For a good read on the subject I'd recommend the breakdown the folks at Broad Street Hockey have on the way Laviolette deployed his forwards during the their 4-3 overtime win against the Devils on Sunday. Briere and van Riemsdyk weren't asked to start a single shift in the defensive zone, and instead were given 11 starts in the offensive zone and mostly against second-and-third line players. Obviously, this is a huge advantage for his line when it comes to scoring goals and creating offense. The closer you are to the net you're trying to score on, and the weaker the competiton you're going up against the easier it's going to be to score (relatively speaking ... it's never "easy" to score in the NHL).
This is made possible because the Flyers have a checking line made up of Sean Couturier (the young man with the toothless grin that's pictured), Max Talbot and Eric Wellwood that keeps getting matched up against the oppositions first line and almost always doing so in the defensive zone. We talked about this extensively during the Flyers opening round series against Pittsburgh when Couturier and Co. went up against Evgeni Malkin and James Neal every night, and it's still worth talking about now.
Through their first seven playoff games, Couturier has been given just eight even-strength shift starts in the offensive zone compared to 39 in the defensive zone. Talbot has been given a similar role, getting just five offensive zone starts compared to 35 in the defensive zone.
And almost always against top players.
They've been given the toughest assignments of any player in the NHL so far during these playoffs, and it's been a big part (and relatively hidden) part of Briere's ability to dominate offensively.
With that in mind, here's a quick look at the other players around the NHL that have been given the toughest assignments when taking into account quality of their opponents and where they're asked to start the majority of their shifts.
I'm limiting it to players that are on teams still playing in the second round.
(Quality of competion and zone start numbers come via Behindthenet.ca)
| Toughest Assignments NHL Playoffs | ||||||||
| Player (Team) | Corsi Qual Comp. | O-zone Start % | ||||||
| Brooks Laich (Capitals) | 9.192 | 49% | ||||||
| Sean Couturier (Flyers) | 8.767 | 17% | ||||||
| Max Talbot (Flyers) | 8.363 | 12.5% | ||||||
| Troy Brouwer (Capitals) | 7.217 | 44.2% | ||||||
| Eric Wellwood (Flyers) | 6.476 | 37.5% | ||||||
| Lauri Korpikoski (Coyotes) | 4.085 | 26.8% | ||||||
| Drew Doughty (Kings) | 3.402 | 43.1% | ||||||
| B.J. Crombeen (Blues) | 2.781 | 25% | ||||||
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson (Coyotes) | 2.621 | 28.9% | ||||||
| Brandon Yip (Predators) | 2.462 | 37.9% | ||||||
| Alex Pietrangelo (Blues) | 2.233 | 45.3% | ||||||
| Scott Nichol (Blues) | 2.154 | 40.7% | ||||||
| Brandon Prust (Rangers) | 1.938 | 21.3% | ||||||
| Boyd Gordon (Coyotes) | 1.921 | 25.7% | ||||||
It should again be pointed out that Couturier is still only 19 years old and is being asked to carry the heaviest load on his team, which is a Stanley Cup contender. In this series it appears that he's going to see quite a bit of Devils forward Zach Parise.
You can also see how important a guy like Alex Pietrangelo is to the Blues, and how big of a loss he would be to their lineup if he can't play on Monday. Not only does he play the toughest minutes on their team, he's also their best player on the blue line.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson also probably isn't getting enough credit for what he's doing in Phoenix.
Photo: Getty Images
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