Wheat Kings - PR

QUARTERLY REPORT: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

The first quarter of this season has been bizarre.  Many solid clubs - the
Pain, Ice, Achaeans, Spirit - were swimming at the bottom of their conferences for
much of the first twenty games, and the Wheat Kings found themselves amongst
them.  Meanwhile the top of the league is inhabited by many surprise teams - what
is up is down, what is down is up...

This same phenomenon happened last year: the Achaeans and Spirit made the
season with second half bursts, the Pain also didn't start overly strong - on the
flip-side the Kings had and unbelievable first half and then capsized after the
All-Star break.

One would expect as similar trend this year - indeed certain teams who started
the season hot are already on their way down.

What is most surprising to Wheat-watchers is that statistically the Kings are
quite respectable: 3rd in goals for, 1st in PK, 3rd in PP; fiver players are on
their way to 35 or more goal seasons, Roberto Luongo is among the league
leaders - yet the Kings are struggling to maintain a .500 record. 

One problem is the defence - the Kings have long been a stingy team to play
against, but this season the Kings have been letting more shots against than in
the past - yet their GAA is acceptable, the exception being Kevin Weekes'
atrocious record.

Hence while statistically there are not many problems, two issues have arisen:
first, the lack of a killer instinct - the Kings are losing too many one goal
games; two, Luongo is playing-out too fast and Weekes has been incapable of
returning to his form of last season.