What players drive their team's offence?A look at the key contributers at the quarter point

I took a look at the top defensive defencemen yesterday, something that will probably be a recurring theme, but with the new stats engine at Behind The Net, I decided today's challenge would be to see which players improve their team's offence the most when they're on the ice.

(Oilogosphere spokesman Tyler Dellow joked that I'd devised a pretty complicated way to come up with 'Sidney Crosby' as the answer.)

I've split this into defencemen and forwards, and will look at three different stats: even strength scoring, even strength shots on goal and power play scoring.

First, the defenders...

Blueliners who improve even strength scoring the most:

	NAME	POS	TM	GP	GFON/60	GFOFF/60	diff
1	KAREL RACHUNEK	D	N.J	16	4.02	1.44	2.58
2	NICLAS HAVELID	D	ATL	21	3.99	1.5	2.49
3	FILIP KUBA	D	T.B	21	4.4	1.98	2.42
4	PAVEL KUBINA	D	TOR	18	4.88	2.57	2.31
5	RANDY JONES	D	PHI	17	4.33	2.18	2.15
6	PAUL RANGER	D	T.B	20	4.09	2.1	1.99
7	NICKLAS LIDSTROM	D	DET	21	4.02	2.08	1.94
8	TOBIAS ENSTROM	D	ATL	21	3.54	1.86	1.68
9	KENT HUSKINS	D	ANA	22	3.11	1.55	1.56
10	ZBYNEK MICHALEK	D	PHX	12	2.94	1.42	1.52

Blueliners who improve even strength shots on goal the most:

	NAME	POS	TM	GP	SFON/60	SFOFF/60	diff
1	WADE REDDEN	D	OTT	20	36.7	26.9	9.8
2	MAREK ZIDLICKY	D	NSH	19	30	21.6	8.4
3	NICKLAS LIDSTROM	D	DET	21	35.5	27.8	7.7
4	ED JOVANOVSKI	D	PHX	19	31.7	24.4	7.3
5	PETTERI NUMMELIN	D	MIN	16	29.3	22.3	7
6	DION PHANEUF	D	CGY	21	28.4	22	6.4
7	SERGEI GONCHAR	D	PIT	21	27.7	21.4	6.3
8	MAGNUS JOHANSSON	D	CHI	13	28.5	22.5	6
9	MATTHEW CARLE	D	S.J	18	28.6	23	5.6
10	KURTIS FOSTER	D	MIN	18	26.8	21.3	5.5

Blueliners who improve power play scoring the most:

	NAME	POS	TM	GP	GFON/60	GFOFF/60	diff
1	DENNIS SEIDENBERG	D	CAR	13	18.48	7.07	11.41
2	KURTIS FOSTER	D	MIN	18	12.85	4.32	8.53
3	JAROSLAV SPACEK	D	BUF	11	8.7	1.41	7.29
4	DENIS GREBESHKOV	D	EDM	16	8.39	2.09	6.3
5	TOBIAS ENSTROM	D	ATL	21	5.58	0	5.58
6	ANDREI MARKOV	D	MTL	21	11.19	5.69	5.5
7	MIKE MOTTAU	D	N.J	16	10.39	4.93	5.46
8	BRUNO GERVAIS	D	NYI	18	8.27	3.54	4.73
9	KIMMO TIMONEN	D	PHI	19	9.58	4.87	4.71
10	BRYAN MCCABE	D	TOR	15	5.97	1.47	4.5

It's certainly no surprise to see Nicklas Lidstrom in there a few times. I'll come back to these guys later.

Onto the forwards ...

Forwards who improve even strength scoring the most:

	NAME	POS	TM	GP	GFON/60	GFOFF/60	diff
1	ERIK COLE	RW	CAR	14	5.3	2.44	2.86
2	ALEXEI PONIKAROVSKY	LW	TOR	18	4.56	1.95	2.61
3	ILYA KOVALCHUK	RW	ATL	21	4.08	1.54	2.54
4	COREY PERRY	RW	ANA	22	3.75	1.25	2.5
5	JASON SPEZZA	C	OTT	14	4.44	1.98	2.46
6	VINCENT LECAVALIER	C	T.B	21	4.52	2.06	2.46
7	MATS SUNDIN	C	TOR	21	4.81	2.4	2.41
8	EVGENI MALKIN	C	PIT	21	3.71	1.35	2.36
9	ALEX TANGUAY	LW	CGY	21	4.31	1.95	2.36
10	PAUL STASTNY	C	COL	20	4.08	1.85	2.23

Forwards who improve even strength shots on goal the most:

	NAME	POS	TM	GP	SFON/60	SFOFF/60	diff
1	HENRIK ZETTERBERG	LW	DET	21	39.5	26.4	13.1
2	TOMAS HOLMSTROM	LW	DET	21	38.9	27.4	11.5
3	DARREN HAYDAR	RW	ATL	10	30.6	19.5	11.1
4	EVGENI MALKIN	C	PIT	21	31.1	20.2	10.9
5	CHRIS KUNITZ	LW	ANA	22	30.4	19.6	10.8
6	BRIAN GIONTA	RW	N.J	21	32.3	21.6	10.7
7	ALEXANDER OVECHKIN	LW	WSH	21	33.3	24.1	9.2
8	PAVEL DATSYUK	C	DET	21	36.9	27.9	9
9	DAYMOND LANGKOW	C	CGY	20	30.7	21.8	8.9
10	TRAVIS ZAJAC	C	N.J	21	31.1	22.3	8.8

Forwards who improve power play scoring the most:

	NAME	POS	TM	GP	GFON/60	GFOFF/60	diff
1	ALES KOTALIK	RW	BUF	17	10.15	0.94	9.21
2	JAROME IGINLA	RW	CGY	21	8.59	0	8.59
3	TIM CONNOLLY	C	BUF	14	10.34	2.55	7.79
4	JOE PAVELSKI	LW	S.J	21	10.55	2.81	7.74
5	LEE STEMPNIAK	LW	STL	19	9.21	1.54	7.67
6	RYANE CLOWE	LW	S.J	11	11.04	3.8	7.24
7	MIKE RICHARDS	C	PHI	19	10.64	3.88	6.76
8	JERE LEHTINEN	RW	DAL	21	12.55	5.85	6.7
9	JONATHAN TOEWS	C	CHI	18	10.58	3.89	6.69
10	HENRIK SEDIN	C	VAN	21	9.97	3.42	6.55

Okay, that's all kinds of numbers. But it does give you an idea of the type of players we're talking about here (with a few niggling exceptions, something influenced by the fact we're not very far into the season).

For most of these players, they are the engines of their team's offence, and the game's just not played the same way when they're not on the ice. Tampa Bay is scoring goals at even strength when Filip Kuba and Paul Ranger are on the ice, Detroit is generating shots on goal with Nick Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg out there. Tobias Enstrom and Andrei Markov drive the power plays of their respective teams. Calgary hasn't scored 5-on-4 without Jarome Iginla on the ice.

If I take the above three metrics and weight them equally, it comes up with a pretty solid list of some of the most important offence-first players in the league:

	Defencemen	TM					Forwards	TM
1	DION PHANEUF	CGY				1	RYAN GETZLAF	ANA
2	SERGEI GONCHAR	PIT				2	EVGENI MALKIN	PIT
3	TOBIAS ENSTROM	ATL				3	JAROME IGINLA	CGY
4	NICKLAS LIDSTROM	DET				4	CHRIS KUNITZ	ANA
5	BRUNO GERVAIS	NYI				5	JASON SPEZZA	OTT
6	ED JOVANOVSKI	PHX				6	ZACH PARISE	N.J
7	DENNIS SEIDENBERG	CAR				7	ALEX TANGUAY	CGY
8	PAUL MARTIN	N.J				8	PATRICK KANE	CHI
9	SERGEI ZUBOV	DAL				9	JERE LEHTINEN	DAL
10	BRIAN POTHIER	WSH				10	PAVEL DATSYUK	DET
11	TOM GILBERT	EDM				11	TOMAS HOLMSTROM	DET
12	BRIAN CAMPBELL	BUF				12	DAYMOND LANGKOW	CGY
13	ANDERS ERIKSSON	CGY				13	MARC SAVARD	BOS
14	MAGNUS JOHANSSON	CHI				14	COREY PERRY	ANA
15	ZDENO CHARA	BOS				15	HENRIK ZETTERBERG	DET
16	CHRIS CAMPOLI	NYI				16	SIDNEY CROSBY	PIT
17	MATTHEW CARLE	S.J				17	JONATHAN TOEWS	CHI
18	VILLE KOISTINEN	NSH				18	MIKE RIBEIRO	DAL
19	KURTIS FOSTER	MIN				19	TIM CONNOLLY	BUF
20	LUKAS KRAJICEK	VAN				20	MICHAEL NYLANDER	WSH

Certainly a lot of this has to do with how evenly weighted a team's offence is: Teams like Carolina or Toronto, who score a lot of goals, share the load more than Anaheim, Calgary or Chicago, whose offences could in theory be decimated by one key injury.

Imagine the Blackhawks without, say, Jon Toews, for example.

But what's interesting also is the players not on these lists. Where, for instance, are Ilya Kovalchuk, Alex Ovechkin and Vincent Lecavalier?

Well, Kovalchuk and Lecavalier don't generate a ton of shots, surprisingly, compared to their teammates. And Ovechkin's rates on the power play have been ordinary this season, despite the fact he's playing nearly 80 per cent of the Capitals' man advantage situations.

This post is already horribly long, so I'm going to end here, leaving it up to others to explain what Bruno Gervais is doing here (other than exposing a fatal flaw in my lists).