The Vancouver Canucks have always been a bunch of douches. The reasons aren’t limited to one. Their retarded looking jerseys have always seemed like they were designed by a 4 year old; the west coast express era was particularly unlikable because of one Todd Bertuzzi; their idiotic fans boo the opposing team instead of cheer for their own bunch of losers; they once employed Brian Burke as their G.M.; I don’t think I need to say much more but I’ll end with one last word, “LOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUU.”
But for all of the Canucks’ douchey history, 2011’s team takes the cake. The dink quotient of this squad is almost off the charts. Kevin Bieksa, Alex Burrows, Ryan Kesler, and Raffi Torres are a murderer’s row of jackasses. Then you’ve got goobers like Max Lapierre and Rick Rypien playing fourth line roles as first class chumps. Not to be outdone, Mike Gillis and his abacus complains about the biased refereeing of the Chicago-Vancouver series while his players are taking better dives than Alexander Despatie. It’s all sickening and I haven’t even mentioned the Sedin sisters yet.
Unfortunately, Vancouver has managed to make the third round against the San Jose-Detroit series winner and look poised for a potential Stanley Cup berth. No matter what happens, it’s got to be considered another successful season in the pacific.
A big reason for Vancouver’s success over the last few years is the play of Daniel and Henrik. The media has pointed to them emerging as bonafide superstars over the last few seasons. While possibly true, I feel a lot of those accolades wouldn’t have come if not for the emergence of a few of their other players, namely Manny Malhotra and the aforementioned clean-up hitter for the murderer’s row of jackasses, Ryan Kesler.
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I think anyone who has played hockey can agree that it’s a lot easier to score points when you’re starting in the opponents’ zone off the draw. It’s like coming up to bat with a runner on second. Scoring isn’t a given but it’s a whole lot easier to pad that RBI total when someone’s done a good chunk of the work for you already and gotten you into a scoring position.
Gabriel Desjardins’s zonestart statistic measures how often a player is on the ice for a faceoff in the defensive zone versus the offensive zone. Since coaches have total control – icing situations excepted – over who they send over the boards for a faceoff, zonestart assesses how coaches run their bench. It is a great tool for evaluating the circumstances players are put into – coming to the plate with the bases empty or with runners in scoring position as an analogy.
Zonestart is presented by a percentage. For example, if a player has a 50% zonestart, he has taken an equal number of draws in both the offensive and defensive zones over the course of the season. One look at the Vancouver Canucks’ zonestart rates and we can see how fortunate of a situation Alain Vigneault has created for the Sedins. This is for Canuck forwards who have played a minimum of 40 games in 2011:
Daniel Sedin – 74.5%
Henrik Sedin – 71.4%
Alex Burrows – 70.5%
Mason Raymond – 55.6%
Ryan Kesler – 50.0%
Jeff Tambellini – 49.4%
Mikael Samuelsson – 49.1%
Maxim Lapierre – 46.4%
Chris Higgins – 46.3%
Tanner Glass – 39.1%
Jannik Hansen – 34.3%
Raffi Torres – 29.6%
Manny Malhotra – 25.0%
This is just an insane split. If you assume Daniel Sedin has been on the ice for 300 faceoffs throughout the season, 223 of them have taken place in the offensive zone. On the other hand, poor Manny Malhotra has been taking 225 defensive zone draws if you assume he’s also been on for 300 total draws.
The 2010 season (Henrik’s Hart trophy year), while not as severe, tells a similar story. The Sedins had a zonestart hovering around 60% that year while Ryan Kesler was starting in the defensive zone 55% of the time.
How does this compare to other premier players in the league? Well check out the zonestarts for the following players in 2011:
Alexander Ovechkin – 51.6%
Sidney Crosby – 47.0%
Steven Stamkos – 49.8%
Joe Thornton – 51.8%
Pavel Datsyuk – 47.7%
Henrik Zetterberg – 47.6%
Jonathan Toews – 62.1%
Rick Nash – 57.1%
As you can see, the Sedins play in very favourable circumstances compared to the rest of the league’s elite. While most coaches use their best players evenly between offensive and defensive zone opportunities, Vigneault lets the Sedins start their shift almost exclusively in the offensive zone.
Not surprisingly, the sisters led all players in the NHL in zonestart by a very wide margin in 2011. After Burrows, the next highest was Patrick Kane who had a 68% zonestart. The next player of note on the list after Kane is Marian Gaborik at 63%.
Compared to the rest of the league in 2010, Daniel was 12th overall in with Henrik finishing just outside of the top 30.
Next time you watch the Canucks, notice how often the Sedins come on for an offensive faceoff. It’s startling. And honestly, Vigneault is playing the sisters to their strength. The Sedins are probably the best two-man cycling team in the NHL. When the sisters start the cycle, they usually don’t get knocked off the puck. Starting them in the offensive zone gives them a very good chance to start their dangerous cycle that often times results in a scoring chance.
So the question begs, how much are the Sedins affected by their inflated zonestarts? Over 300 faceoffs, the difference between a 75% and 50% zonestart is 75 more draws in the offensive zone over the course of a season. Make no mistake, that does matter. How much? Well, it’s impossible to quantify but I’d be willing to bet it’s somewhere between 5 and 7 points a season.
If my estimates are in the ballpark, that means the Sedins’ point totals are inflated compared to a Sidney Crosby or Joe Thornton who have much more balanced zonestarts. Are the Sedins still great hockey players? Absolutely. Are they in the top 10 league-wide? I’m not so sure. Consider this: when they were receiving more even zonestarts in 2009 and 2008 (slightly above 50%), their point totals hovered around a point per game. Their two year run among the league’s top scorers has coincided with a two year run of getting some of the best zonestarts in the league. Go figure. Context is a wonderful thing.
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