What is the Reward For The Tigers Finishing First In The Central?
Playing a team with more points than them in the standings Of Course
Crazy Season
This year was crazy. The 4th place team in the East was better than the 1st place Team in the Central. Under the old format the Tigers would have played Lethbridge, but instead, they gotta travel the 828.2 KM'm via the Trans Canada Highway for a long distance first-round matchup.
Brandon's Season
Brandon started the season on fire. At one point in the season, they were 2nd in the East and in contention for a Home Ice Playoff Position.
Trade Deadline
The trade deadline saw Brandon decide to become sellers. Swift Current and Moose Jaw made significant moves and Brandon recouped 4-1st round picks sending away Kale Clague & Tanner Kaspick.
Tumble Down The Standings
Consequently, Brandon took a big tumble down the standings acquiring 9 points in 18 games for a .250% winning percentage.
Interestingly enough Brandon started that tumble after an OT loss to the Tigers on January 13th.
Brandon On A Roll
Guess when they ended the Tumble? An OT win against the Tigers on February 24th.
In the 11 games since Brandon has a .727 winning percentage. That includes defeating Moose Jaw twice, and Swift Current Once along the way.
Head To Head Games
Sat Dec 2nd BRN 5 @ MH 4 OT
Fri Dec 8th - MH 3 @ BRN 4 OT
Sat Jan 13th - MH 4 @ BRN 3 OT
Sat Feb 24th BRN 4 @ MH 3 OT
Home Ice Advantage
In this series Home Ice could be critical. Brandon has a .786 record at home this season. The Tigers Record is .657. They both have poor road records.
Special Teams
Both teams have very similar Special Teams stats. Both have mediocre Powerplays, and Both have terrible Penalty Kills. Brandon has also given up a league high 17 short-handed goals.
Injuries
Even their injuries are similar. Both Teams have goaltenders out day to day.
Brandon is missing OA goalie Logan Thompson out with a day to day injury. As well as 16yr rookie Jonny Hooker with an upper-body injury who is week to week.
Tigers have Jordan Hollett out but hoping to be ready before Playoffs Start. Mason Shaw is also listed as indefinite but hopes to make an appearance in the series.
Who's The Favorite?
At this point, my Money is on Brandon. They will finish the season with more points and are rolling into the post-season on a Hot-Streak. The Tigers have continued their up and down roller coaster ride. They are a little healthier, but they haven't been playing as strong as they are capable of.
Mason Shaw could be an X-factor that changes things if he is able to squeak into the latter half of the first round, but you wonder how much missing an entire season will affect him.
Toss the dice this series could easily go 7 games.
22 comments:
Tigers lost Hamblin in the 3rd period. Took a big hit and didn't return to the game.
Is there any word on Hamblin. He has been killer in the face-off circle for the Tigers, never mind putting up good points. Hoping he is going to be in the first game of play-offs.
Daniel Baker's team won the CSSHL championship. He finished with 4 goals and 3 assists in the 5 tournament games.
Kid is going to be good.
Who Would you start in net Hollett or Bullion?
sounds like James Hamblin will miss extended time with injury. Will need surgery on his arm, no timetable for his return.
Anon 10:02 that's a tough call. Before Hollett got hurt I would have said him unquestionably for a couple reasons. One, I think he's the better of the two and secondly, he's your guy next year and by giving him the reins now you would boost his confidence for next season. Now with him missing a month they might decide to go with the guy whose been playing. Both guys have flaws, Hollett is better positionily but struggles with rebound control and Bullion struggles positionily but is the more athletic of the two. My gut feeling is they do what they did last year and go with Bullion. Whomever it is they won't hesitate to make a change if things aren't going well.
With Hamblin out the tigers really need Shaw back. But to be honest, he is a whole year behind every guy on the ice. I dont expect him to have the massive game changing effect he would have otherwise had.
Too bad for Hamblin. His year started off tough with the loss of his mother, it is too bad for him to have to end it this way. Hope he has a speedy recovery!
Longtimefan I'd agree and go with Bullion as well. He has been Hot lately.
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Hamblin being out his a big change as he's been the #1 center all year and took 40ish% of all faceoffs.
Total Faceoffs & Win Percentage.
Tigers
1. Chyzowski - 1178 - % 48.4
2. White - 426 % 55.6%
3. Haden - 344 % 55.6
4. Rybinski 260 %46.9
5. Brown 175 - %39.4
Brandon
1. Connor Gutenberg 1171 - % 40.6
2. Stelio Mattheos 955 - % 54.6
3. Caiden Daley 647 - %45.9
4. Marcus Sekundiak 446 - %46.4
Going through game logs it looks like Brandon does a lot of faceoff matching and switches it up between Stelio and Gutenberg depends on who's hotter.
I understand what you are saying about Bullion. But I worry how he will hold up against Brandon, they move the puck fast, they get the goalie going side to side - really could show Bullions weakness with over committing and getting out of position.
It is not that I dont like the guy, athletic as all get out and plays the game with energy. I just feel that he can give up a wide open net because he is so out of position. I do like his puck play tho! Will give him that.
I guess whatever way they go they have a good "back up" option.
Honestly what the hell was Clouston thinking playing any of your important players in completely nothing games on Fri / Sat? Call up a bunch of midgets if you have to, fake an injury if you have to. A complete bone headed move...
I have a complaint I really have to vent about. My husband went to pick up my playoff tickets today. I only wanted Game 1 and 2 as I don't know my work schedule beyond that. He was told he had to buy all 4 or the tickets for Game 5 and 7 would be put on general sale on Thursday. This is such garbage!!! Why should you be forced to buy tickets for games you may not even be able to attend? Another kick in the face for season ticket holders!!!
I have to disagree with you CatFan... I think being able to buy the whole round now saves me time (don't have to drive all the way to Canalta Centre to get game 5 or 7 tickets) and money (don't have to pay extra $ for service fees!). I love that I made one trip and got everything I needed!
Usually I buy all 4 as well, but I now have a job where I only have my schedule a week at at a time. There is not guarantee that I will have the game nights off. This is why I want the choice of buying 4 at a time, or singles.
Anonymous said...March 20, 2018 at 9:07 PM
Who was he supposed to play? And how was he supposed to get around league rules to play random players?
Damon Agyeman signed. Must really like the kid as he was listed last month.
I agree with Catfan. It is garbage the way they treat season ticket holders. If they get knocked out in four games my $99 is gone when I could use that for golf. SMG thinks we are a big city and we can pay extra fees big dollars for events. We are not Calgary. You should have the option to buy all your tickets or just one. I have all day to pick up tickets. I feel SMG is trying to cut down on staff. A few times this year with back to back game days the area we sit in still had last nights garbage under the seats. When the city ran the old arena they did a good job.
He was listed in the fall. So they monitored his progress the whole year.
Why should you buy that many tickets with the remainder going towards season tickets next year. The Tigers management offers no incentive to purchase them early before season ticket deadline many teams do. This group does not care about the fan base at all.
Shaw is visting the Wild again on the 26th.
For those complaining about playoff ticket sales, every team in the league does the same or something similar with their playoff packages. In fact I'm told the Tigers are the last to go to this method.
Hollett will get the start tommorow. Clueless says he will approach the goaltending situation on a game-by-game basis just as he did through the regular season.
That had to be the smallest crowd for a Tiger playoff game ever! Pretty disappointing turnout!!!
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