Leafs and penalties: A different look

Off the top of the season I decided to start tracking the Leafs’ penalty stats in a little different way – not only who’s commiting the fouls, but who’s getting fouled themselves - given that the NHL doesn't compile the latter data (why? No one seems to know. It is something that shows up in the play-by-play running at ESPN.com, but not on the league's house version). As I said in an earlier post, it's a stat I'd like to see.

I’ll break these out if there’s interest later on in the season as well. Here’s the first helping, through 19 games.

The ground rules are simple: only two-minute minors count (no majors or misconducts included) and a double-minor (say, for high sticking with blood, or a simple double) counts as two fouls. I haven’t broken it down from there, into what kind of penalties they’re committing or attracting, this being about as close as I come to getting in touch with my inner geek. Got it? Let’s go then. Er, after the jump ...

Part I: Positives and negatives (top and bottom five)

AARON HARRIS/CP PHOTO

Darcy Tucker: Two-way penalty taker.

Player..Penalties..Penalties against…+/-
Pohl………….0…………….7……………+7
Wellwood……0…………….6……………+6
Steen…………2…………….8……………+6
Tucker……….12…………..16…………..+4
Battaglia………4……………6…………..+2
White…………2…………….4…………..+2
Suglobov……..0…………….2…………...+2
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Harrison………3……………0…………..-3
Gill……………8……………4…………..-4
Peca…………10…………….5………….-5
Belak…………8…………….1…………..-7
McCabe……..12…………….2…………-10

Notes: Expected to see Wellwood here. Tucker is the team leader in fouls (tied with McCabe) and fouls against, which is entirely understandable. Interesting to see two fourth-liners (Pohl, who’s only averaging seven minutes of ice time a night, and Battaglia, who gets a little more than eight minutes) among the team leaders here – Pohl, btw, is -6 and Battaglia -5 on the conventional +/- numbers for goals, but is this a hidden stat that points to the fourth line's value beyond those numbers? I'm not sure about that, but White’s inclusion seems to underscore what an excellent season he’s having – to me, he’s the prototypical D-man for this more up-tempo game, equally able to join in the rush (therefore attract attention and penalties) and get back and make a solid play (without having to compensate for lack of speed by hooking or holding).

Either that, or this group is really good at diving.

As for the bottom five, McCabe is a mild surprise to me. Lately his play has picked up, but earlier in the season he took a few bad new NHL penalties – he has done that in the past, hasn’t he? I was surprised to see Peca in here. But hands up how many of you are surprised to see good ol’ Wade Belak show up?

Overall, by my count, Leafs have committed 104 fouls through 19 games and have been fouled against 108 times. So that’s a +4. (One little caveat: Three individual penalties against are unidentified, but have been added into the team totals. And according to my data, Pohl, Wellwood, Suglobov and Kubina have yet to be penalized.)

As for the other regulars, Sundin is even (6-6), as is Kaberle (2-2), Stajan (6-6) and Antropov (1-1). Ponikarovsky is a +1 (8-9), while O’Neill (-2), Kilger (-1), Wozniewsky (-1), Ondrus (-1) and Kubina (even, with neither a penalty nor a penalty against in his injury-limited season) finish out the list.

STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR

John Pohl: Hidden value?

Part II: The frequent foulers club

Player………IT (ice time)/foul committed
Ondrus………8:02
Belak……….13:55
Harrison…….13:58
Tucker………29:41
Peca…………31:25
Wozniewsky...36:42
Battaglia…….38:24
Ponikarovsky..40:15
Bell………….40:43
Kilger………..49:24

Player………IT/foul against
Ondrus………12:03
Suglobov…….13:48
Pohl………….17:54
Tucker……….22:16
Battaglia……..25:36
Ponikarovsky..35:47
Steen…………36:35
Stajan…………51:43
Wellwood…….57:27
Sundin………..59:08

There you have it. In limited ice time (IT) Ben Ondrus is a busy guy. I’m not sure how useful this second set of data is. Perhaps you have some thoughts as far as the numbers and perhaps ideas about how to refine them a little further.

Or ditch them altogether, for that matter.

Related: The hockey recap has a penalty report worth a look.

NOTE: I’m looking for a few good puck bloggers to contribute to another hockey stat project. Let me know if you’re interested. Not everyone at once.

UPDATE (Nov. 17): The Falconer's October penalty stats for the Thrashers. 

 

Comments

[Ninja]

Interest? Are you kidding me?! Great stuff!

Tucker's huge numbers on both sides of the ledger prompted this thought: which periods are these penalties occuring? Tucker usually takes one early, and then takes the retribution later in the game when the team needs a power play.

[cy]

I'm not sure about that, Ninja. I was going to go back to my notebooks to try and fine-tune this stuff a little bit. But I didn't break them down into periods and stuff. Your theory sounds plausible.

[Jon K.]

Are you including bench penalties (and who serves them) and delay of game penalties - which are really fouls against no one - that might skew data. For instance, I know McCabe has taken a couple delay of game penalties for shooting the puck over the glass.

[cy]

Opposition bench penalties, unsportsmanlike conduct and delay of game and the like (victimless crimes, if you will) are included in overall team totals, but no Leaf is given credit for having those penalties committed against them. But if a Leaf flips the puck over the boards and is called for delay - yes Jon, I do remember McCabe getting called for that recently - they are charged with an individual foul in the stats. And according to my count, the Leafs have received one bench penalty so far this season - that goes into their overall team total, but no player takes it.
Goaltender interference would go down as a strange one: a Leaf player committing that foul would be tagged with the foul. But if its at the other end, the Leafs goalie in question would have a foul against added to his scorecard. According to my spreadsheet, we haven't seen that yet this season at either end.
Hope that's clear.

[Wardo]

How about penalties based on zone? The knock on McCabe for years has been, "he takes too many dumb penalties."

It would be useful to see how many fouls were commited in the offensive zone (probably dumb ones) and defensive zone.

A stat I've always wanted to see is puck possession based on zone - statistical tracking to see which teams would tend towards dominating offensive play. The score can only say so much - a team that regularly wins despite a poor "offensive/defensive zone ratio" could be rated as having above-average goaltending, for instance...and it would be possible to see, on average, what teams tend to get let down by their goalies more often.

[cy]

Good tip there, Wardo. I'll differentiate between off. and def. zone penalties from hereon in. Won't be a whole season's worth, but that's okay.

[J. Michael Neal]

Hey, I'm just happy to see Johnny Pohl at the top of the list. I loved watching him with Red Wing and the University of Minnesota. Hope he makes something of himself in the NHL, but he's the classic, "Great hands, feet encased in cement," kind of guy, so I kind of doubt it.

[The Falconer]

Chris:

I started tracking penalties drawn for Atlanta last year but never published it because I was missing quite a few penalties. This year I've been tracking it from game 1 of the season. I posted the Thrasher totals for October at the end of that month and I plan to regularly update my numbers throughout the season. Check out my post if you're curious.