I Think Blair Betts was Injured Before Last Night

by MarioD on Nov 22, 2009 12:47 PM EST

Just simply looking at his faceoff performance, it seems pretty clear something was wrong long before he jumped for that puck.

Coming into the week, Blair Betts had won ~54% of his draws for the season. That number has plummeted to 49.5% after these performances:

11/16 vs NJ: 10/20 (50%)

11/18 at LA: 5/19 (26%)

11/20 at SJ 6/17 (35%)

11/21 at PX 0/4 (0%)

A separated or dislocated shoulder is not an injury like a concussion that can really be made worse by playing through it.

But the question is who knew about it? Remember, Stevens sent Betts out to promptly lose three defensive zone draws in the last thirty seconds of the LA game. Richards and Carter obviously both would have been better choices if Betts was in fact playing with a bad shoulder.

This item was written by a member of this community and is not necessarily endorsed by Broad Street Hockey.

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Very interesting. Perhaps he was never fully recovered? What are his face off stats since he came back from injury?

by ToddtheFox on Nov 22, 2009 9:21 PM EST reply actions

That would explain a lot.

I didn’t think about that, and was as surprised as anyone that he lost three straight to Handzus at the end of the LA game.

Richards and Carter have been doing better this year face-off wise, no?

Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?

by mikefive on Nov 22, 2009 10:15 PM EST reply actions

Improved, but still mediocre.

Richards – 52.1%
Carter – 50.5%
Betts – 49.5%
Giroux – 49%
Pyorala – 42.3%

Thats everyone who’s taken more than 100 FOs.

I’m not sure if there’s a more detailed breakdown (by zone and situation ideally) but an interesting focus on these stats:

Faceoff Record on the PP

Richards 22-29 = 43.1%
Carter 31-36 = 46.2%

Faceoff Record on the PK

Richards 16-14 = 53.3%
Carter 14-25 = 35.9%
Betts 19-33 = 36.5%

They’ve all been racking up the stats on even strength faceoffs. Not all of those are meaningless, and there can be meaningless special teams faceoffs (offsides faceoff with 10 seconds left on a penalty, for instance).

But as a general pattern, they seem to be getting their asses kicked on the more important draws.

by MarioD on Nov 22, 2009 10:42 PM EST up reply actions

This doesn’t break down who took the draw, but you can imagine most of Richards, Carter, and Betts numbers are from them taking the faceoff. Lappy, Powe, and Briere, not so much. Link

Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.

by Geoff Detweiler on Nov 23, 2009 9:52 AM EST up reply actions

Jesus fucking Christ. Betts, Carter, and Richards all have winning records in the neutral zone and losing records in the defensive zone. Carer and Betts win in the O zone but Richards is losing there, too.

So, still lacking in situational information, another piece of the puzzle that their stats are padded by low meaning draws.

by MarioD on Nov 23, 2009 9:59 AM EST up reply actions

His initial response

sent me this link. I’m guessing that’s what you already had, but as he said, you could just assume most, if not all, PP draws are in the offensive zone, and PK draws are in the defensive zone. He’ll get me a full 4-year breakdown by the end of tomorrow, but I don’t think it will have specific zone draws. As he said, even if he broke that down, the amount of PP draws in the defensive zone (and vice-versa) probably would not be enough to enable any concrete conclusions.

Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.

by Geoff Detweiler on Nov 23, 2009 11:27 AM EST up reply actions

Even more interesting is Betts’ home and road splits: 57.7% at home, 39.8% on the road. No one with more than 10 total FO this year has a higher road % than home, but that’s just awful.

Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.

by Geoff Detweiler on Nov 23, 2009 11:29 AM EST up reply actions

I saw that, but the problem with those numbers is that if he was in fact injured earlier this week, his two attrocious road games injured skew those numbers. I mean, he’s played six road games total this season, with LA, SJ, and PX being half of them. So I’m not sure how legit that stat is.

All of that said, I wish I knew who began perpetrating this myth that he was a faceoff specialist.

by MarioD on Nov 23, 2009 11:35 AM EST up reply actions

That’s true, I didn’t even look at that. He was 50% (26 for 26) on the road before those three games.

Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.

by Geoff Detweiler on Nov 23, 2009 11:45 AM EST up reply actions

Either Richards or Carter needs to work their backsides off on faceoffs. We need one of those two to be able to win important draws more often than not.
I remember when Crosby first came into the league faceoffs were one of his biggest weaknesses and now he’s 11th best in the league.

by ToddtheFox on Nov 22, 2009 11:34 PM EST reply actions