A primary point is a goal or a first assist. Secondary assists aren’t taken into consideration as they are often just noise.
Noteworthy:
- Obviously Kane’s huge impact on even strength scoring. Without him, does Chicago make the playoffs? That might be a little aggressive but compare it to Montreal and Carey Price. When Price went down, Montreal realized the team around him wasn’t that good. Likewise, if Patrick Kane was out for the season, Chicago might realize this team isn’t as good as it use to be.
- Teravainen isn’t scoring enough is a common thought heard on Twitter. However, he is tied for 4th in primary points and is 4th overall in primary assists during even strength this season. Teuvo doesn’t get much power play time. When he does, it’s in the role of quarterback instead of utilizing his scoring abilities on the wing. One would guess that Teravainen’s best role on the power play would be as the second units Patrick Kane right wing role. The power play can exaggerate ones offense. Not being on the power play and not being utilized properly has hurt how people perceive his actual offensive output.
- Chicago defensemen are low on the list. Out of all defensemen in the NHL, 39 had more primary points than Duncan Keith and 49 had more primary points than Brent Seabrook during even strength. Again, this is an example of how the powerplay can change people’s perception of a player. Brent Seabrook was thought to have an offensive explosion of a season. In reality, he simply took Patrick Sharp’s spot on the power plays first unit and was effective in that role. More power play time led to more power play points. However, when we look at even strength primary points, 49 defensemen had more. I would like to see more even strength scoring from the Chicago defensemen next season.
Is was brought to my attention by @jmateski that Drew Doughty wasn’t on a list of top-50 defensemen in even strength primary scoring. 65 total defensemen had more primary points than the Norris trophy candidate. The low ranking wasn’t due to lack of playing time, Doughty played the third most even strength minutes out of all defensemen.
Here is a list of some defensemen that had more primary points than Drew Doughty:
- Radko Gudas
- Trevor Daley
- Kevin Klein
- Ben Hutton
- Johnny Oduya
- Kevan Miller
- John Michael-Liles
- Thomas Hickey
- Nick Holden
- Marco Scandella
Out of the Norris trophy candidates, here are their primary points during even strength this season:
- Erik Karlsson 29
- Brent Burns 25
- Drew Doughty 9
As I posted this, I realized I should of made a primary scoring rate chart to illustrate scoring if ice time was equal for each player. Here is that chart.
- With time being equal, Richard Panik jumps up the list.
- Teravainen scoring at a rate better than Anisimov, Hossa, and Shaw.
- Again, I would like to see a little bit more offense from the defensemen.
- Notice Bryan Bickell?
Blackhawks Breakdown 