As the shortened season moves into March, here's an updated look at how effective each Penguin's player is while they are on the ice. Each bubble chart plots a player's corsi relative quality of opponent (on the y axis) vs two different measures of effectiveness. Feel free to take a look at the past charts here:

http://www.pensburgh.com/2013/2/18/4002998/updated-effectiveness-bubble-charts, and here:

http://www.pensburgh.com/2013/2/8/3967712/relative-effectiveness-of-pens-players

The first is Goal Differential, simply the number of goals forced per 60 minutes played minus the number of goals allowed per 60 minutes played while on the ice. I chose this because at the end of the day, the one stat that really matters is who scored more goals (sound like John Madden anyone?) There hasn't been a ton of movement since the last graph I made, but players are starting to separate a little more.

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A few points about this chart:

• Sutter has had an excellent run, playing against tough competition and outscoring them
• Crosby and Kunitz are studs, as we all know
• Malkin and Neal are moving closer to even on the goal differential front, which is good news for us
• Interesting to see a number of defensemen joining the group with a positive goal differential

The second chart uses Zone Differential. This is more of a look at how players are affecting the play while on the ice. Do they tilt the ice in the Pen's favor, or not? I calculated this stat by subtracting a player's offensive zone start percentage from their offensive zone finish percentage.

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Some observations here:

• Adams and Vitale are doing their jobs, often starting in the defensive zone and getting the pucks out
• Malkin gets a ton of offensive zone starts