Everybody is Fickle- Secondary Scoring

[chayne]

Just proof that both the media and fans are fickle during losing streaks and win streaks.

Secondary scoring buys Canucks time while Burrows is out

DAVID EBNER

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Tuesday, Dec. 10 2013, 9:15 PM EST

Last updated

Tuesday, Dec. 10 2013, 9:17 PM EST

Alex Burrows first slotted in as the full-time winger for the Sedin twins in the 2009-10 season, after the Vancouver Canucks tried four different forwards, including Burrows, the year before.

The collaboration has been a big success, back-to-back scoring titles for Henrik then Daniel to start, a partnership among three skaters that is now extending into a fifth season.

It was the team’s fifth straight victory, pulling the Canucks closer to the leaders of the Pacific Division. And even though Tortorella has not found a solid match for the Sedins in the absence of Burrows – set to miss most of December – the Canucks have done well without him. They are 4-0 since Burrows had surgery, and in fact were 8-3-1 when Burrows missed a dozen games early after breaking his foot in the first game of the season. When the lineup includes Burrows, who has no goals, the team is 5-7-4.But for the second time this year an injury to Burrows, this time a broken jaw, has forced coach John Tortorella to lean on another player to fill the spot beside the 33-year-old twins. And the situation is hardly settled, as three players – Jannik Hansen, David Booth, and Zack Kassian – all got time with the Sedins on Monday night in Vancouver’s 2-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

The first time Burrows was injured, Tortorella made the unusual choice to go with second-line centre Ryan Kesler as the Sedins’ winger, justifying the move by saying things like he has always thought Kesler made for more of a winger than a centre.

The trio – who also make-up the first wave of the team’s power play – was good, obviously stacking all the best players together, but there was hardly the depth to fill out the other lines. And Tortorella has since recanted his Kesler-as-winger talk. This time, after Burrows surgery, Tortorella tried Mike Santorelli with the Sedins for some shifts in Nashville last Tuesday before shifting to David Booth in the second period, staying with Booth through the game and the next, against Phoenix on Friday. It didn’t work as Booth failed to click at all with the Sedins. It should be noted that Booth had just returned from a stint in the minors and also had missed some games as a healthy scratch.

In the small amount of time he’s been with the Sedins – about 40 minutes of five-on-five time – Booth actually drags the twins down. Booth is the only Canuck with whom the Sedins see more shots attempted against the Canucks than for.

With Zack Kassian in an extended rehabilitation, working his way to the third line from the fourth and sitting as a healthy scratch, the assignment with the Sedins has been mostly handed to Hansen. The Danish winger has had a small amount of minutes with the twins over the years, so he’s not entirely new to the job.

The output has been so-so. Hansen’s driving, grinding style of play is similar to Burrows’s but there is something elusive in striking a chemistry with the twins, one Burrows managed but no one else has really, save for Kesler. At even strength, Burrows has played three-quarters of the minutes with the Sedins from 2009-10 on, so his spot leaves a hole in the lineup that the Canucks have been unable to fill.

Hansen with the Sedins against Colorado on Sunday was good, in terms of shots attempted for and against, and less good against Carolina on Monday.

A reflection of that was Tortorella subbing in other faces in the third period. Booth had a couple shifts, and then Kassian actually had a shift with the Sedins. Remember in the preseason when the talk was of how Kassian would slot in on the first line, carrying on from some of the playing time he saw last year with the twins. But then he was suspended and when he was in the lineup, he wasn’t producing.

In his one shift, Kassian was pretty good, and got off a nice shot on goal. Hansen was back thereafter, and ended up scoring the empty netter before the final buzzer sounded.

So it looks for right now that Hansen is the answer, and a workable one. The Canucks are winning, though the Sedins aren’t scoring even as the Canucks are winning. The Sedins scored at a point-a-game the first time Burrows was out earlier this year but this time Henrik has just one goal in four games, and Daniel has three assists.

Giving Kassian a real shot with the Sedins is an alluring idea – if only the 22-year-old was less erratic.

The trouble is, with the Canucks precarious in the standings, there’s no real room for experimentation, so handing Kassian a role with the Sedins for several games, straight through, and not yanking him when he botches something, doesn’t seem that smart, or likely to succeed. However, the one shift in the third on Monday is a little intriguing at least.

In the end, the first line has been overshadowed in recent games by the second line, led by Kesler with Santorelli and Chris Higgins on the wings. The three were the driving force in the 3-1 win against Colorado, tallying all three goals, and again on Monday night in Vancouver the line was the top contributor – delivering the opening score on a Chris Tanev goal early in the game that held up as the game winner.

The success of the second line covers up the challenges of the first while Burrows heals.

[MJDDawg]

I don't understand what point you're trying to make.

I don't understand the point the poorly written article is trying to make either.

I need a coffee.

[Salacious Crumb]

best thread ever

[Dogbyte]

I don't understand what point you're trying to make.

I don't understand the point the poorly written article is trying to make either.

I need a coffee.

I concur, coffee it is.

[elvis15]

I prefer tea, I like a nice cup of pomegranate green tea with a bit of honey.

Oh yeah, and Ebner's a bit of a tool. He'll have an article next week with Edler in there since he's been out and we've been winning.

[Bobsanchez]

Reads like some high school kid wrote it, with just as much or perhaps less insight...

[Absent Canuck]

Its a cookie cutter article riddled with run on sentences. I find it hard to believe a Globe and Mail staff writer is the author.

Do we have a link to the article?

[M A K A V E L I 96]

Do we have a link to the article?

http://bit.ly/1dqo5Fa

[CookieCrumbs]

I'll have a coffee, black...

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

I'm not a big fan of Ebner, nor The Globe and Mail's Canucks coverage in general, but other than some obvious factual inaccuracies, this article doesn't bother me too much. For the most part, the general spirit of the piece (basically that the Sedins have struggled to produce goals over the four games since Burrows' surgery but the Canucks have still managed to win games due to timely secondary scoring) seems pretty fair and accurate.

As for Ebner's claim that "Booth is the only Canuck with whom the Sedins see more shots attempted against the Canucks than for," he's just dead wrong on that score. The Sedins have negative Corsis with Alberts, Weber, Richardson, Archibald, Dalpe, and Booth.

Not that any of those stats are all that meaningful. Each one of those players has low total minutes played with the Sedins this season and so the events samples are quite small. In most cases (including Booth), the difference between Corsi for and against is three or less. Basically, their totals could move from negative into the positive on the strength of a single strong shift in the offensive zone (and a good possession game played with the twins would suddenly give any of those players a CF% WOWY that is higher than the Sedins' season average).

Small samples like these are not worth much analytic value, and Ebner should know better.

But maybe he just doesn't.

Maybe he just threw in some advanced stats content at the last minute in an attempt to appear more in touch with the current trends in hockey analysis? He certainly couldn't have spent much time checking the stats because most of these mistakes jumped out to my eyes almost immediately.

Another of the more glaring screw-ups: "three players – Jannik Hansen, David Booth, and Zack Kassian – all got time with the Sedins on Monday night in Vancouver’s 2-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes."

Actually, if we're talking forwards (instead of "players"--and we'll give Ebner that one for free because it's a pretty nitpicky criticism), there were four forwards who were given significant ice-time with the twins: Hansen, Booth, Kassian, and Kesler.

In fact, Kesler played more EVTOI (5v5) with the twins than Kassian (and nearly as much as Booth).

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised by these errors, given the overall quality of the writing and the level of critical reasoning displayed throughout. It's just that I'm one of those people who grew up believing that journalism (even sports journalism) was about getting the facts right.

Even as jaded as I've become after years of exposure to sports media, it's still disappointing every time I come across this kind of carelessness, especially when it's in the national press.

Here's a free tip for Mr. Ebner: if you're going to use stats to support your claims, at least check your numbers before you publish an article. It took me all of five minutes to track down these mistakes (and several others that I haven't bothered to mention).

Honestly, it sometimes seems like I do more fact-checking before I click "Add Reply" on CDC than these sportswriters do before they submit their final drafts for publishing.

And Ebner's hardly the worst of the bunch.

* * * * *

But whatever, I need some coffee too...

[VMR]

Don't understand do we need Burrows or not?

Fickle people but have no idea what is being said.

[BlueLemming]

I have never seen so many comma's since my first English paper for grade 9.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Yup. Proof positive. But of what, we're not sure...

[Ronalds.Kenins41]

Don't understand do we the Sedins need Burrows or not?

Fickle people but have no idea what is being said.

Fixed

[JoshuaGuy]

I'll have a coffee, black...

Can't you see we're talking, white...?

[Angry Goose]

I don't understand the point the poorly written article is trying to make either.

The point is exactly what the title of the article says:

Secondary scoring buys Canucks time while Burrows is out

Not exactly ground breaking news though.

[DarthNinja]

I'm not really sure what the insinuation is.

When the team is in a losing skid and consistently scoring only one or two goals per game, people should not point it out or talk about it?

The fact that the team is winning is great but still does not remove the lack of scoring. The team has been able to offset that with solid puck possession, offensive zone time, team defense and big saves at key times.

The Canucks are still a real good team with real good coaching but they need some help on 'O', especially up front, to put them close to or over the top.

[oldnews]

Burrows, yes we need him.

[Sypher009]

[oldnews]

I'm not feeling as critical as most of you - to see the Globe doing a blow by blow of the Canucks games is interesting to me - that they'd bother.

Ebner has also published a few articles recently that I had to commend - one where he tried to break down the m.o. of the penalty kill I found fairly refreshing - an actual attempt to get into the strategy and gameplanning behind a significant aspect of the game.

So I'm gonna give him a pass on those two grounds - and this particular article, while some folks may find it poorly written, does at least point out a few fairly objective points - the second line has picked up when needed, and something many know but many also still debate - that Burrows is a very valuable complement to the Twins.

The one contradiction I found rather glaring was this claim:

"there’s no real room for experimentation"

Tortorella, however, has been experimenting almost constantly. Most of us probably could have predicted the misfit that Booth represents in that role with the Sedins - Hansen has looked very good with them at times - Santorelli is an interesting and very crafty player who could fit well with a bit more minutes with them, and it might not hurt to give Kassian a few more carrots (no pun intended).