Taking a Beating: League Leaders in Getting Hit

by Hawerchuk on Jan 19, 2010 9:00 AM EST in Statistics

We all know who the big hitters are, but have you ever wondered who gets hit the most? Looking at road hits over the last two seasons, it's primarily defensemen:

Player	Hits Against
Stephane Robidas	191
Douglas Murray	187
Zbynek Michalek	181
Brian Campbell	172
Tom Gilbert	170
Fedor Tyutin	167
Tuomo Ruutu	165
Ryan Kesler	163
Jason Blake	159
Brian Rafalski	159

This makes sense: most hitting is along the boards and is done by forwards fighting for the puck. Also, a lot of players probably look forward to taking a run at Douglas Murray.

And who had the highest ratio of hits received to dished out? [Minimum 50 hits received]

Player	Hits For	Hits Agt	Ratio
Pierre-Marc Bouchard	6	60	10.00
Steven Reinprecht	9	88	9.78
Phil Kessel	8	72	9.00
Tyler Arnason	7	58	8.29
Loui Eriksson	16	131	8.19
Michael Nylander	7	53	7.57
Daniel Sedin	12	84	7.00
Tom Preissing	10	56	5.60
Mike Lundin	11	61	5.55
Ales Hemsky	21	115	5.48
Patrick Kane	21	113	5.38
Brian Rafalski	31	159	5.13
Miroslav Satan	15	75	5.00
Jeff Woywitka	15	75	5.00

Mostly skilled forwards this time, though there are a few defensemen. And what about the opposite end?

Player	Hits For	Hits Agt	Ratio
Trent Hunter	153	60	0.39
Tim Gleason	150	63	0.42
Shea Weber	141	60	0.43
Jarret Stoll	123	54	0.44
Greg Zanon	134	60	0.45
Cal Clutterbuck	158	74	0.47
Francis Bouillon	123	62	0.50
Toni Lydman	180	91	0.51
Cody McLeod	147	76	0.52
Ruslan Salei	123	64	0.52
Niclas Wallin	121	63	0.52
Milan Lucic	201	106	0.53
Adam Mair	106	56	0.53
Mike Fisher	186	99	0.53
Dustin Brown	210	113	0.54
Brooks Orpik	223	120	0.54
Mike Grier	115	62	0.54
Chris Kunitz	183	99	0.54
Jerred Smithson	112	61	0.54

A lot of players here with reputations for physical play. Not surprisingly, there's no player who hits 10 times as often as he gets hit. It's easy to not hit anyone and thus get hit at a much higher rate. But once you start hitting people, you're guaranteed to get lined up a few times yourself.

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Comments

Good stuff, Gabe! Thanks for following through on this. Good choice to include just road hits; should get rid of much (not all) scorers’ bias.

I’m guessing from the foregoing that the guys involved in the most total hits, for and against, are Robidas and Murray.

Writer for The Copper & Blue and primary shareholder of Zorg Industries

"Never be ashamed of who you are" -- Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg

by Bruce McCurdy on Jan 19, 2010 12:46 PM EST reply actions

Robidas and Murray are definitely 1-2 in total hits.

by Hawerchuk on Jan 19, 2010 1:28 PM EST up reply actions

Another conclusion

There’s more hitting in the Western Conference, it seems. Or is it simply the luck of the draw that the highest hits against are out West?

Hockey blogging can't get any flatter.

by saskhab on Jan 19, 2010 4:38 PM EST reply actions

What about hits thrown/received per minute of ice time – in particular you would think that this would change the order of some of the lists (e.g. Tyler Arnason, as a non-skill forward would likely jump up in the ratio ratings). Obviously, if this method was adopted forwards and defenseman would have to be partitioned though.

by HugoAgogo on Jan 21, 2010 1:25 AM EST reply actions