There were two games in the NHL on Draft Lottery Saturday. The Tampa Bay Lightning stormed past the Isles, evening their series up and the Penguins pushed past the Capitals to level their series as well.

Oh, and the Leafs won the draft lottery, Brian Burke almost had a psychotic break on live television, and the Jets and Blue Jackets got a little lucky. This isn’t our focus here but that was some fun television, no question.

Before we get to the Game Charts, here’s the usual on how to read 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 charts…

The Lightning dominated this game thoroughly, owning all but three of the positive slots on the game chart. Kucherov was best, Coburn, Palat, and Johnson were solid, and Drouin slung another 6 iCF on goal as he continues to plug the Stamkos-sized-lineup-hole.

For the Islanders, De Haan, Martin, and Boychuk posted slightly positive Corsi differentials. At the other end, Leddy, Hamonic, and Prince were each in excess of -10. Not good.

Though not listed here, the most telling stat of the game was the high-danger scoring chances breakdown. Tampa Bay finished with 12. The Islanders? 1.

Yowzers.

Series tied 1-1.

Brian Dumoulin led all, Malkin, Kunitz, and Letang were great, and the Penguins dominated the top of the Corsi differential graph in this one. Kessel continued his solid run as well. For the Capitals, Burakovsky managed a strong spot on the game chart and was the Caps’ best.

At the negative end, Wilson and Beagle struggled most in this one, while Carlson and Niskanen were close behind. Ovechkin was a negative despite posting a game-high 8 iCF – that’s hard to do and indicates he was on the wrong side of some high-event play in this one.

We’ve got a series here.

Series tied 1-1.

Read more…

NHL Playoffs Game Charts – Friday, April 29

NHL Playoffs Game Charts – Thursday, April 28

NHL Playoffs Predictions – Round 2