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!