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Have you ever wondered how certain goaltenders save percentage fluctuates vs. forwards compared to defenseman? No? Well I have, and yesterday I decided to run some numbers to see how much of a difference there really is.
I went through every start made by Martin Brodeur and Cory Schneider last season and tracked each shot to see how they fared vs. forwards compared to defenseman. I expected forwards would naturally have more goals and a higher shooting percentage, but I wanted to see how big the difference was and how certain goaltenders fare in that regard compared to others.
It took a lot of time so I've only ran the numbers on two goaltenders (Brodeur and Schneider) thus far so the sample size isn't large, but I've gathered enough data to at least talk about.
Below is the full season data for Martin Brodeur's starts.
Note: D Saves is the saves Brodeur made on shots from defenseman with the total shots by opposing defenseman taking up the right bar in that column. Save percentage vs. D is the next column, then you have the same stats for forwards as well as total save percentage in each game. The last column is pretty straight forward, indicating if Brodeur won the game or not.
There's a lot of data to break down there but a couple things stood out to me right off the hop. First off, at one point Brodeur didn't allow a goal from a defenseman in seven straight games. I haven't gauged enough data to see how impressive that really is, but it's longer than Schneider's longest streak in that regard and seems like a solid number. Another thing that stood out to me during that streak is only twice did an opposing team's defenseman attempt more than five shots.
I also find it rather impressive that the Devils held Washington's defense core to just one shot at one point. Considering they have some quality puck moving defenseman in John Carlson, Mike Green, etc. I found that pretty surprising.
This is more so a compliment to the Devils than Brodeur, but only three times throughout all Brodeur's starts did the Devils allow their opposing team's defenseman to attempt 10 shots or more. The Devils also allowed five shots or less from opposing defenseman in 13 of Brodeur's starts.
Not that it's necessarily surprising, but it seems Brodeur put forth most of his best performances when the Devils allowed 18-24 shots. If the Devils allowed 25 shots or more it was basically a coin flip as to whether Brodeur played well or not where as in the 18-24 range almost every start was quality.
Now let's take a look at Schneider's 2012-13 season data.
After looking at Schneider's data, a few things stick out right off the hop a) the Canucks allow a lot more shots per game from opposing defenseman than the Devils do and; b) Schneider is a beast when it comes to stopping shots from defenseman, which you'll see in a chart below shortly.
I don't want to ramble on so I'll let you guys read through the data and digest it yourselves now that you have a better idea of what you're looking at.
Lastly, I spent some time to add up all the season totals to see what both goaltenders season save percentages were vs. defenseman compared to forwards. It was also fun to see how the two goaltenders numbers stack up against each other.
The first thing I looked at after making this chart is their save percentages vs. defenseman. Not only did Schneider face 70 shots more than Brodeur in that regard, but he allowed less goals and posted a .970 save percentage, which is surely above league average. Brodeur's save percentage of .927 vs. defenseman isn't terrible, but it could use some work.
Forward save percentage has the same idea as vs. defense in that Brodeur's could use some work while Schneider's was once again surely above average. As you'll see in total save percentage, Schneider had a much better season than Brodeur.
The best part about that for Devils fans is that Schneider's .927 save percentage is the worst one he's ever posted where he made more than a few starts, so that's encouraging for sure.
While Brodeur still has some hockey left in the tank, there's more to Schneider's numbers being significantly better than him playing for a better team in Vancouver. Schneider had just a couple more appearances than Brodeur but faced a significantly higher number of shots on a regular basis and did more than hold his own.
It'll be interesting to see their numbers this season and to see exactly how Pete DeBoer plans on deploying the two.
Note: I'd ask that if anyone posts or shares the data I created here that you give credit where it's due.
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