TEG, week of 10:11:07

New Dogs versus Old Tricks Now that the financial stability and future of Colin's team is uncertain, it leaves only four of the Original Five still playing. After last week pitted the Original Four against each other, and the three rookies and one-time expansion team Churchie against each other in separate round robins, each of this week's games saw one of the Original Four play one of the expansion teams. And my what a rookie hazing it was! Of the 12 games played, 11 were won by the Original Four and the "expansion" team that won was Churchie: meaning no rookie team beat an Original. This however is by no means a recent trend as the Original Four have a career record of 63-10 against teams that did not play in the league's first season. Todd has the best such record with a 19-1 while Dan holds the "worst" with a putrid 13-5 record. I would go into further depth but then I would run out of stats for the stats of the week section, so see below. By the end of the week the Original Four held the top four spots and where parity once reigned it suddenly seemed feigned and disparity is present again.

Running Items Department: Four Goals and a Victory TEG's irrefutable law still holding strong with teams scoring four goals or more going 9-1 this week. No surprise there except to see that four goals were scored on ten occasions after only seven last week. Perhaps then the following item will prove unnecessary.

Two Goal Leads Are the New Four Goals Equals a Victory As stats are proving, goals are down this season, as are shots. As stated here last week this will ultimately decrease the number of comebacks over multi-goal deficits and add an increased pressure for a team to score the first goal. To support these thoughts, TEG did his best to track the number of times a team that lead by two goals at any point wound up winning their games. By my tally, 10 games featured a two goal lead and eight times the team that held it won. Or put in a less complicated manner: teams only came back from two goal deficits twice. One was by TEG himself who only came back because of how quickly the first two goals were scored against him. (And, almost echoing the words of a bubble hockey playing Tim Connolly TEG, perhaps believing a little too much in his own new theory--almost said to himself "no one comes back from two goals down in bubble hockey.") Todd was the other benefactor of a comeback and he did the same by overcoming an early two goal lead as well. There's no way for TEG to go back and track the number of two-goal leads that have been overcome in the past, but, without trying to sound like the elderly speaking of supposed good old days, TEG is willing to bet that there were a few more such comebacks when the games were longer.

Stats of the Week:

1. Dan's 2-0 win over Chief was only the third 2-0 game in league history. As stated by TEG here last week, there has yet to be a 1-0 game. But with the scoring as it is, it would stand to reason that it's only a matter of time before we see that.
2. nait's holding Pat to one shot on goal marked only the second time in league history that few shots have been register. Much like the 1-0 game, a 0 SOG game seems a matter of time as well. In fact, unconfirmed rumors spoke of one such game, an exhibition, that occurred after league play this past Thursday night.
3. Kevin has never been shutout, a streak that now stands at 84 straight games.
4. There have been seven shutouts already this season, tying the league's season total record.
5. Todd has held opponents to less than 10 SOG for five straight games, breaking the old record of four previously held by Dan (Season Two) and equaled this week by Kevin.
6. Dan was outshot his first four games and has been five of his six games this season.
7. Khris is now 2-0 when outshooting his opponents but 0-4 when being outshot. As TEG's very own real live father used to tell him: "you can't score unless you shoot." TEG's advice to Khris? Shoot!
8. Pat is 1-1 when outshooting his opponents but 0-3 when being outshot. As TEG's very own real live father used to tell him: "you can't score unless you shoot." TEG's advice to Pat? Shoot!
9. After registering a 32-20 edge in shots against his opponents last week and going 2-1 in the process, Chief was outshot 53-14 and wound up going 0-3 in the process.
10. Knate has been outshot in every game this season and counting 11 straight dating back to the last season. In his career he is 1-46 in games he has been outshot. As TEG's very own...SHOOT!
11. Knate ended his record 25 game losing streak with a 2-1 OT, comeback victory against Dan. Two of Knate's three career victories have come against Dan.
12. Chief currently leads the league with a 2.00 GAA and is ahead of the all-time season save percentage record with an .836 percentage and yet is only 2-4. TEG does not know exactly what that could possibly mean except that perhaps the world isn't always fair.
13. Pat has one less GF and two more GA than Knate but has one more win. TEG does not know exactly what that could possibly mean except that perhaps the world isn't always fair.

Bonus Stat Even Though I Know It's Rude to Talk About Him When He's Not Here Colin won his first four career post-season games but has since gone onto lose his next seven (and counting).

Lesser of Two Evils? A new rule change this year, established after Todd broke tradition last year and chose to be the Red Team even though he was the home team--until then it was just given that the home team was Blue--now gives the home team the choice of which side to play on. But so far the home team, aka the team that picks their side is 10-14. Within those choices, Blue is showing to be a better, though only slightly, choice having gone 5-6 when picked, where as Red is 5-8.

Though TEG must ponders what could have changed so drastically from last week to make Re d picked nine times last week and only four times this week.

Next Week: More shots on goal stats! And maybe something more about the Blue/Red battle for good and evil.