I wanted to focus this week on some interesting stats from the 2015-16 season. We had a season of ups and downs and I thought I would take some time to reflect. To get started, here are stats that will lead into my reflections on the season.
Stats and points:
· SJU was 13-10-4 overall and 10-4-2 in the MIAC
· Started the regular season 4-7-2 (4-4 MIAC)
· Ended the regular season 9-2-2 (6-0-2 MIAC)
· We had the top special-teams net in MIAC play with a +10
· We had the top power play in the league at 28.6%
· We had the second-best penalty kill in the league at 90%
· Scoring by period in conference play was:
o -3 in first period
o +5 in second period
o +20 in the third period
This leads me to my very basic and to the point view of the season. We did not start well in the season or in games, but we finished strong. I am really not sure how to take this, but I do know it would be great to put a full season together. I looked back at future years to see if there were any trends. I found that in my eight years as head coach of Saint John’s we are 33-53-10 in the first 12 games of the regular season and we are 56-36-12 in the second 13 games of the year. These numbers are almost complete opposites of each other in that we have won 20 more games than we have lost in the second half of the year and we have lost 20 more games that we have won in the second half of the year. There is no question that we need to do a much better job of focusing and preparation going into the early portion of the 2016-17 season. The stats also tell me that we need to improve on our preparation and focus going into the first period of games that we have a much better first period plus minus result which will lead to a stronger start in each game.
The second take from the stats above is that our special-teams play was very strong this season. This is one area that can win and lose you games and is something that we paid a lot of attention to in the past. I will also mention that SJU has had the top special teams net three out of the last four seasons, and has be on the positive side of that stat for the last five years. We have to continue to pay close attention to our special team’s play and we plan to continue those trends well into the future.
I would like to close by saying that our strengths this season we very clear to me. We had great leadership in captain Andrew Commers and assistant captains Neal Smith, Joe Freemark and Dan McNamara. We also had a very tight and committed locker room in that all of the guys were close and the upperclassmen did a great job getting the 12 freshmen involved and committed from the day they stepped on campus. I will always believe that the most important tools to success for any team is the leadership and the locker room! These are the most important aspects to successful teams and we had that in our culture. Look at the Minnesota Wild and all the negative talk about their leadership and their locker room. If they want to have any championship success, that HAS to change! Had to throw that in there.
Looking forward we have a very strong core of players returning for next season. As we look at the numbers we will have 12 returning freshmen, 7 returning sophomores and 6 returning juniors. As far as our offense we have 7 of our 8 top scorers returning for next season (6 of the 8 were freshmen or sophomores). In future blogs I will update you on our player recruitment as we look to fill a few holes created when our senior class graduates. Things there look very bright for SJU as we are talking to some very talented players. So for now, I am planning on this being the last entry looking back on the 2015-16 season and in upcoming posts will focus on the bright future of Johnnie Hockey.
In the near future you will be receiving our Annual Hockey J-Fund letter asking for your support. I hope you will consider a generous gift to help us as we strive for excellence and a great player experience here with Saint John’s Hockey. Thanks for reading and continuing your support for the Johnnie Hockey program.
