Sturm Surge

Here is the list among 195 defenseman who have a lower Expected Goals per 60 minutes than Jared Spurgeon’s 1.71 at 5v5 this season (min 10 GP): Erik Cernak: 1.66 Matt Kiersted: 1.67 👀 Here’s the list of the D with fewer goals against per 60 at 5v5 than Spurgeon’s 1.17 (min 10 GP) Matt Kiersted: 0.48 👀 Will Borgen: 0.82 Olli Määttä: 1.00 👀 Ryan Pullock: 1.01 Andreas Engelland: 1.16 Esa Lindell is tied at 1.17 Here is the list of defenseman with a higher Expected Goal Share than Spurgeon: Nobody He’s done this against averaging ice time against the 68th percentile of competition, so still strong competition. Claiming Spurgeon makes the team worse is asinine. He’s been a terrific defensive presence.

World Juniors in the Twin Cities didn’t go as planned, but this is largely due to just shit management of the event from start to finish. They wanted $120+ for tickets to all USA games at the start. This is a tournament that should be filled with youth hockey players and fans, but $240 + parking + food runs you about $300 to go to a game. That’s asinine for this event. Upper level tickets, which were far more affordable, didn’t go on sale until about 2 weeks before the event start and that helped fill a few games. Add in a blizzard for one of the days, Vikings vs Packers at the Bank, holiday tournaments, and the fact that very few Americans have access to NHL network and it shouldn’t be surprising that attendance was down. It was marketed at near premium prices, is hard to watch outside the rinks and generally Canadians didn’t want to come down for games either given the political war on them from our idiot President. Don’t blame the Canadians for that.