A study in enforcementWhat do the goons do?

by James Mirtle on Nov 24, 2007 4:00 PM CST Comment 0 comments

Tyler Dellow had a post on the Oilers' Zack Stortini a few weeks back about what happens when the enforcer's on the ice, and the answer seemed to be 'not much.' When he's not fighting, he's not generating chances and the coach has to try to keep him away from any situation where the team might potentially give up a goal.

Stortini's played about 6.5 minutes per game over 12 games this season, and seen no goals for and two goals against while he's on the ice.

It all made me wonder: What does happen when goons are out there? Do any of them contribute in ways other than dropping the gloves? And who is the best enforcer when it comes to non-fighting attributes?

I'm going to try and keep this limited to traditional "goons," big guys who play little and are basically there for only to draw blood. Smaller players who can play and are among the lead leaders in fighting majors, like David Clarkson and Dan Carcillo, need not apply.

Our goon sample:

Rk	Player	Team	GP	Mins	Fights	PIM
1	Jared Boll	Cmb	21	6.91	7	66
2	Riley Cote	Phi	16	3.60	7	51
3	Eric Godard	Cal	19	4.78	6	62
4	Derek Boogaard	Min	20	3.44	6	52
5	Brad May	Ana	20	6.65	5	41
6	Milan Lucic	Bos	18	7.20	5	31
7	Ben Eager	Phi	16	5.27	4	44
8	Andre Roy	TB	22	4.66	4	30
9	D.J. King	StL	15	5.40	4	28
10	George Parros	Ana	21	4.73	4	26
11	David Koci	Chi	8	3.63	4	26
12	Shawn Thornton	Bos	13	6.44	4	22
13	Donald Brashear	Was	22	5.17	3	40
14	Todd Fedoruk	Min	12	7.01	3	37
15	Colton Orr	NYR	23	6.87	3	33
16	Brian McGrattan	Ott	12	3.11	3	15
17	Zack Stortini	Edm	12	6.61	2	42
18	Georges Laraque	Pit	14	7.40	2	14
19	Wade Belak	Tor	8	3.38	2	14
20	Eric Boulton	Atl	19	6.46	2	12

That should be a pretty good representative sample of guys who are punching each other this season.

One of the most difficult things in measuring what goons do is in the fact that (a) they don't play very much and (b) they don't do very much when they're out there. Here's a look at goals for and against rates for all 20 enforcers:

	NAME	TEAM	GP	GFON	GAON	GFON/60	GAON/60	+-ON/60
1	MCGRATTAN	OTT	12	1	0	1.61	0.00	1.61
2	PARROS	ANA	21	2	0	1.21	0.00	1.21
3	COTE	PHI	16	2	1	2.09	1.04	1.04
4	MAY	ANA	20	6	4	2.71	1.80	0.90
5	FEDORUK	MIN	12	3	2	2.14	1.43	0.71
6	BRASHEAR	WSH	22	3	2	1.58	1.05	0.53
7	BOLL	CBJ	21	4	3	1.65	1.24	0.41
8	KING	STL	15	2	2	1.48	1.48	0.00
9	KOCI	CHI	8	0	0	0.00	0.00	0.00
10	GODARD	CGY	19	1	2	0.66	1.32	-0.66
11	LUCIC	BOS	18	3	5	1.39	2.31	-0.93
12	LARAQUE	PIT	14	4	6	2.32	3.48	-1.16
13	THORNTON	BOS	13	0	2	0.00	1.43	-1.43
14	BOULTON	ATL	19	2	5	0.98	2.45	-1.47
15	STORTINI	EDM	12	0	2	0.00	1.51	-1.51
16	ROY	T.B	22	1	4	0.59	2.34	-1.76
17	ORR	NYR	23	1	7	0.38	2.66	-2.28
18	BOOGAARD	MIN	20	0	3	0.00	2.62	-2.62
19	EAGER	PHI	16	0	4	0.00	2.85	-2.85
20	BELAK	TOR	8	0	2	0.00	4.43	-4.43
	Average					1.04	1.77	-0.73

On average, when these guys are on the ice, only one goal is scored for their team every 60 minutes.

That's bad. Really, really bad.

At least they don't get lit up too badly, other than Belak, but there's a reason for that. Have a look at these strength of competition numbers:

	NAME	TEAM	GP	QUALCOMP
1	STORTINI	EDM	12	0.01
2	LUCIC	BOS	18	0
3	ORR	NYR	23	-0.02
4	BOULTON	ATL	19	-0.04
5	COTE	PHI	16	-0.08
6	BOLL	CBJ	21	-0.09
7	THORNTON	BOS	13	-0.09
8	MAY	ANA	20	-0.11
9	BELAK	TOR	8	-0.13
10	PARROS	ANA	21	-0.14
11	MCGRATTAN	OTT	12	-0.16
12	EAGER	PHI	16	-0.16
13	BRASHEAR	WSH	22	-0.17
14	ROY	T.B	22	-0.17
15	KING	STL	15	-0.22
16	FEDORUK	MIN	12	-0.23
17	LARAQUE	PIT	14	-0.23
18	BOOGAARD	MIN	20	-0.26
19	GODARD	CGY	19	-0.31
20	KOCI	CHI	8	-0.52

In terms of where those stack up with the rest of the league, they're way, way down at the bottom. Guys like Koci basically only play against other Kocis.

The real kicker, however, is in looking at shots on goal. Goals aren't going in either way, which isn't a surprise, but some players generate absolutely nothing in terms of shots while they continue to come the other way, putting their team at an extreme disadvantage.

Someone like the Flyers' Riley Cote, for one, sees only 9.3 shots for per 60 minutes of even strength ice time and 25.6 against. With Brad May on the ice, the Ducks generate 15.3 fewer shots per 60 minutes of play.

And on and on it goes (and look at the Corsi numbers, where only Brashear isn't in the red):

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