Lockout Day 55 – Little – Big vs NHL Success???

There is an adage in the sport of boxing that a good big man will always beat a good small man. I found this post relative to rugby,  which essentially asserts the same thought.   Why bring this up? Well we need to looks at a factor in the squad down at Springfield. The factor is: we have 3 top 6 forwards that are best described as “mighty mites”.  The 3 of course are JAM, Cam & Matt.

Mighty Mites

YTD Season                                                 Goals       Assists        Points       SOG      Shot %      Goals/game  Points/game  Shots/game

Matt Calvert          5’10″ 188 lbs                    2               6                 8                21          9.5              .22                  .89                     2.33

Cam Atkinson       5′ 8”  173 lbs                     4               3                 7                29         13.8             .44                 .78                      3.22

JAM                       5′ 9″  180 lbs                     4                7               11                38          10.5             .44                 1.22                    4.22

Total of these 3  “mighty mites”                 10               16              26                 88        11.3             1.11                2.89                    9.78

Total Team  [9 games]                                 33               60             93               284        11.6

Percent of team total for these 3               33%            27%         28%             31%

Now let’s look at the top 3 “big” guys , The top 3 production wise are: Ryan Johansen, [who has the only game with more than one goal YTD by a Falcon]Nick Drazenovic, and Thomas Kubalik.

Big Guys

YTD Season                                                Goals        Assists     Points           SOG      Shot %      Goals/game  Points/game  Shots/game

Ryan Johansen        6’3″  221 lbs                 5                 4                9                17          29.4              .56                 1.00                    1.89

Nick Drazenovic      6′ 1″  194 lbs                4                  3               7                19           21.1               .44                  .78                     2.11

Thomas Kubalik       6′ 3″  221 lbs               3                  2              5                19            15.8               .33                  .22                    2.11

Total of the “big guys”                                  12                  9             21               55            21.8             1.33                 2.33                  6.11

Percent of total for these 3                          36%            22%         23%           19%

Ok, so the might mites are doing pretty well in the AHL so far this limited year. And admittedly the 9 game sample is pretty small. JAM’s shot numbers and Ryan’s goals, kinda distort the totals, but the guys have all played 9 games, so it is what it is. How will the small fry do in the NHL playing against the big behemoths.

Last year [2011-2012] we have the following stats from big name players on goal scoring leaders:

Player                                                    Games   Goals   Assists     Points    SOG      Shot %      Goals/game   Points/game   Shots/game

#1 S Stamkos      6’1″  188                   82           60         37              97        303       19.7                     .73                 1.18                  3.70

#2 E Malkin         6′ 3″  195                  75            50        59            109         339       14.7                    .67                  1.45                 4.52

#3 M Gaborik      6′ 1″  204                 82           41         35              76          276       14.9                    .50                  .92                   3.37

#4 J Neal              6’2″  208                 80         40          41              81          329       12.2                     .50                  1.00                 4.11

#16 J Eberle         5’11″ 184                 78          34          42             76          180        18.9                    .44                   .97                   2.31

We have to go down to the 16th position on goal scoring last year to get J Eberle to get below 6″, Jordan is 5’11″.

It’s funny, In the late 70′s I took my son to a minor league hockey game in Erie PA. where we lived at that time. we had seats in the 2nd row, and I do not remember any glass around the rink. In addition the team walked right past us to get to/from the ice. I remember thinking that these player are not very big. Short and squatty [of course pads make them look kinda squatty]. But times have changed as far as the prototype player.

I wish all the guys luck, but I cannot see Columbus every having 3 “mighty mites” on the team at the same time. As the link says, there is always a place for superior talent, but over all, the game and teams are favorng the bigger players.