The were four games of Nhl Playoffs action yesterday. The Blues pulled back ahead of the Blackhawks, the Red Wings nabbed their first win against Tampa Bay, the Isles pulled out a wild win against the Panthers, and the Preds dunked on the Ducks.

Before we get into the Game Charts, here’s the blurb on how to understand them:

A couple of notes on reading the charts:

• the Corsi differential is based on 5v5 play and is score-adjusted, as per war-on-ice.
• players at the top (with bars extending to the right) posted positive differentials (good)
• players at the bottom (and to the left) posted negative differentials (bad)
• the colour of each bar represents the player’s time on ice (see legend at the bottom)
• each players individual Corsi For attempts are included in parentheses
  • a player with a strong C +/- but a (0) for iCF didn’t directly contribute to his strong showing.
  • a player with a weak C +/- but a strong iCF score (i.e. greater than 5) may have been hindered by linemates. Maybe.
• like any reasonable person, I don’t believe that Corsi is everything. But it’s a very important part of the everything. 

On with the graphs…

Tarasenko is an unbelievable talent. He led the Corsi differential battle and posted an absolutely incredible 11 iCF. Schwartz was good to. Lehtera, Pietrangelo,and Bouwmeester finished strong as well.

On the negative side, Hjalmarsson had a rough game. He finished all alone with the worst Corsi Differential. The usually steady Steen sunk to the bottom of the chart as well but was only ~-8. Not good but not remarkably bad.

Blues lead 2-1.

The Lightning-Red Wings series has the kind of fire that you would expect between teams that have met in the playoffs in consecutive years. The Red Wings claimed victory, giving themselves a chance to get back into this series.

Kronwall was best but posted 0 iCF, showing he wasn’t directly driving this positive showing. Abdelkader, Glendening, and Dekeyser all managed positive Corsi differentials. This is not the norm for this trio. Zetterberg was strong with 8 iCF.

At the other end, Nesterov and Johnson were pummeled most, accumulating Corsi differentials of ~-12 each. Hedman suffered a rare poor game as well.

Mrazek was great and he may lead Detroit going forward. We’ve got a series here.

Lightning lead 2-1.

Bjugstad and Smith were excellent and Huberdeau and Barkov managed 9 iCF each. The Panthers were all over the top of this game chart. But, in the end, the Islanders stole away another victory in this wild series.

The Isles dominated the bottom of the game chart. Martin, Clutterbuck, and Pulock were worst and the bottom seven were all Islanders skaters. Campbell owned a rare negative showing.

In the end, Corsi is very important but isn’t everything. In a handful of games, luck and bounces can be key. The Islanders got away with one here…again.

Isles lead 2-1.

In the extremely late game, the Ducks won the Corsi battle but suffered another defeat. Getzlaf was the game’s best and Rakell and Theodore each rang up 8 iCF. Stewart, Vatanen, Lindholm, Perry, and Perron were all strong as well.

Salomaki was the game’s worst but was better than -10, so, not so bad. Jarnkrok and Gaustad joined him at the bottom and Jackman posted a rare negative Corsi differential. The Ducks may have deserved better in this one.

Predators lead 2-0.

Read more…

NHL Playoffs Game Charts – Saturday, April 16

NHL Playoffs Game Charts – Friday, April 15