Gionta Out With a Leg Injury

[Toronthab]

Just to irresponsibly raise anxiety levels even more, Arpon Basu is pretty sure that Hamrlik is fairly seriously hurt

http://dailyhab-it.blogspot.com/2009/11/guess-whos-back.html

Can you imagine? If he's out for any extended period, then lottery here we come.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Gionta injury gives Bob the final incentive to acquire another top-6 forward. But he'll only do that after call-ups and current roster players have manifestly failed to fill the void.

This seems to be the year when the Gainey regime's failure to develop players is destined to destroy us. We've desperately needed la releve all year and as the injuries pile up the need intensifies - but so far, not one young player has matched let alone surpassed expectations. Oh well.

How things can change. A couple of years ago we were considered a team that had among the best group of prospects in development.

[johnnyhasbeen]

How things can change. A couple of years ago we were considered a team that had among the best group of prospects in development.

Umm, the Dogs are 10-3-1? When you consider that we have been pulling players of that team left and right and they still have a good record, I would say there is still depth there.

[Toronthab]

If it so happens that the deadline comes without Markov or Gionta, just keep the team the way it is and try next year when everyone is healthy. If even we are healthy, keep them together anyways since most of our guys are locked up, give them at LEAST a year to grow together. One year doesn't prove anything for any hockey team.

People don't realize that the performance of players can and will fluctuate, and that's totally acceptable. Some good players have off years, some bad players have great years. It's the nature of the game. On this board, people seem to only think it terms of how good a player 'should' be, which is usually in relation to how much money they make. People see contracts skating around rather than human beings who could be having bad nights or good nights. You just have to forget about knee-jerk reactions as soon as something doesn't go your way and give them enough time and space to play the game they can play, and hope all of the variables work out in your favor. The only time I would think about canning a player is after prolonged poor play, and I don't think a year, full of injuries and chemistry experiments is enough to fairly gauge anything.

We do tend to chase after the 'highs' and want them year in an year out, night after night. We gambled at the right time to go for it, and injuries caused an overload on a young goalie who couldn't carry the team alone. When a team knows they don't have a reaslistic shot, it affects their efforts.

Our redirecting was necessary and the consequences of decisions made while going for it, are just that, unavoidable consequences. This year, the people who were available for Bob were what they were. He can make all the right moves from his end, for Lecavelier or whoever, but that's just his end. The other end is not in his control.

Uncle Bob is aboiut the most respected man in hockey, and my guess is that this includes his professional standing as well as his personal integrity and character.

I am not "happy" with how things are on the ice right now, but I am satisfied that it would be pretty difficult to have them much different.

And it's good for us to remember that we are a team that must at least compete every single year, and compete well with the late draft picks that this entails.

I have been very, very impressed with the job uncle Bob has been doing for us and am confident he will continue to do a great job. It's a matter of context.

[Habsfan]

I want to see this team with all the parts so we can either prove it is a good team, or recognize it isn't. There is nothing worse then not realizing your issues, so you don't fix them. We need to know before the trade deadline if this team is even close to being a contender so we can make a buy vs sell decision.

Unfortunately we will not find out until Late January or early February. With the Olympic break, it won't leave Bob much time to figure it out!

[brobin]

Unfortunately we will not find out until Late January or early February. With the Olympic break, it won't leave Bob much time to figure it out!

Hence my worry. I suspect that Bob will.. let it ride. I don't want to burn another year for him to realize that this team needs one or two more parts.

I am not talking about gutting it. I just think we need one or two smart trades to make this team work. We seem to have two different teams. The new guys who work hard and have skill, but are completely covered most shifts.. then we have the left overs massively underperforming. If Bob can get turn one or two of these guys plus maybe Halak into a real 2nd line player to go with Plek, we might just see Plek and our first line improve.

[saskhab]

Some Habs injury facts/stats so far that I've compiled...

I'm including the projected 4 players to miss tonight's game, and including it in the overall total. If there are any last minute changes, I'll have to adjust the figures, but...

Including tonight, the Habs have lost 82 man games to injury through 22 regular season games. This accounts for an average of 3.73 regulars gone on any given night. Currently, there are 4 regulars out of the lineup.

The team has had players valued at $2,533,435.04 out of their lineup. This is called the Cap Hit of Injured Players, or CHIP. This number takes the player's cap hit, divides it into a per game figure (so by 82), and then multiplies it by the amount of games missed. This gives a person a better understanding of the importance of the player missing from the lineup. For tonight, the Habs will have devoted $164,204.39 on players that aren't in the lineup by this measure (Markov, Gionta, Gill, D'Agostini).

Here's a breakdown of the year's injuries:

Player - Games Injured - CHIP to date

Markov - 21 - $1,472,560.97

Laraque - 13 - $237,804.88

O'Byrne - 20 - $218,191.13

Gill - 8 - $214,634.15

Gionta - 3 - $182,926.83

Metropolit - 6 - $73,170.73

Hamrlik - 1 - $67,073.17

D'Agostini - 9 - $54,878.05

Chipchura - 2 - $12,195.12

Gill and Gionta will surpass the CHIP totals of Laraque and O'Byrne after the Saturday game, unless one of them gets re-injured.

The most healthy game we had this season was Game 1 vs. Toronto, with 2 players out (Hamrlik, Chipchura) and a CHIP of $73,170.73 for the game. Our least healthy games were our last two games (Nashville, Carolina) when we had 6 injured players and a CHIP of $193,800.82 per game.

There are problems with this method, obviously. Some would prefer it be equated to ice time not salary, but I can't bother with that kind of equation. Also, it doesn't factor in the value of the replacements, and I could probably do that, but I figure a pure raw number like this is good to weigh against the actual number of man games lost. Fantasy buffs would've assigned a rating based on a number of statistics for each player, but this is simpler and easy enough to understand. Obviously there are teams like Chicago, where if Brian Campbell was hurt the number would be WAY higher than if Duncan Keith were hurt, and everyone knows which guy they'd miss more. For the Habs, it actually works out decently, save for Gomez being the most valuable player.

Markov is projected as the likely leader in this category league wide, for what it's worth. The Habs are not likely to be the league leader (I'd say Vancouver is off hand), but they could be in the top 5. On the flip side, Pittsburgh will be up there as well.

I've only done this for the Habs. It'd be cool to have a comparison league wide, and ability to break down each game to see how much of a factor injuries play in the results.

[BCHabnut]

Some Habs injury facts/stats so far that I've compiled...

I'm including the projected 4 players to miss tonight's game, and including it in the overall total. If there are any last minute changes, I'll have to adjust the figures, but...

Including tonight, the Habs have lost 82 man games to injury through 22 regular season games. This accounts for an average of 3.73 regulars gone on any given night. Currently, there are 4 regulars out of the lineup.

The team has had players valued at $2,533,435.04 out of their lineup. This is called the Cap Hit of Injured Players, or CHIP. This number takes the player's cap hit, divides it into a per game figure (so by 82), and then multiplies it by the amount of games missed. This gives a person a better understanding of the importance of the player missing from the lineup. For tonight, the Habs will have devoted $164,204.39 on players that aren't in the lineup by this measure (Markov, Gionta, Gill, D'Agostini).

Here's a breakdown of the year's injuries:

Player - Games Injured - CHIP to date

Markov - 21 - $1,472,560.97

Laraque - 13 - $237,804.88

O'Byrne - 20 - $218,191.13

Gill - 8 - $214,634.15

Gionta - 3 - $182,926.83

Metropolit - 6 - $73,170.73

Hamrlik - 1 - $67,073.17

D'Agostini - 9 - $54,878.05

Chipchura - 2 - $12,195.12

Gill and Gionta will surpass the CHIP totals of Laraque and O'Byrne after the Saturday game, unless one of them gets re-injured.

The most healthy game we had this season was Game 1 vs. Toronto, with 2 players out (Hamrlik, Chipchura) and a CHIP of $73,170.73 for the game. Our least healthy games were our last two games (Nashville, Carolina) when we had 6 injured players and a CHIP of $193,800.82 per game.

There are problems with this method, obviously. Some would prefer it be equated to ice time not salary, but I can't bother with that kind of equation. Also, it doesn't factor in the value of the replacements, and I could probably do that, but I figure a pure raw number like this is good to weigh against the actual number of man games lost. Fantasy buffs would've assigned a rating based on a number of statistics for each player, but this is simpler and easy enough to understand. Obviously there are teams like Chicago, where if Brian Campbell was hurt the number would be WAY higher than if Duncan Keith were hurt, and everyone knows which guy they'd miss more. For the Habs, it actually works out decently, save for Gomez being the most valuable player.

Markov is projected as the likely leader in this category league wide, for what it's worth. The Habs are not likely to be the league leader (I'd say Vancouver is off hand), but they could be in the top 5. On the flip side, Pittsburgh will be up there as well.

I've only done this for the Habs. It'd be cool to have a comparison league wide, and ability to break down each game to see how much of a factor injuries play in the results.

You and Dblair are so good at that stuff. Good job.