John Blanchette: Chiefs’ numbers as good as ever

Quite the flashback they’re having at the Spokane Arena.

Hockey’s putting some heat in the building again. The Spokane Chiefs are, by acclaim and algebra, the best thing going in the Western Hockey League. On the heels of a 1-0 victory over Seattle and with the just-as-hot Tri-City Americans due in tonight, only a glut of Christmas parties stand between the Chiefs and a 16,000-customer weekend.

Seems like the good old days – except, really, the old days weren’t quite this good, at least on a couple of levels.

The Chiefs have never made it to 26 victories and 55 points this quickly, whether they were en route to 50 W’s or the Memorial Cup. Naturally, this team would trade a win or two now for passage to Kitchener later, but it’s not up for barter.

Perhaps even more remarkable is the new standard for stinginess.

This was once again on display Friday night, and not even so much in the fact that goalie Dustin Tokarski blanked the Thunderbirds for the third time this season.

Frankly, it wasn’t as much a shutout as it was a shot-out, and a rather artless affair both ways. While Tokarski was magic on a couple of saves, his workload until a doubly long penalty kill near the end was pretty light.

Or pretty much how the Chiefs prefer it.

“A lot of teams are disappointed in goals against,” explained coach Bill Peters. “We’re disappointed when we give up a scoring chance.”

Here’s how much: Just back from a recent tour of Alberta, the Chiefs returned to the Arena a week ago and put away Swift Current 3-1. The Broncos got off all of 20 shots, so it seemed like another mission accomplished.

“Maybe it looked on the surface like our defensive game was in order,” Peters said. “But we gave up maybe eight odd-man rushes – very uncharacteristic of us and unacceptable. Our guys knew they got away with one and our goaltender bailed us out that night.”

It is no secret that scoring in the Western Hockey League – or any hockey league, really – began a steady descent 25 years ago. From a peak of 5.17 goals per game – per team – the WHL average fell to 2.72 two years ago at the nadir of the clutch-and-grab age. Some adjustments in the call of the game has stemmed the dropoff a bit, and it’s not as if the 10-8 shootouts are missed all that much.

But this isn’t just being pulled along with a league-wide trend. With the exception of the WHL runners-up of 2000, the Chiefs have been generally undistinguished on defense – surrendering an average of 3.24 goals a game over the last five seasons.

This year? Friday’s shutout knocked that number down to 1.91. At this pace, the Chiefs will give up just 138 goals, which would be No. 3 on the WHL’s all-time list.

Sometimes, it even astonishes Peters.

“We were in a hell of a game up in Calgary – we win 2-1 in overtime,” the coach recalled. “Their back line is phenomenal. They’ve got Karl Alzner, who is captain of Canada’s world junior team. Alex Pointe is a first-round pick of the Oilers. Keith Seabrook is a second-round pick of Washington. They’ve got two 20-year-olds and a kid, Matt McKenzie, who’s really good. It’s as good of a junior back end as I’ve seen in a long time.

“Then I look at our unit. Don’t get me wrong, our guys can get there – but we’ve got four first-year guys, a second-year guy in Mike Reddington and Falker (Justin Falk). We didn’t even have (Jared) Spurgeon that night. Maybe we’re too young and naïve to know any better.”

This all ends with goaltending and Spokane, statistically, has the two best in the league in Tokarski and Kevin Armstrong. But it doesn’t start at the blue line, either.

“It’s not just the two D-men stopping the rush,” Falk said. “It shows how important the third man high in the offensive zone is, how you need to back check to limit the odd-man rushes and turn over the puck.”

Peters scanned the stats and pointed out that Spokane’s first line of Chris Bruton, Mitch Wahl and Drayson Bowman are 1-2-3 in the WHL in plus-minus, reflective of goals scored and allowed while on the ice.

“That’s not a one-dimensional player,” he said. “That’s a two-way player who gets it done in all three zones.

“Our forwards are committed to be good defensively because they know that’s how they earn their ice time. They can express themselves offensively all they want and do creative things, but if you want the puck you’d better go get it. We don’t spend a lot of time in our zone.”

Meaning it could be said that your defense is at its best when you play it the least.

That’s a different kind of algebra, but it’s certainly adding up.