- Boxcars: 77gp, 4-9-13
- Shots: 46
- Plus Minus: +3
- Corsi (Rel): -6.7 (10th among F's)
- GF/GA ON: 27-24
- 5x5/60: 1.04 (11th among F's)
- 5x4/60: 3.75 (5th among F's)
- Quality of Competition: 14th toughest among F's
- Quality of Teammates: 12th best among F's
- FO %: 47.5% in 183 FO's
- Offensive Zone Start FO %: 46.6% (5th toughest among F's)
- Cap Hit: $700,000
- What do these numbers tell us? He was +3 on a team that was minus a zillion. Yes, he was facing the dregs but he did it with matching dregs and his zone start was tough. His Corsi was very reasonable and although Stortini didn't deliver much offensively he wasn't placed in that role either.
- How could these numbers be better? I don't think you can ask for much more from this player. We used to joke about his unwillingness to fight but the guy took on tall trees all year long and battled. He plays 9 minutes a night (all at EVs) and he earned his pay again this season.
- Can he expand his role? I don't think there'll be much available to him in terms of moving up the depth chart. He might grow into a PK role but quickness is a big issue there.
- Will the Oilers trade him? If a team came calling and overpaid the Oilers might take a look, but he (from all reports) is a solid citizen and the Oilers don't have a lot of guys doing his job.
- What if the club brings in a heavyweight? Well it might reduce his fighting role but those guys can't really play. Stortini has proven himself capable in a defined role.
- How important is Stortini to this team? He's valuable in that Stortini is one of a very few Oilers who does his job at a decent cap hit. He's also pretty healthy and seems to be content in his role. The Oilers have fires all over, there doesn't seem to be a huge need in this area (4line role player, middle heavyweight).
By the Numbers
- 07-08 5x5 per 60m: 1.24
- 08-09 5x5 per 60m: 1.76
- 09-10 5x5 per 60m: 1.04
Performance in 2009-10: 77gp, 4-9-13 (.169)
Projected Role in 2009-10: 4th line RW for the Edmonton Oilers
Stortini is cool. I hope he sticks around.
ReplyDeletei hope we keep him as well. tough hard working player. we need that sort here!
ReplyDeleteWe could use another Storts on the ice. Too many lilly-dippers out there, and Zack is pretty damn good defensively. If the Oil want success, they need to make the opposition feel uncomfortable when they play in Edmonton...more Zack-like players would accomplish this task without hurting us on the scoreboard.
ReplyDeletePerhaps some of the smurfs could find ways to contribute with their skill-sets as well as Zack has with his.
Stortini is a good soldier and i see him around for the next couple of years, unless the Oilers can find a legit tough guy that can equally fight and play, which would make him redundant. But those players don't grow on trees.
ReplyDeleteI'd be very surprised if Stortini was anything more than a 4th liner. He'd have to learn how to PK if he'd want to be anything more.
Stortini generally stinks at playing hockey and we've got plenty of data to prove that at this point. Still, he seems like a good guy and he can fill a 4th line role at his price. The bar is pretty low in Oil Country these days, so Zack counts as a keeper.
ReplyDeleteGood to see some Storts-love. Stortini is a keeper.
ReplyDeleteFor a guy with such limited skill, I never felt cheated by him when watching a game this year. Never once did I think, "Huggy Bear." He's a guy this team needs to teach the younger guys with more skill how hard to work like a modern day "Bucky."
ReplyDeleteAll hail Bucky 2.0
Stortini for captain.
ReplyDeleteHunter: Then he will get a sense of entitlement. =)
ReplyDeleteBut yeah. I don't get the ''Make your 4th liner a captain'' thing.
Wow Taylor Hall just wired the OT winner in Game 1 against Barrie.
ReplyDeleteThere's your #1. :)
Has Hall turned into Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner yet?
ReplyDeleteThat went over my head but it's on me.
ReplyDeleteKeep him on the 4th line with his new centre...Adam Burish
ReplyDeleteIt's a Warren Zevon reference. The cool thing about my generation is that the music from the generation prior doesn't suck.
ReplyDeleteAnd it applies to Hall because he gets blown the hell up every couple of games, but because it's junior he keeps shaking them off.
Lowetide have you gave any thought to predicting plus minus? Most of your guesses have been pretty close. I understand that plus minus is a little bit (a lot) of a crap shoot, but I need to know how big your tin foil hat really is.
ReplyDeleteAnon: I wouldn't have any idea about where to start? How about you?
ReplyDeleteAnd it applies to Hall because he gets blown the hell up every couple of games, but because it's junior he keeps shaking them off.
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing stuff like this and it's really the only thing that scares me about picking Hall over Seguin. He keeps shaking them off because it's just kids slamming into him with his head down. The first time Derek Boogaard flies into him when he's not looking might be the last.
Horcoff is always the first to go when I talk to or overhear the average Joe fan piping up about who needs to be shipped off to Siberia on the Oilers. I don't agree, but I can sort of understand their reasoning.
ReplyDeleteStortini is the other guy.
It must be his awkward skating style? He doesn't destroy people in fights? He doesn't score a bunch of goals? I don't know. There just seems to be a lot of hate out there for the guy when he's been nothing but unspecatacularily good in his entire time with the team.
"The cool thing about my generation is that the music from the generation prior doesn't suck."
ReplyDeleteSaturday Night fever, The Eagles, and Grand Funk Railroad say hello.
Typical older generation, where everything from their era is superior to the newer one - tranlated: "I used to be young, and now that i no longer relate to anything current, I'm miserable". :)
@ HUNTER:
ReplyDeleteI used to be with it, then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with, isn't it and what's it seems weird and scary. It'll happen to yoooouuu.
LOL.....what Matt said!! ^^^^ :-)
ReplyDeleteWell, Hunter, it's not all good. Just that the highs are really high.
ReplyDeleteI just can't imagine kids in 1967 thinking 'man, Mom and Dad's music is pretty cool'. But maybe I'm wrong.
There just seems to be a lot of hate out there for the guy when he's been nothing but unspecatacularily good in his entire time with the team.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it depends on your definition of "unspectacularly good."
If Stortini is on the ice he normally spends his time in his own end regardless of his zone start and usually gets outplayed. Can anyone counter that in an honest manner?
Now having said that I have no issue with keeping Stortini around. I'm not saying he's insanely bad and that he has no business getting 7-9 min/night on the fourth line in the NHL, but "unspectacularly good" is a major fucking stretch IMO.
I'd say "unspectacularly pretty good". The guy posted a plus rating this year, on this team. Of guys who played here all year, only Dustin Penner and arguably Ladi Smid (51 GP) were also able to accomplish this; meanwhile a dozen other Oilers were -15 or worse.
ReplyDeleteStortini played with dregs, with the fourth line more or less defined as the Stortini Line most nights. (Played some third line minutes right near the end of the season.) Mostly they played against other fourth lines, but the lot of the fourth-liner is that when mismatches do occur - on the road, on line changes, after icings - they are ALWAYS unfavourable. Most fourth-liners have a lousy Corsi rating and also a lousy plus/minus. Stortini somehow managed to avoid the latter, for a third consecutive year too. Credit luck or goaltending if you like, but I think Stortini himself deserves a little credit.
Where the "unpsectacular" part kicks in is in what the guy doesn't do: he doesn't give the puck away, he doesn't get caught out of position, he doesn't take a lot of obstruction penalties, he doesn't make a lot of errors, he almost never makes a lazy play. He's a blue-collar player all the way.
If Stortini is on the ice he normally spends his time in his own end regardless of his zone start and usually gets outplayed. Can anyone counter that in an honest manner?
ReplyDeleteAs Bruce points out, surely his plus minus would indicate how badly he is getting outplayed. It isn't as bad as some like to believe it is.
Yep, because Stortini is a defensive stalwart who can score at will which is why he has the second highest on-ice SV% and third highest on-ice SH% among Oilers with 40+ GP. It doesn't matter that his lines get outshot by 9.1/60, nope, because he can overcome it with PURE TALENT.
ReplyDeletePure talent that allows him to see 58% of chances happen against his goaltender when he's on the ice. But chances don't tell the whole story, HEART and SOUL make sure the precentages always fall in his favor. He's the hero of this novel and dammit, there's going to be a happy ending!
Stortini somehow managed to avoid the latter, for a third consecutive year too.
ReplyDelete"Somehow" being the key word. So which was it this year? Sniper shooting percentage or shot altering defensive presence? Either way, he won't be sustaining it. We know this because he's oscillated between the two extremes.
Ribs said...
ReplyDeleteAs Bruce points out, surely his plus minus would indicate how badly he is getting outplayed. It isn't as bad as some like to believe it is.
Hey now, don't hang that on Bruce. I doubt he'd like to try to defend that again.
I'm just not really sure what people are expecting of him. Too much, it seems.
ReplyDelete