Calgary Struggling at Home

[solas 1,953]

As we near the halfway point of the season, the North American conference has been just as contentious as ever.  Even with the New York Americans starting a rebuild and outside of the Toronto Legion holding a strong lead at the top of the conference, things are still just as close as ever.  So far this year, there’s a 17 point gap between the top and bottom spots in the conference.  Over half of that is made up by Toronto’s nine-point lead over the Quebec City Meute at the top of the conference.  Meanwhile, the two non-playoff teams, the Seattle Bears and the Calgary Wranglers are both tied at 19 points, two away from the third-place Americans.  

 

With the playoff berths for Toronto and Quebec all but guaranteed, it’s likely that the three-team battle for the third-place spot in the conference will be the one to watch for the rest of the season.  Sure, New York have sold off assets, lost players to retirement, and have a glaring hole in net, but for the time being, Edwin Reencarnacion, Thaddeus Humbert, E’Twaun Delicious, and Kerkko Hyvarinen are still on the team and can make a difference.  Seattle, meanwhile, have a young and developing roster featuring the likes of Bogdan Podarok, Jakab Holik, and AK47.  Meanwhile, Calgary is possibly the wild card of the three.  The Wranglers are stacked with prospects - Theo Axelsson, Travis Gowecny, Tobias Klingberg, and Jim Lahey are all in their rookie seasons, and Season 49 second overall pick Ted Doughty will be looking to make an impact as a forward.  However, Calgary doesn’t only have young players.  This offseason, the Wranglers traded for goaltender Ariel Weinstein from the New York Americans, a former VHLM playoff MVP and top goalie, as well as the S47 Dustin Funk Trophy winner.

 

Many expected this move to catapult Calgary into playoff contention.  But that hasn’t happened yet for the Wranglers, as they’re currently last in the conference and Weinstein has underperformed with a .915 save percentage and a 2.69 GAA.  Questions may be asked of the Wranglers’ defense as well as its goaltending, but one thing about the team’s performance seems to stick out like sore thumb - Calgary’s lackluster performances at home.  While they have managed to pull off some impressive wins on the road against Davos and New York as of late, the Wranglers have had a shocking record of 1-8-2 at home this season.  That’s right, the Wranglers have only been able to win ONE game at home this season - and that’s surprisingly bad considering their 7-3-1 road record this year.  Normally teams tend to have an advantage while playing at their home arena in front of their fans, but for Calgary this seems to not be the case.  As a matter of fact, it’s worth noting that the Wranglers aren’t the only team with this problem - eight of the league’s ten teams have a better record in away games this season.  Possibly the most notable of these is HC Davos Dynamo, who are undefeated in ten games on the road, but have a record of 3-8-1 at home.  Meanwhile, Toronto and Quebec are the only teams in the league with better records at home

 

Whether or not things will begin to look up for them at home is yet to be seen, however it is interesting to note that the Wranglers are the only North American team that is yet to play the Stockholm Vikings - the league’s de facto bottom feeders thus far.

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

I did not realize that we had such a strong lead in the conference.

 

I don't expect it to hold though. Things will probably start to get close after the halfway point.

 

 

Weinstein has a decent SV% and 3 shutouts but can't keep it all out for Calgary. I hope it gets better.