Checkers III: The Age of Ulf

[Surrounded By Ahos]

I wanted to share this gem

Hilarious, but he’s got nothing on Rasky Business

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I think both sides need to do a better job communicating.

We have no idea what the team is actually communicating to this kid. For all we know, the coaching staff may have told him exactly what he needs to do, and he's just not interested in doing it.

One side is talking to the press. The other side is not. In the absence of other data, I'm gonna say "the side talking to the press should maybe shut the f*** up".

 

[MinJaBen]

We have no idea what the team is actually communicating to this kid. For all we know, the coaching staff may have told him exactly what he needs to do, and he's just not interested in doing it.

One side is talking to the press. The other side is not. In the absence of other data, I'm gonna say "the side talking to the press should maybe shut the **** up".

The absence of other data...you mean like the stellar track record this organization has in developing talent at the AHL level?

 

[Navin R Slavin]

The absence of other data...you mean like the stellar track record this organization has in developing talent at the AHL level?

You mean the AHL team that's 2nd in their division and is making those kids earn their playing time by performing on the ice?

How about this: since you want to keep arguing the point, go ahead, and to save time I'll just respond with Nah.

 

[MinJaBen]

How about this: since you want to keep arguing the point, go ahead, and to save time I'll just respond with Nah.

Nah.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Nah.

Now I must reconsider my position.

 

[Breakdowns]

This conversation is hilarious!

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

Yah.

 

[Lempo]

 

[CandyCanes]

Checkers getting spanked tonight but Zykov with another goal

 

[HisIceness]

McKewon scored a goal as well so thats cool

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

So Zykov is leading the entire AHL in goals and Foegele is tied for 5th.

 

[CandyCanes]

So Zykov is leading the entire AHL in goals and Foegele is tied for 5th.

Chris Terry is second in the league in goals, so are you saying Zykov is better than Terry?

 

[Vagrant]

the thing that really concerns me about the goal scoring production for zykov on its face is that he's shooting 32% or something. he's not in the top 100 for shots taken and he leads the league in goals, which suggests there's an element of good fortune there that might be skewing things. shots on goal for forwards is an immensely important stat when talking about how a player projects to translate to the next level. it may be anecdotal observation because i don't have the information on it to defend it as a fact, but it seems like most of the guys that come up from the ahl and really dominate are the guys that are producing a ton of shots on goal down there. jake guentzel is one of the more recent success stories. he had 98 sog in 33 games before his call up last season. roughly 3 per game. there seems to be a correlation between sog per game and "mastery" of the league. lots of the minor league stars/fringe nhl players sit atop the list this year and most years. chris terry, tomas jurco, chris bourque etc. but if you look a little deeper you can see some of the guys who were elevated and have looked good in the nhl and what they were doing in terms of shots in the minors.

dylan strome - 56 sog in 17 games
kevin labanc - 11 sog in 2 games
alex tuch - 9 sog in 3 games
shea theodore - 35 sog in 8 games
kyle connor - 19 sog in 4 games
evan rodrigues - 21 sog in 8 games
mark jankowski - 23 sog in 6 games
daniel sprong - 91 sog in 28 games

then in zykov you have a player who has 58 sog in 29 games, but an inordinate amount of those shots went in. what can you really make of that? that's not rhetorical, it's honestly a bit confusing for me. there are obviously players that are better at shooting and have more accurate shots than others, but is the disparity between zykov's shot and league average enough to explain a 33% success rate? that seems optimistic. there is certainly a point to be made about players that are more selective shooters and only shooting in high danger areas, but again.... 33%.

this article is old, which could either be a good thing or bad thing considering we have information on how some of the sampled players ultimately worked out, but it's a pretty good read about how well shots, shooting percentage, etc. travels from league to league.

Improving AHL Equivalencies: AHL to NHL Shot Metrics Translations - NHL Numbers

this is by no means meant to discredit what zykov has done in the ahl, or foegele either as he has a similar shot rate. it's just a little something to think about as we try to determine what exactly is happening down there.

another thing that really struck me as odd when looking at the checkers stats is the fact that philip samuelsson has a team high +21 in 32 games. roland mckeown has a +17 in 29 games, presumably as his partner. the interesting thing is that since coming over to the checkers last season, this is samuelsson's line:

58 gp - 6 goals - 18 assists - +30 .... pretty nuts.

 

[NotOpie]

the thing that really concerns me about the goal scoring production for zykov on its face is that he's shooting 32% or something. he's not in the top 100 for shots taken and he leads the league in goals, which suggests there's an element of good fortune there that might be skewing things. shots on goal for forwards is an immensely important stat when talking about how a player projects to translate to the next level. it may be anecdotal observation because i don't have the information on it to defend it as a fact, but it seems like most of the guys that come up from the ahl and really dominate are the guys that are producing a ton of shots on goal down there. jake guentzel is one of the more recent success stories. he had 98 sog in 33 games before his call up last season. roughly 3 per game. there seems to be a correlation between sog per game and "mastery" of the league. lots of the minor league stars/fringe nhl players sit atop the list this year and most years. chris terry, tomas jurco, chris bourque etc. but if you look a little deeper you can see some of the guys who were elevated and have looked good in the nhl and what they were doing in terms of shots in the minors.

dylan strome - 56 sog in 17 games
kevin labanc - 11 sog in 2 games
alex tuch - 9 sog in 3 games
shea theodore - 35 sog in 8 games
kyle connor - 19 sog in 4 games
evan rodrigues - 21 sog in 8 games
mark jankowski - 23 sog in 6 games
daniel sprong - 91 sog in 28 games

then in zykov you have a player who has 58 sog in 29 games, but an inordinate amount of those shots went in. what can you really make of that? that's not rhetorical, it's honestly a bit confusing for me. there are obviously players that are better at shooting and have more accurate shots than others, but is the disparity between zykov's shot and league average enough to explain a 33% success rate? that seems optimistic. there is certainly a point to be made about players that are more selective shooters and only shooting in high danger areas, but again.... 33%.

this article is old, which could either be a good thing or bad thing considering we have information on how some of the sampled players ultimately worked out, but it's a pretty good read about how well shots, shooting percentage, etc. travels from league to league.

Improving AHL Equivalencies: AHL to NHL Shot Metrics Translations - NHL Numbers

this is by no means meant to discredit what zykov has done in the ahl, or foegele either as he has a similar shot rate. it's just a little something to think about as we try to determine what exactly is happening down there.

another thing that really struck me as odd when looking at the checkers stats is the fact that philip samuelsson has a team high +21 in 32 games. roland mckeown has a +17 in 29 games, presumably as his partner. the interesting thing is that since coming over to the checkers last season, this is samuelsson's line:

58 gp - 6 goals - 18 assists - +30 .... pretty nuts.

Doesn't Zykov have something like 11 power play goals? That will skew those percentages, given the goals that he's scored that I've seen....lots of close in, bang it home types. Plus the guy is a known sniper.....not saying that he's not been lucky this season...but I think there's a tad bit more to it.

 

[GoldiFox]

Zykov is built for today's NHL. Plays big, sits at the crease, and has the brains+hands to put loose pucks in the net. The majority of his goals are due to him making a nice play at the net. He gets off a lot of quick shots like TT's one-timer last night. Just plays a disruptive game from what I have seen.

I think there is a fair question of how that will translate to the NHL level, but he is doing the right things.

 

[Breakdowns]

I liked what I saw last season when we called him up

 

[geehaad]

I think there is a fair question of how that will translate to the NHL level, but he is doing the right things.

He's scoring at a 33% rate in the NHL.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

the thing that really concerns me about the goal scoring production for zykov on its face is that he's shooting 32% or something. he's not in the top 100 for shots taken and he leads the league in goals, which suggests there's an element of good fortune there that might be skewing things.

Counterpoint: we've got a lot of volume shooters that can't seem to find the net. At present our best shooting percentage is from Lindy at 14.5%, currently good for 76th in the league and the only one to break the top 100. As opposed to volume of shots, where Skinner is 8th (!!!), Aho is 43rd, and Faulk (!!!) is 53rd (with a 3% conversion rate at present).

Maybe, just maybe, we've got an actual shooter in the pipeline, who has a knack for finding goals. Even if his numbers revert a bit to the mean, like NotOpie says, it feels like it's because he's doing the right things.

 

[Hulkacaniac]

30% is probably a skew high (but if your skew high is leading a league in goals that's not so bad). He's not a sniper in the same way ovie or skinner are. He gets in the crease or the slot on the PP. And with his release, you've got very high percentage situations. I'd say having a weapon like that that teams are forced to take into account is always a good thing, regardless of how, dare I say, sustainable his production is.

As for foegele, he seems like a grabner type player. Hasn't he already set the franchise record shortys in a season?

 

[CandyCanes]

Zykov has a 33.3% shooting percentage in the NHL, he's already proven that his high shooting perfectange is sustainable across all leagues.

 

[geehaad]

Zykov has a 33.3% shooting percentage in the NHL, he's already proven that his high shooting perfectange is sustainable across all leagues.

Well, now I feel silly for having added the to my post.

 

[CandyCanes]

Well, now I feel silly for having added the to my post.

I totally didn't see that you had posted that already, wasn't trying to steal your thunder

 

[geehaad]

I totally didn't see that you had posted that already, wasn't trying to steal your thunder

It's ok. I hate you for other reasons, so it's not like this changes things.

 

[CandyCanes]

It's ok. I hate you for other reasons, so it's not like this changes things.

I now must ponder why you hate me