Less Hitting?

Last week, something happened during the Pheonix game that had me put my thinking cap on. I don't think it made it into the highlight reel, but at some point in the game Kurt Sauer rubbed out an Avalanche forward with a pretty big hit along the sideboards (probably David Jones - he always seems to be the recipient of those kinds of hits).

It got me thinking of a long-held theory of mine: that players - defensemen - don't hit as often when they play for the Avs. My theory was that guys with a reputation as being solid bangers with other teams (Sauer and Ossi Vaananen were the examples I used to use) ended up losing a bit deal of physicality after they were traded to the Avalanche, probably due to a different approach to defense by the Avs' coaching staff (read: Jacques Cloutier).

After watching the Sauer hit, I decided it was time to see if my theory was correct. So, I compiled the stats for all the defensemen who have played for the Avs since the lockout - from the start of 2005 through games played last Friday - both with the Avs and with the teams they played either before or after playing in Denver. I excluded Brett Clark, John-Michael Liles, Bob Boughner and Kyle Cumiskey, as all four have only played for Colorado during that time frame (honestly, I just forgot to include Boughner, but that excuse is still valid). I also didn't include Johnny Boychuk, as he's only played in 5 NHL games.

That leaves 12 defensemen who, in the last 3 1/2 seasons, have played for the Avalanche and at least one other team (including Ken Klee, who has played for FIVE teams besides the Avalanche in that time frame).

Only four players - Klee, Rob Blake, Scott Hannan (surprised?) and Daniel Tjarnqvist - have a higher hits per game rate in an Avalanche uniform. Tjarmin probably should not have been included, since he only has 11 games in an Avalanche uniform. And both Klee and Blake are getting up there in years so their hits per game rate is falling anyway. For all intents and purposes, the only guy who is hitting more often with the Avs than on another team is Scott Hannan. Meanwhile, guys like Karlis Skrastins, Sauer and especially Jeff Finger and Vaananen are hitting with much higher frequency so far with their new teams.

As you can see from the table, Avalanche defensemen on the whole lose about one hit every 4 games with the Avs. That doesn't sound like a ton, but that's a shade over 21 less hits per year. Multiply that by six (the number of defensemen in each game) and you get about 130 hits less than these guys could make under another system. As a frame of reference, the Avs blueliners combined for 653 hits last year.

Now, we all now hits are not a perfect stat - what constitutes a hit can vary from rink to rink. But I think we can safely say that the Avalanche defensive system does not result in as many hits as other systems. The big question: is this necessarily a bad thing? There's more to playing defense than just hitting, and I can see the argument that focusing on hitting might tend to get players out of position, causing a detriment to other parts of the game. Personally, I'd like to see our defensemen punish opposing teams a bit more. Certainly, it's something we know they are capable of.