Player Discussion Brady Tkachuk (LW) - Part XI

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Sloppy game for him until he totally redeemed himself with that beauty OT winner. Absolutely clutch.

Extremely sloppy game. He fumbled a pass that was a wide open net. He missed a couple passes to set up his teammates on breakaways and they were like not even close.

But thankfully made up for it. One thing Tkachuk doesn't lack in is confidence. Misses don't phase him at all, lol.

 

[bicboi64]

Well that's better than some of you wanting the Senators to lose so you can blame him.

You can infer that all you want, but no one criticizing Tkachuk wants the team to lose just so they can hop online and start berating him. That's some next-level nonsensical fantasy you're imagining.

I've been a big critic of him as the next guy, but want the team to win and if Tkachuk can be a driving force behind that win because he's playing a complete win, even better. If he builds on the things that he's being critiqued for, fans like myself will give credit where credit is due because we want this team to win, including everyone on the roster.

 

[DueDiligence]

You can infer that all you want, but no one criticizing Tkachuk wants the team to lose just so they can hop online and start berating him. That's some next-level nonsensical fantasy you're imagining

Funny you should respond to my post as it certainly wasn't directed at you. But you should go back and read the last 20 or so pages in this thread as a few posters have an irrational hate for this team's captain. And my statement was responding to a one of those people who wrote something ridiculous.

 

[PlayOn]

The Tkachuk criticism in this thread is disproportionate to his play on the ice. This is obvious to anyone that doesn’t have an odd dislike for one of our best players.

It drowns out the legitimate criticism and really this thread is borderline unreadable.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

The Tkachuk criticism in this thread is disproportionate to his play on the ice. This is obvious to anyone that doesn’t have an odd dislike for one of our best players.

It drowns out the legitimate criticism and really this thread is borderline unreadable.

Maybe we should start a Brady Tkachuk Legit Criticism thread. We should be able to dislike posts so we can vote them off the island if they don't qualify.

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

Well that's better than some of you wanting the Senators to lose so you can blame him.

who is doing that?

 

[darude]

People may forget the Spezza days but the fanbase has proved before it can love a guy and want him to stick around while also joking that his favourite breakfast is turnovers.

This is just that again.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

People may forget the Spezza days but the fanbase has proved before it can love a guy and want him to stick around while also joking that his favourite breakfast is turnovers.

This is just that again.

Ottawa is still easily the most forgiving market in Canada. It's really not even close.

 

[Wondercarrot]

I just want to make it clear that Brady has played the same way from the start of the year until now.

Getting ahead of the inevitable “he’s backchecking and playing defence and now we are winning - that’s all I was ever asking for” bullshit.

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

I just want to make it clear that Brady has played the same way from the start of the year until now.

Getting ahead of the inevitable “he’s backchecking and playing defence and now we are winning - that’s all I was ever asking for” bullshit.

anyone else think this?

notable difference for me, especially since he was put on Norris line.

way less cheating for offense, and overall much more defensive effort.

i mean this thread has a bunch of visual evidence of Brady floating or not wanting to backcheck, is sort of obvious when a player is doing it.

but last two weeks or so its been obvious Brady is tracking back a lot more. he's even had some standout multiple backchecks that were highlight reels in themselves, which definitely was not happening before.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

I just want to make it clear that Brady has played the same way from the start of the year until now.

Getting ahead of the inevitable “he’s backchecking and playing defence and now we are winning - that’s all I was ever asking for” bullshit.

Utterly untrue. Utterlllllyyy untrue, lol. Night and day difference.

 

[NyQuil]

Ottawa is still easily the most forgiving market in Canada. It's really not even close.

Toronto forgives Mitch Marner every year.

 

[BankStreetParade]

Utterly untrue. Utterlllllyyy untrue, lol. Night and day difference.

I legitimately am wondering which games that person is watching...

 

[Senscore]

Toronto forgives Mitch Marner every year.

Usually God is the one that forgives but in Toronto it's the other way around I guess

 

[bicboi64]

anyone else think this?

notable difference for me, especially since he was put on Norris line.

way less cheating for offense, and overall much more defensive effort.

i mean this thread has a bunch of visual evidence of Brady floating or not wanting to backcheck, is sort of obvious when a player is doing it.

but last two weeks or so its been obvious Brady is tracking back a lot more. he's even had some standout multiple backchecks that were highlight reels in themselves, which definitely was not happening before.

Tangible stats is showing that he's putting more effort in his own end + just watching the games. Anyone arguing otherwise can go on spending their time imagining there's a section of the fanbase that wants him gone no matter what.

 

[Micklebot]

Tangible stats is showing that he's putting more effort in his own end + just watching the games. Anyone arguing otherwise can go on spending their time imagining there's a section of the fanbase that wants him gone no matter what.

What tangible stats are showing he's putting in more effort?

I mean, I see some things I feel he's done better of late, but in terms of the stats, it looks like a pretty mixed bag if you ask me. Last ten games, CA/60 is up significantly, SA/60 is pretty flat, xGA is down a touch as is HDCA. Takeaways/60 are down, giveaways/60 are up, but on the postive, shots blocked are up.

 

[bicboi64]

What tangible stats are showing he's putting in more effort?

I mean, I see some things I feel he's done better of late, but in terms of the stats, it looks like a pretty mixed bag if you ask me. Last ten games, CA/60 is up significantly, SA/60 is pretty flat, xGA is down a touch as is HDCA. Takeaways/60 are down, giveaways/60 are up, but on the postive, shots blocked are up.

What site are you using for stats on his last 10? I'm on Hockey Reference and can't isolate last 10 games.

Blocked shots were the main issue—11 in his last 10 but 8 in total the previous 19 games. No stupid penalties were taken in the last 10 games, so he's on the ice where he's more useful than anything that can come from trying to 'get the guys going' via a penalty. It's not Selke calibre, but hey its closer to what I'd constitute as being involved in helping team D.

 

[Micklebot]

What site are you using for stats on his last 10? I'm on Hockey Reference and can't isolate last 10 games.

Blocked shots were the main issue—11 in his last 10 but 8 in total the previous 19 games. No stupid penalties were taken in the last 10 games, so he's on the ice where he's more useful than anything that can come from trying to 'get the guys going' via a penalty. It's not Selke calibre, but hey its closer to what I'd constitute as being involved in helping team D.

I used 5v5 numbers from Natural Statrick, since PP isn't really relevant to defensive effort and he isn't on the PK.

Block shots typically speaks to being stuck in your own end more than defensive effort, not usually correlated with strong defense, but not a bad thing either.

Games

TOI

CF

CA

CF%

GF

GA

GF%

xGF

xGA

xGF%

HDCF

HDCA

HDCF%

On-Ice SH%

On-Ice SV%

PDO

1-20

274.83​

65.06​

54.36​

0.54​

2.84​

3.93​

0.42​

2.70​

2.10​

0.56​

9.61​

9.17​

0.51​

0.083​

0.839​

0.922​

21-30

132.12​

60.86​

63.58​

0.49​

3.63​

0.45​

0.89​

3.04​

1.92​

0.61​

11.81​

9.08​

0.57​

0.114​

0.981​

1.095​

***EDIT: Giveaways and Takeaways were wrong, I grabbed the wrong column.

Games	Giveaways/60	Takeaways/60	Shots Blocked/60
1-20	1.96​	1.09​	2.18​
21-30	2.72​	0.45​	4.09​

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

I used 5v5 numbers from Natural Statrick, since PP isn't really relevant to defensive effort and he isn't on the PK.

Block shots typically speaks to being stuck in your own end more than defensive effort, not usually correlated with strong defense, but not a bad thing either.

Games

TOI

CF

CA

CF%

GF

GA

GF%

xGF

xGA

xGF%

HDCF

HDCA

HDCF%

On-Ice SH%

On-Ice SV%

PDO

1-20

274.83​

65.06​

54.36​

0.54​

2.84​

3.93​

0.42​

2.70​

2.10​

0.56​

9.61​

9.17​

0.51​

0.083​

0.839​

0.922​

21-30

132.12​

60.86​

63.58​

0.49​

3.63​

0.45​

0.89​

3.04​

1.92​

0.61​

11.81​

9.08​

0.57​

0.114​

0.981​

1.095​

Games	Giveaways/60	Takeaways/60	Shots Blocked/60
1-20	18.34​	3.93​	2.18​
21-30	9.54​	4.09​	4.09​

another way to look at is, you're not blocking any shots if you blow the zone looking for a breakaway.

if you're in the shooters face, pucks will hit you.

 

[umma gumma]

another way to look at is, you're not blocking any shots if you blow the zone looking for a breakaway.

if you're in the shooters face, pucks will hit you.

Everyone knows the way you 'look' at things.

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

Everyone knows the way you 'look' at things.

call out brady when he is giving bad defensive effort and playing a bad team game

praise him when he is hustling defensively and playing a good team game?

what is wrong with that?

beats either extreme.

 

[Micklebot]

another way to look at is, you're not blocking any shots if you blow the zone looking for a breakaway.

if you're in the shooters face, pucks will hit you.

Sure, but high blocks doesn't mean that's what you are doing, it could mean you're hemmed in. Low blocks could mean they are shifting the play to the other side of the ice and away from you,

The point is blocks are not a stat I would read much into since they could mean all sorts of things.

You'd think if he's always blowing the zone, the other metrics would have gone up more significantly, but that didn't happen.

 

[bicboi64]

Block shots typically speaks to being stuck in your own end more than defensive effort, not usually correlated with strong defense, but not a bad thing either.

​

Thanks for providing the site, been playing around with it.

Slight disagreement on blocked shots. Blocked shots can indicate being stuck on your end but less so when your team isn't letting up too many shots. In that situation, they also show situational awareness since a player isn't always able to steal the puck away or knock someone off the puck with a hit.

Tkachuk doesn't have the highest defensive zone starts + our team isn't necessarily letting opponents shoot too much. His having a slight increase in blocked shots just matches the eye-test of him successfully making the effort to take away shooting lanes.

In past years he's had better takeaway-giveaway stats, and I'd like to see his giveaway-to-takeaway ratio increase. But we also have had more possession in our game this season based on our Corsi 5v5 so I'd attribute more giveaways to Tkachuk being in a position to have more giveaways than bad d-play. I think his steals stats will rise as the season goes on.

 

[Agent Zuuuub]

Sure, but high blocks doesn't mean that's what you are doing, it could mean you're hemmed in. Low blocks could mean they are shifting the play to the other side of the ice and away from you,

The point is blocks are not a stat I would read much into since they could mean all sorts of things.

You'd think if he's always blowing the zone, the other metrics would have gone up more significantly, but that didn't happen.

yes but if you're literally never in position to block a shot you will never block shots regardless if you're being dominated in possesion or dominating possesion.

and in the case of brady he's had some of the worst blocked shots rates of any senator in the last 10 years. like historically low. when that stat goes up and you visually see brady playing a more defensively conscious game, blowing the zone less often, it means something.

i don't put too much emphasis in blocked shots either but extreme outliers means something as well doubling your total/60.

clearly something changed.

 

[Micklebot]

yes but if you're literally never in position to block a shot you will never block shots regardless if you're being dominated in possesion or dominating possesion.

and in the case of brady he's had some of the worst blocked shots rates of any senator in the last 10 years. like historically low. when that stat goes up and you visually see brady playing a more defensively conscious game, blowing the zone less often, it means something.

i don't put too much emphasis in blocked shots either but extreme outliers means something as well doubling your total/60.

clearly something changed.

I think when you're dealing with a 10 or 20 game sample, it's best not to read anything into blocked shots, it's a relatively rare event that can get skewed pretty quick, it's also not indicative of any one thing, so again, it might mean what you're suggesting, or that might be confirmation bias and it's not at all what happened in those games.

I'd also bring it back to the original claim that the defensive effort improved, and that's backed up by the stats, well, is not blowing the zone a defensive effort, or a coaching adjustment? If he's been asked to hang high by the coach, and more recently told they want him deeper in the zone, it's not an effort issue, it's a systems issue.

Anyways, I don't want to get hung up on this, there are some defensive metrics that seem to be better, others that aren't, so I wouldn't feel comfortable saying the stats show he's improved, heck, the two biggest changes are probably on ice Sh% and on ice Sv%, neither tends to strongly correlate with a single skater's level of play, but almost always leads to wins.