Thanks Ryan for throwing out a comparison of a recent trade - something different & worth the effort.
As I said yesterday if Downie for example goes & plays with Sid & Spaling with Geno for comparison their numbers will improve. If they were to go & play with Sill & Adams the numbers may be worse. It's not justified to not name the alternate players when comparing stats. Who did these players play with for their comparisons?
I have no doubts Goc is a steady & good possession player & very good at face offs - which would cushion his possession numbers. But if you have a look at other numbers - actual numbers that have no unknowns possibly affecting the results you can say that Goc & Lapierre are not the same type of player but have similar results in the thing that matters most - scoring where up until today I think it was 1 assist each.
Pens StL
Goc:
Games - 43. 17
Hits - 56. 16
Shots - 43. 22
Faceoff % - 54. 55.2
Lapierre
Games - 15. 45
Hits - 46. 48
Shots - 17. 43
FO % - 43.8. 54.9
Now looking at the above they are individual stats & a couple of things immediately come to the fore. Why are the FO % so different for Lapierre? Why has he slowed his shots - enter the stats for possession & FO losses.
It looks as though he has been told to hit more as a Pen & the same can be said for Goc's shooting at the Blues.
Different roles produce different stats but very similar results. The biggest surprise I got when looking at hits was who the top 5 forwards were in the Pens. NHL stats hits - worth a look.
To say the Pens haven't got better is only something that can be said as an opinion based on partial stats that you have shown. Now going to compare wins V losses since the trade is another phantom call due to 1 player does not make a team.
Taking into consideration the OZ or DZ starts which is arguably not premeditated & the different structures of play - I have no idea of the Blues system, you really cannot compare team stats (Corsi is a team based statistic that relies on averages from the activities of the team). Also judging by the TOI of the players they are not always playing together so who they play with affects their numbers which does come into the WOWY stats as mentioned above.
Would you say if Lapierre could increase his FO wins then his shots may increase? With that combination as well as having his forechecking or hitting at a high number, then that will be a bonus to a skillfull Pens team. Also with the numbers you showed in the blog why wasn't there more input from Goc's line on the score sheet? The same appears to be at the Blues also. It could even be said that Goc plays better when playing with Boof heads (bigger than he played with here)?
Anyway it's been good to reflect on a trade instead of reading insane trade proposals or looking at hero charts of players that have no chance of getting lucky & playing in a Pens uniform this year.
