The Puck Stops Here
AHL Scoring Race
by PuckStopsHere on 02/17/12 at 12:23 PM ET
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For much of the season Keith Aucoin of the Hershey Bears (Washington Capitals affiliate) has led the AHL in scoring. This changed when Aucoin was called up to the NHL for a big part of February so far (though he is back in the AHL now). Aucoin was given very little opportunity in the NHL. He played slightly over nine minutes a game in five games without scoring any points.
While Aucoin has been in the NHL, he has been caught in the AHL scoring race by teammate Chris Bourque. Both Bourque and Aucoin have 70 points so far this season. They are well ahead of the rest of the league in scoring.
Likely the AHL scoring race will be won by one of these Hershey Bears stars. Hershey is the highest scoring team on a per game basis in the AHL. They are in fifth place in the AHL standings right now. They are six points behind current AHL leader the St. John’s IceCaps (Winnipeg’s affiliate). Hershey is the most offensively powerful team in the league. They haven’t had sufficient defensive ability to be the top team in the league.
Chris Bourque is currently 26 years old and may still make an impact at the NHL level. Thus far he has not been able to translate his AHL success into NHL success. He has four points in 33 career games played, with the majority of the games coming in the 2009/10 season with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Keith Aucoin at age 33 is no longer an NHL prospect. He is an injury fill-in who has had considerable success at the AHL level. At the NHL level he has scored 26 points in 80 career games that have been scattered over seven different seasons.
Both players are smaller than your typical NHLer. There is concern that they will be pushed around and not able to play defence successfully at the NHL level. Neither has been given much of a chance. Neither has been given top six NHL minutes for any significant amount of time. Most of their NHL games have had very limited ice time. It is an open question how they would have done in the NHL if given a more serious chance.
The AHL scoring race lead is currently a tie between Keith Aucoin and Chris Bourque of the Hershey Bears. They are both smaller players who have not been given a serious NHL shot in part because of their size. Perhaps this prevents them from being successful NHL players, but they are AHL stars. It will be interesting to see how this race plays out. Which of the two players will be the top scorer come seasons end?
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Tags: Chris+Bourque, Hershey+Bears, Keith+Aucoin,
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