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Post by lirette on Nov 9, 2018 10:21:17 GMT -4
Aside from Aspirot Spence is the most responsible defenseman on the team in both zones. He had a couple bad giveaways that were out of character but 1 game is a small sample compared what we've watched all season. My biggest concern with Spence is not defense, it's the minutes he plays wearing him down with the long Q schedule + travel. Playing Jr.A last year is a bit more travel than Midget but the Q schedule is a month longer and travel is busyer. They have almost a week off after this, he'll be fine. Once the defense gets back to full health its not like hes logging 40 minutes a game. I expect they'll add another d over Christmas. He's not playing Duncan Mcintyre 16-17 cats type minutes. |
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Post by Arnold Slick on Nov 9, 2018 10:25:10 GMT -4
Aside from Aspirot Spence is the most responsible defenseman on the team in both zones. He had a couple bad giveaways that were out of character but 1 game is a small sample compared what we've watched all season. My biggest concern with Spence is not defense, it's the minutes he plays wearing him down with the long Q schedule + travel. Playing Jr.A last year is a bit more travel than Midget but the Q schedule is a month longer and travel is busyer. He played 50 games and 12 playoff games last year and with the amount of points he put up it's safe to assume he saw significant minutes. If he can go from Midget to Jr A with little trouble I think he'll also be OK going from Jr A to the Q. |
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Post by SteveUL on Nov 9, 2018 16:10:50 GMT -4
My biggest concern with Spence is not defense, it's the minutes he plays wearing him down with the long Q schedule + travel. Playing Jr.A last year is a bit more travel than Midget but the Q schedule is a month longer and travel is busyer. He played 50 games and 12 playoff games last year and with the amount of points he put up it's safe to assume he saw significant minutes. If he can go from Midget to Jr A with little trouble I think he'll also be OK going from Jr A to the Q. Hmmm ... But Q teams are on the ice almost daily ... plus gym time ... plus much longer travel ... plus other community demands that take time. Plus he is playing against bigger/stronger/faster opponents compared to Jr A. |
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Post by lirette on Nov 9, 2018 16:21:18 GMT -4
He played 50 games and 12 playoff games last year and with the amount of points he put up it's safe to assume he saw significant minutes. If he can go from Midget to Jr A with little trouble I think he'll also be OK going from Jr A to the Q. Hmmm ... But Q teams are on the ice almost daily ... plus gym time ... plus much longer travel ... plus other community demands that take time. Plus he is playing against bigger/stronger/faster opponents compared to Jr A. The Cats have one of the friendliest travel schedules in the Q being central within the maritimes. So far they've had one Quebec road trip and they actually flew home. All other games have been a couple hour bus rides away. Some of the bus rides in the MHL are actually longer than the maritime travel in the MHL. Summerside > Yarmouth, Summerside > Edmunston for example. He doesn't look tired to me at all. Seems like a lot of overanalyzing going on here. They just had 3 nights off before last night. |
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Post by Captain Obvious on Nov 10, 2018 13:00:21 GMT -4
Hmmm ... But Q teams are on the ice almost daily ... plus gym time ... plus much longer travel ... plus other community demands that take time. Plus he is playing against bigger/stronger/faster opponents compared to Jr A. The Cats have one of the friendliest travel schedules in the Q being central within the maritimes. So far they've had one Quebec road trip and they actually flew home. All other games have been a couple hour bus rides away. Some of the bus rides in the MHL are actually longer than the maritime travel in the MHL. Summerside > Yarmouth, Summerside > Edmunston for example. He doesn't look tired to me at all. Seems like a lot of overanalyzing going on here. They just had 3 nights off before last night. You can't compare the amount of time Q players spend on the road and at the gym to Jr.A. Plus, rookies usually hit the wall in February, not November. |
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Post by Arnold Slick on Nov 10, 2018 15:27:02 GMT -4
The Cats have one of the friendliest travel schedules in the Q being central within the maritimes. So far they've had one Quebec road trip and they actually flew home. All other games have been a couple hour bus rides away. Some of the bus rides in the MHL are actually longer than the maritime travel in the MHL. Summerside > Yarmouth, Summerside > Edmunston for example. He doesn't look tired to me at all. Seems like a lot of overanalyzing going on here. They just had 3 nights off before last night. You can't compare the amount of time Q players spend on the road and at the gym to Jr.A. Plus, rookies usually hit the wall in February, not November. Let's looks at some February/March totals for top 16-17 YO rookies (Spence is a top rookie) last year... Lafreniere - 24 pts in 18 games (1.33 PPG / 1.33 PPG for the season) Pelletier - 17 pts in 18 games (0.94 / 1.02) Henman - 11 pts in 17 games (0.65 / 0.77) Desruisseaux - 10 pts in 16 games (0.63 / 0.72) Simoneau - 7 pts in 19 games (0.37 / 0.74) Poulin - 21 pts in 17 games (1.24 / 0.82) Bergeron - 12 pts in 19 games (0.63 / 0.45) Barron - 8 pts in 16 games (0.5 / 0.41) Only Simoneau had a huge drop in production and a few guys went upward. Not exactly seeing a bunch of rookies hitting a wall. Also I'm pretty sure all these guys were coming from Midget which is certainly lighter schedule/travel than the MHL. I don't think anyone is arguing that the Q isn't a heavier workload than the MHL, but it should be easier to jump from the MHL to the Q than it is from Midget. Spence will be fine. |
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Post by Captain Obvious on Nov 11, 2018 9:42:08 GMT -4
You can't compare the amount of time Q players spend on the road and at the gym to Jr.A. Plus, rookies usually hit the wall in February, not November. Let's looks at some February/March totals for top 16-17 YO rookies (Spence is a top rookie) last year... Lafreniere - 24 pts in 18 games (1.33 PPG / 1.33 PPG for the season) Pelletier - 17 pts in 18 games (0.94 / 1.02) Henman - 11 pts in 17 games (0.65 / 0.77) Desruisseaux - 10 pts in 16 games (0.63 / 0.72) Simoneau - 7 pts in 19 games (0.37 / 0.74) Poulin - 21 pts in 17 games (1.24 / 0.82) Bergeron - 12 pts in 19 games (0.63 / 0.45) Barron - 8 pts in 16 games (0.5 / 0.41) Only Simoneau had a huge drop in production and a few guys went upward. Not exactly seeing a bunch of rookies hitting a wall. Also I'm pretty sure all these guys were coming from Midget which is certainly lighter schedule/travel than the MHL. I don't think anyone is arguing that the Q isn't a heavier workload than the MHL, but it should be easier to jump from the MHL to the Q than it is from Midget. Spence will be fine. What part of February not November did you not understand? |
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Post by lirette on Nov 11, 2018 10:01:53 GMT -4
Let's looks at some February/March totals for top 16-17 YO rookies (Spence is a top rookie) last year... Lafreniere - 24 pts in 18 games (1.33 PPG / 1.33 PPG for the season) Pelletier - 17 pts in 18 games (0.94 / 1.02) Henman - 11 pts in 17 games (0.65 / 0.77) Desruisseaux - 10 pts in 16 games (0.63 / 0.72) Simoneau - 7 pts in 19 games (0.37 / 0.74) Poulin - 21 pts in 17 games (1.24 / 0.82) Bergeron - 12 pts in 19 games (0.63 / 0.45) Barron - 8 pts in 16 games (0.5 / 0.41) Only Simoneau had a huge drop in production and a few guys went upward. Not exactly seeing a bunch of rookies hitting a wall. Also I'm pretty sure all these guys were coming from Midget which is certainly lighter schedule/travel than the MHL. I don't think anyone is arguing that the Q isn't a heavier workload than the MHL, but it should be easier to jump from the MHL to the Q than it is from Midget. Spence will be fine. What part of February not November did you not understand? You might want to re-read the post. The stats are from February on for rookies last year. Unfortunately there isn't any data to back up this worry you have about Spence and with Aspirot back he is playing normal minutes. Just seems to be the nitpick of the week since the team is winning. |
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Post by SteveUL on Nov 13, 2018 9:40:55 GMT -4
Bottom line for Spence ... I'd rather have him playing lots than not playing lots.
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