Discussions

With the Wheat Kings' season being halfway over, I figured now would be as good a time as any to dig up a few stats that you might not see or hear as often. Within there may be some insight into why they've been so successful so far and what they have to do to take that next step. It would be interesting to hear peoples' thoughts on the reason behind any or all of them..  
 
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- The team has scored a fair amount more when Jacob De Serres has been in net.. averaging a whopping 4.49 goals per game for him compared to 3.93 for Andrew Hayes (Note however that Hayes has played twice as many minutes)  
 
- Very strange home/road splits for the goalies. Hayes has been clearly better at home where he has a 2.29 GAA and a 0.919 save percentage, both numbers that would put him amongst the league leaders. On the road he has a 3.45 GAA and 0.893 save pct. Compare that to De Serres who has a 3.67 GAA and 0.880 save pct at home and a 2.61 GAA and 0.918 save pct on the road  
 
- Colby Robak and Brayden Schenn are tied for the team lead in powerplay points. Robak: 4 goals, 11 assists. Schenn: 3 goals, 12 assists. Robak takes the tie-breaker for having scored more goals.  
 
- Speaking of the powerplay, despite being blessed with likely the best forward depth and top offense in the WHL Wheat King forwards have scored just 26 powerplay goals. That has them in the lower half of the league's top teams. That total doesn't including newcomer Shayne Wiebe, whose seven powerplay goals are more than any other Wheat King.  
Totals for the other top teams in the WHL..  
Calgary: 41, Tri City: 40, Medicine Hat: 37, Vancouver: 36, Portland: 26, Spokane: 21, Saskatoon: 20  
 
- It's early in his young career, but Michael Ferland has seen different results on Fridays compared to Saturdays. Nearly half of his penalty minutes (24) have come on Friday, while nearly half of his points (6) have come on Saturdays. That compares to just 6 penalty minutes on Saturdays and 3 points on Fridays.  
 
- It's common when analyzing a team to break the season into eight nine game "segments." Being at the halfway point of the season, we're now through four segments. So far through those first four segments the Wheat Kings have been blessed with very balanced scoring.  
For segment 1, Scott Glennie led the team with 4 Goals, 5 Assists and 9 points.  
Segment 2 was a tie between overagers Aaron Lewadniuk (6 goals 8 assists 14 points) and Jay Fehr (Also 6 goals 8 assists 14 points).  
Brayden Schenn took segment 3 with 5 goals 13 assists and 18 points.  
Finally Aaron Lewadniuk led the team over the past nine games in segment 4 with 7 goals 11 assists and 18 points.  
 
- Keeping with segments, the Wheat Kings' hot play recently has shown in individual player stats as well. Over the past 9 games in Segment 4 Eight Wheat Kings have averaged at least a point per game. This compares to five in each of segments 2 and 3 and just two in segment 1.  
 
- The Wheat Kings have had 96 points from their defence so far this year, which puts them in about the middle of the pack when compared to the league's other top teams. Medicine Hat: 111, Calgary: 110, Vancouver: 104, Portland: 103, Saskatoon: 81, Tri-City: 78, Spokane: 77.  
 
- Team record when leading after 1 period is a perfect 15-0-0 and 19-1-0 when leading after 2  
 
- Out of the 48 points the team has so far, more (25) have been racked up on the road than at home (23).  
 
- While play on Fridays has picked up as of late, there's still a big contrast with Saturday.. 10-1-0 on Saturdays, 6-7-0 on Fridays  
 
- Last season, Scott Glennie led the Wheat Kings at the halfway point of the season with 45 points. Brayden Schenn interestingly enough was just over a point-per-game with 38 points in 34 games. Schenn would have a huge 50 point second half to win the team scoring title.

- Also comparing to last season, the biggest point increase from the first half of the season goes to Matt Calvert who has 23 more points than this time last year. Calvert had however only played in 26 games. Considering that, that might give Colby Robak and Aaron Lewadniuk the edge as the most improved players... each currently having 18 more points than at this time last year.