Islanders: The NHL's most-injured team

by James Mirtle on Mar 18, 2009 4:09 PM CDT in Statistics Comment 21 comments

My sincere thanks to a reader who provided all of the man games lost totals for the past four seasons for all 30 NHL teams. There's some fascinating stuff in here.

Totals for this season are 82-game projections:

	Teams	05-06	06-07	07-08	08-09 Proj.	Totals	Avg.
1	NY Islanders	248	351	402	566	1567	392
2	Philadelphia	388	301	315	406	1410	353
3	St. Louis	391	382	156	465	1394	349
4	Florida	268	196	400	315	1179	295
5	Boston	394	162	358	230	1144	286
6	Chicago	299	350	357	138	1144	286
7	Pittsburgh	308	216	280	303	1107	277
8	Carolina	265	249	333	224	1071	268
9	Colorado	201	292	325	240	1058	265
10	Toronto	249	336	275	182	1042	261
11	Washington	144	244	231	398	1017	254
12	Columbus	238	293	219	254	1004	251
13	Edmonton	134	286	340	241	1001	250
14	Vancouver	279	182	265	240	966	242
15	Buffalo	235	267	201	193	896	224
16	Los Angeles	363	180	187	158	888	222
17	Dallas	94	296	186	300	876	219
18	Nashville	265	196	234	177	872	218
19	Detroit	214	239	194	143	790	198
20	Minnesota	129	194	207	241	771	193
21	Calgary	210	251	127	135	723	181
22	San Jose	123	159	200	202	684	171
23	Tampa Bay	57	127	202	280	666	167
24	Phoenix	231	274	74	61	640	160
25	Atlanta	241	147	90	156	634	159
26	Montreal	147	146	109	199	601	150
27	New Jersey	77	136	181	200	594	149
28	Anaheim	128	102	158	195	583	146
29	NY Rangers	126	217	146	50	539	135
30	Ottawa	131	82	148	105	466	117

I have not checked all of these totals against numbers I've published in the past, but at first glance, they appear correct. Individual NHL teams do release these figures every game on their official previews, so the information is out there.

The Islanders are far and away the NHL's most-injured team postlockout, averaging nearly 400 games missed per season, which is about 20 games per 20 roster spots. Ottawa, meanwhile, has been the league's least-injured team over this period, with only 466 games missed total.

That's a big, big difference.

Of course, what these numbers don't do is weight the value of those games missed, and long-term injuries to fringe players skew the results. Still, they give you somewhat of a portrait of who's been beat up the most lately.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that some of the teams with the best records over the past four seasons have the lowest injury totals.

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Comments

But Atlanta, Tampa and Phoenix?

by wlittle on Mar 18, 2009 4:13 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Sometimes a bad hockey club is just a bad hockey club.

Phoenix has a better excuse anyway – they’re icing a team of 14 year-olds.

"Without good hard work, it is impossible to reach the pinnacle of success." - Anatoli Tarasov

by PRC on Mar 18, 2009 4:21 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Seriously

Our average age is like 25 or something. When you’ve got Turris, Boedker, Mueller and Hanzal all in the line up that’ll make you young in a hurry. Heck Turris still looks like he’s 14.

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by Travis Hair on Mar 18, 2009 4:24 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tampa

If you notice the trends, Tampa has been adding about 70-80 man games lost per season. They were a playoff team when this 4 year period started… not so much anymore.

Hockey blogging can't get any flatter.

by saskhab on Mar 18, 2009 4:31 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Perhaps adding more and more aging UFA’s? And what the hell happened in year 2 with the Stars compared to year one? Was that Zubov?

The population of Pominville keeps rising!

by Blackcapricorn on Mar 18, 2009 4:35 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

The other day on TSN they said that the year they won the cup they lost 35 man games.

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by PPP on Mar 18, 2009 5:14 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tampa Bay and Health

One thing that has happened with the Bolts under John Tortorella was that the benefitted from a horribly grueling camp under Torts. They had a record low lost man-games in the 2003-04 season, that held over for 2005-06 as the stats show, but the personel turnover and aging of the roster both helped push the number higher and higher.

They may be bottom dwellers this year but Tommy Mulligan (head trainer) is no louse (even if Oren Koules and Len Barrie are)

The Raw Charge -- the Tampa Bay Lightning weblog at SB Nation.

by John Fontana on Mar 18, 2009 4:33 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hmmm

I’m not sure a grueling camp really means less injuries. Injuries tend to be heavily factored by 3 things: conditioning, luck and age. Luck being the biggest factor of those three.

It’s possible the Lightning were just luckier and younger under Torts, and have since gotten unlucky and older.

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by Jibblescribbits on Mar 18, 2009 5:32 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed.

Luck being the biggest factor of those three.

Likewise, weighting the effect of specific injuries is a maddening exercise. Any team can “step up” (or get some luck?) for any single game or short streak of games after the loss of a star. But it seems the long-term chipping away at your depth is where an extended period of injuries really bites and turns the odds of repeated dice rolls against you.

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by Dominik on Mar 18, 2009 5:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I really witnessed that firsthand this year with the Habs.
When the entire first line (Tanguay – Koivu – Higgins) went down, the young guys stepped up and they went on a good streak for about 20 games but eventually ran out of gas…
Then Lang got hurt and it’s been hell ever since.

by Habs on Mar 19, 2009 7:51 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

The point of the grueling camp

…that I didn’t bring up, but basically you stated in your follow up, is the conditioning is something Tortorella stressed and he would beat it into his players heads from the end of the season until camp began. Those who followed the conditioning regimen perscribed to them during the off season usually were fine (if not taxed) during camp. those who didn’t put themselves through their own hurt locker with thanks to Torts demands.

The Raw Charge -- the Tampa Bay Lightning weblog at SB Nation.

by John Fontana on Mar 18, 2009 7:45 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well

Conditioning certainly plays a role, but most NHL players are well conditioned, to the point that of the three things I mentioned, conditioning plays a distant third (insert Marty Brodeur/Kyle Wellwood joke here).

Joe Sakic is one of the best conditioned athletes in all of sports, but he still got hurt two years in a row (even in non-snowblower type injuries). He’s gotten old and unlucky.

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by Jibblescribbits on Mar 19, 2009 12:12 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

You are missing probably the biggest factor: the quality of a team’s medical and training staff.

It’s not a coincidence that the same teams keep having the most injuries. Medical personnel vary in quality as much as any other part of an organization. As with a lot of things, I’m more familiar with the specifics for baseball than hockey, but I’d be willing to bet that the same thing is true.

While Stan Conte was the head trainer, the San Francisco Giants consistently were among the best at preventing injuries. That trend followed Conte to the Dodgers. On the other hand, the Pittsburgh Pirates, under Dave Littlefield, ability to misdiagnose problems and let them escalate would have been comical if it wasn’t affecting players’ health; it reached the point that players were refusing to use the team’s medical staff, and going outside the organization for treatment.

by J. Michael Neal on Mar 19, 2009 6:52 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

The failure of the Avs medical and training staff has definitely not been overlooked by Avs fans. Adam Foote’s “head injury” is probably a brain tumor, Darcy Tucker’s back issues are actually a ruptured spleen, and I just certain it was one of the doctor’s that told Sakic to get outside, that the excercise would be good for him.

Sakic – If you say so, doc, I’ll get some fresh winter air.

Doc – Heck, I encourage you to even use your snowblower. The resistance will help your back heal faster.

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by texacogirl on Mar 20, 2009 4:36 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Lightning lost another D for the season

I’m losing track of how many D we have lost to injury or lost to GM stupidity this season.

But for the sake of staying relevant to the table — it’s scary to see the decline of my teams health over the last few years. Yes, the Bolts are aging but they’ve also changed personel as well and that has contributed to a jump in lost man-games this year.

The Raw Charge -- the Tampa Bay Lightning weblog at SB Nation.

by John Fontana on Mar 18, 2009 4:30 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

possible improvement

What might be a cool adjustment to man game numbers would be to use a multiplier on the person lost.. ie.. use 5 for first line, 4 for second line, 3 for third line, 2 for fourth line and 1 for fringe players

so if Datsyuk missed 50 games, we’d calculate 5*50 = 250 pts

Might give a slightly better assessment of effect of the players missing instead of just games missed overall by team.

Just an idea – what do y’all think?

by kurri_17 on Mar 18, 2009 4:40 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

It’d be intriguing to see what the results are…but regardless, it’s hard to believe that some of the trainers, conditioners and medical staff still have jobs with the teams higher on the list…makes me wonder how many still have the same staff.

Something else that would be interesting to me would be to compare man games lost with the quality of practice facility and home arena ice…

The Caps number this year is much higher than in years past (mostly groin injuries)…granted they have a gorgeous practice facility, but there have been countless complaints about the quality of ice…I’m curious how that stacks up with the rest of the league.

by Yoshietree on Mar 18, 2009 8:11 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks James....

you just gave The Generalissimo a new topic idea.

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by poploser on Mar 18, 2009 9:29 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

It’s really nice to get those numbers in perspective – comparing to the rest of the NHL.

Had anyone asked me how the Habs had done this year in terms of man-games lost to injury, I would have said top 5 in the league without hesitation… I guess it appears worst than it is when you’re really focused on the team.

But I’m still stunned that there are 17 teams this season that have lost more games to injury than the Habs. It sure doesn’t look like this…

by Habs on Mar 19, 2009 7:58 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Injury Insanity

I know what you mean, Habs… its natural for people to be focused more on their favorite team.

Ill say this about these stats: For the Isles, these numbers would be compounded even more when you think of who its been that have been injured for long stretches- starting goaltender backup goaltender (they are icing #3 and #4 for wa while now) 3 of their top 4 D, their most relied-on forwards, their top projected kids, it goes on and on. Maybe if this info gets around when Isles fans talk about the fact that their team has been really REALLY decimated by injuries the fans of other teams will stop dismissing it as exaggeration or “making excuses” and realize that we are speaking the truth.

Lets go Islanders...

by TheMetalChick on Mar 20, 2009 11:11 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs