An Analysis of Stansson Stats

[ahockeyguy 110]

               Wolf Stansson is one among a whole crop of brand-new players for the expansion Miami Marauders. They’re having a difficult time as of late, having just ended an 11-game losing streak to bring their record to 5-19-0 after 24 games. They run a decent power play, of which Stansson is a significant part, to the tune of 19.44%. Their penalty kill (which, in fairness, Stansson also takes a large role in) is atrocious, at just 68.27%.
 

               Fellow blue-liner @Mongoose87 Kramerev leads the team in points with 34. Stansson is tied with team captain @Andre LeBastard for fourth with 23 points. While Stansson’s friendships on the team will be explored down the line, for now it’s just the cold, hard stats. First, the good: he has scored nine goals on just 72 shots, an unusually high shooting percentage for a defenseman. But then there’s the bad: he’s scored just three goals on 25 shots during even-strength time.

 

               What does this mean? It means he is fairly productive on the power-play unit. He has played 112 minutes this season on the power-play, registering six goals on 47 shots and five of his 14 assists. That’s roughly 25 shots every 60 minutes, and roughly 3.2 goals every 60 minutes. It also means that Stansson is either scoring or assisting on a power-play goal roughly for every 10 minutes of man-advantage time. Stansson’s shooting from the point is becoming fairly reliable and valuable.

 

               The good: Stansson has 72 shots on goal. You can’t score if you’re not shooting (typically). The bad: between having shots blocked or missing entirely, Stansson has more (74) shots blocked or go wide than he does registering on net. This equates to a lot of missed opportunities.

 

               Or does it? It’s not immediately clear. Here’s why: suppose Stansson trails Lebastard entering the offensive zone, and the latter drops the puck back to Stansson. Lebastard, being the center, is going to position himself somewhere in front of that net, either to screen the goaltender, collect a rebound, tip a deflection into the net, or some combination. Stansson’s attempt to pass it to Lebastard down low will nearly always fail, since an opponent can simply get enough sticks and bodies in the way to make this impossible. But if Stansson lowers the boom on the puck and shoots it low and hard, it has a chance to find the back of the net. If it doesn’t, it may generate a rebound that the goalie has a hard time seeing, or Lebastard might redirect it past him. Or it may even miss the net entirely but hold a favorable bounce; perhaps Stansson himself might collect the loose puck and find an open player, or Lebastard grabs the carom off the boards and snap-shots one with deadly accuracy.

 

               There are, unquestionably, things in Stansson’s game he must work on to be an effective player at this level (and much moreso in the next one!). But there are also reasons Stansson and company do what they do—reasons that, once explained, don’t look nearly as bad or crazy as they did at first glance.

[bigAL 2,176]

PP, PK, defending, scoring, and SO MUCH SHOOTING! Those Marauders sure are asking a lot from you... but you're surpassing all expectations at this point in the season. Keep it up Wolfman!