The Road to the Calder Cup....

With 2008 now over and 2009 just beginning, now is a great time take stock of the first half of the AHL season and look at what needs to happen if the Marlies are to repeat as North Division champions and take the Calder Cup this year.

1. Stability in the Line-Up
The Marlies and the Maple Leafs need to stabilize their line ups. Thus far, 5 of our players have been called up to the big club (not including Mitchell who has been up all season) and currently 4 players are up with the Leafs (Deveaux, Sifers, Tlusty, and Williams). This will be the biggest challenge that both clubs face as Leaf's GM Brian Burke starts the process of rebuilding the Buds and the possibility of injuries constantly looms over both clubs. However, with so many players going up to the Leafs and being called up from Reading, it is hard for the boys to really gel as a team. Earlier this season, I said that the key would be the November road trip swing and it was true. Prior to the first long road trip of the season, the club's record was 4-4-0-2. That road trip record was 2-8-0-0 which was abysmal, but since then the club has gone 11-7-0-1, despite the call-ups of Deveaux, Pogge, Sifers, Tlusty, and Williams during the same period. The players are starting to play better together now that they have had a chance to practice and get to know one another's playing styles.


2. Defensive Reliability
The defense and goaltending needs to be not only reliable, but improve for the second half of the season. So far this season, we have 94 goals for and 99 goals against. So far, in 34 games, we've had a few blowout losses against divsional opponents (7-3 on 10/19, 6-2 on 12/6, and 4-0 on 12/30). More often than not though, our losses have been close games that we just aren't able to pull out the "W" for (9 of 14 have been a point spread of 1 goal and 5 of those have been against divisional opponents). For the Marlies to win the North Division this year, they need to start having those close games go our way and it will be up to the defense and those between the pipes, particularly Pogge whose year it is to shine.


3. Fan Base Support
One of the keys to success for the Marlies will be to get fans in the stands and cheering on the team. After 17 home games this season, official attendance figures stand at 52, 176, with an average of 3, 069 fans per game. These numbers can be a little misleading though as we've had a season high of 7367 (November 26th) and a low of around 1346 (December 17th).

For the Marlies to succeed in the home stretch (with many home games), they need to get the fans going, particularly during the January 24th to February 21st stretch when they play 8 out of 11 games against divisional opponents. The more the fans get into the game, the more the Marlies will be pumped to put on a good (and winning) performance!


4. Winning Games Against Divisional Opponents
We need to start winning more games against divisional opponents. In 25 games against North Division opponents this year, we've lost the battle in 12 of them, with 7 of those on the road. There are 28 more games against divisional opponents this season, with 13 of those on the road. We need to win a substantial number of those remaining 28 games if we stand any hope of making the playoffs this season. We're in a fortunate position where the first 4 teams have a spread of less than 10 points, and we play 16 more games against the Griffins, Moose, and Bulldogs so there is ample opportunity to make up ground on them. We need to make sure that we win as many of these games as possible if we want to win the Pollock award again this year.


Can We Win the North Again?
Yes, we can win the North Division. To win though, we really need to get the "W"s against divisional opponents and have a successful January road trip. Once January is over, we'll play the bulk of our remaining games on the road and we need the fan base to help push the team to start pulling out wins out of those games that in 2008 were 1 point losses.

You can email Chris with comments and questions about the blog, Duke’s Dog Pound Supporters Club, or the Marlies anytime to http://ca.mc456.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=dukesdogpound@yahoo.ca.