We've seen it all before

The Chatham Victory are having the best season in franchise history sporting 21-11-0 record. But old habits die hard its seems.

Three losses in the past four games is not what fans have been accustomed to and working out what went wrong is a surprisingly simple job. Two things have always plagued the Victory. Discipline and goaltending. If we take a look at those statistics something very worrying emerges.

Over the past 4 games Chatham have taken 32 penalties of all sorts. This has resulted in 29 penalties to kill, itself an indication of the lop-sided nature of penalty infraction in the games. 10 power play goals have resulted from those 29 opportunities giving the team, who have consistently ranked in the top few penalty killers in the league in seasons past, a 63% (!) success rate. Tellingly in each of the three losses the game winning goal was conceded on the penalty kill.

Jason Lebarbera came out of nowhere to steal the number 1 jersey after both Jose Theodore and Anders Nilsson failed to make the gig their own. But he has faltered and in a big way. In the past 10 games in which he was involved he has conceded 27 goals on 177 shots. That is a save % of .845. Illya Bryzgalov in relief has been no better making only 27 saves on 33 shots (.818%). With four goaltenders all failing to provide an acceptable standard of goaltending it is difficult to see what the next move is.

Coach Lama has apparently met with with GM Idol to discuss the issues of discipline, penalty killing and goaltending. Media speculation suggests that a naughty step has been installed at the rink and that conversations with Greg Goldberg to become the part of the teams coaching set up are at an advanced stage.

NOOOO can't believe you are stepping in and swiping Goldberg. That gives you far too much of an advantage