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Since Yzerman came to town and odd praise circulating for Dubas

March 18, 2024, 5:32 PM ET [1 Comments]
Jeremy Laura
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After last night’s loss I decided to spend part of the day working on stats since Yzerman arrived. I didn’t include the 2019/2020 season because it was bizarre. Of course there was the shut down, and mentally players and people were all over the map. Even though 2020/2021 saw shut down issues as well, there was some more stability as the league transitioned back. Below are the findings in 6 categories - goals for, goals against, power play%, PK% , shots for, and shots against

So far in 2023-24:
GF/GP 3.38. GA/GP 3.37. PP%19.8 PK%83.8
Shots for:28.7. Shots against: 32.4

2022-2023:
GF/GP 2.89. GA/GP:3.35. PP%21.1. PK%78.3
Shots for:28.2. Shots against 30.4

2021-2022:
GF/GP 2.77 GA/GP 3.78. PP%16.3. PK% 73.8
Shots for:29.4. Shots against 33.7

2020-2021:
GF/GP 2.23. GA/GP 3.0. PP%11.4. PK% 78.7
Shots for: 27.3. Shots against:31.9

From 2020-2021 goals for per game: 2.73, then 2.94, then 2.82 and this year 3.38.

From 2.73 to this year’s 3.38 is significant. There was a fall off of .12 goals between 21-22 and 22-23

Goals against: 3.35, 3.78, 3.0, 3.38. The additional goals scored outpaces the increase in goals against but just barely. This reiterates that defensively and in net Detroit needs a boost. For the year, goals for and goals against are only .03 apart, and that’s a warning flag.

The power play is higher than 2020/21 and 21/22 but lower than last year by about 2%. The PK of 83.8% is the highest it’s been since 2020-2021 where it sat at 78.7.

So, what’s the point? The good news is, Yzerman spent the summer looking for more goals and he found them. The bad news is, the team gave up each tally almost 1 for 1. So the onus for the summer is what many of you have already said. Fix the defense and goaltending. The PK is doing better and the duo of Copp and Compher have done a lot in that area.

The improvement is there, but the call for “someone to be fired” continues to rise. With the current staff unable or unwilling to make significant in game adjustments there could easily be at least a “minor swap”. You know, where assistants are let go as a warning.

This brings the odd “chatter” that I mentioned beforehand. Entries to the degree of “Dubas has only made 2 11 million dollar mistakes”. I looked at that and wondered why this would hit now. KD isn’t in Toronto any more, so the situation in Pittsburgh would be the impetus for the focus. Toronto is finishing the 6th of 7 years of the Tavares signing. This is Matthew’s 8th year with the Leafs. So, for 6 years nearly half of the cap has been tied up in 4 players with less playoff success than hoped. No one is going to be upset about Matthew’s contract, but cracks are forming around the Tavares era which oddly has the player in court as Canada bypassed their own law on taxes taken out of signing bonuses. Tavares lost 8 million of a 13 million dollar bonus. Why does that matter? The upfront cash is Toronto’s calling card for their stars.

Circle back to why I don’t think Yzerman is on the hot seat at this point. He’s cleaned house, and will likely send several players packing this year. There hasn’t been a 40 goal scorer in his tenure (had Kane played the full year? Maybe?) and the tear down has been rough. A lot of wasted first round picks (Cholowski, Mantha, Svechnikov, Zadina) that have left town. However, next year may be a different story. It’s March 18th and with 14 games left Detroit is still in the hunt. Horrible slide, yes. Totally out of it, no. A Washington win tonight will push Detroit outside the bubble again.

When Yzerman first came in, he gave some warnings. There wasn’t a Steven Stamkos in Detroit. Martin St. Louis was still playing and got what turned out to be an important piece out of New York when traded. The team is being built, but with a very different cast of characters. One of the final Holland picks, Larkin, is supposed to be back this week and it will hopefully bring a spark. The falloff should not have been this bad losing the captain, but it’s a race to the finish. This is the longest Detroit has been in the hunt in Yzerman’s tenure and that’s a good sign.
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