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See? Luck does even out over time. The Dallas Stars ripped the Toronto Maple Leafs a couple new ones Thursday night 7-1. The game seemed quite a bit more boring than that, but the charitable Leafs goaltending made things quite a bit more exciting. The Fenwick chart shows what observes saw: the Leafs basically said uncle for the entire third period.
A lot of the damage the Stars generated was on special teams. The Stars generated several prime chances shorthanded, and the powerplay was humming all night fueled by crisp quick passes. The Leafs, fourth in the league in powerplay percentage, looked like the Stars usually do. They kept getting bottled up at the Stars blueline and generated very little with their opportunities. The scoring chances from the game make it seem like the Leafs were the Stars' equals at even strength, but the score would suggest otherwise.
In these posts you will also find the scoring chance tally from each game. These are tallied by hand, spit through an Excel spreadsheet, and sorted to show who was on the ice for each scoring chance for and against. The scoring chances for the game are tallied according the the standards used here in the past. The area where chances are recorded is the area directly in front of the net extending to the top of the face off circles. The justification for why chances are tracked can be found here if you are so inclined. Essentially any shot directed towards the net from this area is a scoring chance.
The Scoring Area
The definitions for the cumulative table can be found in the blockquoted text below:
CF, CA, and CF% are Corsi For, Corsi Against, and Corsi For Percentage. The next statistics follow the same pattern. F is Fenwick, S is shots, and ESSC is even strength scoring chances.
The Stars had a slight advantage in Corsi, Fenwick, Shots, and Scoring Chances. They blew the Leafs out so handily though that the necessity of keeping a sustained attack going was minimal.
| Team | TOI | CF | CA | CF% | FF | FA | FF% | SF | SA | SF% | SCF | SCA | SC% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 46.5 | 41 | 43 | 48.80% | 30 | 33 | 47.60% | 24 | 20 | 54.50% | 11 | 13 | 45.83 |
| Dallas Stars | 46.5 | 43 | 41 | 51.20% | 33 | 30 | 52.40% | 20 | 24 | 45.50% | 13 | 11 | 54.17 |
The individual player chances and Corsi show a similar result. Most of the Stars were even or very close to even in Corsi and Scoring Chances at even strength. There really isn't much that can be said about the game that hasn't already been said. The Leafs were terrible and a motivated Stars team took advantage.
| POS | NAME | CF | CA | C +/- | ESSCF | ESSCA | SC+/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | BRENDEN DILLON | 14 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 5 | -3 |
| D | TREVOR DALEY | 15 | 12 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| C | SHAWN HORCOFF (A) | 11 | 14 | -3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| R | ALEX CHIASSON | 10 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| L | RAY WHITNEY (A) | 7 | 9 | -2 | 1 | 3 | -2 |
| L | JAMIE BENN (C) | 12 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| C | RYAN GARBUTT | 14 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| C | RICH PEVERLEY | 10 | 13 | -3 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| C | CODY EAKIN | 9 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| L | ANTOINE ROUSSEL | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 2 | -1 |
| D | JORDIE BENN | 14 | 15 | -1 | 2 | 5 | -3 |
| D | AARON ROME | 14 | 16 | -2 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| D | ALEX GOLIGOSKI | 15 | 11 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| L | VERNON FIDDLER | 12 | 14 | -2 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| R | VALERI NICHUSHKIN | 13 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| D | SERGEI GONCHAR | 14 | 15 | -1 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| L | ERIK COLE | 7 | 11 | -4 | 1 | 3 | -2 |
| C | TYLER SEGUIN | 12 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 5 | -1 |
The good guys take on Jussi Jokinen's Pittsburgh Penguins tonight with a chance to yet again climb closer to the playoff race. The temptation to be conservative offensively will be there with the Penguins in town, but the last two games are further examples of how the Stars can be successful by focusing on their strengths. Offense and goaltending are going to carry this thing as far as it can go.
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