On the Forecheck - Kukla's Korner

General Blogs
KK Hockey	KK Members Blog	Above the Glass
Off the Wire	Puck Stops Here	The Goods on Fantasy Hockey
Puckarinen Hits A Post	23 Intently Staring Goalies	Iced Coffey
Tasca's Take	Puckin' Around With Spector
Northwest Division	Pacific Division	Central Division
Oil Patch	Petshark: Talking Stick	Abel to Yzerman
		The Malik Report
		Talk'n Hawks
Northeast Division	Atlantic Division	Southeast Division
The Sabres Observer	Goal Line Report	Red & Black Hockey
The Upper Canadien	Devils Advocate	F Street Faithful
	From the Point Too
	The Confluence

Keep the momentum rolling

by Forechecker on 02/05/09 at 06:57 PM ET
Comments (0)

A nice post-All Star break start by the Predators (3-1) has Nashville back within hailing distance of playoff position, with a critical stretch coming up over the next four days; tonight vs. Anaheim, Friday at Minnesota, and Sunday at Dallas. All three of those opponents are included in the cluster of teams battling for four available playoff spots, so making progress in the playoff race means taking at least 3 points out of these games (considering two are on the road).

One tempting storyline has attributed the Preds’ recent success to the reunion of the Sullivan/Arnott/Dumont line, especially in light of the production of Dumont (3 goals) and Arnott (2 goals) of late. However, you might be surprised to find out that these three, as a line, haven’t actually done much…

Player	Goals	Saved Shots	Missed Shots	Shots Blocked	Corsi
Wade Belak	0	1	0	1	-1
Martin Erat	1	10	2	1	+6
David Legwand	0	8	1	3	+3
Radek Bonk	1	6	1	4	-4
Jason Arnott	1	3	1	5	-9
Jordin Tootoo	0	2	1	0	-6
Jerred Smithson	0	5	1	2	+6
Steve Sullivan	0	3	2	2	-26
Patric Hornqvist	0	2	2	2	+2
Ryan Jones	0	10	2	1	+1
Joel Ward	1	3	2	0	-9
Vern Fiddler	0	1	1	0	-11
Antti Pihlstrom	0	1	1	1	+6
J.P. Dumont	2	6	5	2	-13
Sully/Arnott/Dumont	1	15	10	9	-15

The table above (data from TimeOnIce.com) shows the results of Even Strength play in the last four games; the Big Line has actually been outscored 3-1 so far, and that Corsi number isn’t encouraging. Now, one could make the case that Sully’s presence opens up opportunities for other players, since even though he hasn’t scored yet, he’s still enough of a threat that he attracts attention from opposing defenses.

The upside, of course, is that if Sullivan does start scoring, that could give Nashville enough offensive punch to hang in the Western Conference playoff chase. Remember, they’re not chasing gazelles, folks; this is a large collection of mediocre teams, where “pretty good” might just be good enough.

Filed in: Nashville Predators, NHL Statistical Analysis, | On the Forecheck | Permalink