Monday, October 5, 2009

Sex With Numbers

Hard to do a statistical analysis after just a couple games, and frankly it's probably a bit pointless, but I went ahead and did it anyhow 'cause I like numbers and I like looking at them and I like the way they make me laugh sometimes. Sadly, most of the Leafs' numbers so far will make you cry.

Stajan and Poni need to shoot more. It's great that they both have 2 goals each already, and their shooting percentages are a sparkling 50%, but that means that they've each only taken 4 shots a piece total in the first 2 games. Not enough. Not when they should be leading the offence as they did last year. Both "top-six" forwards shouldn't have 7 players (Hagman, Beauchemin, Stempniak, Blake, Grabovski, Primeau, Stalberg) ahead of them in shots after 2 games.

Hagman has been our most complete player after 2 games. 1 goal, 1 assist, for 2 points, a plus 2, and leads the team with 10 shots on goal.

People complain that plus/minus is a meaningless stat, but I find it sometimes helps you see things that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Grabovski, Ponikarovsky, and White are all an eyebrow-raising plus 3 after the first 2 losses.

Beauchemin is a team-worst minus 4. Offensively though, he's second in shots-on-goal, with 8 from the blue line after just 2 games.

John Mitchell leads all forwards in ice time (19:33/g).

Luke Schenn leads the team in Hits, with 8. Right behind him is Komisarek with 7. Jeff Finger, who threw 5 in one game against the Caps, is third. I say we keep Finger in for now if he's gonna play like that. In the opener against Montreal, Exelby is credited with just 1 Hit.

Mike Komisarek is on pace for 697 PIMs this season, which would catapult him all the way up to 22nd on the Leafs' all-time list of penalty minute leaders.

Jonas Gustavsson earned his first-ever NHL loss on Saturday because the Leafs scored more then 2 goals but less then 7. The NHL credits the goalie who gave up the game-winning goal (Washington's 5th) as the loser, so despite the fact that the Leafs actually outscored the Caps 4-3 while he was in the net, the Monster earns his first loss of the season and his career. Nice one, Vesa. Meanwhile, Toskala is still sporting a nifty-looking .500 record at 0-0-1.

Ray Emery is 2-0-0 with a GAA of 1.00 and a .963 SV%.

Bozak, Hanson, and Tlusty all went pointless in their first game with the Marlies. It's not all bad news though - Joey MacDonald is now 1-0-0 with a 1.85 GAA and a .941 SV%.

So, if you're wondering about the title of this post - well, are you feeling screwed yet?

4 comments:

Hungry Leafs Fan said...

Damnit, General. Your title is misleading as I thought I was finally going to be able to satisfy my fetish for numbers. Great and informative post. Wouldn't that be something if Komi does get nearly 700 PIMs? Of course that would probably mean that we would be 0-82 the way our PK has been.

general borschevsky said...

Thanks HLF! Having a strong penalty-kill is going to be vital.

Hey eyebleaf! Season's just begun.

bkblades said...

0-0-1 record for Vesa? Works for me. That's goaltending I can get behind.

By the way, thanks for the kind words on the hat over at PPP earlier. I strictly wear it for the compliments. I've been hoping for Leafs luck ever since I bought it years ago, but that ship hasn't left the dock yet.

general borschevsky said...

You're good people bkblades. Anytime you need a wing-man just let me know.