So we finally got close to 100% healthy for the first time all season starting on Feb 1 against the Oilers, when Tavares and Knies came back from their injuries. Though Mitchy did miss one of the games since.
Super tiny completely meaningless 3gm sample against EDM/CGY/SEA shows a........55.9xgf%. Extend that back 3 more games to include unhealthy games against MIN OTT CBJ and it shows a .....55.3xgf%. Those marks would be in the elite category over the course of a season. The sample is close to meaningless though.
Push it back to 10gms and it's 52.7%.....which is legit good borderline top-8 type stuff over a season, but not elite.
Still though, there's maybe some signs here of getting our shit together.
Just to see what coach has done with the lineup at since they finally got healthy these last 3gms (this is more about ice time and zone deployment than about performance):
5v5
Tavares 3gms, 14:00 (+1.9dzs%), 21.3xgf%
Nylander 3gms, 14:13 (+0.0dzs%), 33.0xgf%
Knies 3gms, 12:44 (-7.5dzs%), 77.8xgf%
Matthews 3gms, 13:08 (-5.7dzs%), 78.4xgf%
Marner 2gms, 12:26 (+0.0dzs%), 50.7xgf%
Domi 3gms, 11:57 (-15.2dzs%), 82.8xgf%
Holmberg 3gms, 9:40 (-16.7dzs%), 61.3xgf%
Pacioretty 3gms, 11:13 (+8.5dzs%), 21.4xgf%
McMann 3gms, 11:03 (-15.4dzs%), 68.8xgf%
Kampf 3gms, 7:56 (+14.3dzs%), 47.4xgf%
Robertson 3gms, 9:44 (-24.3dzs%), 67.2xgf%
Lorentz 3gms, 8:47 (+8.1dzs%), 54.8xgf%
Reaves 1gms, 7:50 (+9.1dzs%), 46.9xgf%
Rielly 3gms, 18:55 (+0.0dzs%), 67.1xgf%,
McCabe 3gms, 18:09 (+1.4dzs%), 42.3xgf%
Tanev 3gms, 17:09 (+5.6dzs%), 43.7xgf%
OEL 3gms, 12:53 (-5.7dzs%), 63.8xgf% ---> he left one of these games halfway through iirc
Benoit 3gms, 12:29 (-3.3dzs%), 67.7xgf%
Timmins 2gms, 12:20 (-10.0dzs%), 54.7xgf%
Myers 1gms, 11:38 (+10.5dzs%), 80.7xgf%
Rielly's improved performance doesn't seem to have anything to do with easier deployment. Benoit's decent performance likely is a result of easier deployment tho. But that's fine. We shouldn't be relying on our worst dmen for tough deployment.
in the forwards....it's always funny to me how we so rarely ever get Matthews and Tavares going at the same time. It always seems like only one can be good at any point in time.
but there's an interesting battle brewing between Robertson/Pacioretty/Holmberg for the last two slots in the top-9, which might turn into only 1 slot by the trade deadline. Holmberg is also a decent fit on the 4th line if he loses that battle. Patches might be too, but Robby probably isn't.
Anyways i'd love to see Robby get a chance with Tavares and Marner tommorrow, with Nylander with Holmberg and McMann.