- The Undefeated Teams
After the first two weeks of action, New England, Toronto, and Colorado all sit at 2-0. Toronto had the most questions surrounding them while New England and Colorado were both overflowing with potential with the Black Wolves benefiting from very light outside expectations going into the year. Two weeks does not a season make, but these teams are going to be very interesting as the season progresses. Minnesota will be a good test for New England’s transition game as they make the trek to Connecticut to face New England after they both have a week off.
- The Winless Teams
I’m on the record as saying in the preseason that you had Rochester, Calgary and Edmonton followed by everyone else fighting for fourth place in the league. After the first two weeks, none of these teams has won a game and all of them have games or parts of games they’d rather forget. It has only been two games, so none of them are hitting the panic button (rightly so), but I don’t think anybody wants to be on their schedules for week three. All three of these teams are still capable of dominating games (each of them has a one goal loss), but they are falling behind in their divisions early. These talented, angry, motivated teams are going to be a tough matchup.
- Vinc and His Defense
After this week’s Black Wolves game, a fan came up to me and said “What’s up with Vinc?”. So far this year, his save percentages are 72.9% against Toronto and 63.8% against New England. Last season on his way to another Goaltender of the Year award, he had 3 games under 73% and we replaced for at least a quarter in every one of those contests. His next lowest game was 73.1% and he sat out the entire next game in favor of Angus Goodleaf. So what is up with Vinc? In a word: defense. Against New England, Vinc was left on his own by the Knighthawks defense. New England seemingly dove through the crease and got inside at will. Their game plan was to get inside and create high percentage opportunities, which is exactly what they did. Vinc isn’t the problem at the moment, he’s the symptom.
- Black Wolves Offense
The Black Wolves spent most of their game against Buffalo working off of picks to get their hands free so they could fire away from the outside. It worked well enough as they earned the victory. Against the Knighthawks, their entire scheme changed as they were able to force their way inside and get shots off right on top if not diving through the crease. They also improved upon their transition mistakes significantly. After two games, they don’t have a specific identity other than to watch out for their righties (Kyle Buchanan and Kevin Crowley). Those two were involved in every single goal not scored by Joel White against Rochester. They also have yet to insert their most veteran player, Brett Bucktooth, or talented rookie Mark Cockerton into the lineup as they have been scratches both weeks.
- Calgary
If it weren’t for their horrendous third quarter against the Stealth and a few mistakes against the Mammoth, the Roughnecks’ fortunes would be drastically different. Geoff Snider is still Geoff Snider in that he leads the league in loose balls, face-off wins and face-off percentage while also leading in points among everyone who has taken a face-off. That part of the team still works. What’s most troublesome in Mike Poulin who leads the league in save percentage, if you start from the bottom. They already lead the league in shots, so if they can shore up their defense a bit and get a few more shots to fall, this will be the Calgary many saw coming in the preseason.
- Vancouver
In the preseason, the Stealth were often relegated by many to the spot in the west reserved for the team who has to miss the playoffs. It was really just a numbers game and either them or Colorado would be out. Now that they’re actually playing games, they own the second best shooting percentage in the league, paced by Rhys Duch’s 14 points and their next two scorers shooting 40% and 41.7%. Newly acquired Johnny Powless and Joel McCready only combine for nine points so far, but that hasn’t held them back. They host Buffalo in the only game this week which will be a very good test for them.
- Joel White
Now that he is not playing next to Brodie Merrill, White is trying to make his official mark as one of the best loose ball guys in the league. Ever since Merrill has been in the league, he’s been one of, if not the, best in that category among those who don’t take a majority of their team’s face-offs. Right now White is only second to Geoff Snider in the LB department. That will be a fun race to watch for any stat geeks out there. He also has already doubled his goal output from last season by scoring a short-handed goal and another diving buzzer beater at the end of the 3rd quarter which was upheld after review. White is playing the role of team captain very effectively.
- Josh Sanderson
If you’re looking for eye-popping numbers, you can’t ignore Sanderson. In trying to fill the void of 110 regular season assists in 2014 by Colin Doyle and Garrett Billings, Sanderson has stepped in. He leads the league in points after two games with four goals and 16 assists. While it’s fun to extrapolate this to 180 points and 144 assists, he won’t be hitting those numbers. No matter what, he is filling an integral role in the Toronto offense that doesn’t look like it’s struggling without a leader as many feared they would.
- Goalies
Evan Kirk has been outstanding in goal for New England while leading the league in save percentage. He was the difference for the team in their opener against Buffalo. Like last year, Antony Cosmo owns the second best percentage while also facing the most shots. As mentioned earlier, Matt Vinc and Mike Poulin are struggling along with Minnesota’s Brodie MacDonald who is a regular starter for the first time in his career.
- Minnesota’s 11 Goals
One of the biggest stories of the week was Minnesota’s amazing 11-1 goal run against Edmonton. They were down 7-3 at half and Edmonton opened with two more goals after the break. After that, Minnesota rolled off 11 of the remaining 12 goals in the game to win 14-10 in Edmonton’s home opener. The go ahead goal in the fourth was a spectacular shot by rookie Miles Thompson as he was falling to the ground backwards. You can check it out here:
