Nashville's 1-0 loss to Buffalo: Inside the Numbers

by Dirk Hoag on Oct 11, 2009 12:08 PM EDT in Statistical Analysis Comment 4 comments

Teemu Laakso, along with most of the Nashville Predators, spent too much of last night chasing opponents in the defensive zone.

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As if last night's 1-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres wasn't gruesome enough in real time, I thought I'd take another swing at presenting detailed stats from the Nashville perspective.

Readers with delicate constitutions may wish to avoid the horrifying details herein...

Even Strength

Even Strength		Individual Totals					Team Totals While Player Is On Ice
Player	Pos	EV TOI	Shots	Shts Blkd	Missed Shts	Blocks	SOG For	SOG Ag	SOG +/-	Tot SF	Tot SA	Corsi
Jason Arnott	C	15:06	0	2	1	0	5	8	-3	14	12	+2
Steve Sullivan	L	15:47	3	0	0	0	6	10	-4	14	14	0
Patric Hornqvist	R	13:59	2	0	0	1	8	7	+1	15	11	+4
David Legwand	C	16:14	2	0	0	1	8	15	-7	14	26	-12
Martin Erat	R	16:02	0	0	0	0	6	12	-6	14	23	-9
Michael Santorelli	C	14:57	3	1	1	1	7	8	-1	12	20	-8
Marcel Goc	C	13:52	0	0	0	0	4	4	0	12	9	+3
Joel Ward	R	13:14	0	1	2	0	3	8	-5	13	13	0
Ryan Jones	L	8:43	2	4	0	0	3	6	-3	10	10	0
Ben Guite	R	5:47	1	0	1	0	2	9	-7	3	10	-7
Jerred Smithson	R	7:59	0	0	1	0	3	9	-6	5	10	-5
Triston Grant	L	7:02	0	0	0	0	3	9	-6	5	10	-5
Shea Weber	D	21:41	2	1	3	2	8	13	-5	21	22	-1
Ryan Suter	D	19:13	0	1	1	4	8	14	-6	18	23	-5
Dan Hamhuis	D	17:15	2	0	2	0	8	7	+1	16	15	+1
Kevin Klein	D	17:29	1	1	0	2	7	7	0	13	15	-2
Francis Bouillon	D	15:40	1	1	0	0	4	18	-14	11	23	-12
Teemu Laakso	D	9:00	0	0	0	0	3	14	-11	7	17	-10

Note: Color shading highlights top (green) and bottom (red) 15% of performers, prorated for ice time. I've attempted to group players by forward line or defensive pairing.

It was a tough night across the board, as all but two players finished on the negative side of the Shots On Goal +/- at even strength (Hornqvist & Hamhuis). The defensive pairing of Bouillon and Laakso had it especially bad. One oddity found here is that Ryan Jones had 4 of his 6 shot attempts blocked, a high proportion for a forward. As for Martin Erat, it may well be milk-carton time; I agree with Brandon Felder's assertion that when J.P. Dumont returns to the lineup, #10 should be banished to the 3rd line (at least) in favor of Hornqvist and Santorelli, who show much more assertiveness offensively.

Just imagine bringing a hockey fan from another city to a Predators game, and ask them which guy they think is the highest paid player on the team. Better yet, bring 1,000. I'd bet not a single one of them would guess Martin Erat.

Power Play

Power Play				Team Totals While On Ice
Player	Pos	PP TOI	SOG	Goals For	SOG For	Tot Shots For
Dan Hamhuis	D	0:50	0	0	0	0
Teemu Laakso	D	0:20	0	0	0	0
Shea Weber	D	0:52	0	0	2	2
Kevin Klein	D	0:48	0	0	0	0
Martin Erat	R	1:08	0	0	0	0
David Legwand	C	1:08	0	0	0	0
Jason Arnott	C	0:52	2	0	2	2
Ryan Suter	D	1:10	0	0	2	2
Steve Sullivan	L	1:10	0	0	2	2
Patric Hornqvist	R	0:52	0	0	2	2
Ryan Jones	L	0:50	0	0	0	0

They only earned two minutes of power play time (a problem all its own), so there's not much here to see.

Penalty Kill

Penalty Kill				Team Totals While On Ice
Player	Pos	PK TOI	Blkd Shts	Goals Ag	SOG Ag	Tot Shots Ag
Jerred Smithson	R	4:18	1	0	3	6
Dan Hamhuis	D	3:50	0	0	3	7
Kevin Klein	D	3:08	0	0	3	7
Marcel Goc	C	2:51	0	0	2	3
Francis Bouillon	D	2:51	0	0	1	1
Ryan Suter	D	2:44	0	0	3	3
Joel Ward	R	2:36	2	0	1	3
David Legwand	C	2:30	0	0	2	3
Shea Weber	D	2:13	0	0	2	2
Ben Guite	R	2:05	0	0	3	4
Teemu Laakso	D	1:14	0	0	0	0
Martin Erat	R	1:05	0	0	1	1
Steve Sullivan	L	0:24	0	0	0	0
Jason Arnott	C	0:11	0	0	0	0

They managed to kill off a full 8 minutes of shorthanded duty without giving up a goal (due in good part, of course, to Pekka Rinne's goaltending), but most of these results aren't bad.

As always, questions or suggestions as to the presentation of single-game advanced stats are welcomed. I do plan on adding faceoff information later on (broken down by on-ice strength and zone).

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