Halfway Home: A Tale of Numbers
January 4th, 2010 | by Chris Hollis |
Photo courtesy of inhyung
Well, the first 41 are behind us and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Injuries, goaltender controversies, losses. Add it all up, and it was not pretty for the majority of the first half. In fact, it was downright painful alot of the time. but that’s OK, because we’ve hit the halfway point of the season and things are finally starting to look up.
That said, let’s take a second to reflect a bit more closely on what transpired during the first 41 from a numbers standpoint:
Line Production
With all the injuries that the Wings suffered in the first half of the season, the lines got shuffled all over the place and new guys were in and out of the lineup constantly. At the end of the day, here’s how the line numbers shook out for the first 41:
Forward Lines
- 79 unique forward line combinations were used in”5-on-5″ situations during the first half
- 41 of the combinations (51.8%) failed to register any points through 41 games
- 22 of the combinations (27.8%) finished with a rating of “+1″ or better
- 33 of the combinations (41.7%) finished with an “Even” rating
- 1 combination (1.2%) finished with more than 10 goals
- 2 combinations (2.5%) finished with more than 10 points
Here’s the top/bottom three combinations for the first half:
Top Producers
| Line |
G | A | PTS | Plus/Minus |
| Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi | 11 | 12 | 23 | (+8) |
| Draper-Helm-Eaves | 5 | 10 | 15 | (+3) |
| Cleary-Zetterberg-Leino | 5 | 4 | 9 | (-1) |
Least Productive
| Line | G | A | PTS | Plus/Minus |
| Leino-Helm-Draper | 0 | 0 | 0 | (-2) |
| Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi | 0 | 0 | 0 | (-3) |
| Cleary-Filppula-Bertuzzi | 0 | 0 | 0 | (-4) |
Kneejerk Reaction: No surprise that the Homer/Dats/Bert line leads the team in scoring when on the ice together, but I have to admit that the Hank/Dats/Bert line having zero points and a “-3″ rating is pretty troubling.
Defensive Pairings
- 24 unique defensive pairings were used in”5-on-5″ situations during the first half of the season
- 9 pairings (37.5%) failed to register any points through 41 games
- 8 of the pairings (33.3%) finished with a rating of “+1″ or better
- 3 of the pairings (12.5%) finished with an “Even” rating
- 1 pairing (4.1%) finished with more than 10 points
Here’s the top/bottom three pairings:
Top Producers
| Pairing | G | A | PTS | Plus/Minus |
| Lidstrom-Rafalski | 0 | 13 | 13 | (+8) |
| Kronwall-Stuart | 2 | 5 | 7 | (+2) |
| Ericsson-Lebda | 3 | 3 | 6 | (-1) |
Least Productive
| Pairing | G | A | PTS | Plus/Minus |
| Lidstrom-Meech | 0 | 0 | 0 | (-2) |
| Stuart-Lebda | 0 | 0 | 0 | (-2) |
| Rafalski-Stuart | 0 | 0 | 0 | (-2) |
Kneejerk Reaction:Yes, Ericsson/Lebda is in the top three pairings based on points, but notice that +/- rating? Also, I’m in utter disbelief that Ericsson isn’t in one of the bottom three pairings based on play early this season.
Special Teams Production
No need for a ton of breakdown here, so we’ll just run through these pretty quickly:
Power Play Production
- 15 power play units registered points during the first half
- Highest: Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Lidstrom-Rafalski (8 G, 15 A, 23 PTS)
- Lowest: Draper-Helm-Eaves-Lidstrom-Rafalski (1 G, 0 A, 1 PT)
Penalty Killing Production
- 20 sets of 4 man penalty killing units gave up at least one goal during the first half
- Brad Stuart appears on 16 of those units (80%)
- Most: Helm-Eaves-Stuart-Ericsson (3 GA)
Shorthanded Production
- 4 units have been on the ice for a shorthanded goal this year
- Brad Stuart appears on all four units
CSSI Numbers
Here’s your CSSI leader and lovable loser after 41 games:
- Most points: Pavel Datsyuk +38 (+42.5, -4.5)
- Fewest points: Jonathan Ericsson -24 (+6.5, -30.5)
- Average points per player: +5.09
