2012 Champions: Stat-Nerding the Second Quarter of the Season

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 (19^th)

--.919 SV% (t-4^th)

*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 20^th, 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.

Mid-December Kansas City Hockey Related News Report

There are an awful lot of honkeys in this picture.  (Screen cap via)

Just a reminder that the hockey version of the Border War continues Friday, January 20th, 2012 at the Independence Events Center (home of the Mavs).  I cannot promise the hockey will be top notch Division I caliber stuff, but I can promise a good time will be had by hockey fans, Mizzou fans, Kansas fans, and all sports fans alike.  Go here to get tickets.

Also, there is speculation that Craig MacTavish, the current head coach of the AHL's Chicago Wolves (the Mavs affiliate), is a possible candidate for the recently vacated Los Angeles Kings head coaching position.  His only head coaching gig in the NHL was with the Edmonton Oilers from 2000-09, going 301-252-47-56 and losing to Carolina in the 06-07 Stanley Cup Finals.  He is in his first season with the Wolves, and as of this date he is 11-9-4.  He currently coaches two-way Mavs Charlie Effinger, J.P. Testwuide, and Dustin Friesen.  He is also the last player in the NHL to play without a helmet.  Just thought you should know.

Oh yeah, by the way, Mavs goalie extraordinaire "F-bomb" Effinger was called up to the semi-big leagues the other day.  This means the Mavs will once again use their insurance policy, Gerry Festa, in net for the time being.  Brian Mahoney-Wilson will also see time between the pipes.

Hey, how about some NHL stuff?  Sure, why not.  Continue...

Recently, the NHL mulled over an idea to realign the current divisions and conferences setup instead of moving a few teams in the wake of the Atlanta-to-Winnipeg relocation.  You may have heard a lot about this already.  If not, I encourage you to peruse this article from NHL.com.  Basically, the NHL will operate with four geographic-based division/conferences, two with seven teams and two with eight teams.  The top four teams of each div-con will make it to the playoffs, facing off in the first two rounds and then filtering into a final four semi-finals of teams that do not see much of each other.  There are some schedule balancing things in there too, and the article does a good job of explaining how that works.  You may ask, "Why does this matter to Kansas City?"  Well, the optimist in me would love to show you.  Plus, who doesn't like to look at maps???

Let's imagine, "pretend" if you would like, that Phoenix relocates to Kansas City.  Well, according to CBC Sports, KC continues it's role as outcast.

3. Phoenix: The NHL wants to keep the Coyotes in Arizona and will likely adopt the "Atlanta timeline," ie. waiting until the last possible minute before announcing any move. It's been reported the four potential sites are Seattle, Las Vegas, Quebec City and Kansas City. (Technically, the league can't talk to another city until Jan. 1). If it is one of the first two, the team wouldn't have to switch conferences. If it's Quebec, you're looking at the Montreal grouping. Kansas City? No idea.

Let's have a look-see, shall we?

Here is the proposed realignment:

Pittsburgh is highlighted because they are upset about something or another...I don't care and neither should you.

Here is a scenario with the city of Kansas City in the mix:

There, I fixed it.

The whole problem with rearranging teams has to do with rivalries being destroyed, reiterating the fact that Detroit could essentially be placed in any one of these divisions (let that be a lesson to all of you; if you are good at something, others will consider you their rival).  If Detroit must remain a Western team in the div-con of Chicago and Minnesota that will henceforth be known affectionately as the Big Ten, then Nashville or Columbus could be bounced to an Eastern division (possibly Toronto and Montreal's, thus helping their attendance issues), or KC could just be a lone wolf out west, staying in the same division and basically solving nothing.  Or be an independent.  But no, Quebec City will get their precious NHL team back because of snow and tradition or some such nonsense.


If you need a better visual, well, here you go:

2012 Champions: Saying Goodbye is the Hardest Part...of Progress

Via

The Mavericks, currently in the training camp portion of their 2011-12 title run, have cut and traded their roster in an attempt to get to the "Perfect 19" necessary for a CHL roster.

At the end of last week the team announced they have waived forward Matt Dias and defenseman Janis Brakss (by the way, defensemen preview coming up after camp ends).  I had Dias as high as the second line in some projections, but, uh, I suppose that was wrong.  This left the roster with 27 players.  Only 8 more to go!  See more moves after the jump.

Earlier on Monday, the Mavericks rid themselves of six more players.  Defensemen Joshua Hepditch and Jared Lavender, and forward Derek Knowles were all traded away.  Lavender spent the past two seasons with the Mavericks, recording a +9 and playing in 94 games.  Knowles played last season with the Mavs, but only played in 38 games and two playoff games.  He had seven points overall.  My early projection had him riding the bench on the expanded roster, so his departure does not seem so surprising with so many new faces.  All were traded for future considerations.

Meanwhile, the remaining three players were waived.  They are forwards Toms Hartmanis and Derek Pallardy and defenseman Steven Later.  Pallardy played nearly all of the past two seasons with the Mavs, and his departure seems the most curious.  Although not a potent scoring threat (13+31=44 points in two seasons), he was a young player learning head coach Scott Hillman's system nearly straight out of college.  I would imagine he did not provide the scoring punch the team appears to be looking for this season.  The Mavs were sixth in goals for last season, and just appear to need more out of a second line-type forward.  I stated earlier that Hartmanis and Vern Cooper may be in a battle for a second line wing spot, and if I was accurate then it is safe to say that Cooper won the battle.  Later played the end of last season in Independence totaling 13 points in 18 games, and playing 9 playoff games.  This leaves the skater roster at 21, meaning two more players need to be cut.

Typically the Mavs carry six defenders, about eleven forwards, and two goaltenders.  This would mean three full defensive lines and nearly four full forward lines.  Who will be the next two players cut?  My guess is O'Nabigon or Dickson, just because they are similar players fighting for a bottom six-type role.  The other cut will probably be the goalie Macek, but he may stay somehow connected with the organization.

Remember, forward Ryan Jardine, defenseman David Pszenyczny and Dustin Friesen, and goalie Charlie Effinger are all under two-way contracts with the Chicago Wolves and Mavericks.  Friesen is currently one of eight defenders on the Wolves roster and has played in all four of their games and has a -3.

Also, along with trading for Knowles, the Rapid City Rush have also picked up former Mav Blake Forsyth.  He spent all of last season and seven games in 2010-11 with the Mavericks scoring a total of twenty points (3+17=20) and was a +26 last season.