The 2007-08 season of AL was competed with 7 teams (the league makeup changes every year, hopefully we’ll get some new teams entering the league in the near future). The top 6 teams make the playoffs (haha), the top 2 teams get a bye in the first round where 3rd plays 6th and 4th plays 5th.
I was going to write a more thorough season review and playoff preview, but work and the recycle paper scandal (and the McLennan story that was too good to pass up) took up too much of my time, and the playoffs begin today, so here’s a quick summary. (EDIT: Or so I thought, this turned out to be, by far, the longest article I’ve written so far for my young blog. And it seriously needs editing and is full of grammatical and other errors… but I’ve got a real job and this is just a hobby so please bear with my late night stream of consciousness, thanks.)
Final Standings
RK
|
Team
|
G
|
W
|
OTW
|
T
|
OTL
|
L
|
GF – GA
|
Points
|
1
|
Seibu Prince Rabbits
|
30
|
20
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
9
|
138 – 73
|
61
|
2
|
High1 Ice Hockey Team
|
30
|
17
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
8
|
118 – 89
|
58
|
3
|
Oji Ice Hockey Team
|
30
|
17
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
8
|
112 – 74
|
57
|
4
|
Nippon Paper Cranes
|
30
|
15
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
11
|
97 – 85
|
50
|
5
|
Anyang Halla Ice Hockey Club
|
30
|
13
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
13
|
93 – 92
|
44
|
6
|
HC Nikko IceBucks
|
30
|
8
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
18
|
60 – 109
|
30
|
7
|
China Sharks
|
30
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
26
|
63 – 159
|
10
|
http://www.alhockey.com/popup/9/standings.html
Scoring Leaders
RK
|
Player Name
|
No
|
Team
|
GP
|
G
|
A
|
P
|
1
|
KIM, Alex
|
79
|
HG1
|
30
|
23
|
28
|
51
|
2
|
PRPIC, Joel
|
33
|
SPR
|
27
|
17
|
30
|
47
|
3
|
SMITH, Tim
|
21
|
HG1
|
30
|
23
|
23
|
46
|
4
|
MARTINEC, Patrik
|
43
|
AHL
|
29
|
7
|
29
|
36
|
5
|
ENDICOTT, Shane
|
12
|
OJI
|
30
|
13
|
22
|
35
|
5
|
MITANI, Darcy Takeshi
|
20
|
NPC
|
28
|
13
|
22
|
35
|
5
|
SMITH, Bud
|
58
|
HG1
|
30
|
9
|
26
|
35
|
5
|
SUZUKI, Takahito
|
18
|
SPR
|
30
|
13
|
22
|
35
|
5
|
YULE, Chris
|
75
|
SPR
|
30
|
10
|
25
|
35
|
10
|
FUJITA, Kiyoshi
|
40
|
SPR
|
28
|
16
|
18
|
34
|
10
|
SAITO, Takeshi
|
19
|
OJI
|
30
|
11
|
23
|
34
|
http://www.alhockey.com/popup/9/point_rank.html
Goalie Stats (sorted by Save %, goalies who faced over 100 SOG in bold)
RK
|
Player Name
|
Team
|
No
|
GP
|
SOG
|
GA
|
Saves
|
Sv%
|
GAA
|
1
|
KATAYAMA, Kazuhito
|
SPR
|
20
|
4
|
79
|
5
|
74
|
93.67
|
1.88
|
2
|
McLENNAN, Jamie
|
NPC
|
29
|
14
|
415
|
33
|
382
|
92.05
|
2.5
|
3
|
KIKUCHI, Naoya
|
SPR
|
39
|
29
|
801
|
64
|
737
|
92.01
|
2.37
|
4
|
HARUNA, Masahito
|
OJI
|
61
|
20
|
513
|
43
|
470
|
91.62
|
2.22
|
5
|
KIM, Sun-Ki
|
AHL
|
32
|
1
|
23
|
2
|
21
|
91.3
|
2
|
6
|
EUM, Hyun-Seung
|
HG1
|
31
|
29
|
854
|
78
|
776
|
90.87
|
2.81
|
7
|
ISHIKAWA, Hisashi
|
NPC
|
61
|
18
|
538
|
50
|
488
|
90.71
|
2.97
|
8
|
KANAMARU, Hisashi
|
HG1
|
39
|
4
|
83
|
8
|
75
|
90.36
|
3.47
|
9
|
HASHIMOTO, Michio
|
NIB
|
1
|
30
|
1031
|
100
|
931
|
90.3
|
3.39
|
10
|
OGINO, Junji
|
OJI
|
30
|
10
|
228
|
23
|
205
|
89.91
|
2.5
|
11
|
GUARD, Kelly
|
CSH
|
1
|
2
|
59
|
6
|
53
|
89.83
|
3
|
12
|
SON, Ho-Seong
|
AHL
|
33
|
27
|
698
|
77
|
621
|
88.97
|
2.98
|
13
|
PARK, Jun-Soo
|
AHL
|
30
|
5
|
89
|
12
|
77
|
86.52
|
3.6
|
14
|
KIYOKAWA, Kazuhiko
|
OJI
|
45
|
2
|
41
|
6
|
35
|
85.37
|
4.2
|
15
|
KAWAGUCHI, Rei
|
NIB
|
30
|
2
|
22
|
4
|
18
|
81.82
|
6.95
|
16
|
YU Yang
|
CSH
|
30
|
18
|
428
|
78
|
350
|
81.78
|
6
|
17
|
XIE Ming
|
CSH
|
33
|
8
|
170
|
33
|
137
|
80.59
|
7.35
|
18
|
MATSUMOTO, Shiro
|
SPR
|
31
|
1
|
7
|
2
|
5
|
71.43
|
6
|
19
|
TADA, Kyohei
|
OJI
|
55
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
http://www.alhockey.com/popup/9/gksp.html
1.
Seibu Prince Rabbits (20-1-9, 61 pts) – First round bye
Another solid season by the bunnies. Like in previous years, the team started training hard early in the summer with a regimented program under the guidance of their conditioning trainer. This worked as the team started off the season 7-1-1 (Sept-Oct) and solidly in first place. But this team can get sloppy and streaky during the regular season, and only the luck of their schedule allowed Seibu to claim top of the table. The Rabbits finished the season with 3 straight games against the lowly Bucks, easy 9 points (8-0, 4-1, and 8-2 wins) to overtake High1 for 1st place. But the bunnies went only 4-6 leading up to the Bucks games at the end of the season.
Seibu did beat Oji and the Cranes to capture the All Japan Championship on 10 Feb, and the bunnies are deadly clinical on the power play leading the league with incredible 34% conversion rate. Seibu is definitely the favourite in the upcoming playoffs, especially with the unstable Cranes this year, and the unknown factor of High1 in the post season. Seibu features the highest scoring Asian trained player in the league in the veteran Takahito Suzuki, as well as Prpic, Fujita, and Yule who all cracked the top 10 in scoring. Then again, they did run up the score 15-3 against the Sharks one game, so the AL scoring leader board and goal differentials figures are still not very reliable. And all these players are on the wrong side of 30, so they have the skills and experience, but a youthful team may outskate and out-grit them.
Okubo (High1) and Fujita (Seibu)
2.
High1 (19-1-10, 58 pts) – First round bye
21-1-12 for 62 points last season as Kangwon Land (34 game schedule in 2006-07). On a per game basis High1 earned 1.93 pts, with a GF of 3.93 and GA of 2.97. Whereas Kangwon last season was 1.82 pts, 4.5 GF, and 3.24 GA. Upon first glance it seems like the team did better last season, but there were two Chinese minnows last year, where as they combined to form the somewhat more competitive China Sharks this year. So, it’s difficult to compare with just those raw numbers.
But one aspect of the team that definitely improved was the power play unit. It went from league average 24% (5th out of 8 teams) to an impressive 31%, good enough for 2nd in the league. Not taking stupid penalties, and containing the High1 power play will be the key for the team that meets them in the semifinal (Oji or Nikko). Korean teams did have an easier schedule than the Japanese teams though, as they got to beat up on the Sharks 3 extra times when compared to their Japanese counterparts. So this may really have been a 3rd place team had the schedule not been unbalanced with the extra regional games.
The incredible aspect of the High1 season was that the team lost its starting goalie Ho-Seong Son (34GP, 89 Sv%, 3.14GAA), top scorer Kyu-Hyun Kim (26+38=64pts), and young national team player Kwon-Jae Lee (1+5=6pts) all to its archrival Anyang Halla. So, High1 was reasonably expected to struggle this season. But in their place Hyun-Seung Eum (29GP, 91 Sv%, 2.81GAA) and Korean-American import Alex Kim (23+28=51pts, good enough for the league scoring title) more than filled in. Japanese defenseman Tomohito Okubo continues to be crucial to the team’s success with 28 assists (2 shy of league leader Prpic’s 30) and 33 points to lead all defensemen, and he’s the only foreign based player, besides NHL experienced goalie Yutaka Fukufuji, to be invited to the national team selection camp. Together with D Byoung-Wook Hwang (8+12=20pts) and the Smith brother (Tim 23+23=46pts, Bud 9+26=35pts) the High1 fivesome is truly a force to be reckoned with.
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