Mudbugs Hockey Blog

Can you say all star goaltending? Holy crap John DeCaro just may have won the game all by himself. He made 19 saves in a lopsided second period against the ‘Hounds. Geez the Bugs were out shot 19-2 in the second and 40-18 in the game and still came out winners 3-2.

It proves several things, let’s start with the obvious – it’s not how many shots, its how many shots cross the goal line that counts. At least it did on this night. It also makes one wonder what was the reason for all the shots on goal? was it bad defense? I think you can’t blame the defenseman entirely, after all it takes all 5 guys to help the netminder prevent scores.

Tonight was payback for a game we lost early in the season, when we were the team that played well enough to win and came away with nothing. Over a long season things have a way of paying you back as long as you just stick with it and never give up working hard.

Of all the games we have won for the better part of this whole season, this was a game we could have and some may say should have lost, but we didn’t and that’s all that counts.

Way to go Chris Brassard for coming through in a clutch in scoring the game winner with less than two minutes remaining preventing the game from going into overtime. Now I know anything can happen in OT or a shootout if need be, BUT the way the game was progressing I was not feeling to comfortable about going into OT. That goal was huge, that’s the best way to explain it.

As far as the 3 stars tonight I wish we could give 2 players the first star because John DeCaro and Captain Chris Brassard were both worthy of the honor. But tonight its was not about who gets the stars as it is about the team pulling out their 14th win in a row increasing their road record to 6 straight and 9-3-3 overall.

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After such an unbelievable first 33 games of the season, the Mudbugs along with every other team took a break (maybe only in theory for some) while the chosen participated in the 2008 Central Hockey league All-Star festivities hosted by the Rocky Mountain Rage.

The Mudbugs have streaks and records broken or on the verge of being broken to their credit for all their hard work in the first part of the season leading up to all star break, but it doesn’t and cant end there. The Mudbugs who have already won the first 2 of seven straight road games by defeating the Rio Grande Killer Bees and the Laredo Bucks will head north into the eastern time zone where they will really need their energy boosters as they will face of against the Youngstown Steelhounds on Friday Night , Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. wow.

And if that’s not tough enough they will need to leave right after the game Sunday to head all the way to Southaven , Mississippi for a 10am kid screaming match with the RiverKings on Tuesday.

The final stop in the long stamina testing 7 game, 14 day exhausting road trip will end in Oklahoma City, Okla. on Friday night the 25th of January.

The team returns home to face the Laredo Bucks on Saturday the 26th at the CenturyTel Center in front of many many Mudbugs hockey starved fans. Let’s hope the guys have enough left in the tank to pull out their 16th straight win on home ice to break the CHL record.

© 2008 – 2009, Mudbugs Hockey Blog. All rights reserved. To Republish you must link back to the Original Article

Goals against average (GAA) – is calculated by dividing the number of minutes played by 60 minutes (one game) then dividing the goals against by that answer. Another way is to take the amount of goals against, multiply that by 60 minutes (one game), and then divide by the amount of minutes played. It is typically given to two decimal places.

Save percentage (often known by such symbols as SV%, SVP, PCT) – is an ice hockey and lacrosse statistic that represents the percentage of shots on goal a goaltender stops. It is calculated by dividing the number of saves by the total number of shots on goal. Although the statistic is called “save percentage”, it is given as a decimal. Thus, .933 means a goaltender saved 93.3 percent of all shots he (or she) faced.

Plus/minus is an ice hockey statistic that measures the team goal differential when a specific player is on the ice. Players’ plus/minus stats get increased by one every time their team scores an even strength or shorthanded goal while they are on the ice. Whenever the team is scored against while at even strength or on a shorthanded when the player is on the ice, his plus/minus is decreased by one. The statistic is sometimes called the plus/minus ratio even though it is a difference, not a ratio.

A player’s plus/minus statistic can be calculated for a single game or for the season as a whole. For instance, if a player enters a game with a season total plus/minus of -8, then accumulates a statistic of +3 for a single game, the season total will change to a -5.

Plus/minus is mainly used to measure defenders and forwards who play a defensive role since offensive forwards are better measured by scoring statistics such as goals and assists. It is directly affected by team performance, thus accurate comparisons can only be made by taking into consideration the defensive performances of the team as a whole; for example, a player who is +15 on a powerful offensive team is considered by hockey statisticians to have done worse defensively than one who is +10 on a poor defensive team.

The Montreal Canadiens were the first team to track +/-, starting sometime in the 1950s. Other teams followed in the early 1960s, and the NHL started officially compiling the ratings in 1968. Emile Francis is often credited with devising the system, but he only popularized and adapted the system in use by the Canadiens. Since 1983 the NHL Plus/Minus Award has been awarded to the National Hockey League player with the highest plus/minus at the end of the regular season; since they log more even-strength ice time, the winners tend to be defensemen. The most prominent plus/minus winner was Boston Bruins‘ defenseman Bobby Orr, who led the league six times (and whose defence partner Dallas Smith was the first league leader). Wayne Gretzky led the league four times, and Chris Pronger twice. Larry Robinson, the career leader in plus-minus, only led the league once. Ray Bourque, third on the all-time leaderboard, never led the league in plus/minus for a single season.

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A Gordie Howe hat trick is a variation on the hat trick, wherein a player scores a goal, gets an assist, and participates in a fight in a single game. It is named after Gordie Howe, who was known for both his scoring ability and his truculence. Despite the feat being named after him, Gordie Howe only ever recorded one “Gordie Howe hat trick” during his career on December 22, 1955 in a game between the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins.

The Gordie Howe hat trick is not a widely recognized formal statistic. The San Jose Sharks, Calgary Flames, Nashville Predators and the Ottawa Senators are the only teams in the NHL that record their franchise’s Gordie Howe hat tricks.

Brendan Shanahan of the New York Rangers has recorded the most “Gordies” with nine.

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Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs (18-7-3, 39 points)
The Mudbugs have the league’s longest active win streak at eight games and have won 12 straight games at home (the record is 21 straight home games, Laredo 2003-04)…Kevin Cooper has five goals in his last four games…Ken Carroll has won six straight games and was 5-0 in the month of December winning the Sher-Wood CHL Goaltender of the Month…John DeCaro and Carroll are each tied for first among goaltender with their 1.93 goals against averages…Defensively, the Mudbugs allow a league-low 2.04 goals per game…The Mudbugs will have two all-stars with DeCaro and Daniel Pegoraro making the team.

The Mudbugs boast the two top goaltenders in the CHL with John DeCaro (11-4-2) and Ken Carroll (7-3-1) each holding a 1.93 goals against average. DeCaro had a seven-game win streak earlier in the season and now Carroll is one shy of that with a six-game personal winning streak. The duo has combined for a league-high seven shutouts. The Mudbugs have allowed just nine goals over their eight-game win streak.

Offensively, the Mudbugs have been paced recently by veteran Karlis Zirnis and Kevin Cooper. Zirnis has seven points (3-4=7) in his last five games and is a team-high +8. Cooper has five goals in his last five games including two game winners.

Some More Stats:

Joe Ori, Chris Brassard and Tyrel Lucas lead the team in goals with 11. Daniel Pegoraro leads the team in assists with 18. Brett Smith leads the team in points with 25.

Kevin Cooper has played in 16 games and has racked up 9G, 9A and is +14 . the guy is talented and very consistant to say the least. In his last 5 games he has 5G, 6pts.

Karlis Zirnis (who is on the IR) throughout the last 5 games had collected a team high 3G and 7pts.

In the teams last 5 games played, John DeCaro is 3-0 with a save percentage of .989 and a GAA of .33 with 2 shutouts and only one goal scored against. Kenny Carroll is 2-0 in that same span with a save percentage of .943 and a GAA of 1.51 with 3 goals scored against.

That is about as good as it gets, teams only dream of their netminding to put up such gaudy numbers as these two all stars. We are very fortunate to have both on our team.

Stats from CHL.com and Pointstreak.com

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I wanna drive the Zamboni! We all wanna drive the Zamboni! I stumbled upon this bit of history on the amazing but mysterious contraption called “The Zamboni” Where did it get its name? Read on and you will find out.

The Zamboni Legend

Once the ice is made, the ongoing task of maintaining the quality of the ice becomes Bruce Tharaldson’s primary focus. One of the essential tools for helping maintain the ice is the Zamboni. This mechanical marvel was first built in the early 1940s in southern California (of all places). Frank Zamboni and his brother Lawrence needed a more efficient way to resurface their large ice rink, “Iceland.”

Up to that time, one would have to drag a scraper behind a tractor to smooth the surface and then go back and coat the ice with a thin layer of water to even things out and rebuild the thickness of the ice. This process could take over one hour! Frank Zamboni, an inexaustable inventor, made the process much quicker with his newly invented “Zamboni ice resurfacer.”

The Zamboni is a mechanical ice resurfacer. It works by scraping the ice surface and collecting the snow (which is later discarded). Next, it “cleans” the ice, by putting down water which flushes the grooves deep in the ice, loosening any dirt or debris. The excess water and dirt is then collected. Finally, the Zamboni puts down a thin layer of heated water–which freezes and creates a smooth surface.

The heated water, according to Tharaldson, is about 140 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit (60-63 centigrade); “the hotter the water,” he says, “the more even a surface you’ll get–it melts that top layer when you cut across [the ice].”

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