Last week the Stats Analysis for the entire 2017 DC Breeze regular season was unveiled displaying the success of the top 14-18 players on the Breeze roster. Now it is time to look to how each line compared to the rest of the AUDL East Division. It also gives us a chance to look at the top players in the division and to see which team has the biggest stars of the 2017 season on their roster.
Clearly playoff-bound trio the Breeze, Toronto Rush, and Montréal Royal will dominate most of the team-based leader boards, but we’ll find some superstar individual performers across the division.
Before getting started, let’s remind ourselves how the standings played out in the East Division:
#1 Toronto Rush 11-3
#2 DC Breeze 10-4
#3 Montreal Royal 9-5
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New York Empire 6-8
Philadelphia Phoenix 4-10
Ottawa Outlaws 2-12
We’ll start with a look at the teams that scored the most goals and those that gave up the fewest. This is not a perfect indicator of quality offenses or defenses. In fact, in ultimate it can easily be reversed: teams with a dominant defensive unit but not necessarily a strong offense can score an abundance of points for the team through defensive breaks. And a team with a strong offense that is rarely broken and scores at will can allow the defense to play a slightly looser game in which just a few breaks will result in a comfortable lead. Likewise, a defense that forces a lot of turnovers and converts most of them will ease the pressure on the offense and also slow down the game, giving the offense fewer opportunities on the field. The point is that these goals scored and goals allowed stats are not the entire story but still a useful metric to consider.
Most Points Scored in 2017:
Toronto Rush 363
DC Breeze 337
Montreal Royal 312
Philadelphia Phoenix 301
Ottawa Outlaws 298
New York Empire 291
Fewest Points Allowed in 2017:
New York Empire 289
DC Breeze 293
Montreal Royal 299
Toronto Rush 309
Philadelphia Phoenix 343
Ottawa Outlaws 364
The first surprise here is the New York Empire‘s ability to stop teams from scoring points despite their low finish in the standings. They were able to hold opponents to under 20 points six different times this season, including limiting the Royal to an astoundingly low eight goals on April 23.
Another surprise is Toronto’s dominance in both the standings and total points scored, yet relative weakness in keeping opponents out of the end zone. The Rush simply try to outscore opponents as quickly as possible, and it obviously works. If the Rush get into another close game, how will they manage? They only had two games decided by less than five points, losing one to Montreal by three and beating the Ottawa Outlaws by four.
Speaking of close games, how did the East teams fare in those tight contests? No matter where the games will be, it is anticipated that the playoff games will be close. Here are the standings in games decided by four points or less:
Montreal Royal 5-2
DC Breeze 5-3
Toronto Rush 1-1
New York Empire 3-3
Philadelphia Phoenix 2-5
Ottawa Outlaws 2-5
These standings show a distinct advantage for both the Royal and Breeze in close game experience. And both actually improved in this category as the season played out.
Now lets to see actual productivity when they had the disc in their hands.
Offensive Productivity:
DC Breeze 69%
Toronto Rush 67%
Montreal Royal 64%
New York Empire 61%
Philadelphia Phoenix 60%
Ottawa Outlaws 59%
Conversion Rate:
Toronto Rush 50%
DC Breeze 49%
New York Empire 44%
Philadelphia Phoenix 44%
Montreal Royal 42%
Ottawa Outlaws 41%
The offensive productivity is simply the percentage of points scored when receiving the disc. Almost right in line with the end of season standings, the playoff teams stand out. Conversion rate is how often a team scored when they were able to find the disc in their hands. Clearly the Rush and Breeze were far superior to the rest of the division in this category.
Not that it matters, but let’s just create standings based on these results. First gets one point, second two, etc. and add them (points scored, fewest points allowed, close games standings, offensive efficiency, and conversion rate) together for this:
Adjusted East Division Standings:
DC Breeze 9
Toronto Rush 11
Montreal Royal 15
New York Empire 18
Philadelphia Phoenix 23
Ottawa Outlaws 29
This shows nearly a duplication of the final 2017 AUDL Standings, and it was also my personal feeling on how the season actually played out. DC was in some ways better than Toronto across the entire season with Toronto coming on stronger at the end, while New York and Montreal were closer than the standings indicated. But my opinion, nor anyone else’s, matters much — the division title will be decided on the field.
Now it’s time to look at individual standings in specific categories. For simplicity’s sake only goals, assists, blocks, plus-minus, and passing percentage will be considered.
Goals:
- Alec Arsenault (Ottawa Outlaws) 60
- Conor Kline (New York Empire) 52
- Jeff Babbitt (New York Empire) 50
- Quentin Bonnaud (Montreal Royal) 49
- Mike Voelpel (Montreal Royal) 40
- Sean Mott (Philadelphia Phoenix) 40
- Andrew Carroll (Toronto Rush) 37
- Max Cassell (DC Breeze) 37
- Cameron Harris (Toronto Rush) 35
- Three tied at 30
Assists:
- Sean Mott (Philadelphia Phoenix) 54
- Stève Bonneau (Montreal Royal) 51
- Derek Alexander (Ottawa Outlaws) 46
- Cameron Harris (Toronto Rush) 42
- Isaiah Masek-Kelly (Toronto Rush) 41
- Tyler Monroe (DC Breeze) 39
- Nicky Spiva (Philadelphia Phoenix) 38
- Antoine Genest (Montreal Royal) 37
- Taylor Brooks (New York Empire) 36
- Kinley Gee (Ottawa Outlaws) 34
Blocks:
- Jeff Babbitt (New York Empire) 41
- Ryan Drost (New York Empire) 27
- Ben Jagt (New York Empire) 22
- Marijo Zlatic (Toronto Rush) 20
- André Arsenault (Montreal Royal) 20
- Mike MacKenzie (Toronto Rush) 19
- Nick Boucher (Ottawa Outlaws) 19
- Delrico Johnson (DC Breeze) 18
- Marques Brownlee (Philadelphia Phoenix) 18
- Four tied at 17
Plus-Minus:
- Jeff Babbitt (New York Empire) +92
- Quentin Bonnaud (Montreal Royal) +77
- Alec Arsenault (Ottawa Outlaws) +66
- Sean Mott (Philadelphia Phoenix) +55
- Conor Kline (New York Empire) +53
- Cameron Harris (Toronto Rush) +52
- Marques Brownlee (Philadelphia Phoenix) +46
- William Hoehne (Philadelphia Phoenix) +46
- Andrew Carroll (Toronto Rush) +45
- Rowan McDonnell (DC Breeze) +45
Passing Percentage (100+ attempts):
- Trey Katzenbach (Philadelphia Phoenix) 99.23% – 258/260
- Nathan Prior (DC Breeze) 98.03% – 250/255
- Matt Kerrigan (DC Breeze) 97.30% – 108/111
- Chris Kocher (New York Empire) 96.97% – 192/198
- Jeff Babbitt (New York Empire) 96.49% – 165/171
- Thomson McKnight (Toronto Rush) 96.31% – 522/542
- Matt Auletta (New York Empire) 95.97% – 262/273
- Connor Armstrong (Toronto Rush) 95.90% – 351/366
- Lloyd Blake (DC Breeze) 95.89% – 420/438
- Chuck Cantone (DC Breeze) 95.87% – 116/121
Noting that not a lot of Breeze players are on these top 10 lists in the East Division, this is another indicator that no one on the team really carried an MVP-like campaign. In fact, each individual category is led by a player not on a playoff squad.
2017 AUDL East Top 5 Performers:
Jeff Babbitt: 50 goals, 9 assists, 41 blocks, 165/171 throws (+92)
-New York Empire
Sean Mott: 40 goals, 54 assists, 7 blocks, 312/349 throws (+55)
-Philadelphia Phoenix
Quentin Bonnaud: 49 goals, 27 assists, 17 blocks, 197/208 throws (+77)
-Montreal Royal
Alec Arsenault: 60 goals, 21 assists, 7 blocks, 125/142 throws, (+66)
-Ottawa Outlaws
Cameron Harris: 35 goals, 42 assists, 12 blocks, 270/301 throws (+52)
-Toronto Rush
This Friday the Breeze will have to face Bonnaud in the first round of the playoffs as the team takes on Montreal here in DC. If the team is fortunate enough, they will then move on to play Harris’s Rush on Sunday at 1pm in Toronto.