CHICAGO IL - DECEMBER 17: Bryan Bickell #29 of the Chicago Blackhawks checks Brian Rafalski #28 of the Detroit Red Wings at the United Center on December 17 2010 in Chicago Illinois. The Blackhawks defeated the Red Wings 4-1. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
So the original intent of this project was to systematically watch a game closely enough to see who was participating in the play and driving the outcome. In particular, I wanted to find a way to break apart the Keith/Seabrook and Lidstrom/Rafalski pairings to determine analytically which of those players was driving his team's outcomes. Of course, these things sometimes don't work out how you expect them to. First, Chicago:
| # | Player | EVENTS | SHIFT | EVTOI | EVENT/60 |
| CHI17 | Johnson | 15 | 3 | 2:21 | 383 |
| CHI36 | Bolland | 39 | 9 | 6:23 | 367 |
| CHI19 | Toews | 38 | 10 | 7:06 | 321 |
| CHI51 | Campbell | 45 | 7 | 8:43 | 310 |
| CHI6 | Hendry | 7 | 2 | 1:26 | 293 |
| CHI28 | Dowell | 18 | 7 | 4:10 | 259 |
| CHI22 | Brouwer | 28 | 10 | 6:36 | 255 |
| CHI5 | Cullimore | 19 | 6 | 4:32 | 251 |
| CHI4 | Hjalmarsson | 34 | 8 | 8:18 | 246 |
| CHI7 | Seabrook | 25 | 9 | 6:22 | 236 |
| CHI10 | Sharp | 24 | 9 | 6:17 | 229 |
| CHI20 | Skille | 20 | 8 | 5:17 | 227 |
| CHI24 | Boynton | 17 | 7 | 4:55 | 207 |
| CHI82 | Kopecky | 16 | 7 | 5:23 | 178 |
| CHI2 | Keith | 19 | 9 | 7:10 | 159 |
| CHI15 | Pisani | 16 | 9 | 6:41 | 144 |
| CHI29 | Bickell | 14 | 9 | 6:42 | 125 |
| CHI32 | Scott | 3 | 2 | 1:38 | 110 |
| CHI50 | Crawford | 11 | 20:00 | 33 | |
| Total | 408 | 204 |
So, with Chicago up 2 in the third, Brian Campbell was the primary puck carrier and passer. Detroit looks a bit more like we expect:
| # | Player | EVENTS | SHIFT | EVTOI | EVENT/60 |
| DET13 | Datsyuk | 65 | 8 | 7:34 | 515 |
| DET40 | Zetterberg | 59 | 9 | 7:01 | 505 |
| DET43 | Helm | 20 | 3 | 2:50 | 424 |
| DET17 | Eaves | 30 | 4 | 4:21 | 414 |
| DET8 | Abdelkader | 21 | 5 | 3:14 | 390 |
| DET52 | Ericsson | 35 | 8 | 5:34 | 377 |
| DET23 | Stuart | 34 | 7 | 5:41 | 359 |
| DET28 | Rafalski | 49 | 10 | 8:30 | 346 |
| DET51 | Filppula | 27 | 7 | 4:47 | 339 |
| DET44 | Bertuzzi | 34 | 8 | 6:11 | 330 |
| DET5 | Lidstrom | 40 | 10 | 8:41 | 276 |
| DET96 | Holmstrom | 31 | 8 | 7:25 | 251 |
| DET93 | Franzen | 25 | 8 | 6:39 | 226 |
| DET20 | Miller | 11 | 3 | 2:58 | 222 |
| DET11 | Cleary | 21 | 8 | 6:05 | 207 |
| DET55 | Kronwall | 22 | 9 | 6:26 | 205 |
| DET24 | Salei | 17 | 5 | 5:08 | 199 |
| DET26 | Hudler | 7 | 4 | 2:17 | 184 |
| DET35 | Howard | 13 | 18:38 | 42 | |
| Total | 561 | 281 |
Still, Brian Rafalski participated in more plays than Lidstrom. The problem with both Detroit and Chicago is that we haven't accounted for defensive play in any meaningful way, and with one game worth of data, there isn't really much we can do defensively.
There are 16 Comments. Load Now.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.