The top playoff performers (postlockout)

by James Mirtle on Apr 30, 2009 11:54 AM CDT in Statistics Comment 30 comments

Top 20 playoff scorers, postlockout

Rk	Player	GP	G	A	PTS	PTS
1	Daniel Briere	57	21	33	54	0.95
2	Henrik Zetterberg	50	28	23	51	1.02
3	Chris Pronger	55	11	34	45	0.82
4	Pavel Datsyuk	49	19	25	44	0.90
5	Sidney Crosby	31	13	27	40	1.29
6	Scott Gomez	37	15	24	39	1.05
7	Chris Drury	50	21	17	38	0.76
8	Ryan Getzlaf	49	14	23	37	0.76
9	Nicklas Lidstrom	50	9	28	37	0.74
10	Jason Spezza	34	12	25	37	1.09
11	Patrik Elias	31	12	23	35	1.13
12	Dany Heatley	34	10	25	35	1.03
13	Evgeni Malkin	31	14	21	35	1.13
14	Teemu Selanne	49	14	21	35	0.71
15	Eric Staal	32	14	21	35	1.09
16	Joe Thornton	41	6	29	35	0.85
17	Johan Franzen	44	19	15	34	0.77
18	Brian Rafalski	46	8	26	34	0.74
19	Daniel Alfredsson	32	16	16	32	1.00
20	Marian Hossa	28	14	17	31	1.11

Top 10 defencemen, postlockout

Rk	Player	GP	G	A	PTS	PTS
1	Chris Pronger	55	11	34	45	0.82
2	Nicklas Lidstrom	50	9	28	37	0.74
3	Brian Rafalski	46	8	26	34	0.74
4	Scott Niedermayer	49	6	23	29	0.59
5	Brian Campbell	53	5	19	24	0.45
6	Sergei Gonchar	31	3	20	23	0.74
7	Wade Redden	40	5	18	23	0.58
8	Niklas Kronwall	32	1	21	22	0.69
9	Francois Beauchemin	48	8	10	18	0.38
10	Sergei Zubov	22	2	14	16	0.73

Top 10 goaltenders, postlockout

Rk	Player	GP	W	L	SO	GAA	SV%
1	Roberto Luongo	16	9	7	1	1.63	0.946
2	Ilya Bryzgalov	16	9	5	3	1.68	0.937
3	Chris Osgood	23	18	4	4	1.59	0.931
4	Dwayne Roloson	18	12	5	1	2.33	0.927
5	Tim Thomas	11	7	4	0	2.24	0.925
6	Cam Ward	30	19	10	3	2.13	0.925
7	Marc-Andre Fleury	31	19	12	3	2.32	0.922
8	Marty Turco	30	14	16	4	2.09	0.921
9	Cristobal Huet	13	5	8	0	2.65	0.919
10	Martin Brodeur	32	14	17	3	2.49	0.917

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Comments

That’s Joe Thornton at #16 despite never making it beyond 2 rounds in the playoffs. That shouzld put a damper on any choker talk.

by PuckStopsHere on Apr 30, 2009 12:04 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, 6 goals in only 41 games? There’s no evidence there of poor performance.

I've been looking at the sky

by Back In Black on Apr 30, 2009 12:16 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

29 assists in 41 games? There’s no evidence there of poor performance.

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by Doogie2K on Apr 30, 2009 12:20 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thornton isn’t a goal scorer. If he continued his regular season production during the playoffs in the last four years he “should” have 13.75 goals during the playoffs. I’m not sure of the exact numbers for scoring in the regular season vs. playoffs, but I think it’s safe to say there is a drop in the amount of goals scored league-wide which may account for this discrepancy.

Regardless, it is apparent he has performed respectably in the playoffs since coming to San Jose. The stigma that he is not a playoff producer is a Boston issue, not a San Jose issue.

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by Mr. Plank on Apr 30, 2009 12:51 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thornton’s regular season PPG over the same 4 year stretch is 1.28. He’s performing at about 2/3 of his regular season pace over that time period. The thing that really stands out to me are his shooting %:

Reg. Season Playoffs

05/06 14.8 8.7

06/07 10.3 4.3

07/08 16.3 6.9

08/09 18.0 5.9

Mr. Plank isn’t wrong about the type of player Thornton is, but those shooting percentage numbers suggest something is amiss.

by Robert Cleave on Apr 30, 2009 1:40 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

That didn’t exactly format right, did it? Hopefully you can still get the gist.

by Robert Cleave on Apr 30, 2009 1:41 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don’t think I’ve tried tables in the comments, but I imagine they have some issues. Too bad.

You can post images though.

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by James Mirtle on Apr 30, 2009 1:49 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I was just using the space bar to position things, James, so no biggie. I will say, as I go through the regular season vs. playoff PPG of that top 20, the drop in Thornton’s PPG and SH% compared to the others isn’t looking too good. He’s still a good player, but the Detroit and Anaheim guys have certainly done a better job of carrying more of their regular season production into post season, and Getzlaf and Pronger are actually above their regular season rates.

by Robert Cleave on Apr 30, 2009 1:56 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Pronger only, sorry. Getzlaf is about .16 PPG less.

by Robert Cleave on Apr 30, 2009 1:58 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Getzlaf:
regular season – 88 goals in 297 games – .30 GPG
play-off’s – 14 goals in 49 games – .29 GPG.

Thornton:
regular season – 105 goals in 327 games – .32 GPG
play-off’s – 6 goals in 41 games – 0.15 GPG

Does anyone see the difference?

by szklarzu on Apr 30, 2009 2:23 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

But as Jonathan Willis points out, Thornton is also the highest-scoring Shark in the playoffs since the lockout. It’s a team-wide problem, it seems.

SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there)

by Doogie2K on Apr 30, 2009 5:50 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Joe Thornton is a consistent 25-30 goal scorer whose production drops in half in the playoffs. I’m not sure of the exact numbers either, but it isn’t 50%. Given that the 29 assists is also a drop in production from his regular season numbers (post-lockout) there is no evidence in this list that he isn’t a choker.

Evidence that he is: while he’s not scoring, his teams (since he became a star in 2002) have gone 3-6 in playoff series. Four of those losses were upsets, including two 1v8s and one 2v7.

“Choker” may be unfair. It may simply be that his style of play doesn’t translate well to the playoffs. Unfortunately it’s hard to tell the difference in the stats.

I've been looking at the sky

by Back In Black on Apr 30, 2009 1:58 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

It could also be that his shots just haven’t gone in much in the playoffs for no particularly good reason at all. Maybe he’s taking more outside shots, but maybe he’s just not getting the bounces, either. If he’d maintained his regular season shooting percentage in the playoffs, he’d have 13.5 goals, a slight increase over his regular season GPG. That’d also bump him up over 1 PPG. If he’s a playoff choker, he chokes by taking worse shots, not by taking fewer shots.

by RyanV on Apr 30, 2009 3:12 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Seeing that stat about Danny makes this Sabres fan a sad panda.

The population of Pominville keeps rising!

by Blackcapricorn on Apr 30, 2009 12:14 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Bryzgalov got passed? Get on that, Blackhawks.

http://www.battleofcali.com/

by Earl Sleek on Apr 30, 2009 12:14 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Look at “dead wood” with a 1.29 PPG. Looks the highest out of the top 20. Who knew he was that productive?

by tehchico on Apr 30, 2009 12:41 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Unless there’s a minimum game requirement, it’s time to add Varlamov to the top ten goaltenders list. In his five post season appearances he’s posted a .918 SV% displacing Brodeur from 10th spot on this list.

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by puckreport on Apr 30, 2009 12:43 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Minimum five wins. Have to have won more than one series in the past four playoffs to be eligible.

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by James Mirtle on Apr 30, 2009 1:13 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

What's Huet doing on the list then?

He hasn’t won a series in his career. Lost 4-2 in 2006 with Montreal to Carolina on a horrible OT winner.
Lost to Philly last year with Washington.

by Exit716 on Apr 30, 2009 1:20 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think it’s defined as “four wins = a series win.”

Fear The Fin: Where Selling Your Soul Is The Likely Solution

by Mr. Plank on Apr 30, 2009 1:22 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, I just put in five wins or more and a high save percentage to eliminate anyone who hadn’t played many games. Huet’s numbers are good — just not when it counted.

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by James Mirtle on Apr 30, 2009 1:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Or in other words, his numbers are good—just not when he had goal support.

by RyanV on Apr 30, 2009 3:13 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Id like to see the top goal scorers too – Im pretty sure Patrick Marleau has scored more goals – 32 – and more GWG – 10 – anyone else.

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by poploser on Apr 30, 2009 1:01 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Why did you rank the skaters’ production by raw points rather than PPG or PTS/60? I think the latter is much more informative as it normalizes for the different number of games or lengths of time played. You’d have to set a bar for minimum number of GP, though.

by R O on Apr 30, 2009 3:17 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Setting a bar for minimum games played wouldn’t do the job. Take another look at that list: the top of the points per game list would be overwhelmingly players at the bottom end of the number of games played. This shouldn’t be a surprise; you get more extreme values of any rate stat the fewer games they are totaled over.

by J. Michael Neal on Apr 30, 2009 4:52 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

In that case, either way you rank them there seems to be a sample size problem.

by R O on Apr 30, 2009 4:59 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Absolutely. Really, this is an example of Voros’ Law: In 60 plate appearances, anyone can do anything.

by J. Michael Neal on May 1, 2009 1:16 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hah, nice.

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by James Mirtle on May 1, 2009 9:59 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I’m rewarding players who played more postseason games, obviously. PPG is fine, but JMN is right: It’s harder to sustain a PPG pace over 50 games than 25.

I’ve included the PPG numbers anyways, so they’re available for reference.

Blogging on hockey at fromtherink.com

by James Mirtle on Apr 30, 2009 5:44 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs