That time again, let’s geek out a bit.
-2.29
This is something we’ve harped on all year, but it’s worth revisiting because it’s so ridiculous. This is Patrick Kane’s CORSI/60. Both his normal linemates at the moment, Jimmy Hayes and Dave Bolland, are below -10. Sharp’s around where Kane is. So even though that line wasn’t good in terms of possession when Sharp was around, it was better than it is now. And yet Kane is in the top five in scoring in the NHL.
How? Well, Kane is shooting 8 points above his career average in shooting percentage, so that helps. But it’s not just goals for Kane, obviously, as he he would be on pace for a career high in assists too. Basically, Kane is getting hits while down 0-2 in the count pretty much every at bat. He doesn’t get a lot of looks in the o-zone as you’d like, and yet he’s making something happen in almost all of them. Kane starts 54% of his shifts in the offensive zone. Only 48% finish there. What if that were higher? Well, Sidney Crosby wouldn’t be running away with the Hart race, I think.
50.0-54.0%
That’s the amount of shifts that Michael Frolik starts in the offensive zone, and the amount that finish there. That’s the largest plus-difference on the team (Andrew Shaw is second). Whatever Frolik can or can’t do, he’s probably the hardest worker who’s not a captain on the team, and the dude just drives possession wherever he is.
-2.68
This is Dave Bolland’s Behind The Net Rating. Not only is it more than twice as bad as anyone on the Hawks, it’s sixth worst among centers in the entire league. For those who don’t know, Behind The Net Rating is calculated by subtracting your goal-differential per 60 minutes while you’re off the ice from the goal-difference per 60 minutes on the ice. Essentially, the Hawks are two and a half goals worse off while Bolland is on the ice per 60 than when he’s off.
That’s how piss poor he’s been. And it starts to make you question if his entire defensive rep was built on having Keith and Seabrook behind him, along with two-way wingers Andrew Ladd, Kris Versteeg, Bryan Bickell, and a couple others alongside. All these guys drove possession. It’s getting pretty obvious that Bolland doesn’t. Bolland’s rarely been a plus-player in BTN, but he usually hovers around even. This is just abhorrent.
With Sharp and Hossa still out, there’s little Q can do now. When they’re healthy, he’ll have to consider putting Hossa and Saad flanking Bolland at this point. Or he would if he had any idea what these numbers are, which I don’t think he does.
3.1, 12.8
The first is Duncan Keith’s shooting-percentage, which is actually up slightly from last season. The second is Nick Leddy’s. Who should be QB-ing the top PP unit? Sample size yes, but Leddy had a 10% shooting-percentage in his rookie year as well.
4th
That’s what Brandon Saad is in rookie scoring. And with Jonathan Huberdeau’s goal-drought, why isn’t there more talk of Saad as a Calder candidate? Maybe only having four goals hurts him. Maybe people think he’s playing in a sweetheart spot, which he is. But he’s also making that. Saad’s got a month here, but something of a scoring binge goal-wise, and the Hawks could have their third Calder finalist in six years (should have been four, as Crawford really should have been a finalist his rookie year).
