Another Look At Grit

Way back in August, blog contributor Jagrmeister developed an analytical way to look at Grit. The initial post can be found here if you would like a refresher. In today’s post, Jagr reexamines the stats to see just how Gritty the Penguins have become.

What is GritTM? For the purpose of this post it’s a made up metric of blocked shots + hits. We talked about this over the summer noting that GMJR was hoping to make the team “harder to play against”. His big acquisition over the summer was Brandon Tanev.

Let’s see how he’s fared so far this season:

YearRankPlayerTeamPosGPGAPTS+/-PIMATOIBSHITGritGrit/Gm
2018-201912Brandon TanevWPGLW8014152994114:07812783594.49
2019-20207Brandon TanevPITLW5010122221014:49521862384.76

Looks like Tanev has picked up right where he left off. If you adjust last year’s grit/gm for the increased TOI he’d be around 4.71. So far he’s been exactly as advertised and even moderately more successful offensively.

Let’s have a look at another of the lightning rod players from this summer:

YearRankPlayerTeamPosGPGAPTS+/-PIMATOIBSHITGritGrit/Gm
2018-20199Jack JohnsonPITD8211213-44119:171472333804.63
2019-202031Jack JohnsonPITD48371071619:30621301924.00

Another similar result. Johnson’s grit has gone down a bit and his offensive totals have gone up a little as well. He’s finally living up to the contract he signed in the summer of 2018. This season Jack is bringing more to the table than just the grit he brought last year. He’s been more effective offensively and defensively. While his relative stats generally point to him making his teammates worse when he’s on the ice, he’s been an effective bottom half defenseman. 

I also called out ZAR as similar to Tanev in my previous post. He’s received a good bit of flack through the first part of the season, and looking at the stats you can see why. ZAR has fallen off both offensively and with his grit. Perhaps playing on the same line as Tanev has reduced his chances to up his grit numbers. He has been a decent bottom 6 forward, but still one that we’d like to see more from.

YearRankPlayerTeamPosGPGAPTS+/-PIMATOIBSHITGritGrit/Gm
2018-201924Zach Aston-ReesePITC438917122613:39371381754.07
2019-2020125Zach Aston-ReesePITC50561152214:33261191452.90

On the other end of the spectrum we have the silky soft gritless players (i.e. skilled players). Last year’s least gritty player in the League was Johnny Gaudreau. Not surprisingly, he’s in the same place again this year. Being allegedly 5’9” and 165 lbs in the NHL doesn’t lend itself well to a gritty game.

But who is the lowest ranked Penguin?

Yeah, our very own Dominik Kahun is the #12 overall softest player in the league. He’s even ahead of our favorite all-American, hot dog loving, poker playing, awkwardly lovable old pal Philip J. Kessel, who sits at #14.

Phil Kessel GIF

So now let’s switch gears and talk about teams overall. Over the summer I showed how GritTM has almost no correlation to points in the standings. With about 50 games per team in the books let us have a look and see if that still holds true.

Chart

Yup, still looks like I plotted this graph with a shotgun. Tabular ratings below. As you can see, the Pens are #3 in grit per game (and tied for 2nd in hits delivered). The Islanders are first which isn’t too surprising because they are a “heavy” team and have guys like Matt Martin. Ottawa isn’t surprising either because they suck and naturally spend more time trying to get the puck and therefore hitting/blocking shots more often. 

The bottom of the standings is a little more interesting. Carolina at the bottom regularly has huge Corsi numbers, so not surprising for them to be there. But let’s talk about St. Louis. The defending cup champs are thought of as a heavier hitting, big team, but the stats say otherwise.

RankTeamBSHitsGritGrit/GmGamesPoints
1NYI8531429228246.574963
2OTT7521317206943.104842
3PIT6461429207541.505067
4MTL6801366204640.925051
5VEG6821442212440.855257
6CHI7721223199539.125154
7WSH6791157183637.474971
8EDM7411070181136.964957
9DAL7301035176536.774858
10BOS6311231186236.515170
11NYR6991042174136.274850
12CBJ7711023179435.885060
13DET6541135178935.785028
14WPG6181163178135.625054
15SJS6481115176335.265046
16TBL6011084168535.104862
17NJD686971165734.524841
18ANA6111045165634.504843
19VAN747929167634.204958
20LAK6331053168633.725041
21ARI695998169333.205157
22PHI6011057165833.165060
23COL710902161232.904962
24FLA705868157332.104961
25CGY682904158631.725057
26NSH649832148131.514751
27STL562977153931.414968
28MIN652803145529.694950
29BUF532907143929.374951
30TOR611823143429.274957
31CAR584827141128.225061

All the stats for the analysis above are from hockey-reference.com. This time around I also checked out some stats from naturalstattrick.com. The main difference here is that the naturalstattrick stats are 5-on-5 specific, so total numbers aren’t as high. But what it does give me are hits taken. Let’s have a look, shall we?

RankTeamBSHitsHits takenGritGrit/GmGamesPoints
1NYI6821349963203141.448979594963
2PIT53613041510184036.85067
3OTT5731159931173236.083333334842
4VGK51513221268183735.326923085257
5MTL52812091117173734.745051
6CHI63711031318174034.117647065154
7EDM6079981037160532.755102044957
8DAL584960829154432.166666674858
9CBJ6439631043160632.125060
10BOS49611331195162931.941176475170
11WPG5171061917157831.565054
12NYR562944956150631.3754850
13WSH4991038837153731.367346944971
14S.J5131029946154230.845046
15T.B4441001964144530.104166674862
16ARI5889301079151829.764705885157
17L.A5209641002148429.685041
18DET505971844147629.525028
19VAN575871804144629.510204084958
20N.J548856783140429.254841
21PHI488967985145529.15060
22ANA476900850137628.666666674843
23FLA557824885138128.183673474961
24COL5498241030137328.020408164962
25NSH527778831130527.765957454751
26CGY537809712134626.925057
27STL429836915126525.816326534968
28MIN520730738125025.510204084950
29TOR4837571120124025.306122454957
30BUF413793832120624.61224494951
31CAR451766944121724.345061

If you compare the two tables they’re pretty similar. A little bit of movement, but the teams are generally in the same place. But the most interesting thing, which I believe I heard the broadcasters mention as well, is how many hits the Penguins are taking. With over 1,500 the Pens are almost 200 hits taken higher than the #2 team, and taking 50% more hits than the average team (974). That’s a LOT of additional hits. 

Two things I read from this:

  1. Clearly the game plan against the Penguins is to hit them. When a team is fast, you hit them to slow them down. It worked for the Islanders in the playoffs last year and has been played out this season as well.
  2. Maybe it’s not so surprising that the Pens have seen so many injuries. They’re taking more abuse than anyone else in the league

Digging a bit more into point 2 above, have a look at the top hit takers so far this year. Three of the top five are Penguins! Pettersson has taken 45 more hits than anyone else in the league. Almost 1 more hit taken per game than literally anyone else! Tanev takes hits just like he’ll dole them out. But damn, Marino is right up there too! Dude’s just popping up as a top player all over the place. What a steal by GMJR and good work by Kevin Stevens to give him the tip 😉 Table goes to the top 6 so we could get former Penguin and founding member of the 2014 Penguins Mumps Club, Olli Maatta.

PlayerTeamPositionGPHitsHits TakenShots BlockedGritGrit/Gm
Marcus PetterssonPITD5074177521262.52
Kirby DachCHIC452213216380.84
Charlie McAvoyBOSD4894127821763.67
Brandon TanevPITL50173126352084.16
John MarinoPITD4856118521082.25
Olli MaattaCHID4679116651443.13

Amazingly Florida defenseman Kieth Yandle has played 49 games and only taken 5 hits. I take more hits than that in a 10 game season in my no-hitting beer league. 5 hits in 49 games is an accomplishment. Even Kessel has taken 29 this year. What a stat.

Amazingly, Sid has only been hit 18 times in his 22 games. Jake must have been giving him some room since he’s taken 71 in 39 games. Of all the penguins that have played most of the games it’s Kahun again at the bottom of the pile taking just 34 hits in 48 games

What’s interesting about hits taken though, is that it is more correlated with success in the standings. Look at this graph. Still pretty spread out, but at least the trend line has enough slope you could graph it with the trusty y=mx+b where m doesn’t start with 0.0, so that’s neat.

Chart

Finally, I was also able to get my hands on a penalties drawn stat.  Tanev is tops for the Pens with 13 on the season, but Geno isn’t far behind at 11. Dumoulin and Johnson have each drawn 0 which at first seems kind of crazy, but then you look at it more and only 2 defensemen have more than 2: Pettersson and Marino (4 and 7! respectively).

22 is the most penalties drawn so far this year, a tie between Winnipeg’s Nicolaj Elhers and Brad “the rat” Marchand. 

For the most part it’s all forwards drawing calls which makes sense because they’re generally the ones working for pucks in the offensive zone or coming in with speed.

TL:DR

Grit is still a useless measure, but the Penguins are good at it. Tanev has been as advertised. Kahun is softer than Kessel. The Pens take a shit ton of hits and are nothing special when it comes to drawing penalties.

Hope all you jobbers had at least a fraction of the fun reading this as I did mining the data!