As most of you are aware, the general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, Eric Tulsky, used to go here. He started out his incredibly hockey journey that has now led him to running a team that is one of the rare perennial and true contenders in the NHL, at this little hockey blog looking at a bunch of numbers and asking and answering a bunch of questions.
So now with the Hurricanes facing off against the Philadelphia Flyers, the team he extensively wrote about and grew up a fan off, in the second round of the playoffs, it felt like the right time to look back at some articles that Tulsky wrote here at Broad Street Hockey.
We came up with five that are certainly interesting reads, but honestly they are all worth your time, to look at what some of the biggest hockey minds now were thinking about over 15 years ago.
Is Bobrovsky ready for a playoff run?
It certainly feels right to start this little list with the very first one that Tulsky officially penned for the blog. Back on February 25, 2011, as the Flyers were sitting pretty at the top of the Eastern Conference with a 40-15-6 record and eight points clear of the next-best Penguins, the simple question was asked: Whether or not the Flyers’ starting netminder was really ready for a playoff run.
Tulsky went deep on the comparison between Sergei Bobrovsky and Brian Boucher. Looking into how both of their even-strength save percentages have looked throughout the season and citing others’ concerns about his puckhandling or other minor details that could affect how he performs in the postseason.
Of course, the Flyers went on to beat the Sabres in the first round through seven games and the 22-year-old rookie Bobrovsky made the Game 1 start and stopped 24 of 25 shots, but then was pulled after allowing four goals on seven shots in Game 2. And then, well, the Flyers got swept in the second round by the Bruins and after needing to come in Boucher’s relief through the first three games, Bobrovsky started Game 4 and unfortunately lost also.
But hey, now Bobrovsky is known as one of the best postseason goalies in the modern era, so it was clearly useful to look into.
Balanced Corsi: Who is best at their role?
Now, we’re getting more into the nerd stuff. Expanding on his look into balanced zone shifts, Tulsky took all of that research into how players are deployed and what that means, and then applied it to how those zone starts can affect a player’s on-ice shot attempt share output.
It’s generally a known thing nowadays when looking into on-ice numbers — to then not take it as gospel and then look into exactly how their coach deployed them. The result being that if they start the majority of their shifts in the offensive zone, it’s easier for those players to look good when looking at on-ice shot share numbers (because they get a head start in being in that offensive zone) and vice versa.
But back on March 22, 2011, Tulsky doing this was truly helpful for a whole lot of people. The Hurricanes GM included so many graphs and tables looking into how players all across the NHL should have their Corsi numbers weighed to correlate with their zone starts. Truly an article we can all point at and understand why he now runs one of the best teams in the league, for getting to this a whole 15 years ago.
Flyers zone entries: winning the neutral zone
Oh wow, looking into more stuff that is important, big-time shocker.
With the importance of zone entries to winning hockey games being a true sticking point — so much so that there is a collection of Tulsky’s several articles on the topic right here — this was written to really look at teams having control of one of the most underrated areas of the ice.
Coming from the pure question of how teams can move further up the ice and spend as little time as possible in their own zone, this examined how the Flyers do in terms of getting the edge in the neutral zone. As with other Tulsky articles, there isn’t a definitive answer or perfect takeaway, but it’s doing the work and coming out with some points to then look out for further while watching the games.
Should Scott Hartnell get a contract extension?
This is a personal favorite just because it is a quick and dirty look into a question that was asked by so many fans at the time. In July of 2012, Scott Hartnell was eligible to sign a contract extension with the Flyers as he was approaching his final year of his deal and was already 30 years old. But, he just scored 37 goals. Weighing the good and the bad, Tulsky looked into whether or not Hartnell can be effective at all going into the final years of his playing days.
It’s not some overarching epic about a topic that appeals to every single hockey analyst, but gets right into the details and tries to answer a question for Flyers fans. And Tulsky even mentions in the article that he expected that Hartnell’s 37-goal campaign was largely because he was riding some insane shooting percentage and there would be a conclusion that it would be a mistake to commit years to him. But, that changed when there was a discover that Hartnell’s goal-scoring boost actually came from him just shooting the puck more and the actual percentage didn’t skyrocket for one single year.
Hartnell was eventually signed to six-year contract extension with a $4.75-million AAV a month after this article was written. And, well, we all know that Hartnell was eventually traded in 2013 for R.J. Umberger. But, he did have three more 20-goal seasons after this article, so it’s certainly worthwhile.
Do playmakers drive teammates’ shooting percentage?
This is still being a question asked to this day. How much does a player’s certain abilities truly affect the other players he plays with? Who is to credit when a player does well? Who is the true driver on a certain forward line? Should we put weight into With Or Without You numbers?
Nowdays we’re shifting more into deeper tracking and looking at specific video study and seeing how players affect the whole play on the ice and what players fit well together. But back in December 2011, Tulsky looked at the data from the past three years of the top playmakers in the NHL and what their teammates’ shooting percentage looked like.
The playmakers used were the likes of Henrik Sedin, Joe Thornton, and Martin St. Louis (funny that Tulsky’s Hurricanes could be facing off against St. Louis’s Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Final later this month), and the study was really a reflection on how some players truly benefit from playing with those top playmakers.
Such as how Marian Hossa had an insane 8.6 percent boost in his shooting percentage when with Pavel Datsyuk, compared to when he was not. Some really fun stuff to look at and is certainly still applicable to this day.
