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ECHL Reading Royals

Bring On The Heat...

February 18, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Reading Royals News Release


There is a school of thought in pro baseball (prominently discussed in the entertaining if not ground-breaking analysis by Michael Lewis, Moneyball ) that the most overvalued player on a pro roster is the 'closer'-the pitcher who gets the call (ordinarily in the last inning) to shut down the opposition, protect the lead, and get the win. (Not to be confused with Kyra Sedgwick in the television series by the same name-although by the look of her, she might be able to rear back and get it in the upper 90s if she needed to.) The thinking is that the closer's role really isn't all that difficult (yeah, tell that to Eric Gagne), and often times the closer's stats become inflated with 'easy' saves that actually make him look a lot more effective than he really is. Thus, other teams are willing to part with more value (at a position that you need) to get your closer, while you can just go out and pick yourself another flame-thrower (as if Mariano Riveras are growing on trees out there) and convert him to a closer. Even if this is true, the telling part of the equation, I believe, is how eager teams without a successful closer are to part with just about anything to get a guy who has proven he can shut games down. That's how critical the capacity to 'close' is. And, certainly the issue of closing out leads is essential every sport-in fact, I think Bill Belichick (not to mention Tiger Woods) might have a relevant comment or two on this. In hockey, although I've heard of cases where teams have changed goaltenders prior to a shootout to bring in their 'specialist,' the game doesn't really lend itself (when things start to unravel) to slowly ambling out to the mound, adjusting the belt on your ill-fitting uniform and gingerly touching your left arm to indicate that you want to 'bring in the lefty'. In hockey, closing out tight games really has to be complete team commitment to a active and efficient defense-first style where the guiding watchwords are poise, positioning, maturity, confidence, coverage, control-and a measured dose of physicality. Over the course of this season, the Royals have had considerable success in doing just that. Twenty-two times this year, Reading has entered the third period with a lead and the team has compiled a 20-0-2 record in those games. That being said, this weekend, we did (to mix a metaphor or two) see a couple of slippages in the transmission down the stretch that allowed the opposition to sneak back in. Fortunately, Jon Quick was able to wax up his mustache and go Rollie Fingers for the most part, shutting down the Bombers in the shootout on Friday and closing the door on Texas with a complete movie reel full of highlight stops in the third period to preserve the win. But alas on Sunday, Gwinnett rallied down the stretch to get to overtime, where they made the most of the last at bat, going yard with just 12.3 seconds left. Of course, the great thing about protecting a lead is...YOU HAVE THE LEAD, but as we proceed towards the latter innings of the 2007-08 ECHL regular season, we may want to make a call down to the bull-pen and make sure that the closer in all of us is loosened up and ready to go......

TOP TEN NOTES OF THE WEEK

1. The Royals were unbeaten in the three games played this week (2-0-1) and are currently riding a four game unbeaten streak (3-0-1). All 3 games this week were played at the Sovereign Center, and Reading is currently riding a five game home unbeaten streak (4-0-1). The Royals are 9-2-1 in the team's last 12 games (01/13 - 02/17/08).

2. Two of the Royals' games this week went beyond regulation time: (i) Friday's 4-3 shootout win over Dayton; and (ii) Sunday's 4-3 overtime loss to Gwinnett. Reading has played in eleven games this year that have gone beyond regulation time and has compiled a 7-4 record in those games. The Royals are 3-3 in overtime and 4-1 in the shootout. Three of Reading's four shootout wins this year have been against the Dayton Bombers.

3. The Royals completed their regular season play against teams outside of the North Division with the games against the Texas Wildcatters and Gwinnett Gladiators. Reading played nine games outside the Division this year and went 6-2-1 in those games, (5-2-1 against teams from the South Division and 1-0-0 against the Royals only foe from the .National Conference, the Bakersfield Condors). Over the 7 year history of the Royals, the team has compiled an overall record of 42-18-8 outside the division.

4. Dany Roussin scored the game's first goal in Friday's 4-3 shootout win on Friday night, marking the third time this season that he has scored the game's first goal. Roussin's fourteen goals (in forty-two games) this year already surpasses his combined total with the Royals and Manchester Monarchs from last year (in 62 total games). Roussin has registered 31 points (12g-19a=31pts) in his last thirty games with the Royals (12/02 - 02/16/07).

5. Defenseman Dave Pszenyczny scored in his first game for the Royals on Friday night after being acquired last week in a trade with the Alaska Aces. Pszenyczny is the second player this season to score in his first game with Reading after having been acquired in a trade. The other was Steven Later, who scored the game's first goal against the Trenton Devils on January 18. (Marc Cavosie scored in his second game with Reading; and Brett Hemingway-now traded to Alaska-scored two goals in his third game with Reading). Later scored his second goal with Reading to give the team a 3-2 lead with 9:32 remaining in Sunday's 4-3 OTL to Gwinnett.

6. Patrick Jarrett racked up back-to-back multi-point games on Saturday and Sunday, scoring a power play goal and picking up an assist in each of those games Jarrett's goal on Saturday proved to be his first game winner of the year for Reading. Jarrett has racked up four multi-point games in his last six played for the Royals (3g-6a=9pts). Over the course of the season, he has had 8 multi-point games in the 21 that he has played with Reading.

7. P.J. Atherton registered his eleventh multi-point game of the year when he scored a goal and assisted on another in Saturday's 4-1 win over Texas. Atherton is currently tied for the league lead in goals for defensemen with twelve, and he his second in total points for defensemen with 37 (12g-25a=37pts).

8. Joe Zappala scored the game's first goal on Saturday night and assisted on what proved to be the game winner, marking his sixth multi-point game (in 26 played) this year. Zappala also scored the Royals' second goal in the 4-3 overtime loss to Gwinnett on Sunday. He has now scored three goals in his last four games with the Royals.

9. Goaltender Jon Quick played all three games for the Royals this week. He has now started the 21 of the last 22 games and has played a total of 2073 minutes, second most among goaltenders in the league. Quick is third in total saves made with 942. He picked up his 20th win of the year in the 4-1 victory over Texas, which marked the tenth time this season that Quick has held the opposition to one goal or less in the 60 minutes of regulation hockey (8-0-2). Quick has been the goaltender in all five of the Royals' shootouts this year, and his four shootout wins is tied for second best in the league. He has stopped 18 of the 23 shootout shots he's faced this season- including all five against Dayton on Friday night-which is a .783 save percentage.

10. Reading's penalty killers blanked both the respective power plays of the Dayton Bombers and Texas Wildcatters (in 13 total opportunities) this weekend. The Royals PK has kept the oppositions' PP off the board in 17 this year-and ten of those have come in the last nineteen games. Going into Sunday afternoon's contest, the Royals' PK had only allowed 4 PPGA in the prior 66 chances for the opponents (a 93.9% kill ratio) over eleven games. Gwinnett scored 3 PPG (in 10 chances) on Sunday, marking the fourth time this season that a team has scored 3 or more PPG on Reading. Overall, the Royals PK is killing at an 81.5% ratio, which is fifteenth in the league.

CLOSING NOTES

1. Although the Royals power play was held off the board on Friday night (in 2 chances), the PP registered two goals on Saturday and three on Sunday. The team has scored more than one PPG in 12 games this season-and 3 or more four times. In the last fourteen games, Reading has scored 22 power play goals in 90 chances, a 24.4% scoring ratio. Over the course of the season, Reading has scored power play goals at a 17.7% clip (which is twelfth in the league).

2.. Kevin Saurette scored the shootout 'winner' for the Royals on Friday night, as he was the only player for Reading to bag his attempt. He became the fourth different Royal to score a shootout 'winner' this year. (The others are Chris Blight, P.J. Atherton, and Ned Lukacevic). Saurette is now 2-3 on the shootout this season, and the only other shooter for the Royals who has scored more than once on the shootout is Brock Hooton (3-5). Overall, Reading's shooters are 9 for 24 on the shootout-a 37.5% scoring ratio.

3. Charlie Kronschnabel scored the Royals second goal on Friday night, snapping a fourteen game goal scoring drought for him.

4. Scott Parse picked up his first point as a Royal (in his third game with the team) when he assisted on Ned Lukacevic's goal (the Royals' third) on Saturday against Texas. Parse also assisted on the game's first goal (by Patrick Jarrett) on Sunday against Gwinnett.

5. Ned Lukacevic's goal on Saturday night (the team's third) marked his fourth goal in his last seven games with Reading and his twenty-fifth point of the season (in his 40th game with the team), surpassing his total with Reading last season (in 53 games).

6. Reading scored first in all three games this week and has compiled a record of 19-2-3 when scoring the game's first goal.

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