It's a Start...

[joeg 69]

It's a Start

The Mississauga Hound giving a look of disapproval over recent play 

 

Joe Gainer has played for the Mississauga Hounds for a total of 8 games. In those 8 games, the Hounds are 2 and 6, giving up 53 goals, while potting only 24 for themselves. All 6 of their loses have come by at least 3 or more goals, while their 2 victories are close games where they are able to hang on until the final horn. The cherry on top was the loss last week to Ottawa by a final tally of 10 to 0. These stats point to an interesting question, is Gainer to blame for the abysmal stretch the Hounds are in?

 

Gainer is currently slotted in on the 4th line, where he is averaging 11 minutes and 47 seconds per game.  He has recorded 3 goals and 1 assist in this brief start to his career. However, he has watched 9 goals be deposited into his own net, leaded to the less than ideal -5 plus/minus. The high point of his young career game April 3rd against the Las Vegas Aces, where he netted goals, including his first ever VHLM goal, en route to receiving the first star of the game. In the 5 games since his 2-goal night, he has recorded only 2 points, a goal and an assist, with no points in his last 3 games. To accurately assess whether the addition of Gainer has had an adverse effect on the Hounds performance, we examined the Hounds 8 games preceding the arrival of Gainer. In these games the Hounds were 1 and 7. They gave up fewer goals, albeit it was still 39 given up while potting 22 for themselves. The key indicator here was the goal differential in each game. 3 of the 6 losses were by only 1 goal, while the other 4 were 3 or more. Their worse loss came at the hands of the Philadelphia Reapers, with a 7-1 final tally. Now it is worth noting that in the 8 games Gainer has been with the team, the Hounds opponents were all in a playoff position, with the only exception being the Las Vegas Aces. So there has been no easing into for Gainer, although it sounds like he wouldn’t want it any other way. He has repeatedly told reporters that while the game results are frustrating and disappointing, it is these games that help build character and grit. “Obviously I have to play better. I can’t be giving up easy goals and leaving AA (Aleksandr Aleksandrov) out to dry like that” Gainer told reporters after practice. “With that being said, it is games like these that drive you to get better. In tight games, we are working hard to ensure that we are getting better. And it’s these games that prepare you for playoff time. Even with our current results, we are still only 1 point out of a playoff spot. And I know that we’ll keep fighting to the bitter end here to get better.”

 

It has certainly been a rocky start for Gainer on the Hounds. But if there is any brightside, it can only go up from here. And with the talent Mississauga has been putting together, the sky’s the limit.

 

534 Words

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

Review: Great article! I love the joke about the Mississauga Hounds at the beginning. Also, I appreciate the creative use of the bigger sized letter at the beginning of the article. When it comes to advice I have, my advice is about paragraph separation. While the first and last paragraphs are reasonable lengths, I feel like the middle paragraph is a bit too long. Maybe next time, you could try splitting a long paragraph like that in half or at least in a way that both makes sense and separates the paragraph evenly. To be honest, I can't complain about long paragraphs but it is definitely something to work on and keep in mind. But other than the occasional grammar mistakes, this was a good article. 7/10