Perpetually Underrated

Gabriel Desjardin’s website, Behind the Net, is probably the most interesting site out there for people who like to see beyond the traditional measurements of player ability. One of the things he does is split powerplay production from even-strength production, and adjust it for ice-time.

The list of league leaders in points adjusted for ice-time at even-strength is an interesting one this year, and there are a couple of Canucks on it. Here are the top twelve:

Last year, Sidney Crosby led the league in this category, and he, Malkin and Ovechkin are the only players on this list two years in a row.

This list doesn’t show everything – there’s no balance provided for quality of teammates or opponents, and it doesn’t take the powerplay into account. Most of the really elite players in the league get a lot of their point production on the powerplay – an area where the Sedins are surprisingly average.

Still, many Canucks fans are giving credit to Ryan Kelser and Alex Burrows – and make no mistake, their play this season has been excellent – but overlooking career years at even strength by the Sedin twins.

For a more in-depth look at their even-strength dominance this year, I ran their combined numbers at Vic Ferrari’s Time On Ice site. Here’s their statistics when on the ice together at even-strength:

In that last category, also known as Corsi, no Canucks player outside of the twins’ frequent linemate Alex Burrows (+114) is even close. The next nearest players are Pavol Demitra (+43) and Ryan Kesler (+37). When you consider that the Sedins are matched against their opponents’ top line more than any other players on the Canucks are, it’s even more impressive.