LONG OVERDUE
Examining Line Combinations
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Examining Line Combinations and Defensive Pairings:
Today we look at how each line preformed as a group, to see which groups have been most effective.
Before we get started just a few notes:
- Many +/- numbers, goals and assists have been left off. The Wolverines used about thirty different forward combinations this season and many of them scored one time and never played together again. For that reason those numbers have been excluded.
- To avoid huge numbers a line only gets +1 or -1 when a goal is scored. +/- are not added together
- A line can earn more than one assist per goal scored.
- This only includes CCHA play
- This is not reflective of individual points or +/- Looking at overall stats and trying to compare them to what I have will confuse you. Any attempt to add them together to prove me wrong will result in hours of wasted time.
Forwards:
| Line | Goals | Assists | Points | + | - |
| Wohlberg-Brown-Guptill | 17 | 24 | 41 | +18 | -8 |
| Treais-Di Giuseppe-Glendening | 8 | 9 | 17 | +7 | -3 |
| Treais-Brown-Di Giuseppe | 4 | 5 | 9 | +3 | -1 |
| K. Lynch-Deblois-T. Lynch | 3 | 3 | 6 | +3 | -3 |
| Di Giuseppe-Deblois-Treais | 2 | 4 | 6 | +3 | 0 |
| Treais-Moffatt-Di Giuseppe | 1 | 4 | 5 | +2 | 0 |
| Deblois-Guptil-Lynch | 1 | 2 | 3 | +1 | 0 |
As we can see here the top line does the heavy lifting and it's not even close. Our chances of winning can be directly attributed to how they are playing, because as you can see after that line scoring drops.
Players like Sparks and Hyman are left off the list, because they never scored more then one point on the same combination.
Forwards Powerplay:
| Line | Goals | Assists | Points | + |
| Treais-Moffatt-Di Giuseppe | 3 | 4 | 7 | +4 |
| Guptill-Wohlberg-Brown | 3 | 3 | 6 | +3 |
| Treais-Brown-Di Giuseppe | 0 | 3 | 3 | +2 |
| Guptill-Hyman-Sparks | 1 | 2 | 3 | +2 |
| Wohlberg-Sparks-Hyman | 1 | 2 | 3 | +1 |
From watching the games you could tell our PP is not very good. This group also used many different combinations that only scored one time, before finding a unit that kind of worked but really not that well.
Defense:
| Pair | Goals | Assists | Points | + | - |
| Bennett-Pateryn | 3 | 5 | 8 | +14 | -13 |
| Moffie-Merrill | 2 | 11 | 13 | +16 | -7 |
| Moffie-Chiasson | 0 | 6 | 6 | +9 | -11 |
| Serville-Clare | 0 | 2 | 2 | +5 | -2 |
| Clare-Chiasson | 0 | 1 | 1 | +5 | -3 |
| Serville-Moffie | 1 | 4 | 5 | +4 | 0 |
This looks pretty bad. Mac Bennett and Greg Pateryn have been pairing the entire year, they seem to get a boost in the + for being on the ice with the scoring line.
Moffie and Chiasson paired at the start of the season with bad results, and Moffie and Merrill haven't been that much better.
Defense Powerplay:
| Pair | Goals | Assists | + |
| Merrill-Moffie | 2 | 5 | +5 |
| Chiasson-Moffie | 1 | 2 | +2 |
| Pateryn-Bennett | 1 | 6 | +5 |
Another weak unit, stats don't say much here because of low numbers all across the board. Merrill-Moffie is much better than Pateryn-Bennett
March 5th, 2012 at 5:47 PM | 
I don't watch hockey, but
I don't watch hockey, but
March 5th, 2012 at 6:51 PM |
Aww
Aww
I opened this thinking it would be about all of our O-line football recruits, and where they would all stack up in the future.
March 6th, 2012 at 2:50 AM |
Sparks is so fun to watch.
Sparks is so fun to watch.
Sparks is so fun to watch. I'll never understand why he can't put the puck in the net.
March 6th, 2012 at 3:44 AM |
Almost reminds me of Darren Helm.
Almost reminds me of Darren Helm.
More offensively skilled, but way less effort on the defensive end. Still can't put the puck in. Either way, Sparks is easily the most exciting player to watch.
March 6th, 2012 at 4:40 PM |
Possible line changes for this weekend
Possible line changes for this weekend
According to Michael Spath at Rivals, Red has mixed up the 3rd and 4th lines. Instead of K Lynch-T Lynch-DeBlois and Sparks-Hyman-Moffatt, the bottom 2 lines will be Moffatt-K Lynch-DeBlois and Rohrkemper-T Lynch-Hyman.
http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1339808
Sparks right now seems to be the odd man out. Also, if this report is correct, it seems unusual that our best faceoff man, Zach Hyman, has been moved to wing. Of course, the article correctly points out that this could all change by Friday.
March 6th, 2012 at 6:30 PM |
Not surprising
Not surprising
They have moved the 3rd and 4th lines around a lot this season, bringing Moffatt up and Lynch down. Red has tried everything to get some kind of production from them, but it's obvious the 4th line is a scoring albatros.
Against a transition team like Notre Dame they don't want Sparks out there, and since he hasn't scored since November why not give someone else a shot.
March 7th, 2012 at 10:35 AM |
TOI?
TOI?
Do you have time on ice numbers for the different line combinations? I think it would be more interesting to look at the rate each line combination scores at or allows goals at rather than the total numbers. As it is showing that the top line that has the most ice time scores the most isn't really surprising.
March 7th, 2012 at 10:43 AM |
I do not have that
I do not have that
That is not a number that is available to me. I had to put the numbers above together by myself, unfortunately time on ice stats are not provided and would be almost impossible to figure out given the stats I have to use.
March 8th, 2012 at 11:11 PM |
I
I
thought this was about our O-LINE!!!GO BLUE!!!
I don't watch hockey, but thank you for bumping the open letter to Nick Saban off the top of the diary list. Only four more diaries now to get it off the front page!
"There was a time I could have been mistaken for Burt Reynolds. I had a moustache and so did he. But he was the number one star in the world, so there wasn't really much confusion."