After a very busy Saturday, Sunday’s slate of games was much lighter – 3 games, no Pacific Coast late starts. Letang continued his excellence, Keith was great, and Girardi returned to familiar depths.

Before a look at the game charts, the usual notes on how to break the graphs down:

A couple of notes on reading the charts:

the Corsi differential is based on 5v5 play and is score-adjusted, as per war-on-ice.

players at the top (with bars extending to the right) posted positive differentials (good)

players at the bottom (and to the left) posted negative differentials (bad)

the colour of each bar represents the player’s time on ice (see legend at the bottom)

each players individual Corsi For attempts are included in parentheses a player with a strong C +/- but a (0) for iCF didn’t directly contribute to his strong showing. a player with a weak C +/- but a strong iCF score (i.e. greater than 5) may have been hindered by linemates. Maybe.

like any reasonable person, I don’t believe that Corsi is everything. But it’s a very important part of the everything.

On with the games.

League-wide respect is growing for just how dangerous the revitalized Penguins will be in the playoffs. Letang led all and posted a game-high 9 iCF. If it weren’t for all the debate between Karlsson and Doughty for the Norris, there would be plenty of reason to look at Letang as a Norris darkhorse.

Crosby continued to roll, Kunitz and Hornqvist have been incredible as linemates, Kessel finally seems comfortable – things look very positive in Pittsburgh right now.

The Rangers chased the puck all night – nothing new. And guess who finished last?

Keith led all and posted 6 iCF in a game with no runaway leader in that category. This is typical and helps to highlight just how dominant players like Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson are – they routinely post near/beyond double digit iCF marks.

Quietly, Hjalmarsson has been a major plus for the Blackhawks all season. That continued in this game.

For the Canucks, Bartkowski and Hamhuis finished in the pluses. That’s highly rare for Bartkowski, who boasts one of the league’s worst cumulative Corsi +/- totals this season.

Tryamkin continues to be a major puck possession drag. He was at the bottom of the chart in this game, joined by Ben Hutton.

Quiet game. All skaters fell between ~-5 and ~+5 in Corsi differential, meaning there was very little difference between most skaters. These are two teams ready to sail off into the off-season sunset.

Moore led all, joined by Palmieri and Severson. All three are important parts of the future in New Jersey. DSP finished in the pluses tonight, ending a streak of very negative puck play for the newly-acquired forward.

The Carolina Hurricanes dominated the negative side of the game chart. Pesce, Hanifin, Rask, and Gerbe were the game’s worst but none posted remarkably bad Corsi differentials.

The future is very bright in Carolina. But, after losing captain Eric Staal (a major Corsi plus in Carolina), Kris Versteeg (another plus), and JM Liles (Corsi plus) before the trade deadline, this team is just waiting for the off-season to get started.

Better times are ahead, Canes fans.

Read more…

NHL Game Charts – Saturday, March 26

NHL Game Charts – Friday, March 25

NHL Team Corsi Differentials – Atlantic Division