    

Points                        20        19          8    

+/-                              2          3           0    

Penalty Minutes        18        38         14 

  

   

Now after game 85 the statistics look as follows:   

   

                                  Sjin      Ivan    Thor    

Goals                          17        18         8     

Assists                        22         17         5    

Points                         39        35        13    

+/-                              -3          1         -6    

Penalty Minutes         38         67        22   

    

Sjin – Sjin points production has been steady over the last couple of weeks, adding 8 goals and 11 assists which helped the team this week. With a target of 50 points for the season he is slightly behind that pace, but it is not out of reach. He is behind on his own personal target of points per game which will be more difficult to get. The 50-point target may have been a little lofty for a team that plays a more defensive style, so overall we are happy with the production we are getting. A +/- of -3 means that unfortunately Sjin has been on the ice for more goals than he has helped put in the net. This detracts partially from his team's support but is not overly concerning. 38 penalty minutes in 65 games is very reasonable and is not detracting from the team's offensive ability   

    

Ivan Retosav – Ivan offensive production has continued to be steady, adding 8 goals and 8 assists over the last couple of weeks. This is a reasonable level of support for the team given the defensive responsibilities that have been put on the second line. With 35 points, Ivan is below where he wants to be in production, as he has a target of 50 points for the season. (this allows him to reach 500 career points) The team hopes that he will pick up in production to get closer to that target. With only 7 games left in the season it may be difficult for Ivan to reach this target. A +/- of 1 shows a positive impact on the team as they are offering more production for than against. His 67 penalty minutes are higher than the team likes as this has resulted in London needing to play Penalty Kill which is a disadvantage however, at a minute per game rate we can live with this.  

    

Thor Odinson – based on these statistics Thor is trailing the offensive output of his other linemates but is providing acceptable depth to the team. When we last looked, he had 8 points in the first 37 games and was projecting out to only 16 points on the season. Since then, they have maintained this pace and currently sit with 14 total points. This is slightly below last year’s production; we hope this will pick up over the next few games, but it is not a major concern now. Thor’s +/- is sitting at -6 which unfortunately provides negative value to the team as they are letting up more goals in relation to the ones they are on the ice for. We hope that this will turn around over the last few games and the push to take third in the European Conference. Thor only has 22 minutes in penalties, which is well ahead of expectations.  

    

After looking at the information we have from the first 65 games it can be concluded that the secondary offense is assisting London in meeting the target of being a playoff team within the extraordinarily strong European Conference and pursuing another championship. Productivity improvements will be needed as we enter the playoffs to allow London a chance at a championship in Season 91. With London’s strong defensive play, it does not seem that above average secondary scoring is required to win games, but any improvement will help. Given the circumstances, these players are providing adequate secondary offensive output for the team.  

    

Another analysis will be concluded once the season has finished.