Abel to Yzerman
Shutting Down AO
by IwoCPO on 12/17/07 at 05:38 AM ET
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When Alexander Ovechkin leaves Joe Louis Arena this evening without a point he shouldn’t fret. Because it’s almost Christmas the holiday season? No. Because Pepe Lopez Tequila is sold in the greater DC area? A good reason, but not what I’m talking about here.
AO, after the Wings shut him down tonite, should feel snuggly and warm in the knowledge that he’s not alone.
Superstars don’t fare well against Nick Lidstrom’s Wings.
While many of you thought I spent most of yesterday in the fetal position, sucking my thumb and humming The Waltons theme song to myself, I was actually doing what I’ve become famous for: statistical research.
What kind of research? Thank you for asking. This kind.
Over the course of the last two regular seasons and last year’s playoff run, the Wings have played 33 games against teams featuring one of the league’s “elite” players: Lecavalier, Iginla, Thornton, Modano, Sakic, Jagr, Alfredsson, Sundin or Crosby. Their cumulative production?
22 points. Of those 22 points? 5 goals. 4 of those 22 points went to Thornton last January 4th in the infamous 9 goal disaster at the Shark Tank. All of those were assists.
Modano scored twice in one game last fall. Iginla twice in the playoffs last year. Sakic once last December. Sundin, Alfredsson, Crosby, Thornton, Lecavalier, Jagr: zero goals. And in the case of the five from Eastern Conference? Just 1 assist for Sundin.
And those are all guys with decent to very good supporting casts, other lines Mike Babcock has to worry about.
Tonite? It’s AO and nobody else. He’s going to see a lot of Lidstrom and plenty of Zetterberg. Lidstrom, not surprisingly, has the highest Quality of Competition rating at Behind the Net, with Zetterberg a close second. Kris Draper, who won’t be playing tonite, is up there but a good distance behind those two.
Oh, and I wonder if Pavel Datsyuk will hear anything from his teammates today about the league’s “best Russian player” coming to town?
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About Abel to Yzerman
Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that. Your suggestions and critiques are welcome: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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