When Shaw came to Columbus, the chart stayed in his desk, but this season, after one specific game, he wanted to see how the players rated out in terms of puck management. He charted the game on his puck touch sheet and then shared the results with Tortorella.
“Let’s talk about Brad Shaw because he is full of information,” Tortorella said. “He is one of the most intelligent coaches that I’ve ever met. I think that sheet is really good. It touches all three zones, some good stuff, some bad stuff.
“For me, I am a layman as far as all the numbers, I’m still trying to learn all about that stuff. When I looked at that sheet, I said ‘oh my God.’ When I saw how he tabulated it, how it came to a value, what it did … I wanted to see it as far as lines and pairs, also. That’s when I said, ‘I want to get this every game.’”
“Brad Shaw … I’ve learned a lot from him,” Tortorella said. “The numbers? I think they’re important … you have to mix with that with your gut and the eye test. ‘Shawsy’ has some really unique ways of doing things that are very interesting and I think help determine a lot of things within the game.
“(The puck touch sheet) is a really good sheet that determines individual stuff as far as puck touches in a game. In a world of an unbelievable amount of numbers that are out there, that’s a really good sheet.”
