Drunks Digest

New look for the Digest and bear with me as I work to refine it (obviously, web design isn't my strong suit....) Two submissions this week: Brett's weekly look at the Euro and Cannons' GM Ryan Yamada comments on his team's (rather quick) fall from grace in the early season.

This week's edition also features the Commish's interview with the Euro-leading Kings' GM Josh Land. Click here for the interview.

Look for a new feature coming soon to the Digest: 'Talking Trades With the Joes' which will brought to you courtesy of Joe Scanlon and Joe Fiore of the Phantoms and Vipers respectively....

Well, enough from me, you all get to reading while I try and figure how the hell I can win next year without Roy....

Contributed by Ryan Yamada
From playoff bound to 4-9 in 6 games flat: The Cannons fall from grace ... already.

After a promising 4-3 start, the Cannons have fallen back to their familiar home in the cellar of the Jack Daniels conference by dropping their last 6 in a row. However, coach Darryl Sutter is quick to point out that those 6 losses were by a total of only 10 goals (an average deficit of 1.67 goals). "The bottom line is we still score fewer goals than they do so we have some work left," Sutter remarked. "But the difference is getting much smaller now. Instead of losing 8-1 we’re only losing 4-2 or 4-3. The situation is definitely improving".

A huge part of that improvement has come from the Cannons offense. The offense has been completely revamped and it’s all working wonders right now for the Cannons. Four Cannons are averaging more than a point per game, including the entire first line. Jamie Lagenbrunner, who was acquired by the Cannons in the Selanne deal, is working wonders and leads the league in goal scoring with 12. Chris Drury, who can often be found on the scoresheet next to Lagenbrunner’s goals, owns 15 assists putting him in a 4th place tie just 3 assists back of the league lead. But the biggest improvement has been the secondary scoring, and leading the way there is David Vyborny.

Vyborny was challenging for rookie of the year last year before being injured and missing the final 20 games of the season. This season Vybonry has picked up where he left off and is providing and incedible boost to the second line. In fact, the Cannons second liners have scored only 4 fewer even strength goals than the first liners, a tremendous testament to the hard work and skill of Vyborny, Brendan Morrow, and Mike Zigomanis.

With this new-found offense one has to wonder what the Cannons defense must look like to be holding a 4-9 record. The Cannons as a team have given up 58 goals, 12 more than they have scored. The reason for this is clear: lack of defensive depth. "The top pairing of deVries and Weinrich has been working out great, the +/- is OK and they are contributing offensively … Weinrich especially," Sutter commented. "But Lukowich and Vishnovsky have had some rough games and we’re still having trouble with our third pairing".

And then there is goaltending of course. Where is Tommy Salo when you need him anyway? The Cannons instead chose to deal him for a package including Dunham. Dunham out and Biron in. The goaltending merry-go-round continued this offseason with the disappointing Biron being shipped out in favor of upstart Dwayne Roloson. While Sutter defended his
goalie by citing the high number of shots he faces (the Cannons give up 31.2 per game) there can be no excuse for his .851 save percentage.

The offense is built, but the defense and goaltending haven’t come around as the organization expected. Sure games are fun now with Lagnebrunner and Vyborny lighting the place up, but even they can’t match the lighting job other teams do to Dwayne Roloson. Darryl Sutter said there’s still work left; looking at this defense and goaltending he sure wasn’t kidding.

With the first two weeks of the ’04 season in the books, the Euro division has a few predictable points and a few big surprises. It is certainly no surprise that Antwerp’s finest, Pavel Bure is the Euro
Division’s leading scorer with 19 points on 9 goals and 10 assists. It is extremely surprising that number 2 behind Bure is Zurich’s Patric Kjellberg with 18 on 8 and 10…

Kjellberg’s success is likely a function of last year’s Zurich stud, Mark Recchi, recovering from injury. That injury leads to perhaps the biggest surprise of the young season, the Piranha’s abysmal 6-8-1 record. GM Darnell has been adamant that most of the record is the result of a grueling road swing and injuries, and his argument holds water since the Piranhas are holding on to the Jack Daniels 8 spot and have a 5-2 record against the conference. Add to this the number 2 goalie in the league in Freddy Brathwaite with a 2.32 GAA and league high .919 save percentage and the Zurich club is bound for a huge recovery...

That the Kings climbed so high so fast in the Euro is not surprising given management’s shake up. The real shocker at the top of the standings in the Euro division are the Vikings. A sometimes truant GM and a lineup that has plenty of depth but little big time talent doesn’t seem like a winning combination, but that depth means a balanced attack, an 8-5 record, 6-2 against the conference despite being outscored 44-45 on the season. Those numbers don’t figure to allow the Vikings to hold of the pressing Kings, Galaxy, and eventually the Piranhas...

Speaking of being outscored, the Hanover Galaxy is the only Euro club NOT being outscored for the season putting up a mark of 39-38. This offense to defense ratio seems to be a plague on the Euro teams, and doesn’t bode well for the division as a whole, though the Galaxy may find it encouraging in their race for the top spot...

In an interesting statistical anomaly, the Birmingham Blaze, last in the Euro and second to last in the league, have some very interesting
potential in some very interesting spots. Berehowsky is tied for second in the league with 1 Shorthanded Goal, Dandenault is tied for fourth in shooting percentage with 40 percent rate, and Adam Graves is tied for second in hat tricks with 1. These aren’t necessarily stellar stats as it’s early, but it seems that the team has the fire power to be a quirky, pesky offense and should not be taken lightly...

With that said, here are your folks to watch:

Player(s) to Watch: Mark Recchi is day-to-day right now, he’ll be the guy to watch when he gets back, until then, it’s Freddy Brathwaite’s job to keep Zurich in it.

GM to Watch: Aleksi Hamalainen. With the Nighthawks struggling and the franchise in a holding pattern, Aleksi’s the guy to watch to see if he’ll shake up or break up his team. The season’s far from over, but a stagnant start isn’t a good thing for a franchise.

Team to Watch: Vikings. They’re in it right now, but they’ll have to
stay on top of their game to hold off the rest of a very competitive Euro division.

For the (fraud free) Euro division, I’m Across the Pond.

P.S. Would it kill some of you guys to spell-check?