London Unites Analysis of secondary support, Season 91 a great success

[JCarson 730]

I am writing this media spot at the end of season 91 regular season, London secured third place in the tight European conference with 97 points. As expected, the European conference was a fight to the finish and London was able to narrowly surpass Malmo within the last 2 sims to avoid the play in round. As indicated in the Media spot prior to this season opening, this season’s media spot (except for theme week) looked 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 65 and this is how the three players were situated:     

                                  Sjin      Ivan    Thor     

Goals                          17        18         8      

Assists                        22         17         5     

Points                         39        35        13     

+/-                              -3          1         -6     

Penalty Minutes         38         67        22  

   

    

Now after game 85 the statistics look as follows:    

    

                                  Sjin      Ivan    Thor     

Goals                          21        21         8      

Assists                        23         21         6     

Points                         44        42        14     

+/-                              -4          1         -7     

Penalty Minutes         40         69        30 

 

Before I look at the performance of the second line individually, I want to spend a little time looking at the team. London overall gave up 165 goals which is second lowest in the league. Strong defensive play was a key component of London’s success. Acknowledging this fact allows us to accept that the second line had less pressure to be offensively productive and allowed them to focus on their defensive strengths.  

     

Sjin – Sjin points production was steady all season, ending with 44 points in 72 games didn’t line up exactly with the target of 50 points for the season that was originally envisioned but was an acceptable pace given the defensive style played by the team. He did finish behind his own personal target of points per game.  A +/- of -4 means that unfortunately Sjin has been on the ice for more goals than he has helped put in the net but not by a large margin. This detracted partially from his team's support but was not overly concerning. 40 penalty minutes in 672 games is very reasonable and did not detracting from the team's offensive ability    

     

Ivan Retosav – Ivan offensive production was also consistent throughout the season, ending with 42 points overall. This is a reasonable level of support for the team given the defensive responsibilities that have been put on the second line. With 42 points, Ivan ended below where he wanted to be in production, as he had a target of 50 points for the season. (this would have allowed him to reach 500 career points). A +/- of 1 shows a positive impact on the team as they are offering more production for than against. His 69 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 less than 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. Although Thor finished with fewer points than prior seasons his defensive strength is a major asset. Thor’s +/- finished sitting at -7 which unfortunately provided negative value to the team as they gave up more goals in relation to the ones they are on the ice for. We hope that this will turn around during the playoffs. Thor only has 24 minutes in penalties, which is well ahead of expectations.  

     

London’s second line played a vital role during the regular season this year. They provided significant defensive structure, penalty killing support and enough production to be an asset. These players make up a strong backbone to the style of game London plays and will continue to be an asset during the playoffs. 

    

This concludes the analysis of Season 91, Second line success.