Shots from the Point

I wasn't going to blog today, January is busy enough in terms of hockey, I wanted a day off from my 2nd job here.  But alas, the hockey world does not rest, so neither do I.  You're welcome.

Carter Ashton's finally in town, it's only been over a month.  Granted, his absence was for a great reason, but still.  He's finally here.

His image was found on a trading card in packs handed out last week -- all before he even laced up his skates.*

Wednesday, Ashton was in practice gear on the ice at Toyota Center, skating with the Americans for the first time since he was acquired from Regina on Dec. 10.

"What I've seen so far is great," said Ashton, who has played just one game in his WHL career at Toyota Center. "As a first sense, it's very welcoming. I'm looking forward to that first win, getting chemistry with the guys and moving forward."

"You have to move on," Ashton said of the loss to Russia. "With that being such a big game, it will always be part of my life, but coming to a new team will help put that behind me. When I got home (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), I rested a couple of days and watched a couple of games online. I wanted to be here, but I knew I needed the rest. The time off really helped."

"To add him to the lineup, he'll help even more with the scoring," MacKenzie said. "It's good to be on the same side with him."

"He's a good player (MacKenzie)," Ashton said. "When I was in Lethbridge, we saw a lot of each other. I'm looking forward to playing with him."  (Herald)

Ashton and MacKenzie the newbies will bring a lot of very valuable experience to the team.  As I overheard the other day, "Big Mac and Carter Pounders...I'm lovin' it".  Brilliant.

Speaking of Big Mac (if that wasn't already his nickname, it is now), Rene Ferran features him in his latest "Meet the Americans":

"I had an idea it would be Tri-City," he said Wednesday while relaxing at the Red Lion Hotel across Columbia Center Blvd. from his new home arena, the Toyota Center.

"I had heard that Tri was looking for one more defenseman, so I thought maybe it would Tri. (Hitmen management) didn't say anything, but I just had this feeling that some moves would be made. We lost a lot of guys from last year who were a huge part of us winning, and we had only six or seven guys from that team remaining.

"Still, we had higher expectations than what we met. We should have been better. But I knew they couldn't leave things the same."

What did he think of his new team?

"I played in the offensive zone more last night than I had all year, so that was definitely a nice change," MacKenzie said. "Obviously, I knew a lot about them from last year, how good their forwards are. You move the puck up to them, and you don't have to worry about it coming back in your face.

"It was just awesome. I'd make that first pass, and they'd get the puck, get a rush going and get a good scoring chance. I see my job as just to keep the puck out of the net and contributing offensively by getting the puck up to them." (Examiner)

Yesterday I mentioned how much I like stats, especially when someone else does the work.  Leave it to top WHL stats guru/blogger Alan Caldwell to find some answers.  Today, he focuses specifically on WHL goalies and the number of shots they face.  It's really fascinating stuff.  For instance, no one in the US Division would probably be surprised to find that Pickard faces the most shots, averaging 39.02 a game, while our Drew Owsley faces 31.95.  Everett's Siemens is towards the top at 36.35, while Simpson is only facing an average of 30.12 shots.  Portland's goalies are in the 34+ range, and Spokane's James Reid is near the bottom, averaging 25.96.

Regina goaltender Matt Hewitt recorded the best outing by a goaltender in the WHL this season last night, stopping 59 of 62 shots in backstopping the Pats to an upset 4-3 win over the Saskatoon Blades.

After seeing that, and remembering that Seattle's Calvin Pickard faced 52 shots on Tuesday against Tri-Cities, I started wondering about which goaltenders face the most shots every night on average. A few calculations later, and here we have the results: average number of shots faced per 60 minutes of play for each goaltender in the league who has played more than 300 minutes.  (Small Thoughts at Large)

I encourage you to look at the rest of the post, there's more numbers and interesting analysis.  It's really good information.  Srsly.  Yahoo's Buzzing the Net takes a look at Hewitt's performance last night as well:

Evan Mosher's unquestioned front-runner status for best netminding performance of this young annum lasted, oh, 24 hours. Regina Pats rookie 'tender Matt Hewitt might have topped it, almost singlehandedly stopping the Saskatoon Blades with 59 saves in a 4-3 shootout win.  (BTN)

And hey, look at that!  Buzzing the Net gave photo credit!  About time, needs to be doing that on a more consistent basis or there will be a strongly-worded letter coming from me.

Brooks Macek scored in the shootout to help lead Calgary to a win over Lethbridge.  He was also a +1 on the night--maybe that change of scenery is going to work out great for him.  Yay!

*dammit, I didn't grab my player trading cards grrrrrrrrrrrrrr