The Importance Of Scoring On The Rebound...Ladies

by Joe Dunman on Feb 22, 2008 8:27 AM MST in NHL News

Everybody's had a bad breakup in their life. If you haven't, you've either never left your mother's basement (where you blog, of course) or you got suckered into marrying the very first person you ever dated. For those of us who've suffered the indignity of being dumped, we know, more than anything, that you have to score quickly on the rebound in order to stay in the game.

It's no different in hockey.

Nothing is sweeter than picking up a big, fat, juicy rebound off a now-out-of-position goalie and batting the sucker home. Bang, goal. Suck it. Ryan Smyth and Chris Drury have built their entire careers on this practice.

Because he is a dork without rival, The Forechecker has directed his well-honed statistical nerdery toward the frequency of rebound shots in the NHL so far this season.

And what did he find? The Colorado Avalanche lead the league in rebound shots, with 135 in 61 games. That's 14 more than the second-place Rangers have had (Chris Drury plays for them, remember), and 79 more than last-place Minnesota.

But while the Avs lead the league in rebound chances, Colorado has only scored 38 of the team's 169 total goals that way. 38 goals on 135 chances is a measly 28%. That's a lot of banging but no payoff, just like my last few relationships...sigh. In that regard, Colorado ranks 14th in the league, waaaaaay behind expert finishers Boston (42%) and Detroit (41%, big surprise). At least Colorado isn't as bad as the Flame-Outs, who have managed to score on just 14% of their rebound shots, which is horrible and something they should be ashamed of forever. Like signing Dion Phaneuf to a contract extension.

As for individual players, two Avs rank near the top in the league for rebound shots: Marek Svatos and Andrew Brunette (both with 18). Svatos actually leads the entire NHL for rebound goals with eleven and a success rate of 61%. In other words, if you can get Svatos in front of the net on a big shot with a nice rebound, chances are he's going to score. Considering he's stepped up his physical presence on defense this season, it's not hard to realize that he's playing that way on offense, too, which surely contributes to his ability to bang in rebounds.

What a stud. I assume he'll be traded any day now.

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i've come around on svatos some

hard not to when he leads the team in goals. :)

I'm still frustrated by the continual bad penalties he commits, and his one dimensional offensive game. He's really improved his effort and back-checking, but he is always hacking and tugging with his stick. KEEP IT ON THE ICE MAREK.

His offensive game, well, for once stats tell the story. that assist to goal ratio is indicative of his complete lack of any puck possession or passing ability. He's awful on the boards too.

I still don't see why he can't become better at these things. He's clearly made a great effort to improve other parts of his game, so why not these ones? I for one hope we don't trade him now. give him another year or 2 (and play him on a top 2 line for chrissakes), then we make the call to sign long term or not.

by thedoctor on Feb 22, 2008 9:27 AM MST reply actions