Sunday, November 16, 2008

qc update: november

i will be the first to admit that there's not a ton of info available to those of us interested in the baby flames, but i thought i'd summarize what i've read about in the past weeks.

overall, the team has struggled: going 6-11 in their opening six weeks. the roster is ever-changing, having already demoted rookie AHLers, hugo carpentier and jd watt to the ECHL, after a combined 15 games. former first rounder and dreamcrusher award winner kris chucko and former WI-favorite matt pelech boast a team-worst -8, though the current highest +/- on the team is brett palin's +4 (a far cry from dvdg's onetime +27). new "try-out" guy, brad brown joined the squad in advance of friday's 5-3 win over peoria, a game where jamie lundmark has added four points to his team-leading total of 17. john armstrong is either getting very minimal icetime or totally underperforming....

darryl sutter was surveying his minions on the farm last week, and had some interesting comments about the babies, including driving home his "development first" philosophy.

GOALTENDING
matt keetley has been shouldering most of the work on the farm, and his personal stats look to be about right where he left off: 2.31 GAA and .913 SV% + 1 SO in 13 games. unfortunately, the team hasn't done a lot of winning in that time. leland irving's 2-2 stats look better, but his 3.53 GAA and .841 SV% hardly make him out to be the franchise goalie of the future....

DEFENSE
it took anders eriksson the better part of a month to play his first game for the QC, be it immigration stuff or family issues i know not, but he didn't show up in the lineup until almost halloween. apparently he's on another break, having had a growth removed from his neck last week. i have no idea who he's been paired with but he's putting up some decent points (5 in 8) and is a comfortable -1. brett palin's numbers look steady but not stellar, and matt pelech's look plain bad. all very disconcerting when you think about the big club's options if one more blueliner goes down....

FORWARDS
captain warren peters is still grinding it out hard and regularly coming up with huge games. kyle greentree has also put up some decent numbers, but other than that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot to talk about. john armstrong, while apparently struggling, has only been active for half of the games, having been on the big club's IR for weeks following training camp. all-in-all, the cupboard looks to be frighteningly bare in this department as well....

maybe it's because i've been writing this post for two days, or maybe it's because i've got a late-day hangover, but right now i think it's pretty grim on the farm. of course, if you factor in negrin, nemisz and backlund it's a little sunnier....

2 comments:

awildermode said...

sounds like qc is doing just as well as their nhl counterparts.

Kent W. said...

The farm is depressingly grim, considering all the time and draft picks Sutter has invested the last 5 years. The top scorer is an NHL also-ran and the club's "Regehr in waiting" has the worst +/- on the club...despite this being his 2nd year on the farm.

I think the best news is Matt Keetley. Sounds like he's the main reason the club has won anything at all.