Re: Habs News & Notes: 2014 Offseason
Thought we should have a thread to specifically discuss the moves the Habs have made this summer. Below is a great read on the Habs puck possession stats of last year and it shouldn't come to any surprise that Markov and Subban lead the team in possession on D and only Paccioretty was higher.
http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/scott_cullen/?id=455044
Another interesting note is Plekanec's contribution to puck possession despite having the majority of his starts in the D zone.
The Habs were bottom third in puck possession in 2014. That is a recipe for disaster.
People who shit on advanced stats and say that they're for geeks or they're not representative of what's actually happening on the ice are simply burying their heads in the sand. Possession stats are not the end all be all for hockey. It's true that simply because you have high possession numbers doesn't mean you'll win and vice versa. There's a simple explanation as to why a team with poor possession stats like the Habs finish with 100 points and that some teams have great possession stats and miss the playoffs, and it's the universal equalizer in all life of hockey: goaltending.
Compare the Canadiens with the New Jersey Devils.
The Canadiens received (in my opinion) the best goaltending on the planet this season in Carey Price. If you don't think he was the best on the planet, he was
at worst 4th or maybe 5th best. (I don't think any of the Vezina candidates were better with maybe the exception of Varlamov, but that's another debate for another day) Canadiens had a tough time scoring goals being in the bottom third of that department, but they allowed the sixth least goals. With their possession stats being below average almost all across the board, there was a lot of relying on Carey to hold us in.
Now looking at New Jersey...
They were one of the best possession teams in the NHL, yet they finished out of the playoffs. So I guess that proves that possession stats suck and they show nothing, until you look at the big picture they played Martin Brodeur 39 games when he was a .900 save % goalie while Corey Schneider was a .920 save % goalie. Also take into consideration that they lost 18 times in overtime, most of which came in the shootouts where they were historically awful.
Had they played Schneider 60-65 games and Brodeur ~25 games or so, they would have won their division.
Another interesting tidbit of information: Since they started keeping possession stats, the six teams with the best possession stats have made it to the Cup finals and only one of them has lost, the 2009 Red Wings.