Well there been a lot of games and a lot of Trends are starting in certain directions some teams are taking off some teams are slowing down what does it all mean we’re about halfway through the season so it’s time for our midseason PD drop podcast it’s time for
The PO drop podcast that’s right believe it or not most teams are about halfway through their season with 12 games played each and and there’ve been some hot some cold some holding steady so today I wanted to take a look at just some of the numbers the trends some of
The uh players that have either been hot or cold what’s your team been up to who’s been the MVP for your team so far so up at the top it seems to me in the first tier we’ve got two teams Minnesota and Montreal it might look a little
Artificial right now but it has been shaping up that way for the past four or five games so Montreal has 24 points um Minnesota has 21 let’s take a look at Montreal first they have had to me the most surprising results some games they’ve won where they shouldn’t have
Won it’s just been a fascinating team to watch from top to bottom beginning to end they started off the season with an overtime win against Ottawa and that pretty much showed you what you were going to get from them it was hanging on it was playing defensive hockey it was
Waiting for that moment to strike and that’s what they’ve been doing ever since they went one win one loss one win one loss for about their first six or seven games so they were you know pretty much about as average as you can be until we hit um the shootout game
Against Toronto which they ended up losing four to3 but that game had a lot of implications for both teams um Maurice Le pulen of course scored that beautiful tying goal and then after after that they went into the Excel Energy Center and beat Minnesota 2 to1 with elen chul’s great win they beat
Ottawa 2 to1 they beat Boston with chulian Goal again at the S Center 2 to one then they did lose the battle on Bas Street at Scotia Bank Arena but came right back with another great win against Minnesota they ended up losing in a shootout to New York and then their
Latest game was a statement win in ver against Ottawa so to me it was that stretch in late January and right into February before the uh rivalry series break that Montreal started to really start to come into its own and you definitely have to look at their goal
Tending as one of the biggest factors who thought that Ela Chuli would be the top goalie right now uh with the goals against of 1.24 and a save percentage of 961 those are both tops in the league League over uh Second Place Karine Schroeder who does have an amazing save percentage as
Well of 0949 but no slouch and Renee Deen who has played nine games total and has a 923 save perc average and a 2.16 goals against average so both of them are really playing lights out and then when you couple that with of course Marie Philip pulen who has 12 points in 13
Games a nice even six and six unarguably the best player in the game and then some great secondary or support scoring at least Moren Murphy’s been a great surprise if you want to call it that um she is playing with pulan but three goals and seven assists 10 points for
Her and Teresa vanisha another great story she got her second goal in the win against Ottawa so she’s got two goals and eight assists for 10 points as well in 12 games and you can’t call Laura Stacy a sleeper but with six goals and two assists I think that’s a little more
Offensive output than we might have expected from her when you look at Montreal’s top scorers I’m going to kind of do a cut off of six points in 13 games played I think that’s a good cut off and Montreal has six players above that cutof point Claire Dalton just
Makes it with her five goals and one assist but that is saying something when you’ve got that many players contrib in and Aaron Ambrose is the only Defender but with two goals five assists seven points in 13 games played I think that speaks well for her so that’s been
Montreal’s Trend kind of a slow build with a bit of a spurt in the middle that has just carried them as they’ve kind of evened out lately and joining Montreal in that top tier is of course Minnesota who have been on top pretty much from day one of the league since they went
Undefeated in their first first five games um they did lose in overtime to New York and then they finally did lose in regulation to Montreal 2 to one so if we look at their sixo scorers they have five of them um zumwinkle Panic coin scoffield Taylor heisy and Lease deck
Line they did have Susanna tapy on Pace for that she has five points in her nine games played with um Minnesota and of course she was traded to Boston so maybe a little bit less than the other teams but their scoring has been pretty spread
Out um you’ve got a lot of players with you know in the two three point range and of course they added Sophie Jakes in that trade who got an assist in her very first game with Minnesota and who I think is going to make a big difference
For them on the blue line especially on the power play um Abby borin has been a nice surprise she has been activated now that Taylor heisy has been placed on ltir that allows them to keep borine on the active list and she’s been a really really nice surprise I think GL sheepers
Has been a really strong player for them maybe her points um aren’t quite there but whatever line she’s on seems to really be taking off and graay sule who we talked about is I think one of the surprises of the league although you know the hattrick that she got maybe
Skewed her stats only slightly but she’s been very very noticeable she’s been Hensley and U Matty Rooney have been definitely underrated if possible or at least undermentioned as far as being among the top goalies in the league Nicole Hensley is sitting basically at third as far as goals against average of
1.84 and Rooney is in fifth at 1.98 in safe percentage Nicole Hensley again is in third Rooney’s down a little further at 8th at 911 um but you know Hensley’s been a great surprise and the thing about goal tending is that we didn’t know with many of these players
Who hadn’t played a strong regular schedule since their NCAA college playing days many of them they might have played in the pwpa but that was a more limited schedule and they didn’t play every game obviously some of them were either second or third on their national team and so coming out of
Something like that and then taking a little time to get off the ground and get started is a bit of a roll of the dice for these GMS but but definitely credit to um Natalie darwitz for realizing that um she needed to grab Nicole Hensley um early on in the draft
And she’s been one of the better draft picks overall period about the only games that we’ve seen Minnesota struggle in were the two two to one losses against Montreal and in that case Montreal played Elaine Chuli in both of those so that’s interesting that she was
Able to hold Minnesota to just one goal it would certainly make for her an interesting storyline if they met each other in the playoffs which goalie would be uh starting for Montreal and how they would do there and then quickly just mentioning the trade as far as Minnesota’s um trajectory through the
Season I think that it’s interesting that darwitz and marmer both said they didn’t want to make a a small trade a trade of just minimal players that might not have that much of an impact on the roster they didn’t want to uproot players make them move locations and
Change teams just for the sake of you know finishing out a a third line or playing small minutes on defense or something like that they wanted to make a trade that they both thought would really improve their team so they went for somewhat of a blockbuster with Jake
For tapan and Abby cook and it’s worked out really well for both I think Jake’s is a really good fit here the injury to heisy maybe makes it a little unfortunate that they don’t have tapon around but they are able to activate borin so that should offset that a
Little bit right now their playoff chances are at 91% and that’s about where you’d expect to see them a 46% chance to make the final and a 23% chance to be the pwl champion so overall looking good and of course if you’re going to talk hot teams you got to talk
Toronto not only did they win that battle on Bay Street but they are on a five-game winning streak if you count the shootout and they have the hottest goendale who would have thought Kristen Campbell she you know was making us all question the fact that Toronto only took
Her basically as their number one goalie in the draft and she didn’t start off that strongly um you can go back to my videos where I said said they look great they chose a lot of Team Canada veterans but did they forget about goal tending and what I meant was a strong secondary
Goendale teams or collegiately Le that if the number one needed a break they would have it and Toronto has Erica how who is pretty much what I would call A A B goalie a backup goalie she can take a start now and then but it was all on
Campbell’s shoulders and at first she wasn’t looking so good you know they got beat in their first game four to nothing by New York and it just seemed to go from there losing to Minnesota Ottawa Boston Montreal they were able to beat New York it seemed like this shootout
Game against Montreal on the 20th where Campbell stopped three out of the four shootout attempts by Marie Philip pulen you could almost just read that and see that happening in front of your eyes that she was gaining confidence kind of remembering how she used to be able to stop good players in big
Situations and that was to me the turning point in the very next game she shut out New York uh they won against Minnesota they won against Boston she got another shut out in the battle on Bay Street 3 to nothing over Montreal and then they were able to beat
New York in that shootout again so the second shootout win for Campbell um her safe percentage right now sits at a tidy 9918 and her goals against is 220 and that’s saying something when you look at her earlier sa percentage and goals against average I mean this game she was
At a 727 that’s the game where she was pulled and then it just starts to go up from there so great great credit to her and looking at our six point scores for Toronto they also have five um the cut off is right here with Hannah Miller who
Missed one game and has five points but she’s heating up so you’ve surprisingly got Joselyn L Rock there with uh six points herself and Emma Mal who’s been just a little bit of everything for this team in a good way she has two goals and five assists for seven points in her 12
Games and look who’s on top of course it’s Natalie Spooner the League’s leading goal scorer 10 goals one assist 11 points so pretty strong overall and you’ve got players playing a a secondary role like Maggie Connor Blair Turnbull you think has to heat up a little bit
More than that even Hannah Miller’s been a great Revelation and Victoria Bach who’s only played four games I think she’ll be joining those top scorers as well and with that pair of Lorac and fast finally coming to where we thought they would and H hope they would I think Toronto is
Much more where they belong where we thought they’d be and if we look at this chart of their daily playoff chances wow it’s it’s a roller coaster or it’s going down into the valley and back up because with those early losses into the end of January they just plunged to the bottom
I think they were at something like a 15% chance to make the playoffs and quickly with that game against Montreal they’ve climbed back up in the five game win streak certainly hasn’t hurtt at all right now they’re sitting in third with a 73% chance to make the playoffs and
Then looking at New York to me they are just about what we expected this is the identity that they seem to have right from the start exciting to watch a couple of really really big stars I mean Alex Carpenter we knew she was good but put her in this environment and she has
Just thrived so with all that talent I think New York is going to be right in in the thick of things all season long um even though Boston has jumped out by two points ahead of them after their last game it looks like Toronto Boston New York are probably going to be the
Teams that are fighting for those last two playoff spots one interesting Trend with them is they definitely have gone past regulation the most they have four overtime games and three wins and one loss in those and they’ve already been to a shootout twice with one win and one
Loss so they’re picking up extra points even when they don’t get the three for the regulation win so they have two regulation wins four overtime wins two overtime losses and four regular losses so they seem to go literally almost one win one loss alternating on February 4th when they
Played in Ottawa Ottawa jumped out to a 3 nothing lead and then as it looked like they were going to finish it out scored three goals in the second half of the third period so at 1454 Abby Rock scored less than a minute later Jade Downey Landry scored and then about a
Minute after that Alex Carpenter scored so they went to overtime at 33 and it was of course overtime hero Alex Carpenter who got the winner for them there games like that when we look at the league if something like that happens it’s usually involving New York
And when we look at our six-point cut off this is the team that is loaded with scorers they actually have six players that have six points or more as of right now and two of them have more than 10 um that’s Ella Shelton with 10 four goals six assists and Alex Carpenter the
Leading score of the league with eight goals seven assists then we’ve got Jesse Eldridge with a four and four for eight points Abby rock with two goals six assists for eight points Jay Downey Landry 4-2 for six points and a defenseman Jamie borbon with one goal
And five assists so there’s a lot of offense there and then at the same time you know that this team would not be where they are without the goal tending of Karine schroer she is one of the top goalies in the league her goals against right now is
1.71 and her save percentage is 949 so she’s been just you know lights out from the first game where she posted a shutout and continues to just strong all the way through I don’t think her play has dipped at all and that earned her a call up to Team Canada for the
Rivalry Series so the playoff chance chart for New York has been pretty similar to a team like Montreal where they’ve gone one up one down and stayed pretty much where they are if you look at the beginning and the end they are right now at about a 63% chance to make
The playoffs and really the only dip they had was when they did have a two- game losing streak for the only time this season seon and then as far as making the finals they are at about 31% and to be Champion it looks like a 15% and so like
I said the pack of New York Toronto and Boston I think are going to be the three that are sticking close together and trying to get those last spots now with Ottawa you’d have to say it’s a surprise that they’re at the bottom I mean that’s where they are unfortunately those
Overtime losses where they that got a single point starting with their very first game of the season which is what happened has just been the story for them so far I don’t really know what to chalk it up to I think their goal tending has been really good Mash Meer
Has maybe borne a little bit too much of the load maybe that’s some of what’s going on I just can’t fault her for the games to me they had the best looking Decor but there’ve been a little bit of shaky moments for players like um jincy Rose and
Zoe Boyd I think Ashton Bell’s been really good Savannah Harmon’s been really good tera’s been really good they obviously had the breakout star in Lexia Gia but she’s cooled off just a little bit and for me actually their most consistent player other than Emily Clark has been Katarina mova she’s just been
Kind of a wild card that showed up and has just been playing at a strong a minus level let’s call it I mean Lexia G went up to A+ I think now she’s back down to a B+ but mz’s just been fun to watch and so has her Czech teammate uh
Terova and the interesting thing is with that Sixpoint cut off Ottawa actually has seven players that would make it and that’s unusual since they’re in last place but it shows you that they’ve got the offensive Firepower they’re just not timing their goals they’re not coming up
With big goals so we basically if we start at six points we’ve got Savannah Harmon and Brienne Jenner both with two goals and four assists darl Watts has six points with her three goals and three assists rova has six points with four goals and two assists and so does
Gabby Hughes four goals two assists then we’ve got seven points for Emily Clark with two and five and seven points for Lexi Gia with four goals and three assists now it’s notable when you look at the number beside that that they all have a negative number in the plus minus
And Jenner Harmon watts and rova are all at minus four so you can look at that and say are these important players on the ice when goals are needed and getting scored against um I don’t think there have been that many empty net goals that have counted there I think
These are pressing to either tie the game or when they’re out there needing a goal and it doesn’t happen um or they’re getting themselves behind by just not playing well in the defensive zone so that’s an interesting stat picture to look at for this team and so the trend for this team is
An unfortunate one it’s overtime extratime games where they don’t have a single overtime or shootout win and they have four overtime losses and those are just points that they have left on the board and they’ve come in some really painful ways with disputed calls last second goals games where they’re ahead
And then they get tied up and lose so they have three regulation wins zero overtime wins four overtime losses and five regulation losses it’s it just is what it is at this point I mean you would think with a few extra points in those games they would be more in the
Thick of things but it’s now points that they’re going to have to make up um looking closely at it uh the game on January 17th they were up two to nothing in the first period against Minnesota and they got tied up and lost in overtime in that one January 24th
Against Boston they were actually down two to nothing and then were able to tie it 22 and then lost with 52 seconds left when Teresa Schaal scored for Boston so they came away with zero when you know it looked like they’re at least going to
Salvage a point or two out of that one we’ve already talked about the February 4th game against New York where they were up three to nothing and watched it slip away late in the third period and then lost in overtime so for those efforts they get a mere one point like
These are reasons that teams fall behind and can’t make it up I’m really hoping they can figure something out but it it just is starting to have a look of a trend and then you know when it gets in players Minds becomes a really difficult thing um the other thing that has hurt
Them was the uh home and Home Series against Minnesota where they lost both of those by a score of 2 to one so there’s not much else to say looking at the trend line for Ottawa they just have not been picking up points they were initially thought
That well they have games in hand and maybe they’ll be able to make that up but as they’ve made them up the results haven’t come so they have been hovering definitely around the bottom and they are in last in points last in playoff chances and last in odds to make the
Playoffs and win the championship so let’s take a look at Boston and see kind of what’s been going wrong should I say or going on anyway what an interesting frustrating surprising team they’ve been we all thought from looking at the draft that this was the team on paper that did the
Best you know they drafted Ena Mueller obviously at third that was a stroke of luck they drafted Sophie Jakes they drafted Emma Soderberg they drafted Jam L ratray they already had Megan Keller Hillary Knight Aaron Franco look like one of the best free agent trios
Going why aren’t they at the top so the good news for Boston is they have jumped out ahead of New York by two points so things are starting to look up for them and you’d have to think they would um if we do the Sixpoint cut off with them
They have five and actually nobody has six exactly we have three players with seven and two points or two players with 10 points we have jam ratree with two and five for seven we have tapy with three and four for seven and uh G Lauren Gable four and three for seven and then
Alina Mueller has two goals and eight assists for 10 points and the No Doubt Team MVP Megan Keller a defenseman three goals and seven assists for 10 points um so tap joining that list is definitely a plus um what you think about them losing Sophie Jakes is you know kind of a
Matter of other discussion um she didn’t have any points in her seven games but I think the the talking point here for Boston is really just one thing and it’s Hillary Knight she’s played her 12 games two goals and two assists she had an overtime winner for her first goal against Minnesota
And then a goal in the latest win against um Ottawa so she didn’t play all that great in the last games of the Rivalry series some have speculated that she might have an injury you know she just she doesn’t really look like full power you know
Like she’s got that fifth gear she looks like she’s getting up to about fourth gear and I don’t know if it starts to mentally wear on you that you’re not doing as well as you’re usually expected or if there’s something else going on but to me that’s where the success of
This team is really going to lie is if she can get herself up there in you know the at least half a point per game um and more goals than assists really we need her firing on all cylinders um so they shifted their lines around with the
Addition of tapy I believe she was the first line Center in their last game and she’s looked really good um Gable has looked good they’ve mixed things around a little bit you know trying to find the right Lin mates for for Knight and for Mueller whether playing them together or
Not um Hannah Brandt usually plays well with Hillary Knight and then another storyline that I’m watching is Sophie Shirley hoping that she can come back after that apparent head injury where she collided with the stench and I think she was becoming a really important player and with her performance in the
Rivalry series with Canada showed that she’s really got some tools for Success so so hopefully she can come back um without too much problem and then in their last game you know ER and Frankle showed really well she got that shut out um so go tending doesn’t look like a
Problem for them although Emma Soderberg to me has underperformed um just a touch you know maybe an extra wi from her could have helped them be um up higher in the standing so everything is so close with you know one game and the three points on the line that it’s really just it’s
Tight tight going but if they’ve turned the corner with these two WIS in a row I think that’ll keep them in the mix for the playoffs and maybe even the finals I am just the you know known for my great predictions and I picked them to win the
Whole thing it’s still possible it’s only halfway through the season so the trend for Boston was pretty much staying right there with that you know middle of about four teams until they lost a couple of games and kind of um you know bottomed out right around the Rivalry
Series and now a bit of an upturn they’re at 47% to make the playoffs 24% to make the final and 12% to be the overall Champion so I wouldn’t count them out yet and especially if we keep an eye on their highend talent and whether they can make a
Turnaround so that’s about it for this week we might vary on when we do this podcast whether it’s on the weekend or on a Monday to recap on all the games and depending on who joins me um I’m glad to have a chance to do this here
Today and just look over the stats with you and kind of get you the you know 30,000 ft view from up above what’s been going on in case you’re you’ve been caught up in the details of watching your favorite team just kind of cheering for points but there are a lot of
Underlying statistics and Trends and things that might have an effect upcoming um my bold prediction of Boston finishing first and Montreal finishing last I did say you could take it and flip it and it would still be correct and really you know maybe I was just being
Ironic so that’s the podcast for this week take me at my word take me at the upside down of my word it’s all good we are here to enjoy watch support pwl hockey and that’s a wrap for this episode PW we’ll see you in the next one drop podast w
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