Hamilton vs Rochester, Game 3

[seventeen]

Sorry, I'm not nearly as talented at throwing together a presentation like some of you other guys.
It's 3-1 for the good guys with about 6 min to go in the game. (yes, the game, I'm an optimist). No points for Vanek. See, it's a simple game, really. Stop Vanek and chances are you'll put a big roadblock on the amerks.

Box score so far....
slam.canoe.ca/SlamScoreboard/ahl-frameset.html

[NWTHabsFan]

4-3 Rochester. Series is now 3-0 and not looking good for our boys. They gave up three straight goals to throw this one away. According to the announcers, the Dogs have not scored in either the second or third periods in this series yet. 0 for 8 on the PP....yuch. 0 for the PP this series...yuch. Go get 'em next game boys!!

[seventeen]

Well, that sucks. Up by two with less than 7 minutes? Tough loss.

[Deleted]

Cripes.

This is a carbon copy of Habs vs. Bolts.

[NWTHabsFan]

The first of the three Amerks' third period goals came 8:15 into the third, so it was a meltdown for sure. Here are the gory details.

www.canoe.ca/Bulldogs/News/2005/04/24/1011394.html

The boys need to keep getting shots on net and have to play more than 20 minutes if they plan on beating a top notch team like Rochester.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Over 180:00 of hockey the Bulldogs have had the lead or been even for 134:09 of the time. That is to say that the Dogs have played the Amerks even or better for 74% of the time they have squared off. That is to say that the Dogs, sadly, have not been able to maintain a lead to the end of a contest. Over all shots are 90-88 in favor of Hamilton. This has been a bitch of a series for the Dogs.

[blaise]

It makes me wistful to think that Perezhogin might have made a difference in this series. I also wish that Kostsitsyn had had one more year of AHL experience behind him.

[seventeen]

It would be an interesting academic exercise to compare a) the professional hockey years of experience between the two teams and b) their average ages.

[roke]

Average Ages from the respective websites. Keep in mind that these may include players not on the clear-day rosters and mistakes may have been made.

Amerks: 25.5
Dogs: 23.9

Games (regular season) of NHL Experience:
Amerks:709
Dogs: 614

It's intersting to see that both teams have a lot of players with no NHL experience. Hamilton's numbers are bolstered by the likes of Begin, Ward and Focht (IIRC he has 80 or so NHL games played) while the Amerks have the likes of Chris Taylor, Jeff Jilson and someone else who I could care less about. The Bulldogs were kind enough to offer the NHL GP (well, individual career stats for any league) on their website while with the Amerks those stats are from the player database of TSN.ca.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

Roke said:

Average Ages from the respective websites. Keep in mind that these may include players not on the clear-day rosters and mistakes may have been made.

Amerks: 25.5
Dogs: 23.9

Games (regular season) of NHL Experience:
Amerks:709
Dogs: 614

It's intersting to see that both teams have a lot of players with no NHL experience. Hamilton's numbers are bolstered by the likes of Begin, Ward and Focht (IIRC he has 80 or so NHL games played) while the Amerks have the likes of Chris Taylor, Jeff Jilson and someone else who I could care less about. The Bulldogs were kind enough to offer the NHL GP (well, individual career stats for any league) on their website while with the Amerks those stats are from the player database of TSN.ca.

This is quite a stretch in looking for excuses. We've been close but haven't won. It's not over, but at least we know they aren't much better than we are and if we work hard we can still win.

[blaise]

Experience might be a factor, but I still speculate that Perezhogin, with no NHL experience, might have made some difference.

[roke]

Habs_fan_in_LA said:

This is quite a stretch in looking for excuses. We've been close but haven't won. It's not over, but at least we know they aren't much better than we are and if we work hard we can still win.

In all honesty I wasn't looking for excuses. Seventeen expressed interests in finding out the differences between the two teams in NHL experience as well as average age and since I had some free time on my hands I decided I may as well find and figure out those numbers.

[seventeen]

Thanks Roke. One could call it looking for an excuse, HFLA. I call it realism. At the AHL level, a little bit of experience makes a substantial difference. That excellent Bulldogs team that went to the finals lost in large part because they lacked some age and experience. Take those same two teams 5 years later and the Dogs would kick the crap out of whoever it was (Minny farm team?). The Minny team had no upside, the Dogs had lots. There's not as much of a discrepency with Rochester and Hamilton, but Miller for example is as close as you can get to an NHL goalie in the AHL, along with Garon and Lethtonen. Rochester has some other 'vets' while the Dogs have less in comparison. I don't count Focht, he's an idiot. Anyone who's played in the AHL longer than 3 years falls into that 'experienced' category. If the Dogs lose to Rochester, no shame. And yes, I agree with Blaise that Perezhogin would be worth at least one goal a game to the Dogs. As well, it shifts everyone one rung down the ladder. The #1 winger can be a #2, etc and it make the whole team that much better. Alex is a real gem. Can't wait to see him play.

So if Rokes numbers are reasonably accurate, that's nearly a 2 year difference in age between the two teams...a large number hockey wise.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

Roke said:

In all honesty I wasn't looking for excuses. Seventeen expressed interests in finding out the differences between the two teams in NHL experience as well as average age and since I had some free time on my hands I decided I may as well find and figure out those numbers.

1,000 apologies. I didn't mean to imply that you were making excuses. Adding a lot of numbers doesn't change the fact that we are close, but no cigar. Still, it's not over.