S96 Hitting - A needlessly deep dive

[VattghernCZ 1,054]

Let’s be honest. While we all love to see elite puckhandlers methodically slicing through the opposing defense in full flight, tape-to-tape passes with millimeter (that’s 127/5000“, you’re welcome, my overseas fellas!) precision, or blue line missiles sending the goaltender’s water bottle flying, what makes our hearts pump faster and lifts our asses from the seats are hits and fights. Or is it just me and fellow cavemen? A hard hit, leading to a turnover and a counterattack the other way, can change the momentum of a whole game. But an ill-timed hit can be one of the most frustrating things to see—you go out of your way to chase a hit, but it opens a lane for another opponent to pick the loose puck at speed and leave you behind.

 

 

Here in the VHL, we consider hits an important part of voting for our defensive awards—the Boulet for forwards and the Wylde for defenders. But we can only see the raw hits total. And as I’ve said, I don’t think every hit is a good play. Only those that lead to a turnover are. Last season—or was it two seasons ago?—I wrote a 2-piece media spot about the season’s goaltending. This offseason, I’m going to look into hits a bit deeper. For this purpose, with my basic knowledge and a huge help from my friend Copilot, I’ve put together a simple Python script. The script goes through all 576 game logs and searches for the phrase „is hit by (player name) and loses puck. Free puck retrieved by “and determine whether it was an effective hit or an ineffective hit, depending on what player got to the puck first. I’ll explain more in each of the following chapters, and I’ll provide the code as a file, and maybe I’ll copy it in this article as well in case I need to inflate the word count to 2k. This took hours of my life; no way I’m not milking it for as long as I can. In case you run the script and look for a Dragons player, only input „d“ as the team name. For the other teams, it’s enough to only put in the last word.

 

I will be looking at top 6 hitting defensemen and top 10 hitting forwards. I wanted to only do 9 forwards, but there’s a 2-way tie for the 9th spot. No, the 6D and 9F wasn’t because it looks like a nice amount, but because it’s 3 defensive pairings and 3 forward lines.

 

Total hits

 

Just as a reminder, this is how the top 6 defensemen and top 10 forwards rank by total hits listed in the stats.

 

Defensemen

 

 

1. Tommy Sleeves  411 hits

2. Callum Gary Yannick Janser  256 hits

3. Billy Joel  245 hits

4. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage  236 hits

5. Darko Alexander Malkovich  231 hits

6. YaBoi Oven   222 hits

 

Forwards

 

1. Savaisk Tzesar 340 hits

2. Toby Kadachi 322 hits

3. Severus Targaryen 290 hits

4. Axle Gunner 275 hits

5. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 262 hits

6. Legacy Gaming 260 hits

7. Grimgor Ironhide 259 hits

8. Nico Belique  255 hits

T-9. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 235 hits

T-9. Maple Dogwood 235 hits

 

Successful hits (SH)

 

For a hit to even have a chance to lead to a turnover, it has to separate the puck carrier from the puck. Our players fight this by sufficiently increasing Strength and Puck Handling. I’ve already said my Python script looks for the phrase „is hit by (player name) and loses puck. Free puck retrieved by“, so, by default, it looks for successful hits. This is how the selected players rank in successful hits. I’m interested to see if the ranking remains the same.

 

Defensemen

 

1. Tommy Sleeves 274 SH (66.67% of hits)

T-2. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 180 SH (70.31% of hits)

T-2. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 180 SH (76.27% of hits)

4. Billy Joel 178 SH (72.65% of hits)

5. YaBoi Oven 162 SH (72.97% of hits)

6. Darko Alexander Malkovich 159 SH (68.83% of hits)

 

I don’t think it’s surprising that Tommy Sleeves is in the lead with 274 successful hits. With 155 total hits more that the second place, he has to be in the lead, even though the efficiency of his hits is the lowest of the group. A player who really impressed me here was Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage, who was able to tie Callum Gary Yannick Janser in successful hits, despite recording 20 fewer total hits.

 

Forwards

 

1. Savaisk Tzesar 168 SH (49.41% of hits)

2. Toby Kadachi 159 SH (49.38% of hits)

3. Severus Targaryen 153 SH (52.76% of hits)

4. Legacy Gaming 146 SH (56.15% of hits)

5. Grimgor Ironhide 142 SH (54.83% of hits)

6. Axle Gunner 139 SH (50.55% of hits)

7. Nico Belique 136 SH (53.33% of hits)

8. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 127 SH (54.04% of hits)

T-9. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 125 SH (47.71% of hits)

T-9. Maple Dogwood 125 SH (53.19% of hits)

 

Compared to their blue line counterparts, these forwards were not as efficient at making their hits count. I wonder if there’s a big difference in CK between the selected defensemen and the selected forwards? Maple and Jebediah are in the similar position Callum and Obuz are among defenders – the same amount of successful hits, despite the difference between their total hit amount vas almost 30. One of these puts their whole body in the hits, while the other one only does love taps, I guess. I think that’s a thing needed to take into consideration when deciding a trophy heavily influenced by physicality. Also thumbs up to Legacy Gaming for being the most efficient hitter of the group.

 

Effective hits (EH)

 

Now for the more interesting part. In real life hockey, the result of a hit depends on the hitter’s decision an awareness much more than in the VHL, where the puck retrieval is more of a result of the players’ stats – both of your teammates, and your opponent. For a successful hit to be considered an effective hit for this experiment, it has to be either the hitter, or their teammate to pick up the loose puck. After entering the player’s name my Python script is looking for, I enter their team as well. The script reads the rest of the sentence following the phrase it looks for, until the following full stop, and it compares the end of the sentence with the team name I’ve entered. If it matches, it’s a „good“ hit.

 

Example:

I enter player name Tommy Sleeves and team name Helsinki Titans.

The script finds the phrase „is hit by Tommy Sleeves and loses puck. Free Puck retrieved by“, followed by „Maple Dogwood for Helsinki Titans“. The end of the sentence matches the team name, so the script counts it as a good hit.

 

Defensemen

 

1. Tommy Sleeves  77 EH (28.10% of SH)

2. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 67 EH (37.22% of SH)

3. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 56 EH (31.11% of SH)

4. YaBoi Oven 50 EH (30.86% of SH)

T-5. Billy Joel 45 EH (25.28% of SH)

T-5. Darko Alexander Malkovich 45 EH (28.30% of SH)

 

Once again, no surprise Tommy Sleeves is in the lead. And once again, I’m impressed by Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage. Only 10 fewer good hits than Tommy Sleeves, with 175 fewer total hits is just insane. Obuz looks like the most efficient hitter of the bunch.

 

Forwards

 

1. Savaisk Tzesar 101 EH (60.12% of SH)

2. Toby Kadachi 99 EH (62.26% of SH)

3. Axle Gunner 89 EH (64.03% of SH)

4. Grimgor Ironhide 85 EH (59.86% of SH)

5. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 83 EH (66.40% of SH)

6. Severus Targaryen 82 EH (53.59% of SH)

7. Legacy Gaming 81 EH (55.48% of SH)

8. Nico Belique 73 EH (53.68% of SH)

9. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 72 EH (56.69% of SH)

10. Maple Dogwood 71 EH (56.80% of SH)

 

An interesting comparison between the defenders and the forwards – in case of a forward separating an opposing puck carrier from the puck, the rate at which the hitter’s team gains puck possession is much higher than in defensemen’ case. I wonder if that’s because Simon thinks forwards’ hits happen in the offensive zone, where there are 3 forwards vs 2 opposing defenders, and defensemen’ hits happen in the defensive zone, where there are 2 defenders vs 3 opposing forwards? Anyway, while I took a jab at Jebediah in the previous part, it came back to bite me in the ass with Jebediah timing their hits extremely well, so kudos.

 

Ineffective hits (IH)

 

Going for a hit is not always the best idea. Sometimes it can put your team in a worse position than just pressuring the puck carrier and limiting their passing options. In real life hockey, that is. If the end of the sentence my script doesn’t match the player’s name, it’s a „bad hit“. Of course this is not only in the hands of the hitter, having a good team around is paramount. But that’s just the nature of team sports. It’s always hard to isolate individual impact. In this experiment, a successful hit is always either an effective hit, or an ineffective hit. So, logically, the sum of percentages of good hits and bad hits equals 100%.

 

Example:

I enter player name Billy Joel and team name London United.

The script finds the phrase „is hit by Billy Joel and loses puck. Free Puck retrieved by“, followed by „Nico Belique for Los Angeles Stars“. The end of the sentence doesn’t match the team name, so the script counts it as a „bad hit“.

 

I’m ranking the players from the fewest bad hits to the most ineffective hits.

 

Defensemen

 

1. YaBoi Oven 112 IH (69.14% of SH)

2. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 113 IH (62.78% of SH)

3. Darko Alexander Malkovich 114 IH (71.70% of SH)

4. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 124 IH (68.89% of SH)

5. Billy Joel 133 IH (74.72% of SH)

6. Tommy Sleeves 197 IH (71.90% of SH)

 

Again, no surprise that Tommy Sleeves recorded the most bad hits. The fewest bad hits go to YaBoi Oven, who recorded the fewest total hits, it makes sense as well. But once again, I’m impressed by Obuz.

 

Forwards

 

1. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 42 IH (33.60% of SH)

2. Axle Gunner 50 IH (35.97% of SH)

3. Maple Dogwood 54 IH (43.20% of SH)

4. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 55 IH (43.31% of SH)

5. Grimgor Ironhide  57 IH (40.14% of SH)

6. Toby Kadachi 60 IH (37.74% of SH)

7. Nico Belique 63 IH (46.32% of SH)

8. Legacy Gaming 65 IH (44.52% of SH)

9. Savaisk Tzesar 67 IH (39.88% of SH)

10. Severus Targaryen 71 IH (46.41% of SH)

 

The difference between the defender and the forwards – see the previous part, just reversed. And okay, I’m officially apologizing to Jebediah for the jab earlier, they apparently rather not go for a hit, than going for a needless one, good job.

 

Effective hits to ineffective hits ratio

 

So how good were the selected players with their hit selection? In the end, I think the amount of successful hits and the ratio between „good“ hits and „bad“ hits are what looking for the best hitter boils down to. This one is pretty straightforward, no explanation needed here.

 

Defensemen

 

1. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 0.59 EH/IH

T-2. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 0.45 EH/IH

T-2. YaBoi Oven 0.45 EH/IH

T-4. Darko Alexander Malkovich 0.39 EH/IH

T-4. Tommy Sleeves 0.39 EH/IH

6. Billy Joel 0.34 EH/IH

 

Looking back at the previous chapters, there is absolutely no surprise Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage leads the way.

 

Forwards

 

1. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 1.98 EH/IH

2. Axle Gunner 1.78 EH/IH

3. Toby Kadachi 1.65 EH/IH

4. Savaisk Tzesar 1.51 EH/IH

5. Grimgor Ironhide 1.49 EH/IH

T-6. Konstyantyn Shevchenko :dcd: 1.31 EH/IH

T-6. Maple Dogwood :hel: 1.31 EH/IH

8. Legacy Gaming :chi: 1.25 EH/IH

9. Nico Belique :la: 1.16 EH/IH

10. Severus Targaryen :rig: 1.15 EH/IH

 

I’m too tired already to type anything here.

 

Conclusion

 

Hits will always be a part of decision to award the defensive awards. But as I’ve said before, not all hits are equal, and it is always a good idea to look into the context. I think I’ve given you my insight into it. So what’s left for me to do is to name the in my opinion best hitters, all things considered.

 

Defensemen: While Tommy Sleeves was undoubtedly a menace, the fact the team around him was...not the greatest really drove the results of his physicality down. When it comes to the results player’s hitting game brought, my top player would be Callum Gary Yannick Janser, close to a tie with Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage.

 

Forwards: In this case, I think the pure hits total leader Savaisk Tzesar takes my vote. While I have to give huge shoutouts to Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish and to Axle Gunner, I don’t think I can argue for any of them over Savaisk.

 

Word count: 2k+

 

Mentions: @Grape @Daniel Janser @Doomsday @AColdCanadian @dasboot @The goat of hockey @hylands  @Steve @ROOKIE745 @comrade cat @FrostBeard @der meister @dogwoodmaple @Gaming Ringleader @Syzygy @Banackock

 

newfile.py

[VattghernCZ 1,054]

Claim 1/4 for W.E. 12/1

[der meister 3,246]

This is incredible. I always went with the idea that 50% of the time, a hit separates a player from the puck, and 50% of the time the hitter's team retrieves it, so 25% of all hits. To see it broken down in a more nuanced way is really fascinating.

[hylands 850]

omg jeb is finally good at something

[comrade cat 303]

I love how you compiled this together 

[Victor 11,021]

Tommy Sleeves will be an all timer for sure. Giving Encarnacion's defencemen records a run for their money @MubbleFubbles

[VattghernCZ 1,054]

Claim 2/4 for W.E. 12/8

[Thunder 1,205]

On 11/29/2024 at 9:26 AM, VattghernCZ said:

millimeter (that’s 127/5000“, you’re welcome, my overseas fellas!) precision

Seems off a little bit.  

[VattghernCZ 1,054]

5 hours ago, Thunder said:

Seems off a little bit.  

 

It wouldn't be surprising if I goofed it up, the dumbass is strong in this one.

[Daniel Janser 2,216]

This article comes at a time where I started seriously asking myself if I did not overdo it with the physicality of CGY and costing my team dearly in the playoffs. Thanks for giving me a reason to feel confirmed in my build.

[VattghernCZ 1,054]

2 hours ago, Daniel Janser said:

This article comes at a time where I started seriously asking myself if I did not overdo it with the physicality of CGY and costing my team dearly in the playoffs. Thanks for giving me a reason to feel confirmed in my build.

 

Next offseason, I'll do a similar thing on all things defense, stuff like pass interceptions, puck retrievals etc. So I'm sure CGY will be a highlight once again!

[VattghernCZ 1,054]

Claim 3/4 for W.E 12/15

[VattghernCZ 1,054]

Claim 4/4 for W.E. 12/22