Top of the Rock extended their season-high winning streak to four games, which tied a franchise record set in 2019-20. The Rock secured their fifth matchup win of the season, just two wins away from another team record.
Our 5-2 record is the best mark the franchise has ever had through seven games, bypassing last season’s 4-3 mark.
The final score of the matchup may have been 5-3-2; however, Carmine’s Team was a pretty formidable opponent in week seven.
The two teams tied the wins category (three apiece) and shutouts (zero) before Carmine’s Team took goals (9-7), goals-against average (1.76-2.74), save percentage (0.943-0.903).
We were able to lock up the five remaining categories, and none of them were that close. Our most significant margin of victory occurred in assists, where 14 points separated us 29-15. The next win was shots on goals, which we took by double digits 94-81.
Our plus-minus rating was seven ticks better 15-8. We collect a handful of extra penalties for a 14-8 advantage and scored five extra power-play points, 11-6.
The Rock didn’t pitch a shutout this week, having trailed 5-2 in the matchup after Tuesday night. It was the only lead Carmine’s Team had during the seven days, which wasn’t enough to slow down the top team in the league.
Our largest lead occurred on Friday, where we jumped out to a 7-1 lead, followed by a 7-2 lead on Saturday. The closest the matchup score got was on Wednesday, where it was just a one-point deficit 4-3 in our favour.
When we take a minute to break down our team statistics, we notice that the overall numbers are pretty bad. However, our matchup records are why we remain a top team in the league.
The most considerable improvement for us as a management team is in the goaltending department. It took seven weeks, but we finally moved out of the basement in regards to winning. Although we have the worse shutout totals in the league, we employ the fourth-best save percentage and sixth-best goals-against average.
Regarding the six offensive categories, we only rank in the top half of the league in just two categories, shots on goal (5th) and assists (sixth). We are pretty close with plus/minus, penalty minutes, and power-play points, all 7th overall, followed by goals, where we rank 8th overall.
Our worse win-loss record is in wins (9th), followed by save percentage (7th). Except for penalty minutes (6th), we rank in the top five in every category with our best showing in goals and assists (2nd).
Movement in the standings had been pretty quiet leading up to week seven action. Then a handful of teams won and lost, causing a major ripple up and down the 12 spots.
We remain the top team in the league, building up an eight point lead on last year’s champions Benn Tallon Sesns Won, who is our opponent in week eight.
Our 88 points is 33 better than No Ice in Ireland, who occupy the 12th seed. This current position is the furthest out of last place we’ve been at any point in our franchise history. After seven weeks, we are the only team playing with a record of over 0.600. Five teams have a winning record, and the remaining six are still looking to get back to 0.500.
When we win a matchup, the bench numbers usually don’t matter. Because of so many injuries to our goalies, we didn’t have anyone sitting on the bench. However, Nickolas Backstrom (Washington), William Nylander (Toronto), and Viktor Arvidsson (Nashville) combined for a pretty solid week on the bench.
Since we won five out of the six offensive categories, not much in the matchup could have changed. Although if we could have factored in our three goals left on the bench, we would have won the goals category by one, padding our overall victory 6-2-2.
Week seven witnessed The Rock make a few roster adjustments to counter a handful of injuries.
New York Rangers star goalie Igor Shesterkin went down with a groin injury, so we had to recruit Canadiens back up goalie Jack Allen.
After that, we decided to cut ties with Detroit Red Wings d-man Patrik Nemeth, who was in and out of the lineup, which didn’t help his case to stay around. We also cut another defenseman, Hampus Lindholm (Anaheim), who will miss the rest of the fantasy hockey season with a broken wrist. We needed his spot on the IR, so there was no need to keep him rostered.
Our only addition was another Anaheim Duck, Rickard Rakell. Although the forward has a poor plus/minus rating, he averages four to five shots a game, so we need his extra points to win a matchup.
Weekly Move Total: 1/4
Season Move Total: 8/50
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