"Clutch" Statistical Representation of Current Bruins Players

[Trap Jesus]

What I'm defining as "clutch" for this is any playoff game a player plays in which their team faces elimination. So it can be a game 7 in the first round, or a game 5 in the Cup finals, provided the team is down 3-1 in the series. I figure the best way to look at how players produce in a clutch situation is when their backs are truly up against the wall.

Also, I'm well aware of the biases in this. Not only is this only displaying a select few stats, but it doesn't take into account minutes played or ages (ie. Eriksson has 3 games on here where he barely even played as he was just breaking into the league).

Legend

GP = Games played
G = Goals
A = Assists
P = Points
PA = Primary Assists
SA = Secondary Assists
PP = Powerplay Points
SH = Shorthanded Points
3/OT = Points scored in the 3rd period or in OT
GA/T = Points on go-ahead goals or tying goals (not gamewinning goals)
% = Percentage of these do-or-die games that the player recorded at least 1 point in
+/- = Plus/Minus

Player | GP | G | A | P | PA | SA | PP | SH | 3/OT | GA/T | % | +/-
Chara | 21 | 2 | 8 | 10 |3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 43% | +8
Lucic | 14 | 8 | 6 | 14 |5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 71% | +9
Bergeron | 13 | 4 | 6 | 10 |2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 46% | +9
Krejci | 13 | 2 | 11 | 13 |8 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 69% | +7
Seidenberg | 13 | 0 | 6 | 6 |3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 31% | +4
Thornton | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | -1
Kelly | 10 | 2 | 0 | 2 |0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 20% | -1
Iginla | 9 | 5 | 1 | 6 |1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 56% | -4
Boychuk | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 50% | +7
Paille | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 |0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13% | -1
Marchand | 7 | 3 | 3 | 6 |2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 57% | +6
Meszaros | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 14% | -5
Campbell | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17% | 0
Eriksson | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17% | +1
McQuaid | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 20% | +2
Caron | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | -1
Bartkowski | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 100% | 0
Hamilton | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0
Krug | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | +1
Soderberg | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0

Click to read more...

 

[Trap Jesus]

Damn, nothing on this?

I knew Lucic was a big-game player, but he's consistently stepped up when he's needed to.

Only Lucic and Chara have played every Bruins elimination game since the '08 playoffs (in which the Bruins have a 9-5 record).

Rask's stats in elimination games:

1-2, 3.60 GAA, .872 S%, 2 PPGA, 4 tying GA, 3 go-ahead GA

 

[member 96824]

Didn't we just define clutch the other day?

Pretty sure it was defined as whichever teams goalie makes the most stops, those players win the clutchiest clutchy award.

 

[acr*]

I figured this would be the Lucic topic. Dude brings it in every game 7. When things are on the line, he produces, definitely underrated around the league as a big game player.

Rask doesn't have great numbers in elimination games, but remember it's a small sample size. He only has two playoff seasons under his belt, one when he was very young and completely overworked due to Thomas' injury and a lack of a backup. That Philly series he was dreadful, and game 7 turned on one of the weakest goals he's ever allowed. But again, he was a rookie playing too much down the stretch. Last year he had minor struggles against Toronto, but totally shutdown New York and Pittsburgh, and provided us with every opportunity to win a cup against Chicago. He's got a long career ahead of him and plenty of time to get those numbers up.

Bergeron is very consistent in game sevens as well, multiple goals against Vancouver and Toronto. I used to get upset thinking that they should've activated him for Game 7 against Montreal in 2008 (all the reports were that he was cleared and would likely have played in the next round had they advanced), but the way everything turned out, there's no sense in that, who knows if playing would've got him hurt again or stunted his development. Marchand is also a guy who raises his game for big occasions, but I think he's prone to trying too hard, which can get him into trouble, turning over the puck with one dangle too many, etc.

 

[ReggieMoto]

Damn, nothing on this?

Trying to digest it, but I am struggling with the fact that you appear to be attempting to compare players with large sample sizes (10-20) with players with small sample sizes (1-5). I think for this to make more sense, for me anyway, is to somehow normalize for the sample size which is probably something that really can't be done.

Anyway, that's my observation.

 

[Trap Jesus]

Trying to digest it, but I am struggling with the fact that you appear to be attempting to compare players with large sample sizes (10-20) with players with small sample sizes (1-5). I think for this to make more sense, for me anyway, is to somehow normalize for the sample size which is probably something that really can't be done.

Anyway, that's my observation.

Not trying to compare those players, I'm just trying to make it as thorough as possible. I mean, why leave out the fact that Bart potted his only NHL goal in one of these situations? Doesn't mean he should be compared to a guy like Lucic for big-game play, but I think it's interesting nonetheless.

I think something like this works better for the Bruins than almost any other team because of how often they find themselves in these kind of situations. I don't know any other young core that has played ~10 of these do-or-die games.

 

[Trap Jesus]

I figured this would be the Lucic topic. Dude brings it in every game 7. When things are on the line, he produces, definitely underrated around the league as a big game player.

Rask doesn't have great numbers in elimination games, but remember it's a small sample size. He only has two playoff seasons under his belt, one when he was very young and completely overworked due to Thomas' injury and a lack of a backup. That Philly series he was dreadful, and game 7 turned on one of the weakest goals he's ever allowed. But again, he was a rookie playing too much down the stretch. Last year he had minor struggles against Toronto, but totally shutdown New York and Pittsburgh, and provided us with every opportunity to win a cup against Chicago. He's got a long career ahead of him and plenty of time to get those numbers up.

Bergeron is very consistent in game sevens as well, multiple goals against Vancouver and Toronto. I used to get upset thinking that they should've activated him for Game 7 against Montreal in 2008 (all the reports were that he was cleared and would likely have played in the next round had they advanced), but the way everything turned out, there's no sense in that, who knows if playing would've got him hurt again or stunted his development. Marchand is also a guy who raises his game for big occasions, but I think he's prone to trying too hard, which can get him into trouble, turning over the puck with one dangle too many, etc.

The thing about MTL in '08 was that the team was on a nice little roll after an emphatic victory in game 5 and a dramatic victory in game 6, so I'm not surprised they didn't activate him.

 

[Chieftans22*]

Damn, nothing on this?

I knew Lucic was a big-game player, but he's consistently stepped up when he's needed to.

Only Lucic and Chara have played every Bruins elimination game since the '08 playoffs (in which the Bruins have a 9-5 record).

Rask's stats in elimination games:

1-2, 3.60 GAA, .872 S%, 2 PPGA, 4 tying GA, 3 go-ahead GA

uh...

 

[Trap Jesus]

uh...

Lol definitely not the best numbers, but of course there's a lot more to it than that. Those 3 games are some of the craziest games you'll ever find. The Philly game was fluky goal after fluky goal, and while his stats are abysmal in the Toronto game, he did do his job to close out the third + OT, although he obviously had to rely on some pretty miraculous goal support.

 

[acr*]

The other thing I've noted is how random bit players wind up contributing in these clutch games.

Byron Bitz opened scoring in game 7 vs. Carolina. Bartkowski did the same vs. Toronto in his first game of the series with Seids down and out IIRC.

 

[TCL40]

And while one or two injuries isn't much of an excuse-the year of that Philly game 7 loss the depth ran out and the Bruins were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Rask has it in him to shut the door.

The Game 6 loss to the Hawks hurt but that ***** show towards the end was a total team failure not a Rask failure. And if the Bruins has survived game 6 and played the 7th-I am not sure the Bruinsnwould have won with no Bergy and a crap 3rd line.

 

[Ten Thousand Hours]

Trying to digest it, but I am struggling with the fact that you appear to be attempting to compare players with large sample sizes (10-20) with players with small sample sizes (1-5). I think for this to make more sense, for me anyway, is to somehow normalize for the sample size which is probably something that really can't be done.

Anyway, that's my observation.

These are all small samples sizes. And nothing more than random variation from each player's career numbers.

 

[Sea Bass Neely]

After what he did to the Penguins (and the Rangers) last postseason -- plus his steady play in the SCF -- i am not worried about Tuukka come playoff time.

He absolutely shut down the most high-powered, loaded offense in the league. COMPLETE shut down against Pittsburgh. He played just as well against the Rangers, but the NYR were not a great offensive team anyhow... it's when he did in the ECF that really impresses.

And Rask also played more than well enough to give the B's a chance during the SCF vs. Chicago. The "17 seconds" thing was an unfortunate breakdown but it shouldn't define his performance in the series much less the totality of his epic performance in the entire postseason.

We played too complacently down the stretch of Game 6, it is not all Tuukka's fault. Hopefully that motivates him to play even better come this postseason... he responded to the SCF loss last year with a terrific season.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Yup. No surprises here Lucic, Marshy, Bergy, and Krejci are money when it counts. Hard to believe Lucic has played in that many elimination games so far since hes still really young.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

After what he did to the Penguins (and the Rangers) last postseason -- plus his steady play in the SCF -- i am not worried about Tuukka come playoff time.

He absolutely shut down the most high-powered, loaded offense in the league. COMPLETE shut down against Pittsburgh. He played just as well against the Rangers, but the NYR were not a great offensive team anyhow... it's when he did in the ECF that really impresses.

And Rask also played more than well enough to give the B's a chance during the SCF vs. Chicago. The "17 seconds" thing was an unfortunate breakdown but it shouldn't define his performance in the series much less the totality of his epic performance in the entire postseason.

We played too complacently down the stretch of Game 6, it is not all Tuukka's fault. Hopefully that motivates him to play even better come this postseason... he responded to the SCF loss last year with a terrific season.

Yeah you cant blame Tuukka Chara Seids and Krejci were more at fault.

 

[acr*]

Yeah you cant blame Tuukka Chara Seids and Krejci were more at fault.

And Daugavins. Can't forget Daugavins.

 

[robert terwilliger]

These are all small samples sizes. And nothing more than random variation from each player's career numbers.

you've just summed up the main criticism of "clutch" stats.

 

[David Krejci*]

So basically Krejci is god.

 

[RussellmaniaKW]

I can't say I agree with your definition of "clutch". I'd argue that performing well in a game that is an elimination game for the other team is just as clutch as if it's an elimination game for the Bruins.

And there are huge plays and moments in the "middle" games of a series that can arguably be more influential on the outcome of a series than a goal in an elimination game.

 

[Neely08]

So basically Krejci is god.

I'd like to see David Krejci and Joe Thornton's "clutch" stats side by side.

 

[Dr Seldon]

These are all small samples sizes. And nothing more than random variation from each player's career numbers.

This is my thoughts as well. Doesn't seem like enough data to draw any conclusions from.

 

[member 96824]

I'd like to see David Krejci and Joe Thornton's "clutch" stats side by side.

.86 playoff PPG since Krejci entered the league for Thornton
.90 playoff ppg for Krejci

 

[EverettMike]

Admirable attempt, but not only is sample size a major major problem, but these numbers have no context.

How do they compare to the rest of their playoff numbers? Career numbers?

If someone is "clutch," but their numbers are actually worse than their normal numbers, is that clutch?

 

[Kaoz*]

Nathan Horton owns this thread. Bruins Game 7 woes ended with him. Claude Julien and Pete Chiarelli should have a picture of Nathan Horton on their nightstands that they kiss every night before sleep.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

What is sickening is that Thornton actually played 12 of these games.