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! 

Denver Ice chips

 October 29, 2023

Denver Ice Chips

Recently the Spurs and Falcons worked out a trade.
Heading to Fort Erie was blueliner Matt Roy in return for forward Braden Schenn, blueliner Jan Rutta and $2M.
Roy simply had become a victim of numbers and wasn't seeing ice time in Denver.
It is hoped Schenn will provide some additional scoring from the port side as Olofsson has mysteriously disappeared from the scoresheet this season.
Schenn has supplanted Olofsson on the 2nd line with Olof being relegated to the third line. He will still se time on the 2nd PP unit, though.
Both Schenn & Rutta will have a chance to show their wares as they are slated to play in tonight's game vs. the Georgetown Millers.
Currently the Spurs are in 4th place in the Canosa Conference with 26 points while the Millers are in 1st with 28.
An important Conference game for both clubs.

After the aforementioned deal, the Spurs waived blueliner Mark Friedman due to roster numbers.

Reported by I.P. Daley

Donuts fans stunned and amazed

 There are many players on the Wisborg roster that have star quality aura. But maybe the biggest star is Leon Draisaitl. The fans are now stunned to find him traded from the club without any previous signs of a trade. Leon was drafted by the club and none could see this trade coming, especially since the Donuts are famous for not trading much. Leon has had a terrific career in the Donuts jersey and would have continued to be a pillar on the team for many years.

The trade came out of the thin air, as there was no rumors surrounding David Pasternak either. But fans can easily see David as a quality scorer and right wing. Many fans have seen the strength of the center line in this years line up and the in comparison thin right wing. This even though Tyler Toffoli was added during the off season as a UFA.This will be a great solution until Lucas Raymond is ready to take over the first line duties on the team a few years ahead.

Before the home game against Chippawa on day 29, Leon was told not to dress up and to report to the manager. He was then informed of the trade and that he was expected to join Fort Erie ASAP. Leon didn't even stay on to see his old team win against Chippawa. After the game the team will have a 3 game road trip and it is expected to have David on ice already in Bismarck. The game after that is a homecoming as the Donuts face off against Fort Erie, in Fort Eire, on day 33. David says this will be the last night in his old house as he and his family intends to move to the island as soon as there is an opportunity.

The fans now look forward to Davids first home game on day 38 against the same Chippawa. The fans will give him a warm welcome and hope he can score many goals for many years on the team from his right wing.

On day 60 Fort Eire will visit the bag and it is now officially called Leon day and the fans will get a chance to say farewell to the big german favorite. Hopefully that can distract him enough not to absolutely kill his old team in the scoresheet.

Pastrnak in or out in Fort Erie?

 The early season struggles of David Pastrnak are becoming apparent to both the player and the club, with both wondering if the player doesn't fit within the system in Fort Erie.  

Many wondered at the time of acquisition how it would work with both Pastrnak and Marner on the team, as both are top 3 right-wingers in the CCHL.  Could they each play for 20 minutes?  What does that leave for a guy like DeBrincat or Pavelski?  It just didn't leave much room for somebody to underachieve, and through the early part, it's been Pastrnak.  

That's not to say the opportunity hasn't been there for the big sniper.  He's third on the team in shots on goal but has yet to find chemistry with Barkov, Strome, Pavelski, or any of the talented centers he's played with thus far in Fort Erie.  

"Pasta's had a lot of looks and been good for the most part.  I believe it'll start going in for him soon as he's historically not a 7% shooter but how he plays and how our team plays, stylistically, it may not be a great fit," said Falcons GM Matt Young.  

"There are times historically in the game, where guys don't thrive being on a secondary scoring line and find the same success they have when they know they are 'the man' and I think that's what's happening here.  We are certainly not taking ice time away from Mitch (Marner), who leads this club in scoring almost every season," added the remarkably good-looking GM.  

When pressed to say whether Pastrnak is on the market or not, Young replied that he's definitely open for business if he can get a high-end center or defenceman back.  

"We are definitely open to exploring a scenario that helps our hockey club.  I'm very open to moving him for a center that's high-end offensively or with a great two-way game.  The same goes for acquiring a defender.  That's easier said than done.  Five years ago people tended to take more risks if it addressed a need for their team, whereas today, people are a lot more conservative.  Nobody wants to 'lose' a trade but I think it's far more complicated than evaluating today what it looks like on paper.  I'm just hoping to find a trade partner with conviction to turn a weakness on their team into a strength by using a surplus of assets they have at a position."

Young added "I thought some of this would be addressed with Wright and Byfield by this point, but both are developing at their own pace, and we need to let that happen.  We can't rush these guys because eventually, they will be important players on this team but their development, and doing it the right way takes precedence over a short-term fix."

One way or another, it seems that things will change for Pastrnak soon.  He will either adapt to being the second option on the right side or become the primary scoring option in another CCHL market.  

The challenge of course for Young is trying to make a deal in this challenging trade climate.  

Update to the story:  In the following game, Pastrnak was named first star in Fort Erie's 5-4 shootout victory against Florida.

Donuts Ten Game Recap

 The Donuts have now played 10 games of the season and here are some reflections.

Results: That the Donuts are running for it this season is no surprise, so the result of 8-1-1 is a good turn out. Especially since the Donuts  usually are notoriously slow starters on the seasons. But the competition is murder this season there are at least 5-6 teams all in top as well, not counting any slow starters.

Economy: Winning gives a good revenue but adding two UFA signings during off-season made the hole so much deeper. Projected for a hefty 50 M loss for the year. But can add some earnings from this blog and hopefully some playoff revenues. Right now we are the team losing most money this season.

Brandon Carlo: Brandon scored the teams first goal of the season to please the crowd  in "the Bag". Brandon obviously liked the feeling and continued to score in game 3 and 4. So 3 goals in 4 games for Brandon all in power play to lead the team. Not bad considering he had a total of 3 goals in NHL last season.

Ryan Pulock: Brandons mate on the second PP unit is Ryan Pulock and he doesn't want to be any lesser than Brandon. His howitzer has also score 3 PP goals to tie Brandon for the lead, while he had only 5 for the whole NHL season.The second unit is outscoring the first unit by 6-1 and making a case to demote Pietrangelo and Hamilton. Who would had figured that and can they keep it up.

Anze Kopitar: Anze is the teams old grand man, but there is no sign of slowing down. Leading the team in points with 16 points, leading the team with 12 helpers and still oozing with offense with most minutes played from the teams forwards. He has had trouble with his conditioning and stayed out a game for a breather but that should be corrected as the season moves along.

Face offs: The Donuts are leading by a whooping 1.5% above second best Face off team. Winning 58% of all face offs is probably unsustainable but it proves that it is hard to score goals if you don't have the puck. Backlund at 65%, Kopitar at 60,5% and Lindholm at 58% will be a hand full for most teams.

Hopefully see you for the next 10 games summary.

Denver Ice Chips

 The beginning of the season saw rookie blueliner J.J. Moser make the club out of training camp.

What a pleasant surprise he has been. He's been nothing short of phenomenal. He currently is tied
for the team lead in points with 9 on the strength of 3 goals and 6 assists.
Winger Valeri Nichushkin also has 9 points with 4 goals but in 5 gp. Another surprise in that it was expected Guentzel
would be the top scoring winger this season.
Fatigue has been an issue already for Guentzel, Nelson and other players. This has resulted in several players missing games already.
But the rest of team picked it up with them out of the lineup a few games and has been able to post a 6-2-0 record to date.
Barzal and T.J. Oshie also have 4 goals while blueliners Moser, Petry and Spurgeon have 6 helpers each.
After 8 games things are looking up in the Mile High City.

Reported by,
I.P. Daley

CCHL Fatigue - How it works guide!

 I've had some people ask about fatigue and it being an issue so I wanted to take the opportunity to go over it again, and for those new, a first time.  

The fatigue factor is designed such that you have to have depth to compete in the CCHL and we are not overplaying players - that would lead to a crazy and very unrealistic player performance.  

Without fatigue being a factor, Iceland could simply play Mr. McDavid for 45 minutes a game and the chances are he'd probably have a good 200+ points.  While he's good, there isn't anyone in Gary Bettman's NHL netting 200+ points so it's unrealistic.  

How it works is that fatigue is set at 21 minutes for forwards and 26 for defencemen.  This means that they can play 21 or 26 minutes before they lose a fatigue rating point.  These are very generous numbers given that 97% of players do not play this many minutes in the NHL, and our teams are deeper (24 vs. 32 NHL teams) so we should sustain the minutes better in theory.  

If a forward plays 21:02....it's 1 fatigue point from their condition which starts at 100.  If they played 22:02, it's 2 points from their conditioning, etc. 

Players recover at a rate of 1.14 days which means for any off day they receive 1.14 back, or any game where they play under 21 minutes (or 26 for defenders), they also get that 1.14 back.  This means that if a player was at 99 before an off day, they will be back to 100% by the time your team plays again.  If they were at 97, they will be at 98.14 when your team plays again - and so on.  

The 1.14 is due to the fact that our schedule is condensed at 1.14 the rate the NHL plays their schedule, so it keeps injuries at the same duration over the course of the season.  

The best way to manage your minutes is if you have a guy that plays on the first line, first PP unit and first PK unit (see: Marner, Mitch) you probably need to pick and choose how you deploy him.  That likely means that he wouldn't play one of the PK or PP units because fatigue will kick in, It challenges you as a manager of your team on how to deploy players and also spend money across the lineup since you can't be super top heavy and have it work great every game.  

For goaltenders, it's a bit different.  

Once they hit 34 shots, they lose 1 point for fatigue

Once they hit 38 shots, they lose 2 points for fatigue.

Once they hit 42 shots, they lose 3 points for fatigue.  

If you have a team that gives up a lot of shots, you'll probably want to avoid playing your goalies in back-to-back games, again - similar to the NHL where teams rarely do this now.  They also recover at 1.14.