By: Pierce Brody | Follow me on Twitter @PierceBrody3
If you haven’t yet read part one, you can read about the perseverance of Bergeron’s defensive game here.
Last week we deemed Bergeron to be as good as ever on the defensive end by some metrics but found him to have fraudulently positive numbers in other metrics resulting from his extra offensive zone time. This week we are going to take a deeper dive into how he has been using those extra offensive faceoffs.
His percentage of faceoffs won in all situations has reached an astronomical 62.37%. That value is the highest of his career. It has nearly overtaken Yanic Perrault’s single-season high of 62.77%, a record first officially recorded in the 2005-2006 season (This deserves a small asterisk as Chicago’s Jonathan Toews is currently winning 63.43% of his faceoffs this season).
Bergeron’s excellence in the faceoff dot is to be expected at this point, and is still upstaging his elite offensive impact. Nevertheless, he is making his teammates better while on the ice. His on-ice shooting percentage (a team’s shooting percentage while a certain player is on the ice) is 12.1%. Unsurprisingly, it is an improvement upon the league average of roughly nine. It is also slightly better than Bergeron’s average mark of 10.7%. However, the statistic is likely inflated from playing with Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak (although less often as of late) compared to his linemates at other points in his career.
His expected goals for echoes this point, as it is also tracking slightly above his career average. In alignment with the previously mentioned statistic, this might also be boosted by playing a generous amount of minutes with superior linemates.
Bergeron’s overall teamwork has always been a better part of his game, rather than individual scoring. His slightly above-average shooting percentage of 10.8% this year reflects that. Unfortunately, his shooting looks marginally less steady when examining shooting percentage for all unblocked shots. Bergeron has accumulated an 8.1% there, coupled with an expected shooting percentage for unblocked shots of 9.0%.
He has never been a sniper, and his shot seems like it may be degrading slightly. Bergeron is shooting better than last season, but this season’s mark remains the second worst in his previous six. Regardless, shooting talent is difficult to firmly pin down even when you see the greats do it.
Current algorithms already pin Bergeron as an average shooter, which is hard to argue with. He’s rarely displayed an ability to be a true point-per-game player throughout his career, despite the amount of powerplay and first-line minutes he skates each game. Yet, this does not negate the obvious trust Bergeron’s teammates put in him to help them produce at career levels when they have the opportunity to flank him.
Bergeron’s offensive game has never been his calling card, and he’s never been the lethal shooter that some of his contemporaries are. Nonetheless, Bergeron continues to create an offensive environment that strikes fear in his opponents, despite frequently relying on setting up his teammates with deadlier shots. The diminution of his own accuracy is yet to be clearly and significantly determined, but he is clearly displaying another season of goal-producing play to complement his award-winning defense.
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