Jay McClement & the PK

[Kin]

Well Kulemin is 2nd on the team in SH-TOI/game by a pretty wide margin.

By my count he's 4th.

edit: and, at a glance, while Kulemin looks like McClement's most common partner on the PK, it looks like McClement has spent roughly twice as much time on the PK without Kulemin than with him.

 

[L K]

Well Kulemin is 2nd on the team in SH-TOI/game by a pretty wide margin.

By my count he's 4th.

edit: and, at a glance, while Kulemin looks like McClement's most common partner on the PK, it looks like McClement has spent roughly twice as much time on the PK without Kulemin than with him.

He's 2nd in terms of forwards, 4th overall, but that would stand to be logical that two defensemen would also be in the top 4.  Kulemin is the Leafs #2 PKer in the forward groups both in terms of cumulative SH-TOI and SH-TOI/game despite playing 42 of 54 games.

And McClement's pairings are skewed by the stretch of games Kulemin missed.

In the last 10 games McClement-Kulemin have been the primary combination for the Leafs.
http://www.leftwinglock.com/line-combinations/index.php?season=2013&team=TOR&strength=SH&playertype=F&gametype=10#A

Even if you take a look at the full season, Kulemin-McClement is the most frequent pairing: http://www.leftwinglock.com/line-combinations/index.php?season=2013&team=TOR&strength=SH&playertype=F&gametype=ALL#A

 

[Kin]

He's 2nd in terms of forwards, 4th overall, but that would stand to be logical that two defensemen would also be in the top 4.  Kulemin is the Leafs #2 PKer in the forward groups both in terms of cumulative SH-TOI and SH-TOI/game despite playing 42 of 54 games.

And McClement's pairings are skewed by the stretch of games Kulemin missed.

But my point, right, is that if we're trying to isolate and evaluate individual, rather than group, performance on the PK statistically we have to take into account who's out there and if when Kulemin is healthy and in the line-up his partner tends to be McClement that means he's being partnered with a guy who's perceived as a very good penalty killer, if McClement isn't playing most of his PK time with Kulemin then, regardless of why, it's going to impact the strength of the unit.

So, again, I have to wonder how McClement's numbers in that regard compare to guys like Gunnar and Phaneuf and whether or not it's more accurate to be drawing group, rather than individual, conclusions about those numbers.

 

[pmrules]

McClement - 7.48 goals/60 minutes of PK time.  Last year 3.84. 
Kulemin - 6.18 goals/60 minutes of PK time. Last year 6.88.

Interestingly, JVR leads the team among forwards with just 3.04 goals/60 minutes given up on the PK.

Just a question...who was mcclement primarily paired with last year on PK1?  There is a pretty significant drop off here. 

Also...after they cut his JMacs minutes, has the PK improved? It certainly doesn't feel like.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

There's a pretty good look at the PK here:

http://mapleleafshotstove.com/2014/01/27/leafs-notebook-january-27/

Basically, they're allowing more shots, taking more penalties, losing more faceoffs, and being too passive.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Basically, they're allowing more shots, taking more penalties, losing more faceoffs, and being too passive.

So you're saying that's a bad strategy?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Everyone agrees the goaltending hasn't been the reason ... don't we?

That's probably a tricky question to answer. Last season Reimer had a .920 Sv% while killing penalties. That's very, very good. That's first in the league among goalies who played 30+ games last season. This season Bernier is at .886 and Reimer is .840. Bernier is probably about average there while Reimer's number is near the bottom of the league among starters.

With that said, from watching the PK I'm not so sure the goalies deserve a large amount of blame. It's been said before, there's a lot more glaring issues on the PK this season than goaltending. But I do think that enough wasn't said about Reimer's performance on the PK last season. McClement got all the attention, but Reimer was probably the real MVP of the PK unit.

That elite level goaltending hasn't been there on the PK this season, other problems have arisen, and the teams performance shorthanded has dropped considerably.

 

[bustaheims]

Basically, they're allowing more shots, taking more penalties, losing more faceoffs, and being too passive.

So you're saying that's a bad strategy?

Wait a second. More shots + more penalties = more goals against? That just doesn't sound right.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Everyone agrees the goaltending hasn't been the reason ... don't we?

That's probably a tricky question to answer. Last season Reimer had a .920 Sv% while killing penalties. That's very, very good. That's first in the league among goalies who played 30+ games last season. This season Bernier is at .886 and Reimer is .840. Bernier is probably about average there while Reimer's number is near the bottom of the league among starters.

With that said, from watching the PK I'm not so sure the goalies deserve a large amount of blame. It's been said before, there's a lot more glaring issues on the PK this season than goaltending. But I do think that enough wasn't said about Reimer's performance on the PK last season. McClement got all the attention, but Reimer was probably the real MVP of the PK unit.

That elite level goaltending hasn't been there on the PK this season, other problems have arisen, and the teams performance shorthanded has dropped considerably.

And .920 SV% on the PK just isn't sustainable.  So really, it's another thing in a shortened season that was smoke and mirrors - Carlyle or the assistants didn't "fix" the PK.  In the last full season, no goalie who played at least 30 games had a PK SV% above .912.  The year before that only one did.

Same thing has happened to Ottawa - Anderson had a higher PK SV% than Reimer last season and they were 1st overall in PK.  This season it's .827 and they've dropped to 21st.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

One other thing that I suspected but couldn't find the numbers for until now: the teams performance down 2 men has dropped.

Last season the Leafs were down 2 men for 5.3 minutes (22nd in the league) and they were scored on just once.

This season they've been 3-on-5 for 7.7 minutes (10th in the league) and have been scored on 6 times (most in the league).

 

[bustaheims]

jonasTSN1050: Leaf penalty kill sitting at just 72% since November. Allowed a league-high 43 goals this season, including 13 in past 15 games.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Very much worth a read: Boom to bust: The demise of Leafs & Blackhawks penalty kill

 

[ZBBM]

Very much worth a read: Boom to bust: The demise of Leafs & Blackhawks penalty kill

I skimmed it (found the guy's writing style hard to follow) and it seems to come down to the Leafs sticking to a Czech Press PK style when the rest of the league now uses a 1-3-1 attack.  Did I get the gist of it?