Brad Hunt + Colin Miller = Power Play Goals

Here at SinBin.vegas we’ve purposely shied away from freaking out about the disastrous Golden Knights power play over the last month or so. The reason behind our hesitancy was the simple fact that it wasn’t affecting whether or not Vegas would win the game. However, over the past two games, things have changed in the results column, but seemingly not much changed on the ice.

Hunt said he was so excited after his goal that he almost fell celebrating. (Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

The Golden Knights were 0 for 19 with a man advantage from January 4th to the 19th. They were 1 for 32 if you go back to December 23rd. Then over the past two games, Vegas struck four times in seven opportunities. Among those four goals, Brad Hunt has one goal and two assists and Colin Miller has one goal and one assist. That’s five points on the power play between two players.

The eye test told me that Hunt’s return to the ice was sparking Miller’s offense, as well as the rest of the Golden Knights. However, upon a deeper dive into the numbers, the Hunt-effect has really only been seen when Vegas is a man up. But when Hunt is on the ice during the power play, boy does it make a difference. Look.

• Colin Miller has played 67:07 of power play time without Brad Hunt. In that time, the Golden Knights have scored 3 goals on 53 shots.
  • Goal every 22:21
  • 0.79 shots per minute
• Colin Miller has played 60:09 of power play time with Brad Hunt. In that time, the Golden Knights have scored 9 goals on 61 shots.
  • Goal every 6:41
  • 1.01 shots per minute
• The Golden Knights have played 129:41 of power play time with neither Miller nor Hunt on the ice. In that time, they scored 12 times on 104 shots.
  • Goal every 10:49
  • 0.80 shots per minute

If you consider that a power play is two minutes long, that means with Hunt and Miller, they score just about 1 out of every 3 PP, with Miller and no Hunt it’s 1 for every 11, and with neither it’s 1 out of 5.

That is a big difference people. So big that we decided to make a graph of those same numbers to further prove the point!

Brad Hunt has one goal and 11 assists on the season. Eight of those 12 points have come on the power play. He’s clearly a weapon with the man advantage, especially when playing with Miller, but the question must be asked, is he a liability at even strength?

Turk, we know you are reading this. Keep Brad in the lineup. (Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

This year Hunt has played a total of 338:30 at even strength, among the least on the team ahead of only Jon Merrill, William Carrier, Stefan Matteau, Jason Garrison, and Vadim Shipachyov.  In that time, the Golden Knights have scored 15 goals and allowed 14. They have a shot advantage of 179-163, a Corsi advantage of 335-284, and a PDO of 0.998. (If you forgot what all that means, click here and scroll down.)

In short, Hunt is absolutely not a liability when the Golden Knights are not up a man. In fact, the advanced stats say the exact opposite as he’s 6th in Corsi For Percentage and 13th is Shots For Percentage.

Brayden McNabb just went down to an unknown injury which will keep him out of tonight’s game. Merrill still hasn’t returned from his undisclosed injury, and Luca Sbisa is out until late February or so. However, when everyone is back healthy, the numbers suggest to keep Brad Hunt in the lineup, and who are we to disagree with the numbers?