To those of you who have been underwhelmed by Zherdev's play for the Flyers this year, I can certainly understand that. But there are a few things that you should be more aware of. Zherdev does have a goose egg in the assist column. And this strikes many critics as odd, seeing how he has always been billed as a play maker. But in Philadelphia, he has not been asked to do that. He has been asked to score. Richards, Briere, Leino, Giroux are all heavy play makers. The Flyers were looking for scoring punch from Nikolay. And while he may not have an assist just yet, he definitely will end the season with a few once chemistry really sets in. One of these "things" is that Zherdev quietly is one goal behind the team lead for even strength goals. Yes, that is right. The man who has been hounded in the media for his lack luster play is only one goal away from the team lead in even strength goals, which is a very valuable statistic. Zherdev has 5 of these. Actually he has 5 goals total, all even strength. And this goes into the next point.
Zherdev has seen very little ice time. Zherdev is 10th for average time on ice a game for the forwards. 10th. He averages a tad under 13 minutes a game. This is 3 minutes and change less than Scott Hartnell who leads the team with even strength goals. Mike Richards his usual center sees about 6 minutes more a game. When it comes to power play time on ice he sees the 7th most out of the forwards. That means that he is not on the 1st power play unit or the 2nd, but the 3rd. Somehow he manages to net 5 even strength goals in the limited amount of ice time (let's not even talk about the few games he was in the press box that took away from his ice time).
With this amount of ice time and virtually no power play time Zherdev is on pace for about 23 goals this year. For his price tag, of $2 million, that is not something to sneeze at. Scott Hartnell is on pace for 26 goals this year at over $2 million more in salary. That is something to think about.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Nikolay and his wife"]
[/caption]I have hopes that Zherdev's solid play (for price and ice time) will become great and make his off-season signing a steal. He seems to be settling in with his line of Nodl and Richards. This new chemistry will help up his production greatly and the more comfortable he gets down the line the better he will play. In turn, the better he plays the more ice time he will see which will also translate into more points. I think the next week or so will be a good measuring stick of where Zherdev will be heading point total wise. His physical and defensive play have shown that Zherdev is capable of vast improvements in a short amount of time. There is no reason why his solid season can't be a dominant one by April's end.
Notes: Stats are from before Nov. 18th.
In the Flyers' game on the 18th, Zherdev had 2 g and 1 asst.
SO true, he is definitely producing well with the amount of time he gets per game. Last night against the Caps, he looked great with some sick moves and if he would have lit the lamp on one of his curl and drag moves, no one would complain.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Lavvy really likes to drive his point home. He played 6 mins in Wash after his bets game of the year in TBL. And in a close TBL game where he already had 3 points he played 1 min in the third. For whatever reason, Zherdev can't catch a break from the coach or the media. He has been playing as good of defense as some of the other players. I mean, Carter isn't one to back check all the time, or Hartnell. Yet they don't see any reduction in time. Zherdev has back checked and played D as much as those two but is penalized for it. Double standards, over punishment, whatever you want to call it, Zherdev is skating up hill.
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