When they're on the ice: Whenever their team needs them most. Conversely, players handling these types of assignments can experience scoring boosts when an effective checking line relieves them of some of these responsibilities, much like Anaheim's Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf this past season.Įxamples: Zach Parise, Pavel Datsyuk, Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Toews, Patrice Bergeron Young elite players sometimes slowly evolve into this role, at which point their scoring totals may start to plateau (fair warning, Taylor Hall). Teams that don't have as many scoring alternatives, like the Minnesota Wild, will deploy such players more frequently in the offensive zone instead.Įven in the latter case, the superior nature of their opponents generally prevents them from winning any scoring races, both leaguewide and occasionally even their own team's.
Teams that are deep offensively, like the Boston Bruins for example, tend to focus their power-vs.-power matchups in the defensive zone.
These elite players therefore need to be complete, disciplined two-way players and are usually featured prominently in Selke voting as the league's best defensive forward. Whether chasing a lead or protecting one, when the other team's stars hop over the boards, so do they. These players are used against the opposing team's top players in almost all situations. Where they appear on a player usage chart: along the top. When they're on the ice: against opposing top lines, in almost any situation or zone. Warning: You will lose all track of time!Īs demonstrated on the player usage chart, elite forwards are divided into three basic types, and each one includes several excellent examples of players that share common traits, results and reputations. Visit Hockey Abstract for more information on player usage charts, including a tool where you can design your own. There's obviously a little complexity behind the scenes, but basically a big blue bubble is good and a red bubble (like Patrick Kane) is bad. Secondly, those who more commonly face top-line competition are at the top of the chart, while players on depth lines find themselves way at the bottom (obviously not shown here).Īs for the bubbles, they indicate how well a team does with the given player on the ice. What does this chart tell us about how players are being used? For starters, players who start a high percentage of their (non-neutral zone) shifts in the offensive zone are on the right side of the chart, while those deployed more defensively are on the left. Take, for example, a player usage chart that includes all of today's elite forwards and their 2013 NHL data, which all comes from Behind the Net.
Simply put, player usage charts reveal how players are being used at just the quickest of glances. What are these groups, and how can we tell which player is which? Both of these questions can be answered with player usage charts, one of the most exciting new tools coming out of the world of hockey analytics. The players within these groups often share many of the same traits and experience many of the same results, and moving them from one group to another has similar consequences to both them and their teams. Note: Questions may be edited for clarity and style.Today's elite forwards ultimately fall into roughly three groups, usually as a result of not only their own strengths and weaknesses but also the needs and goals of their respective teams. There is a lot of ground to cover, both good and bad. This is definitely going to take more than one installment to try to get through even half of them. While they try to clean that up before the next game Saturday in Tampa against the two-time defending champs, we asked for mailbag questions … and y’all had a lot of them. They’ve allowed at least 36 in each of the past five games and averaged 39.6 against. The Devils allowed 28.1 shots on goal per game through the first 10 games, which was top three in the NHL. A big issue that has popped up during this recent five-game stretch is the suddenly rising shot totals the New Jersey goalies are facing. The Devils have now lost three straight, won three in a row and lost three again in their past nine games (3-3-3). That leaves the Devils with 17 points after 15 games (7-5-3), and it was the first time New Jersey did not meet its goal of collecting six points in each five-game segment. It gave the Devils a chance to practice on back-to-back days, but it didn’t help much Thursday night in a 4-1 loss on the road to the Panthers. New Jersey’s game Tuesday was postponed because the Ottawa Senators are dealing with an outbreak. The Devils ended up in the middle of the NHL’s first significant COVID-19 scheduling issue, but it was the other team dealing with a mounting number of positive tests this time.