WIS blog update!

 The Donuts have now played 30 games of the season and here are some reflections.

Results: Last 10 games the team goes 8-1-1 which is an good turn out. despite the results are good there is still around 10 teams that in the hunt for the championship. During the span the Donuts also ended a 9 game winning streak.The Donuts are well positioned but the competition is fierce.

Scoring distribution: Usually the teams in CCHL score more in some part of the game. right now the scoring distribution for the Donuts is divided between the periods 42-48-45 so opponents can't relax at anytime during the game. The scoring distribution in the team is also very good with 5 players above 10 goals and some just below and the defense is the leaders at 7 goals and in a tie with 3 players at that level.

David Pastrnak: Concerns have been raised of Davids performance but in the last 10 games his scoring is back. currently at 11 goals and that is just 1 goal behind the team leaders. The shooting was sub 10% as was his time in Fort Erie but is now a healthy almost 18%. David was relegated to the second line while Kempe takes the first line and that looks like the chemistry finally is working.

Brandon Carlo: Becoming a regular in this column and is now sporting 7 goals during the season, compared to his 3 all last NHL season. He was for a long while outscoring Pastrnak who know looks like he is stepping up though. Brandon is tied for the lead in the Donuts defense scoring department and that is a pleasant surprise.

Tyler Toffoli: A big acquisition in the off season, started of hard and got top minutes. He has now slowed down  with a shooting percent of sub 7% with only around 10 min of action a game. The next season looks promising though...

PK action: The Donuts have a somewhat disappointing power play output. But that is kind of out weight by taking few penalties and being league leader in PK procent. Albeit by a small margin. The Donuts don't have the big names on defense but the they are holding their own and the forwards do help out a lot in their own end and I think we have among the best defensive forwards in the league. But I am a bit partial. :-)

Denver Ice Chips

 After the games of Nov. 16th the Spurs find themselves in 1st place in the Canosa after a 1-0 victory over the Amos Comets on Day 52.

Nichushkin potted his 13th of the season for the lone goal of the game. He leads the Spurs in scoring in goals and points with 24 points in 23 games played.
The Spurs have posted a 9-1-0 record in the last ten games.

Jeff Petry and Matt Barzal follow in the scoring department with 23 and 21 points respectively.
The surprising J.J. Moser comes in at 4th with 20 points.
Derek Forbort leads in +/- with +15.

In goal Tristan Jarry has posted a 15-4 record with a 2.85 gaa.
Antti Ranta is 6-1 with a 2.16 gaa and will get the start on Day 53 vs. the Chattahoochee Crawdads with the back to back games.

Reported by I.P. Daley

CCHL Signs Two Corporations to Sponsorship Agreements

It's been a busy week in the world of hockey and corporate sponsorship, with the OHL and now CCHL agreeing to a pair of deals.  

Earlier in the week, the OHL agreed to deals with Carlsberg to be the official beer of the Ontario Hockey League while also announcing the next day that they had an agreement with Fat Bastard Burrito as well.  

Under the terms of the Fat Bastard Deal, the player of the day is now known as the Fat Bastard Burrito, player of the day (and no - I'm not kidding).  Players now strive to be the bastard of the day, folks!  

With that in mind, the CCHL sought to find their own sponsorship agreements.  Our marketing department got hard at work and inked a pair of deals as well.  

Stubbs Prosthetics & Orthotics has come on to be the official provider of prosthetics for the CCHL and its alumni, while Bunghole Liquors has also agreed to a corporate sponsorship deal.  

Similar to that of the OHL, Bunghole Liquors has agreed to sponsor the league's three-stars as seen daily on today's results page.  Players in the CCHL will now battle it out daily to become one of the top three bungholes of the day!  

"We sought to find the very best, and quickest sponsorship deals possible after the OHL announced it's partnerships this week," said the Head of Sponsorship Mark Eting-Genius.  

Eting-Genius also said the league is not quite done yet either.  

"We are looking for an official sponsorship for toilet paper too.  Now that we have Bunghole on board, we need a sponsorship agreement for TP.  We'll be working hard at that as the weeks and months move forward.  We've hired a great search firm in Beavis and Boothead to help us with that endeavor."  

Stay tuned in the coming months as the CCHL looks to lock down more critical sponsorship agreements to secure the future of the hockey entity.  

 

A Donut record breaking edition

 On day 43 The Donuts hosted the Florida Eels back in the bag. It would be a night to remember for the fans. To be honest, the fans expected a win with the team in win-era and Florida in the other end of the spectrum.

The team cruised to a 11-1 win and the fans where joyous. The onslaught started at the 37 second mark with a Elias combo, Lindholm scoring with a feed from Pettersson. The Donuts scored another two goals in the first to lead 3-0 in the first intermission. It was the period they scored the fewest goals in, since they added another four in each of the following periods.

The goals was spread out with 9 different scorers and notably Pastrnak couldn't even get a point. Colin Dellia started the game in the net the Eels, but he wasn't electric tonight and was switched to Magnus Hellberg at 33 seconds into the second period when the Donuts scored for a 4-0 lead. Dellia then had to return to play at 2 minutes into the third period. A different night for the goalie tandem for sure.

But a few hours later someone wondered how many goals has ever been scored in by a team in the Simon 6 year history. It turned out no team has ever scored 11 goals in a game before. So the Donuts are now the league record holder for number of goals in a game, history is made. Several games have seen 10 goals including a game from Wisborg and four occasions by Fort Erie. Since they also tied the lead for assists in a game they also took possession of the number of points in a game.

Earlier in the week they also set a team record for most shots in a game, as they fired 62 shots against Calgary just two games before. That is however one below the league record by several team at 63 shots. Curiously that was the second game this week against Calgary in Calgary and the game before was "only" 53 shots on goals. But that was only because Calgary blocked 28 shots in that game, that is also a league record and I guess the Donuts can take some credit for it.

So an interesting week with the Donuts involved in several league and team records

Jacks blog post

 Rebuilding?

In the middle of a rebuild it is not widely considered to be a good idea to switch paths. But the Jacks GM sees an opportunity. There are five or so teams well above the rest of the league at this time with roster construction and without more extreme financial constraints will continue to have elite success for extended periods. So how does that matter you ask? Well, a rebuild is a five plus year process with hopes of landing a generational talent or two. The problem is that right now in the CCHL we have the bottom third of teams ALL trying to accomplish this at the same time. So, it's pretty much a "who can tank the hardest, fastest" type of race to get the top picks. That is not something that generally interests Jacks GM Charlie Plante who wants to win even when the odds are stacked against them. Charlie is taking a chance at a different strategy. Going with a more "retool" approach he believes that there are still really good players available, and if smart moves can be had year over year there is a chance of building a good team that is competitive and fights for a playoff spot every season. With that approach, one has to remember the old saying when it comes to playoffs "just get in and anything can happen."

Goaltending and injuries!!!

 It's been a rough week for goalies around the league with injuries.  

Those with two goalies on their roster really should consider adding a third goalie because what I found out this week is that there are not any goaltenders available to sign in the free-agent pool.  

As such, teams unable to field a valid two goalies must find a way to get a third in the lineup.  If you don't have an M-designated goalie or a third in your system, we need to come up with a solution as the goalie is needed.  

In order to combat that and keep that playing field fair, I have created three goalies that appear in the goalie free-agent pool with EBUG after their name.  If you find yourself short, you must sign one of those goalies (no charge since they work for cheap in the NHL)  for the duration of time you need a backup goalie.  You must also still comply with the 30-man roster requirement, so it may mean waiving somebody to get the EBUG on your roster if even for just a few days.  

If you are wondering who they are, the names are (all have made appearances in the NHL as Ebugs before):

David Ayres

Thomas Hodges

Matt Berlin

Their ratings are terrible as well but they provide immediate relief and allow teams to field a healthy 20 man roster in games.  

I'd also recommend trying to acquire a third goalie who can play as you don't want to find yourself in an ebug or bad goalie situation come playoff time.  

CCHL lineup submission

 With the league officially around the quarter mark of the season, it was time to take a look at how participation numbers were looking for the season.  

This look is strictly for lineup submissions and invalid lineups, to see how things are tracking for the season.  In other words, are people putting the care into making sure they are icing a competitive lineup or am I running the league for nothing?  

It's always something I'm curious about in the first quarter of the season because it can show a lot about the health of the league as a whole.  

In doing it, I will always forecast out to the full season to see how things are tracking, understanding there is always a blip in these numbers as teams fall out of playoff contention and the trade deadline passes.

It's always amazing to see how many teams will fall out of place for lineup bonus money after the trade deadline and/or after they fall out of playoff contention.  It's wild to me but annually at least three teams end up costing themselves the bonus money (even a small payout) because mentally they slip a bit.  

Last year we had about 140 invalid lineups for the season, and so far, I'm happy to report that we are tracking to be about the same number.  Granted the number of invalid rosters has risen dramatically, but those are not punishable offences (yet) so they do not count against the violations.  I will use this platform to remind you to make sure you hit the copy all rosters function when you change rosters, just as I remind people to copy all lines as well.  

In terms of lines submitted, we are at 645 submitted for the season.  That would put us on pace for over 2500 lines for the season submitted, but for context, we were in the same place last year.

At the end of last year, we were at 1790 which shattered our previous best number by over 600 lineup submissions.  

Why did that happen?  It's very simple actually.  Last year was the first year we were able to log into the website to change lines.  It made doing it on your phone while anywhere from a break at work or using the facilities (I'm sure some of you have done lines from the toilet even if you won't admit it!).  It isn't a surprise at all.  

All-in-all, at the quarter mark, it seems like people are pretty engaged and keeping their team's lineup valid for the most part.  I appreciate everyone doing that and hope it can continue through the rest of the season.  

Now only if we can fill those two vacant teams.......

-The Commish

Wisborg blog update

 The Donuts have now played 20 games of the season and here are some reflections.

Results: Last 10 games the team goes 7-2-1 which is an ok turn out. It looked a bit grim when they lost three games in game 11-14, but six straight wins to end the span saves the day.

Fort Erie Falcons: In the 10 games 3 where against FOR. First game was lost to FOR then the Donuts decided to flip Draisaitl for Pastrnak and that helped the team win the next two games against FOR. So far the Donuts lead the series 2-1. the first two games where one goal games while the last one was a "blow out" 3-0. There wont be many nights the powerhouse is blanked.

David Pastrnak: David was slumping with FOR and that was probably a factor for making him available. But the slump continues. In five games he has scored a lone goal to bring a total of 5 goals. It is now doubtful if he even can come close to his NHL 60+ goals this season. Hopefully saving it all for the playoffs instead, a bit early to predict, but hopefully we will be there. Pasta is presently demoted to second line to find his game. Meanwhile Draisaitl has scored 7 goals in 5 games for FOR.

Brandon Carlo: Brandon was featured last time as well with 3 goals in first 4 games. He has slowed down but is now at five goals so far. Not bad for a player scoring just 3 goals in NHL last year. He now has 3 PPG and 1 PKG! Sure is starting to look like an offensive defenseman. He is now neck and neck with Pastrnak in the point race.

Filip Forsberg: Speaking of slumps. With Draisaitl traded a spot opened up on the left wing for Filip. One would think he would jump at the opportunity, but no. Zero goals and a minus 5 to show for it. He is now on bench again with Raymond taking his spot.

Power play: The Donuts are the best scoring team in the league and one would think it was so from doing well on the power play but it is not so. A 21% PP isn't exactly sputtering but is only 10th in the league. With the players on roster I think they should be higher than that and I will be monitor it in the coming games.

State of the Loons; 2024 season underway

 Loons have started off the 23/24 CCHL season on fire. After 18 games the Loons are sitting on top of the CCHL with 29 points. We expected to compete and be good but this is beyond our expectations. We have a few young guys playing big roles and did not know if they were going to be ready yet. Luckily our stars are performing well and have some lesser level guys stepping up.

Coming off of a couple of injury plagued seasons, Jack Eichel looks to be back to being a superstar. He is currently second in the CCHL in assists with 19 and 4th in points with 25. What is great to see in Jack's game is the 50% face off percentage and the +9. We added Dubois in the off season due to concerns about face offs but Jack has been up to the challenge and is cemented himself as our first line center.

Nick Schmaltz is definitely the beneficiary of Eichel's 19 assists. Nick is currently 2nd in the league in goals with 13 and 7th in points with 22. Without a doubt , Schmaltzy is a huge reason for the Loons early success. We knew we had 3 solid players on the right side but spent the off season searching for a true first line right winger, but fell short. Just last week when Pasta became available we had to fight our every urge to gut our roster and finally make Pasta a Loon. But we are hoping that sometimes the best moves are the ones you don't make.

As much as we love seeing our forwards putting up points and bragging about it, the true reason for our early success is definitely our defense. Having 5 absolute studs back there is letting our goaltenders shine and having multiple guys back there that can transition the puck out of our own zone is huge. Really excited to get Werenski back in the mix next year. Hopefully we can pump out some more of these blogs to help with that contract!

That's enough of us pumping our own tires and let's hope this doesn't jinx us and send us into a losing streak!