Hurricanes-Devils is pretty entertaining hockey so far, great tempo. Canes potting a SHG, Devils equalizing with a low-angle shot that squeaked in off Kochetkov's right pad.
They don't have any guys with a history of scoring 30 goals or more per season, but they have a bunch of guys who have a history of scoring in the 20s. In other words, they're not top heavy -- their production is pretty evenly spread. Also, Beniers, the #2 overall pick last year, looks like he may be on his way to becoming a prolific goal scorer.Mentioned this in December thread but I don’t understand how Kraken are piling up goals with a bunch of meh forwards.
If you’re looking for a second-half regression candidate, look no further than Jared McCann who has 17 five-on-five goals this year … on 55 shots. McCann is shooting 31 percent from the field and has only been expected to score 5.5 goals. Instead, he has roughly three times that amount.
McCann is tied for second in the league in five-on-five goals as a result and has already matched last year’s total in 480 fewer minutes. It’s a ridiculous bender, especially considering McCann was never an elite finisher before coming to Seattle. In his prior 353 games, McCann had 42 goals and 42.2 expected goals. Perfectly balanced. With Seattle, he now has 34 in 111 games off just 16.5 expected goals.
https://theathletic.com/4083475/2023/01/12/16-stats-bedard-saros-kraken/The Kraken have a solid 51.6 percent expected-goals rate, good for 13th in the league, but their rate of earning actual goals is much better. Seattle is second in the league with 60.3 percent of the goals behind only Boston.
That’s a massive difference that ranks as the fourth largest since 2007-08 behind two Presidents’ Trophy-winning Capitals teams and the 2010-11 Boston Bruins who went on to win the Stanley Cup. With all due respect to the Seattle Kraken, they aren’t those teams and they don’t share much in common with the other teams who greatly exceeded expected goals either. It’s a list littered with powerhouse teams with elite high-end scorers, elite goaltending, or both. Seattle doesn’t have either.
The Kraken are a good team who have the inside track for a playoff spot this season thanks to a strong start, but much of that is built on unsustainable scoring — primarily by McCann. At five-on-five Seattle has 108 goals, 22 more than expected. That’s 0.52 more goals than expected per game, a mark that’s only been bested twice over a full season since 2007-08: the 2021-22 Minnesota Wild and the 2009-10 Washington Capitals. Both teams had a track record for that kind of performance that the Kraken group doesn’t quite have, making it much harder to believe Seattle will be able to sustain it.
Then you missed this funny event from last year (Ignore the fact the article is dated April 1, it did happen haha)I am going to be honest. I didn't know that there was a second Sebastian Aho.
Nope because Canada colleges are run differently than the NCAA. They get a lot of washed major junior players to play college in Canada. But once you play major juniors your ineligible for NCAA hockey.Wicked cool!
This doesn’t ruin his college eligibility?
Oof. I hope he gets to keep his jerseyAmateur tryout contract so no payment for his evening.