Day 7: ROV@SOC review

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a championship season. However, there are a lot of positives to take out of this 4-4 tie with South Edmonton. First the obvious; this team can still score goals. Four goals on 39 shots (including an impressive 21 first period shots which would have sunk the Sockeyes if not for Evgeni Nabokov's heroics) marks the first game that the offense has shown up. Newcomer Nils Ekman popped a pair on the second line and the top line connected twice on the PP with Glen Murray and Kim Johnsson each registering a pair of power-play points. Also the Rovers seemed to work harder this game. They simplified their approach for the road contest and won a majority of faceoffs and passed the puck very efficiently (including Chris Pronger connecting on an amazing 25 of 26 pass attempts).

Now to what needs work. This team has shown an early penchant for minor penalties, and the PK hasn't responded in kind. The Rovers are the sixth-most penalized team and killing only 84.0% of PP opportunities against. This has to improve. Chris Mason, in his first road game, wasn't as sharp as he was against the Ale, but he'll continue to get starts as the coaching staff want to instill confidence in the young netminder.

The Rovers now have two days off to rest and travel home to again host the Wicked Ale. Look for Martin Gerber to get the start in front of the home fans as the Rovers seek their first win of the season.

Day 6: WIC@ROV review

Quick... somebody... wake me up.

When will the nightmare end, and when will the Baffin Island Rovers figure out how to score? It didn't happen tonight, as the Rovers dropped a 2-1 decision at home to the previously winless Wicked Ale. After a scoreless first, the Rovers struck early in the second on Nils Ekman's first of the season and it was thought that this would mark the first of many on the night for the Rovers. But instead Peter Bondra equalized for St. Pete's just two minutes later and Dany Heatley popped the eventual winner four minutes after that. Jocelyn Thibault took over from there, turning aside 21 of 22 shots over the final two periods for the victory. Chris Mason played well in his Rover debut, stopping 26 of 28, but was tagged with his first RHL loss.

The coaching staff must be shaking their heads at what to do next. With a game tonight in South Edmonton against the 3-0 Sockeyes, the Rovers must right the ship and quickly to avoid falling too far behind the leaders. After tonight the Rovers have two days off to refocus before hosting the Wicked Ale again.

Trade Scuttlebutt

Confirming what's been speculated by a few writers, Rovers GM Steve Stringer admitted this morning that he has been shopping center/wingers Adam Hall and Manny Malhotra around the league, as well as winger Brad Isbister and prospect defenseman Dennis Seidenberg. "It's not that we don't want these players anymore", Stringer said, "but they aren't playing for us right now (editor's note: Isbister is playing, but not many minutes) and we're wondering if there is a trade market for them". With the team winless in two games, it's unclear whether this is just a minor shuffling of the bench or a prelude of bigger deals to come should the team not round into form on the ice.


Malhotra C 4P/14 427 7 65 33000 13:45 22/4 74/11/9/5 343
3320 0003 5 17 20 N $494,305
Isbister LW 4P/15 400 6 57 02200 12:45 25/4 76/9/6/8 333
2330 0002 27 31 16 N $463,050
Hall RW 3P/13 606 13 65 30300 16:15 17/4 65/9/6/19 333
4330 0003 2 3 18 N $668,115
Seidenberg, Denis 2P/15 519 $272,475

Day 5: Coaches Corner

Ok, so we had a good day of practice yesterday and will have a light skate today in preparation for hosting the Wicked Ale tonight. As promised the forward lines will be slightly shifted tonight. Here they are:

Frolov - Demitra - Murray
Korolyuk - Draper - Ekman
Halpern - Jokinen - Horton
Malone - Legwand - Isbister

Draper is off the first line and slotted to center Ek and Korks; with the propensity of those two wingers to pass, perhaps the more offensive Draper will work better than a third passer, Jokinen. Olli drops out of the top six to center Horton and Halpern. Maybe this can spur Horton, who needs a better passer than Halpern to feed him. Frolov leaves that line and goes back to the top unit with Demitra and Murray; they played well in the preseason, so we'll put them back together now. The fourth line remains intact, if for no other reason than they're the only line to score a goal this year. ;) Hall and Malhotra are ready to cycle in there if Isbister starts to fade.

Also, Chris Mason will make his Rover debut tonight in goal. Marty's numbers are excellent through two games (1.53GAA, .925svpct), but we want to get Mase some game action, and hopefully the Ale are the team to do that against.

Being at home, I really expect the team to come out with both barrels firing. There is no reason to let up against a decidedly weaker opponent, and a convincing victory tonight may restore a bit of confidence among our shooters. There are tougher games ahead and we need to be hitting on all cylinders when it counts, so there's no time like the present to work out the kinks (hopefully that's all we are experiencing).

Day 4: ROV@SOC review

Ok, tinkering time has arrived.

While I was correct in thinking that this lineup was capable of putting a lot of shots on goal, you still win games by putting some of those shots behind the goaltender... and doing that once in two games isn't good enough.

First, a review.
- The top line generated eight shots on goal and Draper was excellent in the faceoff circle, but they were on the ice for the Sockeyes opening goal in the first and their empty netter in the dying seconds while they were trying to tie the game.
- The second line, in their first real action of the season, didn't accomplish a lot. Korolyuk and Ekman produced three shots apiece and Jokinen, while 6 of 10 in the circle, only made 6 pass attempts (completing 4). In fact, Korolyuk and Ekman were each much better at passing the puck than their centerman, who was supposed to be the one feeding them.
- The third line didn't see much icetime apart from Halpern, who was killing penalties all night (more on that later). Normally good on the draw, Jeff wasn't very good on this evening.
- The fourth line provided a spark and the only Rover goal, with Ryan Malone and Kim Johnsson setting up Eric Brewer's blast from the right point. Isbister in particular had a good game, getting on the ice for only five minutes but accumulating 4 shots on goal and a +1. He'll likely stay in the lineup for Tuesday night.
- Again, I've no complaints about the defense or goaltending. The TOI was allocated well and they generated a lot of shots on net. Brewer and Johnsson were outmuscled a few times in the corners, but they passed well and blocked four shots. Gerber was solid again, stopping 21 of 23 shots. That said, it may be time for a change and a home game against the Wicked Ale may be the perfect time to break Chris Mason into the league. These two losses, though, clearly can't be pinned on Marty.

Now, what to do. First order of business on the off-day is to skate 'em, and skate 'em hard. You can say that they were essentially two one-goal losses (minus the empty netter), but two losses are two too many to start the year. Then it will be to focus on positional play, as the Sockeyes drew a number of hooking penalties - eight to two were the PP chances in favour of S.Edm. Finally we'll have to look at line combinations. One thing is known for sure, Kris Draper is coming off the top line. Perhaps Alex Frolov will go up there, or perhaps someone else, and Draper may find himself back between Korky and Ek, where he had success in the pre-season. These are decisions to ponder overnight and set tomorrow. Hopefully the Wicked Ale will be the right vintage for the Rovers to kick their early funk.

Day 3: SEL@ROV review

So RHL15 is underway. Time to tell the Rovers offense.

Ok, 0-1 isn't reason to abandon ship, but it's curious that the team would come out flat in their home opener. Sure Marc Denis played well, and you have to give him some credit for that, but this is a team that is usually in the 30+ shots per game range, so 23 shots is a bit low. It seems as though the Rovers really went off the rails late in the first when Nils Ekman was assessed a match penalty for a phantom spear on new Select Serge Aubin. With Ekman tossed from the game, second line center Olli Jokinen never back on the ice, with the third line of Frolov, Halpern, and Horton seemingly picking up all their shifts. With Korolyuk and Jokinen effectively benched, there was little help for the first line, who did manage 10 shots.

Now it's not all bad from a Rovers perspective. Martin Gerber had an excellent debut, stopping 16 of 17 shots. The defensive rotation was also solid, with model ice-times distributed and efficient passing from all blueliners. With that in mind, the Rovers are not going to make any lineup changes for their trip to South Edmonton tonight. This line-up really didn't get a fair shake in the opener with the 2nd line effectively being scrubbed before the end of the first period, so a full night from all lines is needed to really determine if things need to be tweaked.

That said, an 0-2 start won't sit well with fans expecting a quick charge out of the gate.

Day 2: Coaches Corner

Day 3 is here, and the coaching staff has released the lines to be used tonight versus the Selects. Let's get into them.

Forwards
Draper - Demitra - Murray
Korolyuk - Jokinen - Ekman
Frolov - Halpern - Horton
Malone - Legwand - Isbister

Putting Jokinen between Korky and Ekman meant dropping Frolov to the third line, where hopefully he and Horton can create even more balance. Draper as top LW is an experiment, but Demitra and Murray have a productive history together and I didn't want to drop Draper to the third line. Draper as the second center was also an option, but Jokinen is a better passer to set up his wingmen. Isbister is on a short leash; he was signed to score, but if he doesn't pan out quickly, Hall and Malhotra are waiting to take his place. He tallied in one of his two exhibition games, so we're hoping for the best.. even though it's known that he'll be getting limited minutes.

Defense
Regehr Pronger
Johnsson Brewer
Hulse Pronger
Johnsson Hill
Regehr Brewer

I started playing the defense in a five-pairing configuration last season after seeing a few coaches around the league doing the same. I like how it allows the bottom pairing guys to be help by the top pair (Pronger and Johnsson) without sacrificing the top guys total ice-time. The puck movers (Pronger, Johnsson, Brewer) and the physical guys (Pronger, Regehr, Hill, Hulse) are pretty well balanced. I've been happy with how the ice-time is distributed with this setup, so it will probably continue for the time being. Hulse over Liles isn't a slag on John-Michael, but Cale played very well (and a lot) in two exhibition games and Liles at this point is more of a PP specialist and better suited to be brought along slowly.

Goaltender: Gerber

Marty is our #1 guy, so we'll see right off the top how he handles a pretty good offense. Mason will get his fair share with so many back-to-back games, but to start the season we want to see how Gerber will play behind our defense corps. Only when we establish his level of play with our current Dmen can we evaluate if we need to change things up. So for the time being, it's Gerber.

Day 1: Schedule released, Rovers open against Selects

Well, the schedule is out and the Rovers have to wait a while to kick off, but they play a lot once they do. Day 3 marks the season opener and an initial stretch of 4 games in 5 nights. The Selects await in the home opener, followed by a road game against the Sockeyes, back home to host the Wicked Ale and then, strangely, another road matchup with the Sockeyes.

It will be interesting to see the Selects in the Champions division. Two questions must be asked: how will their offense be affected by the loss of Joe Sakic, and will they achieve more balanced scoring now that Hossa and Hejduk must play on separate lines? Zednik/Modin represent two pretty good LWs to play with Hossa/Hejduk, but will they be held back by their centers (probably Linden and Ricci), or will they thrive regardless?

Lines have yet to be submitted for the opener, and questions still abound on the Rover roster about forward chemistry and defensive personnel. Demitra and Murray have always played well together, but would Demitra be a better fit between Korolyuk and Ekman than would Draper? Perhaps Olli Jokinen fits there, though that forces someone (probably a winger like Frolov) to a lower line. There are a lot of skilled pieces here, so it's not a bad problem to have. But extracting the max chemistry will be a test all year.

On defense, rookie John-Michael Liles looked ok through two preseason games and was assumed to be the #6, but free-agent signee Cale Hulse played very well in his two games (and played a lot more) and he may get the nod, allowing Liles to be brought along slowly. With Pronger, Johnsson, and Brewer, the Rovers have guys that bring what Liles brings; perhaps Hulse's physical play is a better match for the current blueline makeup.

The starting goalie also has not been decided. The coaching staff has been instructed to keep Mason to a strict GP limit this year to prevent him from wearing down physically, so perhaps Gerber gets the call in game 1. Decisions can (and likely will) be analysed when the lines are submitted tomorrow.

Opening night

While the schedule hasn't been released yet, the Rovers are anxious to get going. This may be the most potent group of scorers ever assembled in Baffin Island, which hopefully bodes well for continuing the recent success of the franchise. With the current payroll, they will need to make a long playoff run to be able to stay together beyond this season. We'll see how they get out of the gate before making any judgements on their playoff potential.

Season outlook: RHL15

Forward lines:

Line 1: Frolov - Demitra - Murray
Line 2: Korolyuk - Draper - Ekman

The top 6 will be counted on for big offense, as they all have good shooting numbers this disk. Frolov is due for a big year after sitting for most of last season, while free agent additions Korolyuk and Ekman will take pressure off Demitra and Murray, the Rovers two perennial big guns.

Line 3: Halpern - Jokinen - Horton
Line 4: Malone - Legwand - Isbister

The anticipated scoring depth should come from the lower lines, where Horton, Malone, Halpern, and even Isbister are expected to contribute to the offense. The team doesn't have the defensive forwards it had in previous seasons (Dahlen, Knuble, Johansson), but hopes to
make up for it with offensive guys that can forecheck.

Defensive Pairings

DP 1: Regehr - Pronger
DP 2: Johnsson - Brewer
DP 3: Liles - Hill

The top 4 will log most of the minutes here, with Liles potentially splitting time with a veteran like Cale Hulse. Pronger will add a lot in all areas, including being relied upon heavily in both the PP and PK.

Goaltending: Gerber - Mason

This will probably be a committee all season. Gerber isn't a big name but should be able to get the job done, while Mason sports excellent numbers and will be tested early to see if he warrants facing the top teams.

Bench

Bergeron, Hall, Malhotra, Hulse, Ward, Montador, Hedberg

A larger bench than carried by the Rovers in previous seasons; this may be an area that is trimmed if the Rovers look to reduce payroll. Bergeron, Hall, and Malhotra are all capable RHLers, while Hulse could skate regularly for a number of teams. Hopefully the team doesn't get into a situation where Ward and Montador are relied upon, and there shouldn't be any need for Orange Cone this season with Hedberg on standby in the pressbox.