The Bob: Preseason Edition And here we are, the beginning of another season! This is a lot like the start of any league: every team has high hopes, some anxiety about what the season will bring, curiosity as to what the chemistry is going to look like, and lots and lots and lots of speculation and predictions. For those of you new to the league, let me introduce myself: I’m “The Bob.” Honestly, I really don’t like the title of this blog/write-up/weekly musings, but when we had to name it at one point I didn’t have any suggestions and my name is Bob, so, there you have it. I will try to do a weekly write up every week that breaks down the last week’s action, looks at some stats and analysis, the current standings, my much-debated Power Rankings, any other league news, and a look toward the next week. DRAFT ANALYSIS In the past I’ve done a power ranking before the season started with just rosters. This was always a fun exercise, and always garnered much criticism, debate, and other friendly (I assume?) banter. Sometimes I hit on my predictions (I had USA ranked #7 last season and South Korea ranked #2 – they finished 8th and tied for 1st,, eventually winning the championship). Sometimes I was way off (I had Ireland #3 - they finished #7, I had Germany #5 - they finished tied for first). This season I don’t think I can do it. There are an eye-popping thirteen rookies this season, the most I think we’ve seen since the expansion and “rookie invasion” in season 3 (see: ymcahockey/Home/About for some of our league history, although it does have to be updated – we’re missing a lot of the recent seasons). Also, for the first time in YMCA history we will have 5 floor players active for the game. And I’m just making excuses because I have no clue looking at the rosters right now where I would even start. So instead, let me give you my favorite draft move for each team, and my biggest question mark. The Bear and the Maiden Fair (Brown) Roster: Mike Bryant (C), Jon Chatterton, Jamie Habitzreuther, Brian Ciaccia, Jeremy Boehmer, Kenton Sawade (G) Favorite Draft Move/Strategy: Defense wins championships, and this team has the strongest defense on paper. You have Jon Chatterton (who has the defensive player of the year trophy named after him) and Jamie Habitzreuther who can both play pure defense, but you also have Mike Bryant, who usually plays from the defensive position and that is where he generates his scoring opportunities. It is going to be very hard to even get a good look on Kenton when you play this team. Biggest Question Mark: I can’t figure out how this team is going to play. Mike Bryant and Jon Chatterton both love to do a dump/chase type style, but Jeremy’s strengths are usually around the 3 point line, not clean up. Jamie can clean up and Brian can also, but I just can’t figure out what style is going to work the best, especially with both Jon and Mike used to being the point-guy who the action flows through. Might be some chemistry issues here. Headless Neds (Purple) Roster: Rich Hutchins (C) (R), Jesse Tredo, Mike Tepper, Aaron Sevedge, Steve Kazmark, Dave Fose (G) Favorite Draft Move/Strategy: I think Aaron Sevedge was a steal in the fourth round. He is a “rookie” in the sense that he hasn’t played on the floor at the Y before, but just watching the rookies game you can tell that having a season under his belt from between the pipes has helped him tremendously in terms of understanding where to go, how the game flows, and just in general understanding the league. I think he is a great add to this team and a huge value where Rich drafted him. Biggest Question Mark: Two words: rookie captain. I have heard a lot of great things about Rich, but I personally have never seen him play, and as anyone who has played in the league can tell you: this is just a different game at the Y. Add to the fact that your captain is a rookie and will have his own learning curve before he can start coaching others that two of his floor players, Jesse Tredo and Aaron Sevedge, haven’t played floor in the league (for a full season) before. I think they have a lot of talent on the roster, but I think that this team has the biggest uphill battle in terms of learning curve out of anyone else in the league. Kings Landing Kings Guard (Black) Roster: Tim Torrey (C), Jeff Birge, Dan Glading, Kevin Parker, Joe Fertitta (R), Bill Reilich (G) (R) Favorite Draft Move/Strategy: Pairing Dan Glading with Jeff Birge. Jeff has played on the same team as Tim for at least three seasons now, and with Tim’s aggressive style on offense, usually Jeff is either playing defense or at least cheating back toward defense. With one of the best defenders in the league on the roster in Dan Glading, I’m excited to see if this will free up Jeff to focus more on offense and what the results might be from that. Biggest Question Mark: Tim grabbed rookie goalie Bill Reilich in the second round as the third goalie overall to come off the board. He was impressed with what he saw during the Winter Classic, and I was Tim’s scout for the rookies game since he couldn’t make it, and I also saw a lot of potential. Still – grabbing a rookie goalie in the second round and the third goalie overall could prove to be a stroke of genius or a costly mistake with a lot of quality floor players he missed the opportunity to grab. Children of the North Woods (Green) Roster: Paul Paradine (C), Mike Furlano (R), Jon Ramsey, Jim Gross (R), Ian Smith (R), Alex Packard (G) (R) Favorite Draft Move/Strategy: Paul may have lucked out with a very skilled rookie falling to him with the fourth overall pick. It’s kind of scary, as a member of an opposing team, because they sound like the same person: born in Canada, moved to the west coast, and then moved to upstate NY. Mike Furlano turned a lot of heads during the rookie game, and he has the potential to be a top 5 point scorer with the right combination of people around him. Pair him with Paul “Air Canada” Paradine? We might have a combo that will rival the Paul/Gianni combo of a few seasons back. Biggest Question Mark: Um, did you see all of the “(R)” symbols on the roster? Jon Ramsey and captain Paul Paradine are the only two of 6 that have played in this league before. That includes their first round pick and their goalie. A lot of question marks here, how will they play together? What will the learning curve look like for each individual player? How long will it take them to settle in to the speed, style, and flow of hockey at the Y? With two players sitting, it is possible that this team could end up at points in the game with a rookie at every position in play (3 floor and goalie). Dwarves (or is it “Dwarfs”?) (Blue) Roster: Zach Davis (C), Brian D’Angelo, Andy Gauvin, Chris Lally, Colton Shannon (R), Ryan Konko (G) Favorite Draft Move/Strategy: I love the Brian D’Angelo pick. Brian had the most goals per game last season of any player who wasn’t a captain (in other words – 8th overall for returning players), yet Zach steals him with the 5th pick in the draft. Why do I like this pick so much? I think the two will complement each other extremely well. Zach thrives with players who know how to get into position and can finish a quick shot off the pass. Brian thrives where he can find a spot on the floor to finish a well-placed pass. Zach doesn’t do as well when he has to go it alone (he can do it, but it’s not his preferred style). Brian doesn’t do well when he is the focal point of the offense. As you can see, I believe the two of them together are going to bring out the best in each other by taking some pressure off of Brian on offense, but giving Zach an extremely reliable shooter who knows how to finish opportunities. Biggest Question Mark: Defense. Zach and Brian will generate a ton of offense, Chris Lally’s strong suit is mainly on the offensive side of the floor. Andy Gauvin showed HUGE improvements last season, and showed that he can be disruptive on defense at times, but I don’t know if he is a pure defenseman (nor do I know if that will be where the team puts him). Colton is an unknown at this point, but if I’m Ryan Konko sitting between the pipes, I might be a little concerned as to who my last line of defense will be. Dragon Rydaz (Red) Roster: Joe Gandt (C), Mike Sturgis, Bill Smith, Matt Gilluly, Pete Skidmore (R), Brett Siebert (G) Favorite Draft Move/Strategy: Holy shooters Batman! If Joe’s strategy going into the draft wasn’t to draft only players who have deadly accuracy with their shot, then he failed miserably. I don’t know much about Pete’s shooting ability, but as a recovering goalie I have to say that any three of Joe/Mike/Bill/Matt on the floor at the same time terrifies me. I’ve talked before about how I think Bill Smith is one of the deadliest sharpshooters at the Y, we all know that Joe can shoot extremely well on the move and can pick a spot, and Mike and Matt both have incredibly accurate shots from long range. If this team has a weakness, it won’t be their shooting ability. Biggest Question Mark: I was thinking of going with defense, but I got so swept up in the shooting that I forgot Gilluly is a solid defenseman and Pete showed a lot of promise in the rookies game that he might have some defensive aptitude. Honestly, with this team I think my question mark is style. There is no Chris Enright on this team. How will Joe do with guys like Mike and Matt who are much better playing a calculated, intentional style of play rather than the run and gun. I’m not worried about it for these guys, but it is a question mark to see how they are going to adapt – is Joe going to slow down? Is everyone else going to speed up? Will they meet in between? It’ll be interesting to see. Faceless Men (Gray) Roster: Dan Hoock (C), Kyle Antilla (R), Kurt Brownell, Bob Hartman, Rob Masten (R), Matt Marfione (G) Favorite Draft Move/Strategy: Personally, I love our team. In my seven previous seasons, I’ve never played with Matt Marfione before, so I’m excited about that. But this isn’t the “what is Bob excited about his own team” section, it’s my favorite draft move. So I’m going to say that I love how Dan made his first three selections: Matt Marfione, Kyle Antilla, and Kurt Brownell. He started with the best goalie in the league late in the first round when there were still a lot of quality floor players. Normally I really hate the strategy of taking a goalie in the first round, but seventh overall pick I thought it was a great move, and then only two picks later he was able to grab a rookie that seems to play a very similar style to himself. So in his first two picks he grabbed a stellar goalie and then a floor player that should be able to run and gun and create chemistry. Then in his next selection he grabbed Kurt to provide something that he and Kyle don’t possess: the muscle. I hate typecasting Kurt in this manner, because his skill often gets overlooked due to his “cannonball’ nature, but when you pair Kurt with Kyle and Dan like this, it just seems to fit to round out a solid team. Nothing against rookie Rob (I don’t know enough about him), or even your own humble author, but at that point Dan had a complete team and anyone else he added was just gravy. Biggest Question Mark: My biggest question mark is the overall experience level of our floor players. You’ve got Dan, who founded the league, but has taken a few seasons off, so I’m not sure about the rust he might need to knock off, not to mention the style of play has evolved over the past few seasons. You’ve got Kurt who is a wily veteran, but then that’s it. Rob and Kyle are both rookies and brand new to the league, and this is only my second season out of net and I still have a lot to learn. Even though we only have two rookies on paper, essentially Kurt is the only true floor veteran in a lot of ways. Hopefully Matt Marfione gives us a little leeway as we figure things out in front of him (yeah, right). Unsullied (White) Roster: Gianni Jones (C), Tim Anderson, Gafei Szeto, Steve Newbury, Shane Humphrey, Tim Scott (G) Favorite Draft Move/Strategy: Hustle, hustle, hustle. Gianni’s pre-draft strategy quickly went out the window as the two players he had pegged to pick at 8/9 were both gone by the time his turn came up. After a lot of whining, he changed his strategy and I think it may have really worked out for him. He picked Tim Anderson and Gafei Szeto with his first round/second round selections to build the foundation of a solid team. We all know Gianni can score, and he paired that scoring ability with one of the best defense and hustle combinations possible. It’ll depend on chemistry, but I’m excited to see a line with Gianni/Tim/Gafei (when we’re not playing them, at least). Biggest Question Mark: the chemistry. His whole roster has a lot of talent, but none of these players are particularly known for their passing/teamwork. Gafei is a gritty player who can make his own opportunities by his hustle. Tim is more of a defensive player but can definitely score, especially in the mid-range game. Steve has a great shot but has a tendency to try to go it alone, and Shane also will often look to shoot before he looks to pass. Gianni has assembled a team of players who would be formidable if this was 1:1, but it is yet to be determined if they can put that all together into a cohesive unit when there’s 3 of them on the floor at the same time. WEEK 1 PREVIEW Just a reminder – we will probably not have shirts in on time for the first week – so wear a shirt that is your team color for the game. 6:30 Headless Neds (Purple) at Dragon Rydaz (Red) In our first game of the Fall 2014 season we will have a matchup of the shooters vs the goalies. The Headless Neds may need to suit up Jesse and Aaron to help out Fose because they should be expecting to see shots from all angles all game. Meanwhile, it will be captain Rich’s first game as part of the league at the Y and he will need to get his squad together to figure out a solid defensive gameplan early. To me the difference maker in this game will be defense. If the Headless Neds can figure out a way to get in front of the Rydaz’ sticks and prevent a lot of easy looks, then they could really turn the tide on this team. On paper though, I think that the Rydaz will be too much and Fose will be in for a long night. The Bob line: Dragon Rydaz -2.5 7:30 Dwarves (Blue) at Kings Landing Kings Guard (Black) This will be an interesting game of (what I expect to be) contrasting styles. The players on the Dwarves tend to like to play calm and calculated – setting up plays and executing on solid passing for good looks at the net. The players on Kings Landing Kings Guard, on the other hand, tend to like to play up tempo and run the opposing team into the ground. This is all speculation since I haven’t seen either team play as a unit before, but it is based on how I have seen the individuals play in the past. That being said, I think later in the season the Dwarves would have the upper hand, but the type of chemistry that their floor players thrive on takes time to develop, and therefore since this is the first game of the season I’m giving the nod to the Kings Landing Kings Guard (holy cow that is a long name – I’m going to have to think of something shorter if I’m going to be typing this all season) because I feel like their style will take less time to gel before they can start lighting the lamp. The Bob line: Kings Landing Kings Guard -1.5 8:30 Faceless Men (Gray) at The Bear and The Maiden Fair (Brown) I am bummed I’ll be missing our first game. Fortunately for me, unlike last season this should only be 1 of 2 times that I’ll miss. Dan is going to be up against some stiff competition at the beginning of his coming back tour, however, as open looks on Kenton are going to be very tough to come by. The Faceless Men are going to have to get past the best defensive squad in the league (on paper), but I think we have the talent to do it. Dan and Kyle can play up tempo and push the pace while Kurt can lock down the other team on defense (or score on offense – depending on our strategy). Rob’s role is to be determined as he gets used to the Y and we figure out our chemistry. Meanwhile I like our chances with Matt Marfione in net who is less susceptible to the long shots of Mike Bryant and Jon Chatterton than most goalies, and that should neutralize their key strength. But I think this looks like the closest matchup on paper this week, and I’m going to call Jamie Habitzreuther out as being the X-Factor. If he can get the right position on offense and/or some cleanup chances around Matt while the rest of the team is focusing on Jon and Mike then I think they will pull it out. Either way I think this is the closest game of the night. The Bob line: Faceless Men -0.5 9:30 Children of the North Woods (Green) at Unsullied (White) A team of primarily rookies versus a team of all veterans. How the heck am I supposed to write a preview for this game when I haven’t seen 4 of Paul’s 6 players ever play in a real game at the Y? Sorry for the short write up on this one, but I’ve got nothing because I have no idea what Paul’s team is going to look like. I will say, however, that I give the strong advantage to Gianni’s team because of their experience and they shouldn’t have a learning curve to get through like Paul’s team will. Add to the learning curve the fact that Steve and Gafei thrive on hustle and capitalizing on the other team’s mistakes, and I think they could run away with this one. That being said: if Paul’s team does win this then I think they’re the real deal and will automatically become my favorite for the cup going into Week 2. The Bob line: not taking bets. That’s it for me folks – sorry I won’t be there this week. I’m looking for volunteers to write a guest write-up this week – comment below or send me (Bob Hartman – not the Y) a message if you’re interested!
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 13:28:02 +0000