Since www.timeonice.com is still down, I went through the NHL logs and gathered the Fenwick (goals, shots & misses or Corsi less blocked shots) data to date. The first thing I wanted to look at was our defences numbers for the last two games with everyone’s favourite rover, Dustin Byfuglien, out of the line-up.
Season |
First 6 Games |
Last 2 Games |
|
8.06 |
5.00 |
14.89 |
|
-5.14 |
-13.63 |
26.60 |
|
-9.79 |
-9.43 |
-11.04 |
|
-1.94 |
-3.52 |
2.45 |
|
Zach Redmond |
20.55 |
0.00 |
20.55 |
Dustin Byfuglien |
-6.41 |
-6.41 |
|
Tobias Enstrom |
1.54 |
3.98 |
-6.85 |
5 on 5 Fenwick / 60 for the Winnipeg Jets Defenseman
With Big Buff gone, Ron Hainsey slid up on the top pairing, Zach Redmond parachuted in with Mark Stuart, and Grant Clitsome/Paul Postma stayed the same.
So what happened?
– Tobias Enstrom’s numbers fell from the sky.
– Stuart's take off in the opposite direction.
– Postma and Clitsome both see modest growth.
– And Zach Redmond? Well, somewhere in Wisconsin Ben's got a shit eating grin on his face.
One last point. While it's easy to point the finger at Ron Hainsey, I think that misses the point. Hainsey took a mere two minutes in penalties during Byfuglien's absence. He was still a big part of the penalty kill outside the state of Florida. And Hainsey didn't fail to stop 25% of all shots on goal.
But it's still evident that the team misses Byfuglien in their line-up, if only for his ability to insulate others by amassing huge TOI numbers.