The Rundown - Primary Producers

As we cross into the latter half of December this weekend, The Rundown always likes to take a look at who has been producing goals either by scoring them or setting them up for others to score. Primary points is a key statistic for knowing who is most dangerous with the puck on her stick, and Canada West has seen a number of incredibly talented individuals light the lamp while setting others up for a goal celebration as well. Coaches will tell everyone that they don't specifically plan a strategy to shut down certain players, and I'll tell you that's a lie based on what we've seen in the past when it comes to dealing with high-scoring point producers. Today, we're dealing exclusively with primary-point scorers as The Rundown looks at who is putting in the work in the offensive zones in Canada West!

Primary points - goals plus primary assists - are pretty self-evident when it comes for teams to be successful because those teams that score a lot of goals win more often while those who setup goals often have the same success. Put those skills together, and teams become very hard to defeat. Goals are undoubtedly hard to score in any league, let alone Canada West where the parity among the teams means that players who score regularly become extremely valuable to their respective teams.

Primary assists are something that people take for granted, but there's a skill in being able to read defences to set other players up with scoring chances. As I've stated before, assists do not exist without goals, so you need goals to be scored. What becomes obvious, though is that the players who record primary assists more often are better at reading defences and making good passes more frequently than their colleagues. Being an elite passer is just as valuable as being a sniper as Connor McDavid, Adam Oates, and Wayne Gretzky will tell you (ironically, all Oilers).

That's not to say that secondary assists aren't important as effective breakouts from the defensive zone can result in a number of secondary assists being recorded by players. The difference, though is that primary assists are playmaking skills should persist from year to year for players if they are setting up goals directly. There could be some luck involved, but normally this playmaking skill sees a player recognizing an opportunity more than it is getting a lucky rebound to bounce to an open teammate.

Broad Street Hockey defined all this in a solid write-up with data where they stated, "Someone who sets up a lot of goals this year probably has vision and puck control skills that make him likely to do so again next year". I tend to agree with this assessment, so primary points - goals plus primary assists - give us a better idea of who is doing all the scoring in Canada West more accurately.

Let's see who is driving most of the scoring in the 2023 part of the 2023-24 Canada West season compared to the leaders.

Top Scorers

Name	Team	Points	Name	Team	PrPoints
M. Kordic	UBC	26	M. Kordic	UBC	22
C. Rhodes	UBC	18	C. Rhodes	UBC	15
E. Bergesen	MRU	17	J. Morden	ALB	14
N. Kieser	ALB	16	E. Bergesen	MRU	13
A. Johma	MRU	16	E. Lang	CAL	13
J. Morden	ALB	15	A. Gerrard	MRU	12
S. Mercier	CAL	15	M. Wiebe	UBC	12
S. Lalor	SAS	14	M. McCallum	UBC	12
M. Wiebe	UBC	14	B. Anderson	TWU	11
E. Lang	CAL	14	C. Kollman	CAL	11

The total on the left is the current scoring race while the total on the right is the primary points scoring, and it's clear these women are driving the offence for their teams. Most of the top scorers are also the top primary point producers which shouldn't surprise anyone, but I should note the players who moved up and moved down. There are explanations for both, but these are the women who either setup goals or score goals with regularity in Canada West.

Some of the players on the right side of the list are there because they have shown elite goal-scoring this season. Alberta's Jadynn Morden has 12 of 14 primary points as goals this season; Mount Royal's Allee Gerrard has ten goals in her 12 primary points. Even Brooklyn Anderson's eight goals in her 11 points boosts her up the scoring ranks nicely. Goal-scoring, as stated, is vitally important, so let's carve out the goals and just focus on primary assists in first half of the season.

Top Playmakers

Name	Team	Assists	Name	Team	PrAssists
M. Kordic	UBC	15	M. Kordic	UBC	11
A. Jomha	MRU	13	T. Anker	ALB	8
E. Bergesen	MRU	10	E. Lang	CAL	7
S. Mercier	CAL	10	A. Jomha	MRU	7
J. Morris	UBC	10	C. Rhodes	UBC	6
B. Trotter	MRU	10	E. Bergesen	MRU	6
K. Gregoire	MAN	10	M. McCallum	UBC	6
T. Anker	ALB	10	C. Kollman	CAL	6
C. Rhodes	UBC	9	K. Gregoire	MAN	6

The total on the left is the current assists leaders while the total on the right is the primary assists scoring, and it shouldn't surprise anyont that these women are some of the elite playmakers in the game. As stated, taking the goal-scorers out will change the list significantly, but it's pretty clear that these women are dangerous when it comes to finding a finisher.

Some of you may be looking at these tables and think, "There's a lot of forwards on there," and you'd be right. In pointing that out, let's check out who the defenders are that have the ability to jump into the play and either finish or setup a finish!

The Defenders

Name	Team	Points	Name	Team	PrPoints
E. Bergesen	MRU	17	E. Bergesen	MRU	13
J. Morris	UBC	14	R. MacKinnon	UBC	10
R. MacKinnon	UBC	13	T. Anker	ALB	10
S. Gaskell	UBC	12	S. Gaskell	UBC	9
T. Anker	ALB	12	I. Pozzi	SAS	8

Again, the left is the defender points leaders from this season while the right is who leads in primary defender points. Is anyone surprised that the top-four teams in the conference have a defender who is an elite playmaker? UBC has two players in the top-four defender scorers, and that seems to justify their standing in the conference.

What about the kids? Rookies are the next wave of stars in Canada West, so let's check out how the rookies are doing. But before we get there, let me clarify that these are the players who have played their first season of university or college hockey this season and nowhere else. You don't get credit if you went somewhere else before landing in Canada West. With that said, here is rookie primary points scoring.

The Rookies

Name	Team	Points	Name	Team	PrPoints
J. Morris	UBC	14	J. Morris	UBC	7
J. Watteyne	MRU	8	J. Watteyne	MRU	6
K. Mitenko	CAL	8	K. Mitenko	CAL	6
B. Fry	CAL	6	B. Fry	CAL	5
C. Perlinger	CAL	6	M. Ayre	MAC	4

The left is the rookie points leaders from this season while the right is who leads in primary rookie points. While Jaylyn Morris has benefitted from a high-scoring UBC team with secondary assists, the race for primary points is far tighter. Mount Royal should try reporting their rookie scoring a little better because Jerzey Watteyne has a legitimate shot at being Rookie of the Year, Calgary has two fantastic rookies, and Maria Ayre is having a solid season for the MacEwan Griffins despite what her coach thinks.

What we do see in some cases is that power-plays have a significant effect on scoring thanks to specific systems being run where players are identified as playmakers and distributors as opposed to being finishers. The key, though, is that power-play points matter whether it's goals or primary assists because scoring on the power-play can win games in Canada West. Let's take a peek at who is crushing this season with the advantage.

Power Players

Name	Team	PP Points	Name	Team	PPPrPoints
E. Bergesen	MRU	10	E. Bergesen	MRU	10
B. Trotter	MRU	10	B. Trotter	MRU	8
J. Morris	UBC	9	J. Morden	ALB	8
J. Morden	ALB	8	A. Gerrard	MRU	6
A. Gerrard	MRU	7	6 players	TIED	5

That Mount Royal power-play should scare everyone when they come over the boards because it seems like Bergesen and Trotter have the options of shoot or pass while Allee Gerrard has been finishing off a pile of plays. Take nothing away from the finishing job done by Jadynn Morden in Alberta, though, as the conference's top goal-scorer has been lethal with the advantage as well.

The six players that are tied at five power-play primary points include Alberta's Madison Willan, Regina's Olivia Leggett, and UBC's Jacquelyn Fleming, Makenzie McCallum, Jaylyn Morris, and Rylind MacKinnon. Make no mistake that these players drive their power-play units when they're on the ice.

I'm also going to break this down by team to give you a more detailed look at who is scoring for each team. Players who are tied in points will be ranked according to the primary assists. I'll have some commentary after the team stats are posted.

Jadynn Morden - 14
Taylor Anker - 10
Izzy Lajoie - 10

Elizabeth Lang - 13
Courtney Kollman - 11
Sydney Mercier - 9

Jesse Jack - 8
Makenna Schuttler - 7
Sydney Hughson - 4

Kylie Lesuk - 9
Kate Gregoire - 8
Dana Goertzen - 7

Emma Bergesen - 13
Allee Gerrard - 12
Aliya Jomha - 10

Paige Hubbard - 10
Kaitlyn Gilroy - 6
Olivia Leggett - 5

Sophie Lalor - 10
Mallory Dyer - 9
Kara Kondrat - 8

Brooklyn Anderson - 11
Olivia Leier - 8
Kate Klassen - 6

Mackenzie Kordic - 22
Cassidy Rhodes - 15
Makenzie McCallum - 12

Teams with three players in double-digits are, unsurprisingly, first-place through third-place in the conference. We know Saskatchewan is more defensive than other teams, but they, Calgary, and Trinity Western are in the middle of the pack while having at least one player in double-digits for primary scoring. Manitoba, Regina, and MacEwan will need more from their more offensive players in the second half, but two of those teams are in a position to make a move in the standings.

Still Baffled By His Comments

Again, looking at the scoring totals, it's hard for me to accept Chris Leeming's asssessment that he has no elite offensive players when Jesse Jack and Makenna Schuttler are in the mix with some of the conference's better primary scorers, and Maria Ayre is having a solid rookie campaign when it comes to primary points. If the scoring totals above isn't enough proof, his comments about not having elite players is way off in another aspect as well.

MacEwan has 17 players who recorded a primary point. Alberta has 22, Calgary has 18, Manitoba has 17, Mount Royal has 20, Regina has 16, Saskatchewan has 19, Trinity Western has 19, and UBC has 19 primary points scorers. Clearly, there is enough depth on that roster to keep up with the other teams in the conference. 17 players is lower, but it's not like there's a huge discrepancy between UBC and MacEwan when it comes to players scoring primary points. It's the frequency in which those players record primary points that seems to be the larger problem with the Griffins.

That, again, points to systems. If 17 players have gone to the net or found ways to get pucks to the net at least once this season, saying your roster has no elite offensive players is a little hard to swallow when MacEwan has the same number of primary points producers as Manitoba and has one more than Regina. I'm not saying that they've had the same number of opportunities as I pointed out with the shot totals two weeks ago, but if they played a system where those players could go to places where they could be more successful, perhaps MacEwan would be in a better place in the standings.

Secondary Assists Still Count

As I stated above, secondary assists still count because breakout passes and other lead passes can result in goals. I never mentioned it above, but the leaders in secondary assists are Alberta's Natalie Kieser and UBC's Jaylyn Morris who have seven secondary assists apiece. Calgary's Sydney Mercier and Mount Royal's Aliya Jomha are right behind them with six secondary assists apiece.

Shorthanded Specialists

I didn't get into shorthanded primary points because they don't happen often, but be aware that Trinity Western's duo of Chloe Reid and Michela Naccarato lead the way in Canada West with two primary points each while shorthanded.

As a team, the Calgary Dinos are the most dangerous team when it comes to generating points while down a skater as they have eight primary points combined among eight skaters. Trinity Western is second in that regard as they have six total primary points while shorthanded, and three teams are tied for third at three primary shorthanded points - Mount Royal, Regina, and UBC.

The Last Word

Next Sunday is Christmas Eve, so I won't be posting The Rundown on that day. Instead, it will appear on Saturday, December 23 which is better known as Festivus thanks to Seinfeld. We'll break out the aluminum pole, gather for the feats of strengths, and I'll let everyone know all the ways they've disappointed me so far this season!

Ok, so I won't be listing off all the ways I'm disappointed, but I will post my Christmas Wish List for each team when it comes to seeing them compete for the one berth at the U SPORTS National Championship this season. As you know, the Huskies are already going as the hosts, but I'm pretty sure they'd rather go as the Canada West champions rather than just showing up as the host team. With each team still mathematically alive and in the running for postseason spots, there will be nine Christmas wishes made next Saturday!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!