2012 Champions: Stat-Nerding the Third-ish Quarter of the Season

That's Charlie Effinger.  He just won the Goaltender of the Week Award for the third time this season, ya heard. 

Although there have only been fourteen games since the last time we checked in with the Mavericks, there are only twenty games left in something like forty days.  So this is as good of a time as any to see what the Mavs are doing right, doing wrong, and need to do during the home stretch of the season.  (Note: this review follows a similar format as the second quarter stats post, so in lieu of me repeating stats, please refer any comparisons to that previous post.)

2012 Champions: Stat-Nerding the Second Quarter of the Season

Mavs President and GM Brent Thiessen won the Commitment Cup! Whatever that is...

Welcome to the CHL All-Star break!  Your Missouri Mavericks are currently fifth in the seven-team Turner Conference with 35 points.  They are 16-13-3 overall, and are 8-8-1 with 17 points over the course of the second quarter of the season.  The Mavs are technically still a playoff team with this record.  They have 96 GF and 103 GA. 

2010-11 season, after 32 games:

18-11-3

39 pts

103 GF

90 GA

-7 GF and -13(!) GA from one season ago.  Where has everything gone so terribly wrong?

2012 Champions: Stat-Nerding the First Quarter of the Season

Pic borrowed from the CHL

After fifteen games, your Missouri Mavericks are a mere point out of first place in the Turner Division of the CHL.  That almost guarantees them a spot in the wacky CHL playoffs, and I think a first and second round bye, and a free Blizzard at Dairy Queen.  But, that's not important right now.  Of course, the season is a marathon instead of a sprint and all of that hot garbage, but it doesn't hurt that 80% of the league makes it to the playoffs...

Either way, the first half of the season has been very good to the Mavericks.  At 8-5-2 and with 18 points they have gotten off to the fastest start in franchise history (2009-10: 6-8-1, and 2010-2011: 7-6-2).  There are many factors contributing to the Mavericks success, and it all starts with the offseason acquisitions.

Here are a few bullets to think about:

2012 Champions: The Beginning of Something Great

First off, Macek was waived, and Jardine was given a "five-game contract allowing the Mavericks to start the season with 20 players on the roster" since he has a two-way contract with the Mavs affiliate in Chicago.

Also, the Mavericks opened up with a win over the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees.  Hogg and Mahovsky picked up goals, so thanks for nothing McGrane.  Effinger had 29 saves, and the Mavs were 0-4 on the powerplay.  If the season ended today, the Mavericks would share the title with three other teams.  Think about that...

Here are some season previews for your perusal:

CHL Team Preview

Mavericks Preview

2012 Champions: Saying Goodbye is the Hardest Part...of Progress

Via

The Mavericks, currently in the training camp portion of their 2011-12 title run, have cut and traded their roster in an attempt to get to the "Perfect 19" necessary for a CHL roster.

At the end of last week the team announced they have waived forward Matt Dias and defenseman Janis Brakss (by the way, defensemen preview coming up after camp ends).  I had Dias as high as the second line in some projections, but, uh, I suppose that was wrong.  This left the roster with 27 players.  Only 8 more to go!  See more moves after the jump.

2012 Champions: Jardine Rediscovered and Goalie Preview

Via

The Mavericks have reported that Ryan Jardine has returned for his second season with the organization.  The veteran had 54 points (23-31=54) and played in all 66 games last year for the Mavs.  Jardine has a two-way contract and could see some time with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL this season.  The Wolves are the new "AAA" affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks and the Mavs first affiliation to a high-level professional organization.  It will be good to have Jardine's presence on the ice, especially with all of the new faces.  He understands head coach Scott Hillman's system, and can maybe help to integrate the multitude of new forwards.

In addition, Mike Berry has been released to make room for Jardine.  So, forget Berry is in the lineup and just pencil in Jardine instead.  This sounds like a mutual agreement, since Berry will surely get an opportunity elsewhere.  It's easy to assume Berry believed the Mavs were getting top-heavy among the forwards.  This can be seen as a good or bad thing, of course, as the organization is getting better and even very good players feel they may not get a legitimate opportunity.  But, it can be bad because an overzealous front office may have upset Berry and prompted him to look for work elsewhere.  You don't want to upset the stars, they're fragile.  Either way, good luck to him in all of his future endeavors.  Therefore, the Mavericks have lost their top two point scorers from a year ago.  But, they get Jardine and all of those other guys.  So, we got that goin' for us, which is nice.

Chances Jardine gets called up to Chicago at some point?  Eh, probably pretty good.  Alas, that's the reality of an affiliation.  Quality players can get taken away by better competition.

For those of you asking for the whereabouts of Nick Sirota, he is currently playing with the Kalamazoo K-Wings of the ECHL, which, oddly enough, are also affiliates of the Canucks.  So, a good player leaves the league that wants to be the "AA" of hockey to go to a competing "AA" league.  Alrighty then...

Goalie preview after the jump.