Booth Has Been a Two-Way Force
Cam Charron
April 11 2012 01:59PM
We've still only seen 56 games out of David Booth, so we don't really know what to expect in the NHL playoffs from him. Similar to Booth (by his performance on an advanced boxscore, not necessarily by his playing style) is Christopher Higgins, and while he's only played 110 games in a Canucks uniform - we're damn sure he's an impact player.
The weird thing is that Higgins and Booth have morphed into threats at both ends of the ice, each having replaced Ryan Kesler to some degree in the role of the "American two-way forward" on the team. That's not, well, exactly true, but by analyzing scoring chance data we find some really similar things about the two players.
Canucks Even Strength Scoring Chance Totals 2011-12
Cam Charron
April 10 2012 09:40PM
Hi, remember how after every game, we'd post a game recap that would include a list of the scoring chance differential of every player? Well, throughout the year, we'd been counting them up, and we finally have some full numbers to share with you tonight.
Canucks strike Oil - Recap and scoring chances
Cam Charron
April 07 2012 11:28PM
Watching this game was, in the end, one of the biggest wastes of time. At its outset, the Vancouver Canucks were getting turned away at every opportunity by Devan Dubnyk, and it looked like it may become one of "those" games, but, lo, late in the second period, Henrik Sedin scored a powerplay (!) goal after having out-shot and out-chanced Edmonton all game. In the third period, the Canucks' got insurance goals from Samuel Pahlsson and David Booth, and, really, to win the Presidents' Trophy, a game against the Edmonton Oilers shouldn't have been in doubt.
For full analysis, a scoring chance breakdown, and the Statistical Three Stars and Goats, click past the jump...
Tales of regression: the 2008 Vancouver Canucks
Cam Charron
April 04 2012 02:45PM
Canucks Army didn't exist in 2008. I'm not sure how much of a market there was for a math-themed Vancouver Canucks blog. I certainly wasn't reading one, and while Vic Ferrari was pumping out terrific stuff like this about player luck over a short-term period of hockey games, I was a regular poster on Canucks.com, using the numbers I had available to me to prove my points, but none of the wealth of data available online to regular readers of Puck Prospectus or Irreverent Oilers Fans.
I was parsing through Behind The Net and something caught my eye: when we talk about the Minnesota Wild this season, or the Dallas Stars last season, or the Colorado Avalanche from 2010, we're talking about teams that had dominant first halves of the season but collapsed from January-on. Surely, there has to have been a team like that almost every year in recent history that had a good first half and a lousy second half.
Enter the 2008 Vancouver Canucks, let's look month-to-month at just how they did. Using timeonice scripts from 2008, I looked month-to-month at how this team fared...
Enough Ducking Shootouts - Canucks "defeat" Ducks
Cam Charron
April 04 2012 01:10AM
It's not like the Vancouver Canucks weren't playing well, but they just weren't getting the saves from Roberto Luongo early on in the game. Finding themselves down 4-2, the Canucks rallied in front of Cory Schneider and found a pair of goals ere headed to the shootout, where three pretty goals by Alex Burrows, Alex Edler and Maxim Lapierre won the game for the team, their seventh straight since the loss of Daniel Sedin to a concussion.
For further analysis, scoring chance recap, and cheering on your favourite Statistical Three Stars and booing your hated Statistical Three Goats, click past the jump.
