Taking One For The Team
Found on Kukla's Korner, there's an article by Michael Farber over at SI.com discussing the prevalence of blocked shots. Great shot-blocking is definitely an underappreciated art form, and while there are some nice anecdotes in Farber's piece, I was left wondering - other than his impressions, do we really have any evidence that shot-blocking is on the rise?
I took a look through the play-by-play files for this year (up through Sunday night) and last, and found that at indeed, we've seen about a 5% increase in blocked shots per game since last season:
| Year | EV | PP | SH | Total |
| 2005-06 | 18.47 | 0.67 | 6.80 | 25.94 |
| 2006-07 | 20.48 | 0.58 | 6.11 | 27.17 |
Blocked Shots per game (both teams), broken down by situation.
Interestingly, we've seen a decline in the number of Shorthanded blocks, and a significant jump in the number at Even Strength. I'll have to dig through the pre-lockout files to see if a longer-term trend is in the works...
Labels: blocked shots, defense
2 Comments:
My guess is that the drop in SH/PP shot blocks is due to the drop in the number of penalties called.
With newer ways of protecting ones self from shots, I'm sure more guys are willing to take one for the team.
I saw a clip on Tomas Holmstrom not too long ago; he's got some great padding for his legs. A little extra piece here and there can go a long way.
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