So this is the case of defenseman Kevin Klein on the Rangers. The advanced stats proponents on the Rangers board don't like him because he has bad Corsi numbers. The rest say "watch him" and things like "he's steady in his zone". The assumption made by the latter guys is that he may spend more time in his zone but he makes up for it by being positionally sound and preventing quality shots against. In fact, that's the #1 argument I've seen against Corsi. It's the "quality of shots".
Anyway, for my money the best poster on the Rangers board, 31, started a thread showing save percentage for Lundqvist while playing behind all of the defensemen from either last season or the season before. The save % was completely random. The guys that everyone considers the best like McDonagh and Staal were not necessarily the best in terms of Lundqvist save %. Eminger, if I remember correctly had a really high save % when he was on the ice (though he didn't play all season, maybe he played in a particularly good stretch). Unless luck was a huge issue, the guys that had a high save % should correlate with the worst chances against and vice versa. The randomness REALLY struck me. Maybe the better defensemen looked bad because they played against the best players, I guess quality of competition is a factor not looked into, but we've been a top team in the league against the best players for years and McDonagh, Girardi, and Staal have done well in that role for years. In general those numbers were all over the place. But on the other hand, I just can't fathom certain defensemen not being better than others in keeping shots to the outside, just watching games seems to point that this is not the case. So can players affect quality of shots against to a significant degree and if so is that a factor not accounted for in Corsi/Fenwick?
Anyway, for my money the best poster on the Rangers board, 31, started a thread showing save percentage for Lundqvist while playing behind all of the defensemen from either last season or the season before. The save % was completely random. The guys that everyone considers the best like McDonagh and Staal were not necessarily the best in terms of Lundqvist save %. Eminger, if I remember correctly had a really high save % when he was on the ice (though he didn't play all season, maybe he played in a particularly good stretch). Unless luck was a huge issue, the guys that had a high save % should correlate with the worst chances against and vice versa. The randomness REALLY struck me. Maybe the better defensemen looked bad because they played against the best players, I guess quality of competition is a factor not looked into, but we've been a top team in the league against the best players for years and McDonagh, Girardi, and Staal have done well in that role for years. In general those numbers were all over the place. But on the other hand, I just can't fathom certain defensemen not being better than others in keeping shots to the outside, just watching games seems to point that this is not the case. So can players affect quality of shots against to a significant degree and if so is that a factor not accounted for in Corsi/Fenwick?