Post-Game Talk: WAS @ SJ | 2/11/15 | 10:30pm EST | Shark's in the water. Our shark.

[BobRouse]

Carlson absolutely plays with grit and toughness.

He sure has advanced in that area this year. I see him mixing it up alot more and finishing checks far better. Trotz effect.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but what are your qualifiers for someone playing with "grit" and "toughness." I kind of equate it to physicality, and I don't think of Carlson as 1. a physical player, 2/3 someone who exemplifies grit/toughness (unless you mean having a consecutive games streak or something along those lines). Just my .02

74's physicality in the corners and in front of the net is underrated. He's one of our best shot blockers, and anyone willing to block shots on a consistent basis is tough in my opinion. He's also developed a little bit of a nasty streak that's nice to see.

 

[um]

74's physicality in the corners and in front of the net is underrated. He's one of our best shot blockers, and anyone willing to block shots on a consistent basis is tough in my opinion. He's also developed a little bit of a nasty streak that's nice to see.

i forgot who but some on here were arguing that shot blocking was a negative stat as it reflected bad defensive play, some people

 

[BobRouse]

i forgot who but some on here were arguing that shot blocking was a negative stat as it reflected bad defensive play, some people

Well they say that hits and blocked shots means that you don't have the puck and thus the other team is out-possessing you.

It makes sense on that level although I'm not fully sold. I need to understand the analytics better.

 

[ChibiPooky]

Shot blocks aren't inherently bad IMO. The other team is going to have the puck and attempt shots, and it's better to block those shot attempts than not. It's also better to have the puck more.

One metric that is starting to gain traction is shot suppression - looking more toward shot attempts allowed. I think there's something to be gained from looking at defensive value from a standpoint of allowing as few shot attempts as possible, and blocking as many of the allowed shot attempts as possible.

 

[Hivemind]

i forgot who but some on here were arguing that shot blocking was a negative stat as it reflected bad defensive play, some people

That's an oversimplification of the argument. Obviously you prefer a blocked shot to a shot on goal. However, blocking shots means the other team has the puck in your defensive zone. A player without a lot of blocks may just point to that player being adept at keeping the puck out of his zone and/or away from the opponent. A player with a lot of pucks may be getting pinned in his zone a lot. This will obviously tie into a lot of other related discussions (zone starts, deployment, PK usage, etc).

Regardless, Carlson kills a lot of penalties, so I'd expect his blocked shots total to be high by merit of the PK alone. Blocking shots is unquestionably a positive aspect on the PK.

On a macro scale, say a full season for the full team, I absolutely want to block less shots than my opponents. I want to have the puck in their zone more often and take fewer penalties than my opponent.

 

[ChibiPooky]

Another way of putting it:

Player A allows n shot attempts and blocks x shots.
Player B allows n shot attempts and blocks more than x shots.
Player C allows more than n shot attempts and blocks x shots.
Player D allows fewer than n shot attempts and blocks x shots.

The "blocked shots are bad" argument treats B as the worst defender and A, C and D as equal.