On the weekend, there were a few things that got me wondering: First, was this piece by Sarah McLellan about Coyotes LW Paul Bis

Posted in IYH Forums by jokergreen0220 at 05:15, Feb 16 2017

On the weekend, there were a few things that got me wondering: First, was this piece by Sarah McLellan about Coyotes LW Paul Bissonnette, who is hoping to expand his role beyond part-time fourth-line muscle. Dylan Strome Jersey . Among players with at least 100 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time this season, Bissonnette ranks seventh in points per 60 minutes, which may be a small-sample fluke, but theres a lot of room between Bissonnettes current role and that of a regular in the lineup. The Coyotes have made sure to put Bissonnette in situations where he can succeed, with offensive zone starts and relatively low quality of competition, but hes generated positive possession numbers over the past three seasons, enough to think that he might warrant consideration for more time. Trouble is, with the Coyotes life-and-death to make the playoffs, they dont seem inclined to give him that opportunity right now. The second thing that caught my attention was Flyers tough guy Jay Rosehill scoring a pretty nifty goal against the Bruins. And third, that was against the Bruins, a team that is sort of the prototype for the fighting teams, ranking second in the league with 46 fighting majors this season. The Bruins have Milan Lucic, a first-line winger who fights; Jarome Iginla, a first-line winger who fights; and Shawn Thornton, a fourth-line winger who fights and gets regular ice time (8:32 per game this year and played 22 playoff games last year). Injured D Adam McQuaid and rookie D Kevan Miller are also a couple of tough customers who play third pair minutes for the Bruins. Theres also been a lot of talk this year about Torontos fourth line which, for a time, included both Frazer McLaren and Colton Orr, and the relative ineffectiveness of that fourth line seemed to cause issues higher up the depth chart. Figuring out playing time for a line that employs two enforcers that dont have enough hockey skills to keep up is, at the very least, challenging. Finally, with the playoffs around the corner, the time will come when teams make hard lineup decisions and, in many cases, that means the designated enforcer goes to the press box. If he can play a bit, though, that can tilt the decision. So, all of this wondering led me to try and find out which of the leagues fighters are actually doing enough to warrant regular ice time; basically, who can play? One look at hockeyfights.com provided a list of 75 players that might be considered fighters (there are probably a few more that could have been included), but it was basically every player involved in at least five fights this season, plus a select few that had four and come with a reputation/track record (Steve Ott, Steve Downie, John Scott, Troy Bodie) and then Bissonnette, who has fought only three times in 37 games. There is an obvious top tier, which includes Iginla (with his most fights since 2009-2010), Lucic and Philadelphias Wayne Simmonds, forwards that play on scoring lines, but have an aggressive side that comes out on occasion. They might as well be excluded from the examination because, even with zero fights, they clearly produce enough offensively to play prominent roles on their respective teams. Teams can use tough guys in lower-leverage situations. As Tyler Dellow pointed out a couple of weeks ago, teams can be judicious in their use of their tough guys, which mitigates their liability, but if the tough guys cant play a lick, it makes it increasingly difficult to be judicious. It should be noted that not all fights, and fighters are created equally. There are heavyweights, who tend to only fight other heavyweights; there are agitators who end up fighting because theyre being called to task for one of (likely) many transgressions; and there are players who, battling for a spot in the lineup or consistent playing time, are willing to use that as one more reason for the team to keep them in the lineup. What makes a fighter useful enough to handle a regular fourth-line shift? Players that have at least 47% Corsi is a decent place to start. From a Dellow post last year, he determined averages for first, second, third and fourth-line players. Sure, theres some room for variance, but if the player is going to be used as more than as a spare part, he cant spend all of his shifts scrambling in the defensive zone. Among the 75 listed below, nearly half (36) had a Corsi over 47%. 23 were at 50.0% or better. Players that have at least an even Relative Corsi. From the list below, that includes only 15 of the 75 players, but that makes sense. Fourth-liners are unlikely to have better possession stats than players higher on the depth chart. There are a dozen players that have both a 50% Corsi and at least a break-even relative Corsi (actually, its 10, but Lucic and Iginla are just below that threshold.) If we can take the position that a fighter isnt likely to be the one driving his teams possession numbers, then if they arent significantly worse than their teammates, that at least puts them in consideration for a regular role. There are obvious exceptions to this case too, particularly when it comes to the Bruins, where the Patrice Bergeron line is so dominant that the likes of Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton have no hope of being close in terms of relative Corsi. Really, if a player fits in a teams top nine, theres not much question whether hes a useful player. Some are more useful than others, of course, but its not as if the league is overrun by third line forwards that dont even warrant a spot in the league. Maybe this should table should count as an appreciation for Patrick Maroon, the suddenly-valuable winger for the Ducks. While one of the leagues most active fighters, with 13, hes a strong possession player (54.8%) who, like most Ducks, has spent time on the wing with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, but hes been more productive recently while playing with Mathieu Perreault and Kyle Palmieri. Maroon has 12 points (3 G, 9 A) in his past 15 games, a marked improvement over 17 points in his first 59 career games. Maroons a big guy (6-foot-3, 229 pounds) who paid his dues in the minors, playing 353 AHL games, but hes also been more than merely a puncher, scoring 58 goals and 124 points in 139 games over the previous two AHL seasons. Its been a long road since he was drafted in the sixth round by Philadelphia in 2007, but hes starting to pay dividends for the Ducks. Take what you will from the data below and there is surely some debate over some of these players being on the bubble in terms of value, but when more and more tangible measures are available for players, it becomes increasingly difficult to justify a players spot in the lineup for intangible benefits. Possession stats come from the indispensable www.extraskater.com PLAYER TEAM POS GP G A PTS PIM CF% CFRel% FT Jarome Iginla BOS RW 76 30 31 61 47 53.8% -0.3% 5 Milan Lucic BOS LW 77 24 34 58 87 54.0% -0.1% 7 Wayne Simmonds PHI RW 78 26 31 57 106 48.5% -2.2% 6 Nick Foligno CBJ LW 70 18 21 39 80 51.2% 1.6% 6 Antoine Roussel DAL LW 77 14 15 29 195 51.8% 1.7% 10 Patrick Maroon ANA LW 59 8 18 26 101 54.8% 5.6% 13 Chris Stewart BUF RW 60 15 11 26 116 48.1% -4.8% 6 Ryane Clowe NJ LW 43 7 19 26 33 51.8% -2.8% 5 Kevin Bieksa VAN D 74 4 20 24 104 51.3% 0.4% 6 Steve Downie PHI RW 60 4 20 24 106 50.0% 0.4% 4 Matt Calvert CBJ LW 52 9 13 22 53 51.3% 1.3% 5 Steve Ott STL C 78 9 13 22 76 44.0% -3.3% 4 Eric Nystrom NSH LW 75 15 6 21 60 46.9% -2.5% 6 Gregory Campbell BOS C 78 7 12 19 43 45.4% -10.7% 5 Marcus Foligno BUF LW 70 7 10 17 80 43.5% 0.1% 5 Derek MacKenzie CBJ D 67 9 8 17 47 49.7% -1.0% 5 Andrew Desjardins SJ C 78 3 13 16 86 50.2% -4.2% 10 Ryan Malone TB LW 57 5 10 15 23 50.4% 1.2% 5 Dale Weise MTL RW 58 5 10 15 59 44.7% -5.4% 5 Barret Jackman STL D 76 3 12 15 95 52.8% 0.0% 5 Chris Neil OTT RW 72 8 6 14 204 50.7% -2.1% 14 Matt Martin NYI RW 75 8 6 14 88 45.2% -5.3% 10 Brandon Bollig CHI LW 79 7 7 14 92 51.1% -5.4% 6 Cody McLeod COL LW 71 5 8 13 122 42.0% -5.6% 12 Brandon Prust MTL LW 52 6 7 13 121 42.2% -6.7% 11 Tanner Glass PIT LW 64 4 9 13 83 38.8% -12.3% 6 Mark Stuart WPG D 67 2 10 12 33 47.7% -2.2% 7 Deryk Engelland PIT D 55 6 6 12 58 44.1% -4.5% 6 Travis Moen MTL LW 65 2 10 12 49 45.7% -2.1% 5 David Clarkson TOR RW 57 5 6 11 93 42.6% 0.4% 9 Chris Thorburn WPG RW 55 2 9 11 65 43.3% -7.1% 7 Luke Schenn PHI D 75 4 7 11 58 47.8% -3.2% 6 Tom Wilson WAS RW 78 3 7 10 151 46.1% -2.5% 14 B.J. Crombeen TB RW 54 3 7 10 79 48.6% -3.0% 11 Robert Bortuzzo PIT D 53 0 10 10 74 45.3% -3.6% 6 Jordan Nolan LA RW 62 6 4 10 54 52.0% -4.9% 6 Bryan Allen ANA D 66 0 10 10 73 50.1% 0.2% 5 Troy Bodie TOR RW 44 3 7 10 24 43.6% 1.1% 4 Tom Sestito VAN LW 75 5 4 9 203 44.4% -7.6% 19 Patrick Bordeleau COL RW 78 5 4 9 105 40.9% -6.7% 6 Brian McGrattan CGY LW 73 4 4 8 100 38.4% -9.3% 11 Derek Dorsett NYR RW 48 4 4 8 109 50.3% -3.8% 9 Kyle Clifford LA LW 68 3 5 8 81 53.1% -4.1% 9 Erik Gudbranson FLA D 62 2 6 8 114 50.8% -1.5% 7 Paul Bissonnette PHX LW 37 2 6 8 49 52.9% 2.0% 3 Matt Hendricks EDM LW 74 5 2 7 112 42.1% -4.8% 12 Shawn Thornton BOS RW 60 5 2 7 70 47.8% -8.0% 10 Ryan Reaves STL RW 59 2 5 7 124 45.8% -8.8% 10 Cody McCormick MIN LW 40 2 5 7 50 38.3% -7.6% 8 Kevin Westgarth CGY RW 45 4 3 7 64 42.8% -7.5% 6 Rich Clune NSH RW 54 2 4 6 152 48.5% 0.5% 16 Adam McQuaid BOS D 30 1 5 6 69 50.4% -2.6% 7 Sheldon Brookbank CHI D 45 2 4 6 50 51.5% -4.5% 6 Mike Weber BUF D 64 1 5 6 69 40.3% -4.2% 5 Dalton Prout CBJ D 47 2 4 6 37 49.7% -0.9% 5 Mike Brown SJ RW 55 2 3 5 94 46.0% -7.3% 12 Tim Jackman ANA RW 36 4 1 5 103 49.5% 1.3% 10 Clayton Stoner MIN D 62 1 4 5 82 47.2% -1.6% 8 Daniel Carcillo NYR LW 56 4 1 5 100 50.3% -3.6% 6 Luke Gazdic EDM LW 67 2 2 4 127 36.8% -8.3% 15 Krystofer Barch FLA RW 55 0 4 4 99 44.1% -6.9% 13 Eric Boulton NYI LW 23 2 2 4 88 36.8% -13.0% 8 Anthony Peluso WPG RW 51 2 2 4 65 45.9% -5.9% 8 Zac Rinaldo PHI RW 67 2 2 4 153 46.4% -4.5% 7 Zenon Konopka BUF C 58 1 2 3 83 42.8% -4.8% 11 Matt Carkner NYI D 49 0 3 3 145 49.0% -0.7% 9 Jay Rosehill PHI LW 32 2 0 2 90 43.8% -6.9% 10 Jared Boll CBJ RW 25 1 1 2 60 41.3% -7.1% 8 Mark Fraser EDM D 39 1 1 2 76 42.7% -1.8% 6 Aaron Volpatti WAS LW 41 2 0 2 49 39.5% -9.7% 5 George Parros MTL RW 21 0 1 1 80 28.3% -20.7% 8 Matt Kassian OTT LW 32 0 1 1 56 48.0% -4.0% 8 John Scott BUF LW 54 1 0 1 96 39.3% -5.2% 4 Frazer McLaren TOR LW 27 0 0 0 77 40.6% -3.1% 9 Colton Orr TOR RW 51 0 0 0 98 38.7% -4.9% 6 Mike Smith Jersey . The three goals bring Messis career tally for Barcelona to 371 in all games -- including friendlies -- breaking the club record of 369 held by Paulino Alcantara since 1927. The 26-year-old Messi was already the clubs all-time leading scorer in official games. Messi assured Barcelonas fans they will enjoy his goals for years to come, saying "as long as people want me, I will stay here. Shane Doan Jersey . Tepesch, back from the minor leagues, earned his first major league victory in more than 10 months and the Rangers edged the Seattle Mariners 4-3 on Wednesday. http://www.officialcoyoteshockey.com/Customized/ .Y. -- The New York Islanders were seeking a positive finish to a frustrating season on home ice.Las Vegas, NV (SportsNetwork.com) - Deontay Wilder became the first American to win a heavyweight title in more than eight years when he earned a lopsided decision over Bermane Stiverne for the WBC belt on Saturday night. In a fight that wasnt expected to go the distance, Wilder (33-0) seemed in control for most of the 12 rounds against Stiverne (24-2-1) at MGM Grand. The scorecards reflected that. Wilder easily won on each of them, capturing his first major title by scores of 120-107, 119-108 and 118-109. It was the first time in his 33 bouts as a professional that Wilder fought past the fourth round and the first time he didnt knock his opponent out. Wilder, known as the Bronze Bomber for the medal he won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is the first American heavyweight champion since Shannon Briggs held the WBO title from 2006-07. The 29-year-old from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, showed why each of his previous bouts ended in early knockouts. He stunned Wilder with a combination in the second round that started with a hard right hand and was interrupted by the bell. Stiverne tackled Wilder intto the corner as he went down, though Wilder wasnt credited with a knockdown. Dylan Strome Coyotes Jersey. He jawed at Stiverne as they were down on the mat. In his third bout in 10 months, Wilder rarely looked in trouble. Stiverne had him up against the ropes after a good left hand in the sixth round and Wilder later withstood a good combo. But he came back with a combo that shook up Stiverne in the seventh -- a jab followed by a hard, straight right on the chin. Stiverne stumbled into the ropes later in the round after coming up short on a punch. Stiverne, 36, fought for the first time since his sixth-round TKO of Chris Arreola last May 10 gave him claim to the vacant WBC belt. The title had been vacated in December 2013 when Vitali Klitschko retired to pursue political ambitions in Ukraine. On the undercard, Leo Santa Cruz stopped Jesus Ruiz in the eighth round to retain the WBC world super bantamweight title. Santa Cruz (29-0-1, 17 KOs) stunned Ruiz (33-6-5) with a right hand and had him against the ropes when the fight was stopped. It was his fourth successful defense of the title. 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