The relocation experiment, pt.3 — waiver season, Return of the Whale, and first place
Waiver season. Tyson Jost is on waivers. IRL, Jost is having some struggles with the Avalanche, but he’s only 22 and the Avs’ stacked offense makes it tough for . My scouts think he could vastly exceed his potential or completely fail to live up to it. At less than a million and an RFA deal, it’s a no-brainer — I’m claiming him. I think he’s a possible 2nd or 3rd liner for us, but Coach Q wants him on the fourth line to start the season, and who am I to judge?
Opening night is in Winnipeg. There’s something kind of poetic about two cities who lost and regained their teams facing off — a real celebration of things coming full circle. We drop the game 3–1 with Owen Tippett scoring the first for us. Of concern to me — we’re badly outshot, 47–26. Bob actually had a decent game, stopping 44. Pucks on net, fellas.
The home opener is against the Rangers the next day. It’s almost a prank from the league’s front office, who are still no doubt joking about how the Whalers just can’t get any fans in the building unless New York or Boston are in town. The joke’s on them — the building is full and the Whalers win, 3–2, off of goals from Huberdeau, Tippett, and Yandle. Barkov ads a pair of assists. Driedger is in net and saves 34 of 36 shots, while the Whalers put 41 shots on Raanta. Hockey’s home, baby, and this thing is happening. I’m glad — as a cool, obviously-in-touch-with-the-fans GM, I’m down in the stands watching with the People.
Home game two is Vegas, and it’s a 3–0 shutout. The fans roaring as Yandle nets two and Ekblad the third. Tippett with an assist — he’s a point a night guy! — and Bob gets the shutout. Without a doubt, this is a confidence-booster. Over the next few games, it’s clear that the home crowd at the XL Center’s a major boost. We win 5–2 over Buffalo on a hat trick from Owen Tippett (I assume Tippett jerseys are just flying off the shelves at this point.) After a pair of road wins in Tampa (!) and Montreal (!!), we’re briefly seated atop the Atlantic Division and life is good.
The fellas come home on October 20th and defeat the Bruins, 2–1. Once again, Bergeron is only on the scoresheet for his time in the bin. I assume there’s a parade on Trumbull at this point. Our win streak is only snapped when the Avalanche come to town and, I assume, are infuriated by the chants of “Nord-EEKS!” We crush the Habs 5–1 in the next game, though, and the fans are satiated.
As of November 2nd, we’re 10–4–0 and unquestionably atop the Atlantic Division. I sit down with the Board and everyone’s thrilled. Phew. A couple of observations:
- Huberdeau is the league’s leading scorer with 27 points. He’s managing a fantastic 21.4 shot percentage and he’s +10.
- Barkov already has 17 assists, second only to Crosby. I still maintain he’s one of the most underrated (despite being recognized as a star) players in the league b/c of the market he’s in.
- Jost, the only guy we’ve added to the roster so far, is panning out pretty well, with 6 points in 14 games and a respectable +6, despite averaging a pretty light workload (11:07 ATOI). I’m hoping Q gives him a shot on at least the third line.
- Both goalies are playing relatively well. Bob (3.00 GAA / .915 SV%) and Driedger (2.75 GAA / .923 SV%) both look solid enough with the kind of team they’ve got in front of them.
- Most importantly, our average attendance (15,329) is better than the Canes by far and our capacity use (88%) is at least better than Columbus, Arizona, Ottawa, and Carolina. One of the shortcomings of this simulator is that it really doesn’t have a way to factor in the “you just got your team back” factor, and I do think that the actual numbers would likely be much higher. Still, this paints a pretty good picture of what even a relatively worst-case scenario might look like — not fantastic, but far from the worst in the NHL.
- We are profitable! We have a very reasonable average ticket price for the NHL ($55) and we’re currently projecting budget room of around $17 million after all expenses. This in spite of a relatively lean local broadcast deal (to be expected, it’s not the biggest TV market) and relatively low merchandise revenue to date (come on people, buy those Tippett jerseys!)
Now it’s time for November and hopefully more Ws.
