On June 22nd, 2016, Anze Kopitar won the Selke Award at the NHL awards ceremony in Las Vegas. The award is supposed to go to the forward who demonstrates “the most skill in the defensive component of the game”. Patrice Bergeron finished second in the voting. Based on the description, it is inconceivable how the NHL writers decided that Kopitar was more deserving of this award than Bergeron.

Now, sports writers frequently grant awards to the wrong people, but this phenomenon is usually a result of being unable to watch every game and, therefore, being forced to rely too heavily on statistics. It’s much easier to justify voting for a defenseman who put up big points than to vote for someone who had a strong defensive season because there is data to back up your vote. This blasphemous slight on Bergeron, however, is unusual because the stats are heavily in his favor. Bergeron beats Kopitar in nearly every single statistical measurement for this award.

Let’s take a quick look at the basic statistics because this article will focus more heavily on new metrics that are (in some people’s opinion) better at measuring defensive player success.

Bergeron

Kopitar

For the most part, Bergeron and Kopitar are even in the traditional stat categories. Kopitar had a much higher plus/minus (probably the main reason he was erroneously given the Selke). In fact, he was 2nd in the league. Bergeron was +16, but he was on a weak team. Bergeron had more goals and Kopitar had more points. Both had strong faceoff win percentages, but Bergeron was clearly the better faceoff man at 57.1% (versus Kopitar at 53.5%). Also, Bergeron took almost 200 more faceoffs.

Here are their possession statistics for 2015-2016:

Bergeron

Kopitar

Although both players finished the season with very high Corsi stats, Kopitar (56.6%) just edges Bergeron (56.0%) in CorsiFor%. This stat alone does not tell the full story. The Kings had much better possession numbers than the Bruins last year. In order to isolate how much an individual player is contributing to his team’s possession, we need to look at Corsi Relative. Patrice Bergeron’s CosiRel was an astounding 8.7 (one of the highest in the NHL). Kopitar’s was 0.7. When Bergeron is on the ice, he provides a possession bump to his team 8x greater than Kopitar does. In fact, Kopitar doesn’t really outperform his team’s Corsi% at all. His strong Corsi% is a function of his team’s strong Corsi%.

Perhaps the most lopsided statistic in Bergeron’s favor is Zone Starts and Zone Finishes. Bergeron started 54% of his in-zone shifts in the defensive zone. That number is absurd. Most #1 centers start more than 50% of their faceoffs in the offensive zone. Bergeron only started 46% of his faceoffs in the offensive zone and still led his team in scoring. Kopitar started 52% of his in-zone shifts in the offensive zone and 48% of his shifts in the defensive zone—a much more common breakdown. Kopitar was put in far more advantageous situations by his coach—situations in which you are more likely to score points and avoid getting scored on. Bergeron was put in very difficult situations by his coach and he excelled at it. Bergeron’s start numbers are more reflective of a faceoff specialist. In other words, when their teams had a defensive zone faceoff, Bergeron was relied on more heavily than Kopitar. Who is the better defensive forward? Probably the one whose team relies on him to take more defensive zone face-offs.

Let’s take the zone starts one step further to add zone finishes. Patrice Bergeron finished 50.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone versus Kopitar’s 51.1%. Although the raw number is lower, Bergeron wins in this category too. Remember, Bergeron STARTS in the defensive zone 54% of the time. Bergeron is given the harder task more frequently—start in your own zone and try to finish in the other teams zone. Kopitar finishes in the offensive zone less than he starts there. In other words, Bergeron does a better job of taking his team from a less advantageous, defensive position to an advantageous, offensive position. Putting it another way, he does a better job of removing the opposing team from an advantageous, offensive position . Doesn’t that sound like someone who excels more in the defensive aspect of the game?

In summary, Bergeron took more faceoffs, won more faceoffs, took more defensive zone faceoffs, finished in the offensive zone the same amount, contributed to his team’s possession significantly more, and killed more penalties. Oh, and he scored more goals. What were the writers thinking?

*All statistical data for this article were obtained from hockeyreference.com.