Millers Musings

 Offseason Preview

After being dispatched rather effortlessly by Las Vegas in the 1 st round of the playoffs,

the Georgetown Millers enter the off-season not certain of their next steps.

Several of their best regular season performers are pending unrestricted Free Agents –

G Cam Talbot, LW Blake Coleman, and D Sean Walker just to name 3 – yet the Millers

don’t really have a slam-dunk resign given how many of these vets have under-

performed this year in the NHL. The most likely UFA to be re-signed is current 3 rd string

G Jake Allen, who would back up or potentially time share the crease with Lukas Dostal,

given Connor Ingram’s struggles this NHL season.

The Millers have some youth coming up; ticketed for top 9 roles are C Jesperi

Kotkaniemi and C/LW Marco Kaspar, and D Jackson LaCombe is a lock for a top 4

spot. Winger Maxim Tsyplakov is likely a given for the 4 th line. Youngish vet D Zach

Jones is currently the number 7 Defenseman among those under contract or an RFA for

the next season. D Vladislav Kolyachonok, C Matt Rempe, and LW Mikael Pyythia also

graduate from their Minors status but are way down the depth chart.

Given what is currently on hand, the Millers forward depth chart lines up this way (LW-

C-RW). Players in bold are those who did not appear in any games for the Millers last

season, even If they were on the active roster.

Copp-Larkin-Necas

Kaspar-Malkin-Guenther

Martinook-Kotkaniemi-Moore

Robinson-Henrique-Tsyplakov

O’Connor and Joseph are likely reserves unless traded.

The Defense corps welcomes back 5 Defenders who saw playoff action, plus LaCombe:

Theodore-LaCombe

Walman-Marino

Gostisbehere-Ferraro

Jones and Kolyachonok are the only current depth defenders.

Assuming Allen is the UFA re-sign, the netminders are essentially the same minus

Talbot:

Dostal

Allen

Ingram

Is this a team that can nail down a playoff spot? Probably. But it lacks the depth and star

power to really challenge the top of the division and conference. One more top 6

forward is badly needed, and an upgrade in defensive depth, considering injury

concerns for Theodore and Marino, is warranted.

Georgetown has sat out the first wave of trades, preferring to see how several of their

players and potential trade targets finish out the NHL Season before making any big

moves. Expect them to be active in free agency and also to move out one of their 2 late

first round picks for more immediate help.

State of the Loons; Another disappointing exit

 As we mentioned earlier, after finally getting out of the first round last year our goal for this year was to win multiple rounds in the playoffs. No offense to Halifax but when we saw the Thunder upset Calgary our hopes were up. Even though we still believe that we were the better team we were out played by the underdog Norsemen. A week later we are still struggling to understand what happened. If you take out the last game of the season, where we sat 75% of our starters, we swept the season series against Halifax. What is even harder to accept is losing 3 home games in the second round and going 2-5 at home in the playoffs after only losing 9 games at the Pond all season. 

So what does it mean for the Loons going forward? Roster changes? Coaching change?

There doesn't seem to be a lot of room for roster moves other then bottom 6 replacements and its hard to imagine anyone could do a better job behind the bench the Sullivan. I believe our best hope is not to over react and hang in there til our blue chippers hit the roster. Will Smith and Frank Nazar should make the roster next year, Ryan Leonard and Jimmy Snuggerud the following year. That is a lot of talent on the way.

It is time to turn the page and get ready for free agency, I would have liked to be preparing for the draft but we are not on the clock til 2027!

Wisborg wisdoms

 It all looked so good! Just 6 losses after 2/3 of the season. Could the team make it under 10 losses over the season? Then it happened...

there where no changes made, no players injured, the bottom just fell out. In the last 18 games Wisborg lost 8 of them. The last four games where wins to solve a .500 for that period. We had problems all year with powerplay but we did score well in 5 on 5 so that wasn't really a problem.

Playoffs is the second season, hopefully it would start as it had in the regular season but the Donuts where in trouble already in first round and was departed after 7 games in round two. Leading 3-1 in games and ending up losing three straight OT games.

The will be a changes in the team and expect the Donuts to sell some assets. That is not often you hear that. 

State of the Loons; Round 2 Norsemen

 For the second time in Loon history we are in the second round. Last year Wisborg swept us right out of the playoffs, fingers crossed that this year is different. After a hard fought 4-2 series win over the Isotopes the #5 seed Halifax Norsemen invade Capeside.

The season series against Halifax was a lopsided 5-1 but it does not really tell the whole story.  The majority of the games were early in the season before Halifax made key additions to their lineup. Its rather remarkable how the Norsemen have expedited their rebuild. They went from a 43 point 20 win team last year to a 84 point playoff team this year. Key additions of Makar, Kucherov, Johnston and Hertl tend to do that, but the Loons did have their number during the regular season:

HFX 4 CAP 6

CAP 6 HFX 2

CAP 5 HFX 3

HFX 1 CAP 2

HFX 3 CAP 6

CAP 2 HFX 3 (CAP rested all their top players in this season finale)

As we all know there is a massive difference between the regular season and the post season especially when one gm has won a Kehler Cup while the other is in the second round for only the second time.

Simon has Halifax rated at a 70 but that is very deceiving. Prior to this year Halifax had torn down their roster and started a youth based rebuild. Along with the high end talent that was mentioned earlier there are a few stud rookies with lower ratings and well traveled vets filling out the roster that bring that overall rating down.  In the Norsemen's first round win over Seattle the top line was dominant: Hertl 11 points in 6 games, Kucherov 6 goals in 6 games and Makar also had 11 points. The Loons struggled to keep Hintz in check in their first round and if they can't tighten up their defense this could be a long series.

Halifax has the best players in this series and will be interesting to see if their high end talent or the Loons depth will win out. The difference in the series may come down to the goaltenders where the Loons have the advantage in our opinion. This series looks to be a shootout and will be interesting to see who moves on the the Conference Finals.

State of the Loons; Round 1 Springfield

 Capeside finished up the regular season with a 53-24-5 record and the 2nd seed in the Corfield Conference. This sets up a round one matchup with Corfield newcomer Springfield Isotopes (38-37-7). The Loons went 5-1 against the Isotopes during the regular season, but each game was close: 

CAP 4 SPR 2

CAP 2 SPR 1

SPR 4 CAP 6

CAP 4 SPR 2

SPR 3 CAP 2

SPR 3 CAP 4

The Isotopes carry a 72 overall rating according to Simon but have a solid mix of youth and vets throughout the lineup. Roope Hintz has been Springfield's most dangerous forward all year and will likely be the focus of Capeside's defense during the series. On the back end Moritz Seider and Jared Spurgeon are two of the top shutdown defensemen in the CCHL. Springfield will need them to slow down the Loons' top line of Kreider Eichel Boldy if they are going to pull off the upset. The Eichel line was together for all 81 games (game 82 was Loon backups) and their 133 goals made up 39% of Capeside's offense. 

Where Springfield has a clear advantage in in goal. Swayman is coming off of a career best season and can be the biggest difference maker in the series for either team. 

Both teams are built very similar and this will be a much tougher series then the seedings show. We expect this to go 7 games, hopefully home ice where the Loons only lost 9 games all year will pay off. Eventually not knowing where Springfield even is has to catch up with the Isotope players!

AMOS Comets catastrophic season breakdown

 In Amos, a small town of 10 000 populations where the cold weather and hockey is in the center of every conversation in all time.

 

The last game of the season is being played tonight and the team who is currently dead last in the conference. Fans want the head of the GM to fall for this bad season.

 

They are not wrong.

 

Injuries, the lack of chemistry and motivations was floating around the team all season.

 

It all started with a couple bad decisions the GMs has done.

 

The trade of Necas on November 6^th,  the trade of McCann and Schmaltz on November 27^th.

You can add to that list Devon Toews, 4 first pick and more other important pieces.

 

Plus how unacceptable it is for a rebuilding team to trade upcoming superstar Frank Nazar?

 

This fanbase might be the best in the whole league when the team is winning but the toughest when the team is losing.

 

The small consolation for the fans is the chance to see Tim Stutzle, Quinton Byfield & Logan Cooley every night.

 

What’s left on defence? Sergachev, Trouba & Byram? This roster will need a lot of work and the fans a lot of patience to rebuild this mess.

 

The names of Connor Murphy, John Carlson, David Savard & Marc-Edouard Vlasic will mostly all end up in the Unrestrited agent’s market.

 

The goalie situation might be stable with Mrazek & Kochetkov. Hopefully prospect Jakub Dobes will continue to grow and become a solid #2 in a near future.

 

The off-season won’t be relaxing for sure. A lot of questions are still yet to answer:

Will the GM be back? Will Martin St-Louis still be the coach next season? Can the team bounce back from being this bad?

CHP: Win and you're in!

 It’s no secret that the Crackerjacks have been rebuilding for YEARS now, and have had many different versions of what that looks like. After some strange coaching decisions to start the season that led to a restructuring and change in approach, the team slowly came back to relevancy. Trade deadline wasn’t overly exciting but some key acquisitions for the long term success of the franchise were acquired. We took a chance on PLD and that bet seems to be paying off as finally it looks like he is figuring it out and becoming a solid two way power forward that slots nicely on the second line. Finding good wingers to play with him was our focus for a large part of the deadline. With depth on the right wing moving past this year it will be paramount to flip one of those pieces for a comparable winger on the left side this off season. The main focus however needs to be addressing the top line centre position and acquiring a true #1 centre. So far the changes have worked out and after a much better post deadline performance the Jacks are in the playoffs. It will be exciting to see how we perform in a short series against an elite opponent, and there is no doubt that will help us to understand where our holes are moving forward, but all in all we can say that this season although a roller coaster of ups and downs has been pretty successful with a strong team identity moving forward and a distinct understanding of what we are trying to accomplish. Good luck to all teams in the playoffs and cheers to a great 2024/2025 season!