How has Deryk Engelland been as good as John Klingberg? Is the Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith line the best in hockey? Is Marc-Andre Fleury tired?
Yesterday, I spotlighted some striking third-quarter Vegas team stats. Today, I'm going to reveal a host of eye-catching individual stats.
But before we get to individuals, how good have Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith been?
They've been both the most prolific and most-used 5v5 line in hockey.
Their 46 goals scored together are nine ahead of the nearest trio (Auston Matthews-William Nylander-Zach Hyman); their 674.83 minutes together are more than 35 minutes ahead of other frequent groups like Johnny Gaudreau-Micheal Ferland-Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk-Michael Frolik-Mikael Backlund, Anders Lee-John Tavares-Josh Bailey, and Alex Iafallo-Anze Kopitar-Dustin Brown.
Since December 8th at Nashville, they've enjoyed a whopping 33-9 5v5 scoring difference -- that's in just 37 contests.
Marchessault declared, "They're going to put their best defense against us, we're aware of that. It's nothing we can't handle."
Forwards
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare
• 54.47 5v5 Corsi For % (leads Vegas forwards, 150+ mins) • 47.65 5v5 Offensive Zone Faceoff % (toughest among Vegas forwards, 150+ mins) • 4.47 Shots Blocked/60 (7th out of 345 NHL forwards, 500+ mins) • 2:07 Short-handed Time on Ice (leads Vegas forwards)
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare has really put together an underappreciated campaign.
Much maligned in years past for poor possession figures, he's turned it around despite the team's toughest zone starts -- and he's done it without losing his trademark penalty-killing and shot-blocking tenacity. There was definitely a void in the line-up when he was out with an injury recently.
Cody Eakin
• 0.44 5v5 Points/60 (since January 13th)
After a strong start to the season alongside Alex Tuch and Brendan Leipsic -- the pivot put up 1.92 5v5 Points/60 through January 12th -- Eakin's production has dried up. He's had just two 5v5 points over 22 tilts since 1/13. For Vegas to make noise in the playoffs, the team's presumed third-line center will have to find his game on both sides of the ice.
With a 3.85 million dollar cap hit for the next two seasons, George McPhee surely hopes that Eakin is closer to the skater that he was from 2011-16 (1.6 5v5 Points/60) than the 0.68 from last year.
Generally, 2.00+ 5v5 Points/60 means a first-liner, 1.75+ second-liner, 1.5+ third-liner, below that is a fourth-liner.
Erik Haula
• 40.0 Power Play Shooting % (2nd among 193 forwards, 100+ PP mins)
Erik Haula trails only Yanni Gourde in this department. At the beginning of the season, I doubt anybody would've guessed Haula would be such an effective net-front presence on the man advantage, but his toughness and quick hands have proven to be an underrated storyline.
William Karlsson
• 1.64 5v5 Goals/60 (2nd out of 335 forwards, 450+ mins) • 18:34 Average Time on Ice (leads Vegas forwards)
William Karlsson’s star just won't fall, as he trails only Auston Matthews in 5v5 goalscoring.
James Neal
• 1.19 5v5 Goals/60 (17th out of 335 forwards, 450+ mins) • 1.56 5v5 Penalties Drawn/60 (14th out of 335 forwards, 450+ mins)
James Neal was expected to lead Vegas in virtually every scoring category, but I'm sure that he's been glad to have so much help. Regardless, the gamebreaker has more than carried his share of the scoring load this year.
He's also drawing penalties at a career-high pace.
Tomas Nosek
• 11.16 5v5 Individual Scoring Chances For/60 (14th out of 335 forwards, 450+ mins) • 4.69 5v5 Individual High-Danger Corsi For/60 (leads Vegas forwards, 450+ mins)
Tomas Nosek continues to attack the net with abandon, even though results have been wanting. Regardless, the ability to earn chances is a skill unto itself.
Jonathan Marchessault
• 1.46 5v5 First Assists/60 (1st out of 335 forwards, 450+ mins) • 2.01 5v5 Total Assists/60 (3rd out of 335 forwards, 450+ mins) • 1.39 5v5 Rebounds Created/60 (9th out of 335 forwards, 450+ mins) • 2.98 5v5 Points/60 (6th out of 335 forwards, 450+ mins) • 15.79 5v5 Individual High-Danger Corsi For/60 (since January 13th, was 19.87) • 7.29 5v5 Individual Scoring Chances For/60 (since January 13th, was 11.44) • 8.33 5v5 Shots/60 (since January 13th, was 11.67)
Jonathan Marchessault has been a playmaking machine.
He leads the league in 5v5 First (or Primary) Assists, while trailing only Mathew Barzal and Steven Stamkos in 5v5 Total Assists.
His 5v5 Points/60 is only behind Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand, Nikita Kucherov, Barzal, and Mark Stone.
However, he has slowed down as a shooter. I wondered if defenses are keying in more on Marchessault, but the winger-center demurred, "I'm just trying to make the right plays. Some days, I'm going to shoot more; some days, you're going to see [Reilly] score more goals."
As mentioned above, the line is as productive as ever, so there's nothing wrong with a diversity of shooting threats.
David Perron
• 4.67 Power Play First Assists/60 (2nd out of 193 forwards, 100+ PP mins)
The veteran winger’s career season -- he's already set career highs in points and assists with 18 games remaining -- has manifested itself on the man advantage, as he trails only Blake Wheeler in PP First Assists/60.
Reilly Smith
• 22.44 5v4 Shots/60 (since 1/21/18, was 11.42)
Reilly Smith is one of the biggest factors behind the Knights' explosive power play over the last month and a half, as he's almost doubled his shooting output recently. As mentioned yesterday, getting the puck on net more correlates with more goals.
Defense
Deryk Engelland
• 2:53 Short-handed Time on Ice (leads Vegas skaters) • 0.74 5v5 First Assists/60 (4th out of 206 defensemen, 400+ mins)
The first stat is expected, the second is shocking: Engelland trails only Roman Josi, Christian Djoos, and John Klingberg in 5v5 First Assists/60.
Brayden McNabb
• 2:36 Short-handed Time on Ice (2nd on team) • 3.0 Hits/Games Played (leads Vegas skaters)
Colin Miller
• 37.35 Power Play Individual Corsi For/60 (2nd out of 65 defensemen, 100+ mins) • 16.8 Power Play Shots/60 (5th out of 65 defensemen, 100+ mins) • 0.56 5v5 First Assists/60 (16th out of 206 defensemen, 400+ mins)
Colin Miller keeps firing away, especially on the man advantage, as he trails only Shayne Gostisbehere in shot attempts.
Miller also shares Engelland's success with primary assists.
Luca Sbisa
• 1.39 5v5 Points/60 (5th out of 206 defensemen, 400+ mins) • 0.63 5v5 First Assists/60 (10th out of 206 defensemen, 400+ mins)
Luca Sbisa has been surprisingly productive at 5v5 -- and also shares Engelland and Miller's tendencies for the first assist.
In trying to figure out how three Vegas defenders ended up in the top-16 in the league in 5v5 primary assists, I asked Engelland what Vegas was doing differently than Calgary, his last team. He had previously indicated that he's not jumping up anymore than in previous years.
Perhaps they're using the stretch pass more here?
"I'd say less, probably," noted Engelland. "We're coming out as five-man units, supporting the puck."
This might be a fluke, but I'll keep digging.
Nate Schmidt
• 22:12 Average Time on Ice (leads team)
He is the team's most-important defensemen, and arguably, its most indispensable player.
Shea Theodore
• 0.42 5v5 Rush Attempts/60 (12th out of 206 defensemen, 400+ mins) • 11.9% of shots are slapshots
More than any other Vegas blueliner, Shea Theodore avoids the slapper -- he's the polar opposite of Miller, who chooses the big wind-up on 46.9% of his shots.
Hunt opts for the slapshot 39.4% of the time, McNabb 34.8, Sbisa 30.8, Schmidt 30.7, and Engelland 22.1.
"There's stats on that?," asked Theodore.
"As a dman, a lot of times, guys are coming down the shot lanes. To take a slapshot allows them an extra second to get in the lane," he noted. "I find my wristshots and snapshots are the best to get [my shot] on net."
Goaltending
Marc-Andre Fleury
• Started 11 straight (2/4/18-2/26/18), 18 of last 20 (1/21/18-3/4/18)
Is Marc-Andre Fleury tired?
Fleury has just a .914 Save % since January 21st. Before then, he flashed a sparkling .945.
However, before you rush to blame fatigue, keep in mind that Flower made 15 consecutive starts last year. He started 25 of 29 in 2015-16. 13 in a row in 2013-14. He endured 23 straight appearances in 2011-12. Answered the bell in 16 of 17 in 2010-11.
The point is, he's a starter with a history of coping with heavy workloads. From 2008-15, his 420 appearances were second only to Henrik Lundqvist's 425 among all netminders.
Consider also that Fleury's career Save % before this year, accumulated over 13 years in Pittsburgh, was .912.
So Flower's recent, topsy-turvy .914? It looks more like Fleury being Fleury than anything else.
***
After a sound victory in New Jersey, Vegas couldn't quite duplicate the effort in Columbus, losing 4-1.
Artemi Panarin's elusiveness was on display all night, from his game-opening goal to shaking and baking Smith to this clip:
Up 3-1 with about 11 minutes to go, this subtle shift left forced Ryan Carpenter into a red-handed hold, melting more time from a potential Golden Knights rally.
Pluses
Vegas did throw a lot of rubber at Joonas Korpisalo, outshooting Columbus 38-21.
David Perron, in particular, stood out with his ability to protect the puck all night. Besides his assist on Erik Haula's 1-1 goal, where he shrugged off Ryan Murray, he was a brute playmaking force all night:
Minuses
The biggest win for the Knights from this game will be Smith's hopefully good health. This looks potentially devastating for their playoff hopes:
Smith plastered by Savard in corner, definitely favoring left side #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/btwSlbMRxD
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 7, 2018
Besides that, defensive coverage was shoddy. Panarin slipped free to open scoring because he wasn't marked. Later, Zach Werenski made it 2-1 when he was left with an extra split-second to blast it from the top of the circles:
Here's another coverage mishap which didn't end disastrously, but demonstrates that Vegas was a bit puck-focused at times:
Bjorkstrand entering screen late, all the Golden Knights are puck-focused. Could be 4-1 pic.twitter.com/QyXzbEAZwu
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) March 7, 2018
***
Stats as of 3/4/18, courtesy of Corsica, Hockey Reference, Natural Stat Trick, NHL.com, and Sporting Charts. ++++I AM CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR ADVERTISERS! If you, or anyone you know would be interested in placing an ad here at HockeyBuzz, then send me a PM!++++