The Habs and Corsi Ratings
The Habs and Corsi Ratings(2011-04-22 15:28 posted by B. La Rose)

When you're watching a game on TV or listening on the radio, one of the stats you hear most often is shots on goal.  However, as we all know from this Boston-Montreal series, shots alone aren't everything.  Corsi ratings, which examine more than just shots that hit the net, are growing in popularity as it's a relatively new way to measure a player's contribution.  Here are the numbers for the Habs this past season.

The chart below features 3 sets of numbers: On-Ice Corsi, Off-Ice Corsi, and Relative Corsi, calculated as On-Ice minus Off-Ice.  For those who aren't too familiar with Corsi, it factors in not only shots on net (goals and saves) but also shots that missed the net as well as shots that were blocked by the opposition.  The numbers are listed on a per-60 minute basis so that everyone's on the same playing field.  I've omitted any player who didn't play at least 5 games for the Habs as that's just too small a sample size to work off of.

Player On-Ice Corsi Off-Ice Corsi Rel. Corsi
Max Pacioretty 23.09 0.68 22.4
Alexandre Picard 18.57 -1.1 19.7
Brian Gionta 12.57 -1.12 13.7
Benoit Pouliot 11.29 0.76 10.5
P.K. Subban 9.23 -1.1 10.3
Yannick Weber 10.66 0.7 10
Scott Gomez 8.01 0.63 7.4
James Wisniewski -0.29 -6.76 6.5
Mathieu Darche 11.09 5.09 6
David Desharnais 3.04 -1.24 4.3
Ryan White 1.54 -0.83 2.4
Andrei Markov 8.49 6.88 1.6
Tomas Plekanec 3.98 3.59 0.4
Lars Eller 1.9 2.57 -0.7
Tom Pyatt -1.65 2.44 -4.1
Andrei Kostitsyn -0.56 3.76 -4.3
Roman Hamrlik -0.18 5.38 -5.6
Jaroslav Spacek 2.7 8.47 -5.8
Mike Cammalleri -2.67 4.24 -6.9
Hal Gill -2.47 5.63 -8.1
Brent Sopel -15.81 -4.83 -11
Jeff Halpern -6.22 6.34 -12.6
Josh Gorges -2.14 10.79 -12.9
Travis Moen -9.57 5.99 -15.6
Paul Mara -19.96 -4.32 -15.6
Dustin Boyd -16.76 10.99 -27.8

For those wondering how to interpret this, let's look at Gomez as an example.  His +8 on-ice rating means that when he is on the ice (at even strength as special teams are not factored in Corsi), the Habs are generating 8 more shot attempts than their opponent per 60 minutes.  It's reversed defensively where a negative number is better. 

Looking at the results, it's interesting to see Pacioretty at the top, primarily due to his on-ice Corsi rating.  Most of us fans would agree that he was having a breakout season offensively, this just adds to that argument.  Of those in the top-5, Picard was the most surprising to me as I don't really think of him as a defenceman that helps to generate much offence but rather more of a minute munching depth guy.  The fact his off-ice rating actually helped his relative one has me wondering if I may have been too harsh on him at times in the weekly Player Rankings in each HW Recap.  Of course, this doesn't paint the entire picture (what solo stat really does?) but it was an eye-opener nonetheless.

At the bottom end, it's primarily the defensive pluggers as expected though Cammalleri's negative on-ice Corsi is a little disappointing given his reputation of being an offensive player.  If the opponent is generating more shot attempts than the Habs when Cammalleri is out there, that's not good.  (As an aside, his on-ice Corsi in the postseason is even lower at -7.2.)  Out of the bottom-5, only Mara's off-ice rating improved his relative one, which just makes me want to see him in the playoff lineup even more than I already wanted.

Note: For those interested in the postseason stats, click here, courtesy of Behind The Net where the stats used here also came from.







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