Over the course of the season Penguins fans have been witnessing for themselves the pros and cons of having an incredibly flexible hockey stick.
The stick that I am referencing is of course that of Phil Kessel.
Phil Kessel has long been known for his incredible release which has led to some dazzling shots finding the back of the twine.
However, over the course of a long season you begin to witness the cons of having one of the most flexible sticks in the league. One timers, plays that require a quick precise one touch, and corralling the puck can be a challenge at times.
On the February 27th edition of the Hockey Hurts Podcast I touched on some of the pros and cons of Kessel having a rubber band for a stick. That discussion plays out towards the end of the show.
Since then there has been some literature published on the subject including a very good article by Jim Meinecke of The Pens Nation.
Jim has some good statistical analysis of Kessel's past and present as well as some comparables who are also in Kessel's price range. He also tracked down a James Mirtle article that discussed Kessel's whippy hockey stick
“New stick technology has changed the way all players interact with pucks in the past decade, but Kessel has taken more advantage of it than most. His stick, manufactured by Easton, is believed to have a flex rating of less than 70, one of the lowest in the league.”
I find that number staggering and incredible. Below 70?!
I am not one to tell other people what stick length or flex to use because I do strongly believe that a player knows best what works for them. I know at least for me I would be able to tell right away if somebody cut off a half inch or added a half inch to a stick I was using. I am also finicky about the flex (100) and the curve that I use (P88).
The past year or so I have been able to purchase some pro stock AHL sticks at a good price point which are great in quality but also happen to be 85 in flex (beggars can't be choosers).
The difference has been incredibly noticeable to me. Taking slap shots in my post college career hasn't been a regular occurrence for me because I'm a cheapskate and don't feel like burning through twigs, but since the change to the 85 flex I don't even bother from a performance standpoint. The room for error is way smaller and my accuracy isn't quite the same. You've got to really catch the puck in the right spot of your blade while also striking the ice with precision behind the puck. This is what lets the stick flex do the proper work for you. If you are off even a little bit behind the puck you aren't going to get the desired result
If I find myself with a lot of time and space it is really fun to lean into a snap shot with the puck flying off the stick like it does but I find that the pro of that release is far outweighed by the other cons. With the stiffer shaft I find it way easier to elevate the puck and get more velocity on it during bang bang plays. I also feel like the radius from which I can accept the puck is larger and does not need to be as perfect giving more room for error. Another benefit of the stiffer shaft is being able to receive passes and "deaden" them to the stick blade easier. Trying to handle a hot pass with a flexible shaft makes it more likely for the puck to jump off of the blade thus making it tougher to handle at times. Sometimes you just don't have extra time to corral that puck in. By the time you get it back on the blade how you want it the window of opportunity is lost. This of course is way more evident at the NHL level than some recreational game in Rochester, NY.
I would like to stress that these are just my personal preferences and experiences. However, it is hard to ignore some of the goals that have gone by the wayside for Kessel this year and not think that using a flex below 70(!) has cost the skilled winger some goals over the course of the year.
We can see it with our eyes that one timers aren't Kessel's thing, but there is also data that backs up this perception.
Jen Lute Costella did an amazing project on the styles of play that certain stars around the league have. She tracked all goals from 73 different players from 2012-15. She brilliantly presented this at the RIT analytics conference last October. Which I highly recommend giving a look
If you would like to view her slides from the presentation which contains all of the data you can find those here
I am going to try and provide a tl;dr version of that here in the blog.
Here is a slide that represents the average time the puck is on a player's stick before a goal and how much zone time precedes the goal
I have added a red dot to highlight where Phil Kessel is on this list. Only David Krejci, Evander Kane, and Jason Spezza average more time with the puck on their stick before putting it in the net. On the bottom you see names like Jarome Iginla, the Sedin brothers, and Andrew Ladd. All players who fire off shots immediately.
Here is a breakdown on where assists come from on Phil Kessel goals which also comes from Jen's presentation at RIT.
A1 mean primary assist, A2 means secondary assist with OZ meaning offensive zone, NZ meaning neutral zone, and DZ meaning defensive zone.
Only 67% of primary assists come from the offensive zone on Kessel goals. This speaks to him scoring more times than not off of fast breaks in which the puck come from the defensemen in transition.
So what am I trying to say with this long winded analysis of a guy's stick flex?
Phil Kessel plays on a team with two of the best centers in the entire league. These are players who can create time and space out of nothing in the offensive zone and are able to dish pin point laser beams if the person on the other end is able to receive them. To this point Phil Kessel has not exhibited the ability to take advantage of these scenarios as often as he probably should. This is especially true on the power play. Kessel was the main man on the half wall in Toronto and he was the one dictating the flow. In Pittsburgh there is zero percent chance he is taking that role from Crosby and Malkin. His role has changed to being the weak side support guy. Unfortunately for him that means less time with the puck on his stick and more opportunities to quickly get rid of the puck in one timer situations. The whippy stick isn't best suited for that role.
As I said above I don't like telling players what kind of flex or curve to use, but maybe given his role in Pittsburgh and the kind of situations he finds himself in Phil could experiment with something in the 85 range for a little bit. Too many open goal cages are going unfilled for a guy that has Kessel's talent.
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