The relocation experiment, pt. 4— holiday season, big wins, and possible trouble in paradise.
The joy of running a contending Whaler franchise continues into the months of November and December.
We enter November red-hot and stay there through the first two weeks of the month, including a convincing 4–1 victory over the Pacific division leading (??) Vancouver Canucks. By the 12th, Huberdeau and Barkov are the two leading scorers in the league. We don’t lose again until November 14th in San Jose, and even then, we take the point for exiting regulation tied. By the 17th, we’re 17–4–1, and Huberdeau and Barkov have combined for 67 points already.
Yandle and Hornqvist are starting to show their age a bit — on November 21st, both are DTD with bruised toes and backs respectively. It’s a shame, because both are having stellar seasons. Yandle has 20 points in 23 games and sits at +15, while Hornqvist is right behind him with 19 points and a blistering 21.8 shot percentage. With both temporarily sidelined, Ryan Lomberg is getting a bit of playing time and Q’s moved Tippett up to the 2nd line. The increased workload is exciting. Tippett is having a Calder-worthy season and the more time he gets, the better.
Even with some key depletions to the lineup, we manage road wins in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia before obliterating Chicago at home, 9–3. Barkov manages a hat trick and a pair of assists while even Vinnie Hinostroza gets in on the action with a pair of goals and three helpers. We put 56 shots on goal. Meanwhile, rumors are starting to circulate that Rod Brind’Amour could be fired in Carolina because of the ‘Canes poor performance and by now, the Courant is probably telling people to let go of hating them. Life is well and truly good.
We follow up absolutely dismantling Chicago by absolutely dismantling Buffalo, 8–1. It feels like everyone gets a turn to be on the board, with Barkov, Vatrano, Connolly, Ekblad, Tippett, Duclair, and Wennberg all scoring. Jost adds an assist, which I’m glad to see — he’s been relatively cold of late. We then shut out the Devils before at long last losing a 1–0 nailbiter against the Islanders.
At the close of November, Sasha Barkov is named player of the month and Bob is named goalie of the month. It’s well earned for Bob, who’s now down to a 2.35 (!) GAA and a .928 save percentage. By December 2, we’re at 45 points, far and away the best team in the league. We went 12–2–1 over the course of November.
We hit a wall in the first week of December. Back-to-back losses at Washington and home against Columbus, who are playing almost as well as we are. Thankfully there’s a Nashville game on the schedule and we get back to winning. 32 games into the season and Barkov crosses the 50 point mark.
On December 17th, we get the first trade proposal that’s seriously worth considering. The Capitals want to send us Kody Clark, son of former Leafs captain Wendel Clark and a reasonably promising minor league winger, in exchange for Alec Rauhauser, a minor-league defenseman who the scouts aren’t sold on yet. Our defensive depth is solid, and there’s an outside chance that Clark could crack the lineup with Hornqvist in and out. The first trade in the history of the New Hartford Whalers is completed.
The injury bug meets the suspension bug, with Weegar and Vatrano losing time for “on-ice” incidents that didn’t even happen against Boston. Juho Lammikko, Aleksi Heponiemi and a few others come up from the minors to fill slots — Heponiemi is having a great season in Charlotte. Still, we’re dropping a few games here and there, with bad losses in Buffalo and Ottawa and a bad 5–1 loss at home against the Kings on New Years’ Eve.
We end 2020 at 27–13–1, the second-best record in the league. Some key takeaways:
- It’s truly apparent how the real-life version of our Whalers, good as they already are, would be scary with Bobrovsky back in Vezina form. In our world, Bob is 22–9–1 with a 2.53 GAA and .926 SV%.
- Goaltending is about to get crowded for us. Sam Montembeault is having a solid season in the AHL, (2.44/.914), Devon Levi is outstanding in the NCAA (1.78/.938) and Spencer Knight’s numbers on a so-so Chicoutimi team in the QMJHL suggest he’s developing apace. As we approach the trade deadline, I’m thinking of shopping Driedger, who’s having a so-so season (3.12/.912) in the hopes of getting Montembeault a little more time in the league.
- Our home attendance figure of 15,330 still exceeds that of Carolina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, the Islanders, and Arizona. Again, attendance in FHM doesn’t seem to correlate with much (it adjusts slightly as the team performs better or worse) but three months into the season, it’s clear that we belong in the NHL no less than any of those teams.
- We are still profitable.
Our simulation now heads into the start of 2021 with the Whalers riding high but signs of trouble on the horizon with some recent losses, injuries and suspensions. Thankfully, no one in the Hartford of this alternate dimension cares. We have our hockey team again.
