Sean Couturier Part III

Status
Not open for further replies.

Magua

Doer of Hoffific Things
Apr 25, 2016
37,169
154,081
Huron of the Lakes
It's crazy that he is 2 goals away from matching his career high. And he honestly could have many more if he had Scheifele's shot.

I mean I wish he had Scheifele’s offensive skill-set too. With the rest of Coots we’d be talking about maybe the third best center in the league.

Interestingly enough, Coots has 13 goals on 76 shots (14th in NHL). Scheifele only has 11 goals on 43 shots. That’s a gigantic shot discrepancy. Scheifele has always been a pretty low volume, high % shooter. There’s a reason he’s been a 30 goal player and not 40. Coots keeps up the volume, he can bridge that gap though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Beef Invictus

Magua

Doer of Hoffific Things
Apr 25, 2016
37,169
154,081
Huron of the Lakes
If you compare major players with prior reputations and/or nominations, statistically it goes:

Couturier: 55.3% xGF% (2.11xGA/60).......70.3GF%.......25 points in 23 games

Barkov: 53.4% xGF% (2.01xGA/60)........ .53.6 GF%.......21 points in 21 games

Koivu: 57.3% xGF% (1.83xGA/60)............43.2% GF%......15 points in 22 games

Backlund: 56.5% xGF% (1.53xGA/60).......40% GF%.......14 points in 22 games

Bergeron: 49.7% xGF% (2.48xGA/60)........74.1% GF%.....13 points in 16 games

Kopitar: 47.9% xGF% (2.56 xGA/60)..........51.8% GF%......25 points in 23 games


I imagine that the Selke voters wouldn't mind fresh blood. It's not even like it'd be gifted. Kopitar hilariously enough is having a bounce back year by not being good defensively to improve offense. He's been scoring great, but it's been a little hollow as a 2-way player. Bergeron has been injured too and hasn't been as good as usual in the underlying numbers, but his raw ones are there, and these voters aren't looking that deep. All these players have similarly great face-off %s (which is something the voters probably would single out). Really it looks like Barkov and Couturier should be significantly above everyone else by every metric combined. Sound underlying numbers, dynamic scoring numbers individually, and on-ice results. It's not at all outlandish to say Couturier is the present front-runner.
 

Rebels57

Former Flyers fan
Sponsor
Sep 28, 2014
76,383
122,700
If he keeps up this production there's no reason not to get it this year

They'll probably give it to Kopitar again since he has bounced back offensively. Popularity is such a major part of these awards afterall.
 

YEM

Registered User
Mar 7, 2010
5,718
2,697
They'll probably give it to Kopitar again since he has bounced back offensively.
Kopitar's Kings are also 2nd in the league in goals against [without Carter] and a point away from top of their conference.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rebels57

Rebels57

Former Flyers fan
Sponsor
Sep 28, 2014
76,383
122,700
Kopitar's Kings are also 2nd in the league in goals against [without Carter] and a point away from top of their conference.

Yep.

That said, if you look at the underlying stats, Couturier has been the best 2 way center in the NHL this season.
 

Appleyard

Registered User
Mar 5, 2010
31,646
40,711
Copenhagen
twitter.com
I think the best way to outline how amazing he has been for a very long time now is this.

Since start of 2015-16:

P/60: 1.93 (50th in NHL)

CF%: 54.62% (26th in NHL)
ExGF%: 55.41% (20th in NHL)
GF%: 57.65% (29th in NHL)

CF% rel: +5.21% (15th in NHL)
ExGF% rel: +7.64% (6th in NHL)
GF% rel: +13.69% (5th in NHL)


RSZ: 44.47% (66th toughest in NHL)


GA/60: 2.13

ExGF/60 QoC: 2.31 (8th toughest in NHL)
ExGA/60: 2.09 (a difference of -.22 in his favour)


NHL average GA/60? ~2.25 in that time.

In summary:

For the last 170 games of his career Sean Couturier has:

Played pretty much every shift vs the best players on the opposition team, starting more often than not in his own zone.

Despite that he has:

Dominated those players in every way. Making elite forwards score well below NHL average, at ~3rd line level, while scoring at 1st line level himself.



He dominates elite players with tough zone starts more than most elite players dominate middling competition with favourable zone starts.
 

Appleyard

Registered User
Mar 5, 2010
31,646
40,711
Copenhagen
twitter.com
So you're saying he's pretty decent or very decent?

tenor.gif
 

pit

5th Most Improved Poster
Jun 25, 2005
4,987
20,292
Toronto
I don't know about decent. Get back to me when Coots puts up 40 points in a season.

(Hopefully getting back to me next week).

Honestly I've been happy with his play for a long time regardless of points. To see him now score at this clip in addition is incredibly satisfying.
 

Tripod

I hate this team
Aug 12, 2008
78,751
86,035
Nova Scotia
Funny how page 1 is littered with comments on trading him....like if we could ever get a 2nd line C for him or a top 4 RHD.

"Couturier is a 3rd line center. He is an excellent 3rd line center much like Martin Hanzal but still a 3rd line center. He would be missed but his position wouldn't be that hard to find a replacement."

Maybe we should go get more Couturiers since they seem to be easy to find and replace. Of course that quote ignores that we gave been trying to get a 3rd line C for years.
 

hatcher

Registered User
Sep 30, 2007
12,377
4,085
Kelowna BC
He doing great but he still has hands of stone when passing the puck and shooting. Good to see him step up.
 

Beef Invictus

Revolutionary Positivity
Dec 21, 2009
127,494
164,356
Armored Train
He doing great but he still has hands of stone when passing the puck and shooting. Good to see him step up.

No, he's just flat-out doing great. He's 11th in goal scoring and on his way to something like 35 goals, and your gripe is that he's not shooting well enough? That's unreasonable.

Like the guys a few years back who'd howl into the abyss about how Carter only scored 36 goals instead of of 40.
 

hatcher

Registered User
Sep 30, 2007
12,377
4,085
Kelowna BC
No, he's just flat-out doing great. He's 11th in goal scoring and on his way to something like 35 goals, and your gripe is that he's not shooting well enough? That's unreasonable.

Like the guys a few years back who'd howl into the abyss about how Carter only scored 36 goals instead of of 40.
He's doing good but slow and good checking will take him out of it. Regular season is alright but you catch teams sleeping. He doing good like I said nothing more.
 

Beef Invictus

Revolutionary Positivity
Dec 21, 2009
127,494
164,356
Armored Train
He's doing good but slow and good checking will take him out of it. Regular season is alright but you catch teams sleeping. He doing good like I said nothing more.

Bullshit. He isn't slow. Slow players don't get back to defend against every top line in the league as incredibly well as he does.

Nor does good checking take him out of it. He's strong on the puck, routinely outmuscles guys to maintain control and set up players, and is damned hard to move from the net which is a big reason why he's so good around the crease.

"Good" is selling short the work he's doing all over both zones.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->