Unconventional Wisdom - 2013-14 Goals vs Threshold

I'm switching things up this week and doing the Unconventional Wisdom column a day early to give myself another day to try to work on this week's Minor Distractions. So we are going to be taking a look at the Pittsburgh Penguins 2013-14 Goals vs Threshold. We took a look at the past 3 seasons' worth of GvT earlier this year, check it out if you need a refresher. Just like last time we are looking at it from a per game perspective in order to account for differences in games played as players moved in and out of the lineup due to injury and call-ups.

The Hockey Prospectus listing was last updated with the December 1st games, so we are unfortunately missing a lot that has happened, both good and bad, over the past 2 weeks. The 3-2 OT victory over the New York Islanders, the injury to Evgeni Malkin, the return of Chuck Kobasew and the 5-1 blowout against the San Jose Sharks, the injury of Andrew Ebbett, the bitter 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins that saw Brooks Orpik carted off on a stretcher and James Neal suspended for 5 games, the return of Evgeni Malkin and a 2-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Some of the players stepped up big in wake of the injuries, so they may not look as good when just looking at the numbers from when they had more sheltered minutes prior to December 1st.

Offensive Goals vs Threshold

Amongst the forwards the OGvT leader is Neal, followed closely by Crosby, and then Malkin and Kunitz. Jokinen is a bit further down, followed by Megna and Gibbons, and then Ebbett and Sutter. After that is Conner, then Dupuis and Kobasew, followed by Glass. Then we have Vitale, and lastly Adams falling in at 0. In the negatives we have Bennett, then D`Agostini and Zolnierczyk, and finally Jeffrey and Sill.

On D the leader is quite unsurprisingly Letang, followed by Niskanen and then Martin. After that we have Engelland and then Maatta. In the negatives we have Orpik, followed by Despres, then Scuderi, and lastly Bortuzzo.

Defensive Goals vs Threshold

Amongst the forwards the DGvT leader is Sill, followed closely by Dupuis. Next is Kunitz and Adams, followed by Vitale and Sutter, then Malkin, Kobasew, Glass, and Crosby. Next we have Megna and Ebbett, followed by Neal, then Jokinen and Bennett. After that we have Gibbons, Conner, and D`Agostini, with Zolnierczyk falling in at 0, and Jeffrey the lone negative.

On D the leader is Scuderi, followed by Despres, then Niskanen. After that is Orpik then Martin. At the far end barely above 0 is Maatta and Letang, followed by Engelland, and then lastly Bortuzzo at an even 0.

Goals vs Threshold

Amongst the forwards the combined GvT leader is once again Neal, followed closely by Crosby, then Kunitz and Malkin. Next is Jokinen, then Megna and Dupuis, followed by Sutter, then Ebbett and Gibbons. Next we have Kobasew, Adams, Glass, Vitale, and Conner. Then Sill and lastly Bennett. The negatives we have D`Agostini, then Zolnierczyk, and finally Jeffrey.

On D the leader is Niskanen, followed by Scuderi and Letang. Next we have Martin, then Despres, followed by Orpik. Way down just this side of 0 we have Maatta and then Engelland, and lately Bortuzzo as the lone negative.

Bubble Chart

For those that would prefer to see everything visually I will provide a bubble chart with the full season data not divided into a per game statistic, so players that have played only a few games are going to be much lower than the ones that have not missed as many games, even if they are closer based on the per game data I summarized above. The farther to the right the more of an offensive contribution the player has made and as such the more difficult it is to replace their scoring. The further up the more of a defensive contribution the player has made and as such the more difficult to replace their defensive skill. The size of the bubble is the overall GvT, with yellow being positive and white being negative. The players on the extreme bottom left with white bubbles therefore are the ones that are most easily replaceable, and a couple of them already have been.

<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BbVOEsgCMAATFJk.jpg:large" target="GvT"><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BbVOEsgCMAATFJk.jpg:large"></a>