By Mike Cadarette (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: November 14, 2012
The hearts of Canadians from Tofino to St. John’s were crushed when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the lockout. The sky was falling around everyone’s most precious past time – the NHL. And if one good thing has come out of the work stoppage, it’s the influx of NHL-calibre talent now on every AHL team in the league.
Just look up and down the roster sheet and you’ll see recognizable names of some of the best young players in world. With this incursion of talent in the AHL, naturally there is going to be greater competition and challenges each and every game.
But don’t tell the Heat that.
They’re in the upper echelon of most team- and player-based statistics right now, despite playing against most NHL teams’ future core players. I’m not saying it hasn’t been a challenge for them to get to the upper crust, but they couldn’t make it look more effortless.
Take, for example, their special teams. Currently, their penalty kill is ranked first in the AHL. The Heat have stopped 44-of-46 power plays (95.7 per cent). That’s no easy feat especially when they’ve had to stop the likes of Jaden Schwartz, Nazem Kadri, Brendan Gallagher, and more recently the Oilers’ young stars: Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Justin Schwartz.
Their power play is set in cruise control as well, converting on 24.4 per cent of their chances. “We have a deeper organization than we did in the last couple of years,” explained head coach Troy Ward.
“With that we’ve been able to work solid with two groups. The difference is a lot of times in certain organizations you only have maybe a group-and-a-quarter, group-and-a-half and it makes a difference in how you prepare and how you practice. We’ve had two good groups here this year where we have some depth to our team. It makes for a really competitive situation . . . Both groups are competitive and they’re battling against each other.”
That internal competitiveness has paid off in a big way. In fact, if we consider their three shorthanded goals, the Heat have a special teams goal differential of plus-nine, which is the best in the AHL.
What all of this success leads to, then, is a team that has the second-best winning percentage in the league, coming out victorious in 77.3 per cent of their games. Their record after this weekend sits at an outstanding 7-1-1-2 and they are off to their best start in their four-year franchise history.
Not lost in all these team accomplishments are the individuals that have gotten the Heat where they are today. It’s difficult not to spot a Heat player somewhere on the AHL’s player statistics sheet.
Tied for fifth in AHL points with 12 each are Heat forwards (and linemates) Sven Baertschi and Ben Walter. Filling out the Heat’s most potent line is the league’s leading goal scorer Roman Horak, having scored 10 goals in just 11 games. While their primary scorers are getting the job done, secondary scoring has been huge for the Heat as well. Dustin Sylvester, last season’s Heat top rookie, is second on the team with five goals, while defencemen TJ Brodie and ex-Canuck Steve McCarthy each have eight points in 11 games.
The Heat’s goaltending couldn’t get much better either. They’re in a unique situation rolling with three goalies on the roster. Danny Taylor, Barry Brust and Leland Irving have given their team a chance to win every single game. Taylor has started in seven of the Heat’s 11 games. He currently flaunts a 1.69 goals against average rating, which is good for fifth in the AHL.
To say all this good fortune will continue for the rest of the season is unlikely. The Heat are hot right now.
Unfortunately, there are some worrisome trends emerging. For instance, the Heat sit at 27th in shots per game with 27.3. Despite that, they have scored the fourth most goals per game, averaging 3.6. Do the Heat have extremely efficient snipers or are they getting lucky? Unfortunately, in hockey, the latter applies.
Eventually the Heat will begin to regress to the mean, so be prepared for some cold streaks in the near future.
Until then, let us rejoice in the fact the Abbotsford Heat are in the upper echelon of an extremely talented pool of teams and players.
