ECQF Game Two: Time on Ice Numbers

After Game One, Scott Hartnell couldn't do much worse.  And he didn't.  He actually had a good game.

There were a lot of power plays yesterday, which contributed to a lot of the low scores.  While the official shot totals saw the Devils out-shoot the Flyers 32-29, those totals fell to 24-18 at even strength.

Jump to see the in-depth shot breakdown.

Rather than showing the zone starts - The Flyers started in the defensive zone 7 times more than the offensive - we'll just see the outliers:

• Matt Carle started in the defensive zone 11 times, offensive zone 4 times.
• Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen were the only players with more offensive zone starts than defensive, as Timonen had 5 offensive zone starts to 3 defensive.
• Both James van Riemsdyk and Ryan Parent had two defensive starts and 0 offensive.  Not really a surprise for Parent, but definitely a surprise for van Riemsdyk
• Darroll Powe had 5 defensive starts and only 1 offensive, while Danny Briere had 6 defensive and 2 offensive.  Not exactly what you would expect.

If you want to look at all of them, click here.

Two things I failed to do in the last post:  1) Here is where you can find these numbers; and 2) In each category, the first column is For, the second column is Against.

So, once again, the Flyers got out-shot.  At even strength, the Devils out-shot the Flyers 24-18. 

Shots on Goal

Only Danny Briere, Kimmo Timonen, Matt Carle, and Chris Pronger were on the ice for more shots on goal than against.  Generally, that's not good.  Overall, though, the numbers aren't too bad.  The only players who were out-shot by 3 or more were Jeff Carter (4), Simon Gagne (4), Braydon Coburn (6), Ryan Parent (7), and Oskars Bartulis (3).

The worst news is that Braydon Coburn and Ryan Parent got completely owned.  Well, so did Bartulis.  That third pairing was on the ice for both Devils goals at even strength.  It's a little strange that Parent gave up so many shots against while Bartulis didn't, but I'm assuming there was a shift Parent took with Coburn.  Looking at the head-to-head charts, Parent clearly played a shift against Langenbrunner, Kovalchuk, and Zajac.  That one shift must have been a really bad one.

Missed Shots

A lot of the negative Fenwick numbers above are the result of the the Devils missing the net.  Just like with shots on target, only four Flyers finished with more shots getting through to Martin Brodeur than Brian Boucher.  The only difference was Claude Giroux and Kimmo Timonen switching spots. 

The two glaring weaknesses were Coburn and Parent again.  When the team's Fenwick number is minus-10, and you have two guys who are minus-9 and minus-8, it's safe to say those two were the weak links. 

Blocked Shots

Does it surprise anybody that the players on the ice for the most blocked shots were Blair Betts, Ian Laperriere, Darroll Powe, Chris Pronger, and Matt Carle?  As a result, Matt Carle gets the Corsi award for the game, finishing a team-best plus-6.

At the opposite end, Braydon Coburn wears the dunce-cap as a minus-8 in this game.  While a lot of the blame may - and likely will - go to Parent and Bartulis, Coburn deserves a lot of it too.

Conclusion

Besides the obvious (Stop pairing Bartulis with Parent!), the Flyers keep getting out-shot by the Devils.  That is not a formula for success.  Some of that may have to do with the Devils getting last change, but the past two games have seen the Flyers have one or two players clearly dragging them down.  Every team will have one, but you can't win when those players are playing as badly as Scott Hartnell did in Game One and Coburn/Parent did in Game Two.

Getting out-shot is a problem.  It needs to be fixed.