Which elite forwards does Zdeno Chara shut down the most?
By Cam Charron
10 years ago
I mis-read Zdeno Chara’s stat sheet this morning, mistakenly taking Chara’s individual goals statistics against particular players as those players against him, leading to my charge that no player had scored twice with Chara on the ice at even strength since 2010.
But that’s a pretty unbelievable statistic, mostly because it’s untrue. I put that claim up in the preview post and was rightfully shouted down by a couple of savvy commenters who read the heading on the section.
What I did do was go through individual player statistics and tallied up non-Boston Bruins Eastern Conference players who have the highest goals per 60 in since the start of the 2010-2011 season. I also included James Neal and Marian Gaborik, even if Neal spent some time in Dallas and Gaborik with Columbus, the idea to get a job at how Chara does against other elite scorers.
Point is that Phil Kessel isn’t the only player who has been shut down by Chara. Even Ontario boys Jason Spezza, Jeff Skinner and James Neal haven’t scored a goal against him.
Anyway, here’s the chart, descended in order by guys Chara has shut down the most, ie: the differential between their Goals per 60 minutes with Chara and without him:
| Player | Time vs. Chara | Goals vs. Chara | G/60 vs. Chara | G/60 wo Chara |
| Evgeni Malkin | 65:04 | 0 | 0.000 | 1.204 |
| Matt Read | 35:01 | 0 | 0.000 | 1.128 |
| James Neal | 57:39 | 0 | 0.000 | 1.082 |
| Jeff Skinner | 41:00 | 0 | 0.000 | 1.076 |
| Phil Kessel | 157:53 | 0 | 0.000 | 1.070 |
| James van Riemsdyk | 58:21 | 0 | 0.000 | 1.035 |
| Alex Semin | 74:07 | 0 | 0.000 | 1.027 |
| Evander Kane | 46:16 | 0 | 0.000 | 1.005 |
| Alex Ovechkin | 133:36 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.991 |
| Jason Spezza | 87:22 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.938 |
| Chris Kunitz | 98:02 | 1 | 0.612 | 1.090 |
| Andrew Ladd | 104:21 | 1 | 0.575 | 0.923 |
| Steven Stamkos | 101:16 | 2 | 1.185 | 1.474 |
| Scott Hartnell | 88:45 | 1 | 0.676 | 0.948 |
| Sidney Crosby | 46:05 | 1 | 1.302 | 1.553 |
| Joffrey Lupul | 71:14 | 1 | 0.842 | 1.091 |
| Thomas Vanek | 141:03 | 2 | 0.851 | 0.936 |
| Jiri Tlusty | 65:17 | 1 | 0.919 | 0.974 |
| Martin St. Louis | 110:45 | 2 | 1.084 | 0.962 |
| Max Pacioretty | 77:52 | 2 | 1.541 | 1.067 |
| John Tavares | 123:13 | 3 | 1.461 | 0.936 |
| Pascal Dupuis | 75:38 | 2 | 1.587 | 0.968 |
| Marian Gaborik | 78:26 | 3 | 2.295 | 1.035 |
| Mathieu Perreault | 24:21 | 1 | 2.464 | 0.984 |
| Michael Grabner | 43:33 | 2 | 2.755 | 1.230 |
| Total | 80:15 | 25 | 0.748 | 1.060 |
On that list, only Martin St. Louis, Max Pacioretty, John Tavares, Pascal Dupuis, Marian Gaborik, Mathieu Perreault and Michael Grabner (?) do better while facing Big-Z. Kessel is fifth on the “shut down by Chara” list, behind Skinner, Neal, Matt Read and Evgeni Malkin.
Anyway, thanks for catching the error in the comment section. Oversight on my part, and I’m glad I didn’t make any conclusion beyond “Chara and the Bruins tend to shut down lots of good forwards”.
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