 |
| Mavs President and GM Brent Thiessen won the Commitment Cup! Whatever that is... |
Welcome to the CHL All-Star break! Your Missouri Mavericks are currently fifth in the seven-team Turner Conference with 35 points. They are 16-13-3 overall, and are 8-8-1 with 17 points over the course of the second quarter of the season. The Mavs are technically still a playoff team with this record. They have 96 GF and 103 GA.
2010-11 season, after 32 games:
18-11-3
39 pts
103 GF
90 GA
-7 GF and -13(!) GA from one season ago. Where has everything gone so terribly wrong?
*C-Bass Thinel is still the team leader in points (9+30=39). He has slipped into a tie for seventh in the league in this category. There are no Mavs among league point leaders in the top twenty. Thinel is tied for second in the league in assists, seven behind the leader. Dale Mahovsky’s 30 points is second on the team (13+17=30). The league leader has 48 points.
*The Mavs are ninth of fourteen teams in the league in goals for. They are eighth in goals against. That is very middle of the road-y. Not good for a team that started the season with much of the same defense as last year, and brought in A LOT of offensive help.
*48 goals in the first fifteen games of the season (3.2 avg.), 48 goals over the course of the past 17 (2.82 avg.).
*In 2010-11, the Mavs had 103 total goals in their first thirty-two games (3.22 avg.), and 62 goals between Games #16-#32 (3.65 avg.).
*During this seventeen game stretch:
--15 goals over the first six games
--15 goals over the next four games
--The next game was the only time the Mavs have been shutout all season
--18 goals over the last six games
*Ah, but how about goals against? The Mavs gave up 43 over the first fifteen games (2.87 avg.), but they have given up 60 over the past seventeen games (3.53 avg.). During the seventeen game stretch:
--30 goals in the first eight games
--30 goals in the last nine games, including one shutout.
*In 2010-11, the Mavs gave up 90 total goals in their first thirty-two games (2.81 avg.), and 47 goals between Games #16-#32 (2.76).
*Speaking of defense, there have been eleven different defenders on this team over the course of thirty-two games. Last season, the Mavs only used 8 defenders. In fairness, J.P. Testwuide and Dustin Friesen are with the Chicago Wolves.
*Remember when only one active defenseman had a negative plus/minus one quarter through the season? Only Mike Wakita, Zach Carriveau, and David Simoes are in the positive (all with a +3; Carriveau is no longer with the team).
*There are no Mavs among the league leaders in plus/minus. Wichita has four players in the top five, all with a combined +67. Andrew Martens, former Wichita Thunder-er and current OKC Baron, has/had a +20. The top three Mavs plus/minus are a combined +19. Five current Mavs are positive. Carlyle Lewis and JS Dickson have the worst plus/minus with -6 each.
*Vern Cooper played in 11 games, had 6 points (2+4=6), was a +5, took 26 shots, and recorded a .077 shooting percentage. Now he is off to pursue his academic career. Best of luck to him.
*Ryan Jardine, through twenty-seven games, has 8 goals, 10 assists, and 18 points. After missing five games in the first quarter of the season, he has played every game in the second quarter of the season. So, that’s encouraging.
*Did I mention the Mavs are not very good on the powerplay?
*The league leader in powerplay percentage is Fort Wayne with 25.45%. They also have the least amount of opportunities in the league with 110, scoring 28 times.
*The Mavs are ninth in PP% (17.24%) with 116 opportunities and 20 goals. Only Texas has had fewer PP goals (15). Laredo also has 20, but only has scored 14.29% of the time.
*Record when the Mavs scored a PPG in the last seventeen games: 4-1-1
*Record when the Mavs failed to score on the powerplay in the last seventeen games: 4-7
*JS Dickson has 14 goals, and 5 of those have come on the PP. He is tied for sixth in the league in PPG. The league leader, Brandon Marino of Quad City, has 9.
*Thinel has 11 powerplay assists, which is tied for sixth in the league. The leader is Todd Robinson of Evansville with 19.
*The Mavs have 3 shorthanded goals, thanks mostly to defenders (Pszenyczny and Kaunisto - before he was traded). Rapid City, the league leader in this category, has 12. Oddly enough, three of their top four goal scorers (Les Reaney, league points leader Jesse Schultz, and Shawn Limpright) are all in the top five of this category.
*The Mavs were fourth on the penalty kill at 82.6% with 12 goals against after the first fifteen games.
*They are now tenth at 80.49%, having given up twelve goals on the PK in the past seventeen games. The league best is Allen at 85.42%. The league worst is Dayton at 71.43%.
*12 of 43 goals against were on the PK over the first fifteen games, while 12 of 60 goals against were on the PK over the last seventeen games. Something is wrong, but not just on the PK.
*The Mavs have given up 24 PPGA, which is three less than the league leader, Evansville, with 21 PPGA. But, the Mavs seventh place standing looks amazing compared to Dayton’s league worst 44 PPGA.
*The Mavs have been shorthanded the third least of any team, 123 times.
*They are now ninth in PIM with 544 minutes, after being fifth for the first quarter of the season with 305. They have recorded 239 minutes in the last seventeen games.
*No longer do the Mavs have any players in the league’s top fifteen most penalty minutes. Carlyle Lewis is sixteenth with 78, and Pszenyczny is twentieth with 70.
*Gerry Festa’s stats before being traded:
--8 GP
--2-4-2
--24 GA
--3.00 GAA
--.904 SV%
*New Mav, and former Arizona Sundog, Levente Szuper’s stats this season (one game with Mavs):
--16 GP
--3-6-4
--43 GA (t-last)
--3.16 GAA (19th)
--.919 SV% (t-4th)
*Charlie Effinger is back with the Mavs, and is seventh in the league in SV % (.917). Szuper is tied for fourth with .919%. The leader is the backup in Dayton, Larry Sterling, with .928%.
*Effinger has started nine games over the course of the last seventeen games, and is 5-4 with 30 GA and one shutout.
*Effinger is fourteenth in the league in GAA with 2.94. Szuper is nineteenth with 3.16. The leader is Mark Guggenberger for Texas with 2.29 GAA.
*Just as an example of how injuries have caused turmoil for this team, the Mavs had fifteen players dressed, plus one goalie (Festa) for their game on December 20th, 2011.
*The Mavs are 6-7-1 at home. They have gone 5-4 since the first quarter of the season.
*The Mavs are third in average total attendance with 5,456 people per game. Since the first five home games, the last nine have seen a 255 person average decrease. The Mavs are safely in fourth in total attendance with 76,388, just under 3,000 behind Rapid City who has played three more home games.
*The CHL is nearing one million total spectators for the season. The league has failed to achieve over two million total spectators only twice since 2002-03 (2008-09, 2009-10).
*The Mavs are 10-6-2 on the road. This is among the league leaders. They have gone 3-4-1 since the first quarter of the season, and 4-6-2 since the 6-0 road start.
*The Mavs have had one losing streak of three games, and one losing streak of four (0-3-1 over that stretch).
*The longest winning streak, other than the six game streak at the start of the season, is the recent four game winning streak that ended this past Sunday.
*Andrew Courtney is the Mavs only All-Star game representative. He is fourth on the team in goals (12), fifth in assists and points (10, 22), and is a team best +7. He was a -2 with seven shots in the ASG.
*Former Mavs Kaunisto and Carriveau played for the hosting Arizona Sundogs in the ASG.
*The Chicago Wolves are in second place in the AHL’s Midwest Division, two points behind the Charlotte Checkers. They have 106 GF and 96 GA, and are currently on a four game win streak. J.P. Testwuide has played ten games and is a -2. Dustin Friesen has played in nineteen games and has three points (1+2=3). He is a +6. Craig MacTavish is still the coach.
So, the Mavericks have not played exceptionally well over the second quarter of the season. They are giving up a lot more goals, but also have to deal with the instability that comes with injuries, big league call-ups, and transactions. This team still has not lapsed into being “streak-y,” but they do tend to struggle at times. One area that they cannot afford to struggle is on the PK, where they have been so solid in the past.
The Mavs should not be happy with the offensive output from the first half of the season after bringing in a lot of players to help that issue. It’s tough to blame the defense for being sloppy over the past few weeks, but the offense must come around for the last thirty games or so for the Mavs to even threaten to make noise in the playoffs.
As always, you can follow your favorite CHL team at their official site and at the CHL's official site. Also, there is info on the KC Star's site, and every now and then on the Pitch's site. Be sure to read Mavericks Weekly on the Mavs' site for all of the weekly updates and upcoming events at the IEC.
