Alexander Wennberg has struggled this season. Four goals and 12 assists in 30 games, is well below all expectations. Wennberg was supposed to be the top line centre alongside Artemi Panarin but the two failed to develop any chemistry, leading to those struggles.
The two were split up and Panarin found instant chemistry with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Josh Anderson, forming the PB&J line. Wennberg didn’t have the same immediate success, but he was starting to find his scoring touch in the most recent games. Over the last five games Wennberg has two goals and three assists, almost a third of his points have come in this last stretch. He was finally playing well and looked like the number one centre we saw last season.
Much like Cam Atkinson, right as Wennberg’s season was getting back on track, it derailed again. Wennberg has suffered a back injury and is going to miss significant time. This is poor timing as Wennberg was starting to figure things out and we were starting to understand why he was struggled.
Elliotte Friedman in 31 Thoughts had a thought on Wennberg as to what had gone wrong with him this season.
10. Columbus talked last week about getting Alexander Wennberg back in the habit of carrying the puck. Their prospective No. 1 centre, who took a major step last season, has really struggled. He’s playing 18:20 per game, just two seconds below last season. That’s behind only Artemi Panarin and Nick Foligno among Blue Jackets forwards. (In 2016–17, only Foligno was above him.)Producer Matt Marstrom asked SportLogiq, which does some tracking for us, to see if Wennberg’s numbers have declined. They found he’s carrying the puck for two fewer seconds at even-strength and six fewer seconds in all situations. While that doesn’t seem like much, what has also dropped is his ranking among teammates. He’s gone from carrying it third-most in all situations and seventh-most at even-strength to fourth and ninth. That seems really low for a player of his ability, and I wonder how much that has to do with Panarin’s arrival. They’ve played a lot together. They’ve got to find the chemistry Panarin and Patrick Kane did.
This makes a ton of sense, Wennberg and Panarin both like having the puck on their stick. The problem is there is only one puck, and of course Wennberg is going to defer to Panarin, who’s a star. This is the same problem the Jackets had back in the day with Rick Nash and Jeff Carter. Both players are volume shooters but with only one puck to go around it doesn’t and didn’t work.
We don’t have access to SportLogiq data but what they’ve shown here matches up with the data that is available to the public. Corey Sznajder has continued his all three zones project and has been tracking data like this for all teams. CJ Turtoro (@CJTDevil) has taken the data and put it into graphs.
Here we have the Blue Jackets zone entries per 60, at 5 on 5. At the top we see Panarin and way down in the 10th spot we see Wennberg. Corey’s data doesn’t include the whole season which is why some of the rankings don’t exactly line up with SportLogiq. The point however remains the same. Wennberg was carrying the puck far less this season compared to last. This season Wennberg is averaging 7.62 carry-ins per 60, down from the 9.08 he had last season.
We don’t have data for the most recent games yet, but I would guess that Wennberg’s carry-in rate has increased, and is more in line with last season. Wennberg is at his best when he can take the puck into the offensive zone and survey the ice.
Good things happen when you shoot the puck. Wennberg is the beneficiary of this shot. #CBJ pic.twitter.com/TBkPNhQewj
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) December 21, 2017
Wennberg doesn’t get the zone entry here but he has the puck on his stick and has options. It’s a rush chance but if you give Wennberg options like this, more often than not he's going to find the right one.
Wennberg’s injury came at a poor time, but as mentioned yesterday the Jackets upcoming schedule isn’t the strongest so hopefully they can stay in the Metro race while these players recover from injury. When they get healthy it will be a big boost for the team down the stretch. You can follow me on Twitter @PaulBerthelot