These kinds of players put their balls on the table. If you watch his game he's not the fastest skater but he's always trying to be first on the puck. Not Boychuk, that kid is an absolute demon on a loose puck. So looking at the Avs it's not a surprise that Landeskog is so high up the list. He gives as good as he gets but he's not letting the play on a loose puck be dictated by the opposing team.
Stats aside, Avs fans who watch his game know that's how he plays. You also know from watching Landeskog that he likes to hold the puck, he doesn't let pressure make early decisions on his passes. He will absorb hits to make plays. Same can be said of the cloth the MacKinnon is cut from. You'd think a younger guy who's known for his elite speed and scoring chances off the rush would not be taking so many hits. But Mackinnon is another player that doesn't allegator-arm passes because of pressure.
He will absorb contact and retain possession. He will not speed up a play because of the physical element of the game.
When I type those words the next guy that comes to mind is Duchene. He's going to possess the puck as long as possible before he makes his play on the puck despite his speed and elusiveness. What is a bit of surprise on this list of hits taken by Avs players is that defensemen aren't playing a more dominate position with this statistic.
My only unproven theory on why that is, is that not a lot of teams played dump and chase hockey against the Avalanche. If Corsi is the true indicator of puck possession, then that would make some sense when it comes to the Avalanche defense. Easy zone entries were certainly a stark characteristic of the playoffs and surely an area the Avs need to improve. The best Corsi team in the regular season last year was the LA Kings.
Five of their top 10 hits against were defensemen led by Mitchell with against. The bottom of the Avs list has players that should not surprise you. Bordeleau hits people a lot because his line doesn't have the puck a lot. He does take a fair share of hits himself as he's a surprisingly decent puck possession 4th liner. Nate Guenin with all those minutes and only 67 hits against kind of explains his game.
He's either unwilling or unable to get to pucks before the opposition. If this number were larger I think the criticisms about his zone exits would be even more numerous. Probably the most interesting and surely most controversial players over the Summer are low on this list, Stastny and O'Reilly. Their proponents will attribute this to their elusiveness. This may very well be true.. Sometimes in hockey you need to take a hit to make a play.
Sakic did this all the time. Duchene is a slippery as they come, he does this. Patrick Kane who does not always go in first on the puck at the boards, is probably the most elusive player in the entire NHL still took 99 hits with Chicago. I'm not concluding that O'Reilly and Stastny are secretly poor players because their hits against is low.
But it does support a lot about what I see in their games. Neither player can be considered fleet of foot so second to puck battles , neither player likes to absorb a hit to make a play. Both players are considered strong possession players by the advanced stat community due to their shot differentials Corsi.
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I suspect this probably isn't new information to teams, and the best current example just might be the best team in hockey in -- the Chicago Blackhawks. They rank near the bottom of the NHL in hits. They don't take penalties.
They don't block a ton of shots. They win a ton of hockey games, having gone through half of the season without losing a game in regulation. In 21 of their first 24 games this season they have been outhit by their opponents.
For the season as a whole they've been outhit Blackhawks forward and mid-season MVP candidate Patrick Kane nailed it when talking about this earlier in the week:. Patrick Kane: "If guys are getting on me about my hits, I'll say, well it's tough to hit when you have the puck the whole game.
The Blackhawks lack of hits, and blocked shots, and penalties isn't due to a lack of toughess -- it's because they are always playing with the puck on their sticks. They're making other teams do the hitting. And making other teams take the penalties. When you're playing without the puck you're not only forced to run around and hit people in an effort to steal it from them, you're also in a position where you run the risk of taking more penalties.
With the puck you're not hooking, or holding, or tripping, or taking runs at people and being sent off for boarding and charging. You're making other teams do it. For all of the talk about physical play in the game and the screaming that rises up anytime somebody challenges it whether it be a fighting ban , or just simply discounting the importance of fights , or how meaningless hit statistics are hockey is still very much at its core a game of skill and talent.
I'm not even sure if there is any value in the NHL tracking hits, and I'm fairly confident there's no value in trying to use that data as a positive for a team unless that team is losing the hit battle. It's an aspect of the game where the situation matters more than the total numbers.
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