The Montreal Canadiens of last season are long gone, but the way the Hamilton Bulldogs are playing sure seems familiar at times. The Bulldogs outshot their opponents 114-76 this week over 3 games, but scored just 4 goals. What’s even worse is that they allowed 8 goals in those 3 games. 8 goals isn’t horrifically bad over 3 games, but they were outscored by double.
Without the stat keeping to adjust for special teams, we can see that this week the Bulldogs had a combined shooting percentage of just 3.51%, and a combined save percentage of 89.5%. So basically, nothing went right for the ‘Dogs.
I’m not of the opinion that the Bulldogs have a team of poor shooters either. They have some proven AHL scorers in the lineup like Aaron Palushaj, and the young rookies can be good scorers at this level. But none of the scorers were worth much this week.
So the Bulldogs player of the week is Steady Freddy, Frederic St-Denis.
St-Denis didn’t do anything spectacular this week, with 4 shots and a -2 rating, but he’s undeniably the best defenseman on the Bulldogs right now, and he stands out as a defensive presence when he’s on the ice. The margin by which the Bulldogs outshoot opponents definitely has a lot to do with the veteran savvy of St-Denis.
The 26 year old alternate captain of the Bulldogs has 5 points in 16 games on the season and an even rating. He’s also taken just two minor penalties on the incredibly undisciplined Bulldogs.
