Crunching Numbers: Myers and Tallinder Given Tough Assignment

It took me a couple of weeks to get back in the swing of things but the statistical analysis is back by community demand. I will try my best to keep up with every game in the near future but back-to-back games might be tough to do. I have not figured out a way to automate the stats yet so I have to do them by hand, which I enjoy doing but it is time consuming.

This is probably not the best game to bring the Corsi numbers back because the stats in this game can be a little misleading. There is no way that anyone will be able to completely shutdown Alexander Ovechkin and the high powered Capitals offense. The plan is to try to take away their ice and force them to take their shots from the outside. The Sabres did that on Wednesday night but the Corsi numbers are admittedly bad for some players.

There are a couple of very interesting numbers in the game stats that are listed above. It's fun to watch these numbers on a game by game basis and see how they compare to each other. It was interesting to see how the Sabres were able to role four lines in this game while other nights the fourth line might play only four or five minutes.

Other interesting stats...

• Tyler Myers had an interesting stat line...six giveaways (very bad) and eight blocked shots (very good). I can't ever remember seeing a Sabres player finish a game with eight blocked shots. It's obvious that Myers is counted on because he was matched up with Ovechkin all night and finished with almost 26 minutes of ice time.
• The Sabres desperately miss Paul Gaustad in the faceoff circle. It was nice to see Derek Roy do well but Jochen Hecht lost 10 of the 11 draws he took. I'm not sure what is worse...the 10 losses or the coaching staff allowing him to continue to take faceoffs despite being obviously over-matched.
• Derek Roy is another player that jumps off the page. On Monday he was benched in the third period and played only a couple of shifts. He responded by having a great game. He had zero giveaways which is unheard of for Roy and he was one of the few Sabres that did well at the faceoff dot.

 Corsi Numbers

The Corsi number is a statistic that what created by Sabres goalie coach JIm Corsi. It is the difference in total shots for and the total shots against. It factors in all shots that were on net, attempts that were blocked and shots that missed the net. The idea is that it is a better reflection on a players two-way play because it shows puck possession as opposed to only shots on goal.

I mentioned in the opening paragraph that the numbers for this game would be misleading and a look above proves it. Henrik Tallinder and Tyler Myers did a great job of forcing Ovechkin to take poor quality shots but he still managed to control the puck much of the time. If you were to judge the play of the pair on Corsi Numbers, you would think they were awful and that couldn't be further from the truth.

The line of Kennedy, Pominville and Hecht was most often on the ice against Ovechkin as well and that would explain the poor Corsi numbers for those players.