Good thing we have Gaucher in the pipeline. He should be able to help the PK and win over 50% of his faceoffs when he joins the Ducks in a year or two.
That's in the future. I can see Gaucher and Cutter being staples on the PK as well as be good at FO dot, but that might take a year of adjustment in the NHL. Mac was 42.3% at the dot in his rookie season two years ago and last year he jumped up to 51.7%. Unfortunately, Mac doesn't have that initial burst of speed to participate on the PK b/c that was exposed in his rookie season when he was part of the PK unit to start the season and then kicked off of it for good, but I digress. If we can keep Lundy in the future, then our PK forwards look potentially better.
The problem lies in today's roster. We lost good veteran PK'ers in Rico, Silf, and Carrick. Rico and Carrick were our in our top-3 FO specialists who were over 50% at the dot. Potentially, I can see Cutter become like Rico - a LW who can take FO's and be good defensively, but that might take a year or three.
Then there's the coaching.
Even though the PK Eff are similar, how they got there and the rosters were different. Last year's roster was vastly better defensively due to the influx of talents in Gudas, Lybushkin, LaCombe, a healthy Vaaks, and Minty as our overall goals against was reduced by 51 goals from the previous season. All of them participated on the PK.
2022-23 | Stothers | | | | | | | |
---|
Game Set | Games | PPG | PPO | PP Eff | . | PK GA | TSH | PK Eff |
Total | 82 | 36 | 229 | 15.7% | | 78 | 280 | 72.1% |
| | | | | | | | |
1 to 25 | 25 | 12 | 72 | 16.7% | | 31 | 89 | 65.2% |
26 to 49 | 24 | 11 | 64 | 17.2% | | 17 | 81 | 79.0% |
50 to 61 | 12 | 5 | 36 | 13.9% | | 10 | 44 | 77.3% |
62 to 82 | 21 | 8 | 57 | 14.0% | | 20 | 66 | 69.7% |
2023-24 | Thompson | | | | | | | |
---|
Game Set | Games | PPG | PPO | PP Eff | . | PK GA | TSH | PK Eff |
Total | 82 | 42 | 235 | 17.9% | | 91 | 330 | 72.4% |
| | | | | | | | |
1 to 25 | 25 | 18 | 81 | 22.2% | | 22 | 110 | 80.0% |
26 to 49 | 24 | 10 | 71 | 14.1% | | 22 | 91 | 75.8% |
50 to 62 | 13 | 8 | 35 | 22.9% | | 16 | 47 | 66.0% |
63 to 82 | 20 | 6 | 48 | 12.5% | | 31 | 82 | 62.2% |
Under Stothers, we started off ragged, but greatly improved after 25 games. Then it faltered after the TDL. With Thompson, we started off with a huge bang like a top-10 PK unit. Guess teams started to figure out our PK system and we just kept dropping throughout the season, including after the TDL.
Thompson will have less PK forward talents going into this year. I'm a bit concerned. Hopefully, our d-men are even better this year than last year to compensate the loss of PK forward talents.