WHL Odds and Ends

The WHL season is two months in, and it's fairly safe to say that some trends stick out more than others.

• Portland leads the league in goals scored, which isn't exactly a surprise despite the Winterhawks losing Ty Rattie, Tyler Wotherspoon, and Seth Jones to the pros.  However, the second leading team in goals scored?  Swift Current, who was actually the second worst offensive team in the Eastern Conference to qualify for the playoffs last year.
• On the other end of the spectrum, the three worst teams on offense (from worst on up) are Lethbridge, Kamloops, and Red Deer.  None of those teams are a real surprise, since Lethbridge just traded away two of their top three scorers from last season recently, Kamloops lost a lot of scoring in the off-season and traded away Tim Bozon a few weeks ago, and Red Deer just simply doesn't score a lot of goals.
• Defensively, Kelowna leads the league in goals against, but they are also the only team to have not played 20 games, though that changes tonight.  The next best defensive team?  Edmonton, who is now getting hot, as they have won eight of their last 10 games.
• Conversely, Lethbridge is the worst team at keeping the puck out of the net, and now, they are turning to Teagan Sacher to try and turn things around.  Corbin Boes and Christopher Tai have had little success to this point.  Saskatoon and Prince George are the next worst teams on defense.  Not coincidentally, all three have given up triple digits in goals to this point in the season.
• Speaking of Lethbridge, they finally cracked the double digit mark in points for the season, as they earned a point in the overtime loss to Red Deer on Saturday.  Things do not figure to get any easier, as they traded away Ryan Pilon to Brandon, making it three important players traded away this season alone.
• Until this weekend, Seattle had not won since trading for both Jaimen Yakubowski and Sam McKechnie.  They earned a win and an overtime loss this weekend in games at Victoria.
• Exactly one team as the same amount of goals for as they do goals against (Kootenay).
• The most penalized team in the WHL is Lethbridge, with 474 minutes.  Some discipline should be instilled here, as it may explain the alarming number of goals against.
• The leading scorer in the league is Mitch Holmberg of Spokane.  The next two leading scorers are both Winterhawks in Nic Petan and Oliver Bjorkstrand.  Last year's co-leader Brendan Leipsic is fifth on the team in scoring, behind Petan (the other co-leader from last year), Bjorkstrand, Taylor Leier, and Chase De Leo.

Should these trends speak of what's to come for the following months of the season?  For the most part, yes, as Portland will score, and they have the firepower to do so while Lethbridge is still in search of a solution in goal, as well as players that want to stay in Lethbridge.  However, one expects Spokane to level off soon, as Portland has had their number, and they can be streaky, both good and bad.  Though Edmonton trails Medicine Hat in the standings, one expects them to take the top spot in the Central Division soon.