Yarr 't't'arrr me maties, welcome aboard the good ship Coyotes Blog, as today we shall walk the plank of advanced statistical metrics in order to objectively evaluate the Arizona Coyotes blue-line.
Yarr!
Once I dated a girl who was heavily into pirate role play, and I still wear me patch from time to time.
That is not necessary knowledge for the following evaluations, but I feel the best way to write a solid blog is to pop on the old eye patch and do some pirate themed calisthenics before I be gettin' down to business.
Before we be getting down to the aforementioned business, you best be notin' that the Nik Hjalmarsson, Kyle Cappuccino, Aaron Ness and Jordan Gross be except from the evaluations due to being land lubbin' hippies. (i.e not playing enough to qualify).
The Coyotes six most used defensemen this year so far ranked by 5v5 ice time per game:
Goligoski Chychrun Demers OEL (AKA The Swedish Blackbeard) Oesterle Lyubushkin
If ever you sailed the high seas of mystery, you would need to call on honorary pirate Robert Stack to figure this out.
By me beard, I n'ere be seeing such discombobulation among the ice-times as this coach be doin'.
The Coyotes should be firin' their scurvy coach based on ice-time allotments of their blue line alone. Yarr this be enough to make Pirate Jesus weep in his manger.
The Coyotes be the 10th worst team in the NHL by expected goals percentage, they be gettin' the 7th worst high-danger percentage, and be allowin' the 6th most scoring chances against overall.
You actually don't be needin' Unsolved Mysteries for this, their success is due to goaltending, of which they've gotten the sixth best in the NHL. (Probably better, but they've also had both goalies injured on and off for a while).
(*exasperated pirate sound*)
No Coyotes defenseman gets over 50% of the shot-attempts and only Lyubushkin gets over 50% of the scoring chances or expected goals.
Goligoski be definitely underperforming what a team should expect from their "#1" and taking him away from the coach would probably help the team more than anything.
There be no excuse with the data available to the Coyotes that they use their best players so much on special teams that their most used 5v5 player is Goligoski. 5v5 is where you win games, and where you can get a non-luck based edge.
The Coyotes coach gets a lot of credit because his goaltenders be makin' him look as good as the first wench y'spy upon shore leave. But from marrying Hall to Dvorak on the first day, to chasin' away young swashbuckler Dylan Strome, or his defensive deployment, coach Tocchet be seen time and again to be a detriment to the team.
Yarr, and I swears it on me favorite copy of Pipes and Beards.
If not for Vezina quality goaltending that has nothing to do with the coach, the Coyotes would be in the basement.
A solution this old seafaring bastard would try out is to give the top-four ice time of Demers to Hjalmarsson and give him and OEL the harrrrdest minutes. I would not be pairing Hjalmarsson with Golgoski as was done last game.
Then I be findin' a right-handed defenseman from outside the organization that can play in the top four and I be tradin' all me booty for him.
The coach be needin to walk the plank also.
And that be the pirate's truth. All stats be from naturalhattrick.com
Yarr!