20 Team League.. & We call it the IHA

[NolaSola7]

Ottawa deserves some recognition ..

They've been dominating... Here is their outlook and recent results from October to the current early November date.

*I just noticed, B.C. beat them once 6-3, but the latest win was a one more on B.C. as they beat them, 7-3

[NolaSola7]

I thought I should post this.

I just posted the Ode to Ottawa

Well, the next calendar day, London faced them, and London is having a nice season as well.

But this one had some fights!!

I liked it! These are divisional (and determined) rivals ... So this big match-up seemed to play out however accidently as if they knew what this match-up was about..

On a side note, this match-up featured two goalies, a German and a Frenchman. Not too usual in North American hockey, I found that nugget amusing

[NolaSola7]

I decided to play a little guessing game..

I used some very simple rationales.

I decided that the leaders on the leader board have currently all the players that will be in the running at the end of the season.

For Goals -- I decided, the one who plays the best most consistently will score the most of the top guys .. So the one with the highest Game rating

For Assists -- I decided that the player with the highest plus/minus will be the taker as plus/minus shows who is playing on the most productive line

For Points - I took the player whose team scores the most as the more points the team scores the more likely one of these leaders will lead the league in points, and there were three of that team. So I decided to pick the one with the most goals currently, although he is present on both goals and assists lists

For Plus/MIuns -- I decided to look at the point differential of the team they play on because this should be a stable indicator of how much the team as a whole is performing in giving up goals and scoring... so the team that does this best just might have the player who leads the league in plus/minus

For Goals against -- I thought I would thak ethe goalie who has played the most minutes .. as the more minutes the more track record is in place to ensure that the goalie is capable to remain on the leaderboard

Here are the leaders (candidates)

*Elste is very high, and was named the player of the month of October, but he is currently injured so this disqualifies him.

*Keep in mind that all these players have not played the same amount of games/minutes

[NolaSola7]

The leader candidates and their current Game Rating average


Mielecki - 87
Woodruff - 82
Linden - 81
Falzone - 77
Hann - 72
Foster & Goullet - 69
Prokoph - 66

[NolaSola7]

The candidates with their current Plus / Minus

Elste- 13 (DSQ / INJ)
Gilmour- 7
Brooks - 6
Goullet - 5
Hyer - 2
Fornataro - 1
Lazurkin - 0
Backman -0

[NolaSola7]

Ottawa leads the league in scoring by almost a whole point, so the three (Goullet, Goodwin, Milan) are in contention, but the prediction goes to Goullet as he is only one on the leader board for scoring, and he is also present on the assists board ... seems like a good candidate

[NolaSola7]

The candidate from the leaderboard is picked based on the team's goal differential

Of the teams represented by a player on the plus/minus list:

Hamilton has a plus .78 differential

Laval has a plus .76 differential

Saskatoon has a plus .28 differential

London has a plus .06 differential

The winner goes to Elste, but he is hurt, but it seems his teammates plus/minus has been going up, so he takes the cake

[NolaSola7]

This is the outlook of the candidates for leading the lead in goals against with their minutes as of late

Tozzi - 898
Ignatyev - 626
Arkhipov - 359
Fisk- 298
Roskelly- 292
Reich - 247
Kaplan - 239
Slater - 229

[NolaSola7]

Two first place teams get ready to face off in the 6th edition of the Sunday Game of the Week

[NolaSola7]

Ottawa visits Milwaukee after dropping two in a row, still in the mist of a great start, the fans and players alike would like to see a win here.

Well, they started bad, 11 minutes of the first 20 saw Ottawa having a player in the penalty box.

So much time didn't show well on the first period stat sheet. Milwaukee scored to powerplay goals and outshot the Pilots 19-3 in the first period.

The second period however was mostly even strength, no penalties until 18 minutes went in the second period, a Milwaukee penalty. In the period, Ottawa had two of its defenders find the net, 2-2.

Milwaukee took the 3rd period and the game, once again on a powerplay goal, from W Hastings, and then Schole added another goal, the first and only even strength goal of the game separated the teams for good.

The 4-2 Storm win brings to question Ottawa's team state. Now with the third loss in a row, it seems Ottawa's sizzling start may be slipping into their first challenging period of the season.

[NolaSola7]

Alberta has had a hard time scoring as of late, their offensive numbers have plummete, and still remains the case against rival Saskatoon (whose young guns are gunning!)

Other than scoring, the stats were rather even, even favoring Alberta a bit.

[NolaSola7]

Vancouver @ B.C.

Growing into one of my favorite rivalries (which didn't even exist in the original 16 league format)

[NolaSola7]

Omaha Red Hammers @ Salt Lake Locomotives

A rivalry that deserves some recognition... because if not us, then who will?

[NolaSola7]

Goalies from anywhere but North America

[NolaSola7]

American Leaders

First photo -- American IHA players sorted by points

Second photo -- American IHA players sorted by Corsi Relative

Third photo -- American players of the SSL (minors) sorted by Points

[NolaSola7]

The Game of the Week of this week is rivals Laval @ Québec

Both have shown tremendous defense this year with the two switching first and second place in points allowed and power play kills.

Laval allows the least amount of goals and Quebec is first in power play killing.

Laval, in turn, is second in power play kills and Quebec is second in goals allowed.

Of the two, Laval has had least scoring problems, but Québec has done better gettting goals on the power play. What will give?

[NolaSola7]

Two defenses face off on this Sunday (Nov 16, 2014) and something had to give.

The Game's power plays didn't produce any goals, but Laval didn't need them as their scoring prowess on even strength was present on the road.

Quebec on the otherhand showed their season struggles are bound to continue.

[NolaSola7]

Rivalry Game: Grand Rapids @ Milwaukee

This game was second choice for the GOTW

Featuring like the first, a first place team against their primary rival.

Grand Rapids however sits 5th and not 4th in the division as Quebec.

But this game wasn't very competitive either, but it showed that the first place team is the better team at the moment and beating them at home is a huge undertaking.

*** Milwaukee's center Norman Battaglia has had a fine showing in the early fall portion of the season. But the Storm's rivals did not allow the 6-0 schalacking go without a cost. Battaglia went down and will be out 3 weeks, the time that he'll be off will be an interesting period for Milwaukee as they have seemed to hit a very good stride with contributions from Battaglia.

[NolaSola7]

Portland @ Seattle

[PotatoPeeler]

Hey, Nola. Great read thus far. When I was big into OOTP a handful of years ago, I loved setting up fictional leagues and letting them sim ahead for 25 or 30 seasons. At it was always fun to take notice of the perennial loser (or in some cases, losers) and then sim season by season until they finally got over the hump.

Having just purchased FHM today, I'm interested in doing the same sort of thing with fictional hockey leagues. That being said, I notic d that you hadn't responded to Cole's request.

Originally Posted by Cole

This looks great.. any chance you could release any of your leagues as quickstarts so others could play around with them too?

I too would be interested in a quickstart for this league as I like the way you have it set up. I'd like to play around with a league like this from its initial creation, make a few tweaks here and there, and perhaps begin a dynasty thread of my own.

Cheers and keep up the fine work.