Weekend Open Thread: Possession Anchors and Balloons
By Ryan Pike
9 years ago
As we all revel in the awesomeness that is the Chicago/LA series (and last night’s game in particular), why not finish off the last of my brief possession look-backs?
Who makes their teammates consistently, considerably better at driving the play? Conversely, who was an absolute drain on the life-force of the team’s offensive drives? That’s what I tried to dig into here.
My approach was rather simple: anybody who played 100 even-strength minutes together was compared. Players that increased (or decreased) another’s Corsi by 10% or more (compared to that player apart from them) were noted and listed here, listed from biggest to smallest differences made. Your mileage may vary.
BALLOONS
- Brodie makes Byron 15.6% better
- Giordano makes Cammalleri 15.3% better
- Giordano makes Monahan 13% better
- Giordano makes Byron 13% better
- Brodie makes Backlund 13% better
- Brodie makes Colborne 12.7% better
- Giordano makes Backlund 12.2% better
- Brodie makes Cammalleri 11.5% better
- Cammalleri makes Byron 11.4% better
- Backlund makes Brodie 11.3% better
- Galiardi makes Bouma 11% better
- Cammalleri makes Giordano 10.9% better
- Giordano makes Hudler 10.8% better
- Giordano makes Colborne 10.7% better
- Giordano makes Stempniak 10.5% better
- Backlund makes Byron 10.3% better
- Byron makes Brodie 10.2% better
- Backlund makes Cammalleri 10% better
The Brodie/Backlund/Giordano trio was absolute possession GOLD. Byron and Cammalleri appear here often, too, indicating that they may not necessarily drive play a lot on their own, but fare well with the right players. And I spy T.J. Galiardi, sneaking in there in the middle.
ANCHORS
- Smid makes Byron 14% worse
- McGrattan makes O’Brien 13.8% worse
- McGrattan makes Galiardi 13.3% worse
- Monahan makes Glencross 11.8% worse
- Glencross makes Monahan 11.4% worse
- McGrattan makes Smid 11.3% worse
- Smid makes Jones 11% worse
- Glencross makes Colborne 11% worse
- Glencross makes Brodie 11% worse
- Butler makes Hudler 10.1% worse
Glencross had a rough season. Traditionally (a) Calgary’s heart and soul and (b) one of its better possession players. This year he battled injuries and never found his real rhythm. Also not good: Smid and McGrattan. Other than Glencross, no shocks here.
To be honest, I expected more Westgarth and O’Brien here, but neither was in a pairing that hit the 10% threshold.
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