Playing the numbers

Eleven times, the Pictou County Scotians have taken the ice in this Nova Scotia Junior Hockey league seasons, and not once have they lost in regulation. Eight wins and three shootout losses, that's a pretty good rate of success.
Right now the Scotians are in the league's top two in goals per game as well as goals allowed per game, which can be a very good sign because - in theory at least - if one of those units breaks down, you have a safety net. Goals suddenly hard to come by? You can rely on defence to bail you out. Team suddenly has a Swiss cheese defence? At least you know you can win some nights by simply out-gunning opponents.
They'll lose sooner or later of course - and injuries can certainly derail any team for an extended period of time - but as they say (here we are alluding to that shadowy, nameless roup, nameless known as "they"): wins in October in November can mean just as much as wins in January.

• Heard on The Golf Channel while watching snippets of a Nationwide Tour event, of all things: 92 per cent of golfers don't break 90 in a round.

• Whenever Junior 'A' Crushers' enforcer Tony Pisano tees up a slap shot - which isn't often - the crowd at JBM Stadium seems to really want to him to let loose. Maybe it's because they want to see Pisano get his first-ever Junior 'A' goal, or maybe it's because they just want to see a Howitzer. Or maybe it's both.

• The Crushers, now 12-7-1 on the season, have wandered into a goal-scoring funk: Correction: they've been there practically the whole season but moreso lately. They have scored three or fewer goals in nine of their past 10 games (Pictou County is 5-5 in that stretch) and on the season, they've scored 63 goals while giving up 64.
Only once have they scored five (a 7-0 win at Bridgewater), while Geoff Hum (10 goals, 15 assists) and Shawn O'Donnell (12 goals, 10 assists) are the only players on a point-a-game pace. Stu Lenehan by the way, has quietly collected eight goals and eight assists this season and, if you want an offbeat stat: captain Kevin MacLean (a defenceman this year in no small part due to circumstances), has recorded eight assists and has already eclipsed his seven points of last season. His eight points, too, has tied a career high. Further on the Crushers' on-ice leader, he had a four-game point streak snapped last weekend.
But numbers rarely paint a complete picture and besides, scoring isn't exactly lights out across the MJAHL this season. The Crushers have pulled out wins by ummm… uuuhhh… well… to be honest I don't really know how they've won some of those games, but it's to their credit that they've compiled a very good record so far, staying in the thick of the Maurice Bent Division race.
The division-leading Truro Bearcats, once again with a tough 'D' this year (best in the MJAHL), are at Pictou County on Thursday night in a game that could pull the Crushers closer to first place.

Kevin Adshade is a writer at The News.