The Weekly Faceoff is a regular column talking about all things Tongues, in and around the AIHL.

The 2011 AIHL season has been underway for 2 weeks, and while the Blue Tongues are yet to play a game there have been some noteworthy events happen around the league.

Cartright & Bales

Last season the North Stars’ pair of Cartright and Bales led the league in goals (Cartright: 36) and points (Bales: 81).  Their return to the North Stars roster this season had high expectation around the North Stars camp that they would continue where they left off.  And so they have.  Cartright has 7g, 6a for 13 points off just 3 games and Bales has 4 goals and 10 points from those same 3 games.  Only Jason Baclig, returning import for the Melbourne Ice has more Points-per-game, sitting on 6g and 9 points from 2 games.

Teams off to a quick start

There have been 75 goals scored so far this season, with more than half of them scored by the North Stars (21) and Melbourne Mustangs (9).   There has been a lot of talk explaining such a drastically fast start to the season, with a lot of reasoning landing on national rep players not playing during the first weekend of the season.  Naturally, if this is in fact the case it would mean that a lot of teams were weaker during that opening stretch, and could explain such large scorelines.  Where then does this put teams who have not yet got games under their belt such as the Blue Tongues (no games played) or the Canberra Knights (1 game played)?  And does this give a slight advantage to those teams who did start their season 2 weekends ago?  Food for thought, no doubt.

The league after 2 weeks

The North Stars sit at the top of the table with a full 9 points off their 3 games played.  Melbourne Ice have won 2 from 2 and sit in 2nd spot with 6 points.  The Ice Dogs have 3rd spot with 3 points (1 win, 1 loss) tied on points with the Mustangs who are 1-3 this season after 4 games.  Adelaide picked up an overtime win against the Bears and have 2 points in 5th spot on the ladder followed by the Bears who have played 2 games (1 loss, 1 ot loss) and have 1 point.  The Knights lost their only game to the North Stars and have 0 points and last on the ladder are the Blue Tongues who are yet to get their season underway.

Justin Sawyer

The Blue Tongues have some great imports this season.  We’ve already seen Mike McRae in action last season, and those of us who have followed the team since their inception will remember the magic Matt Amado performed on the ice.  This season we an import defenseman who has, for the most part, flown under the fan radar.  His name is Justin Sawyer and his experience includes stops in the EIHL, ECHL and the AHL.  Sawyers full profile is on the Blue Tongues website.