4 Kings Playing Better than You Think

Marian Gaborik

Marian Gaborik has scored 219 career goals and shot 12.9% over 15 years. But sure, freak out over 14 games.

No, Gaborik hasn’t played great. He looks somewhat disinterested at times. But his shot rate and distance, his possession stats, and his scoring chance data are all in line with how he’s performed the last few years. Here’s a look at where he scored all his goals last year (on the left) compared to where he’s taken all his shots this year.

They look pretty darn similar don’t they? If anything, the shots he’s taken this year have been more in the center of the ice and closer to the net than the goals he scored last year.

The only major difference- stop me if you’ve heard this before – is his shooting percentage and that of his teammates. He’s currently shooting 3.13%. This is nearly 10 percentage points lower than his career shooting percentage. The Kings’ 5v5 shooting percentage when he’s on the ice is 3.16%. This is also significantly lower than his career norms. So either Gaborik forgot how to shoot OR shooting percentages over 14 game samples are subject to large fluctuations. I’m banking on the latter.

I’ll also point this out:

Over the past 10 games or so, Sutter has thrown Gaborik into his line blender, and the blender has chewed him up. This period of time coincides with the period of time where opponents’ shooting percentage skyrocketed against him. The possession stats have also taken a hit. I know Sutter is trying to find the right combination to get Gaborik, Brown and others going, but patience was probably the right course of action as far as Gaborik was concerned. He has traditionally performed well with Kopitar, and was better this season with Kopi than he has been with Shore or Lewis.

Final verdict: cut him a little slack. It’s disappointing to see how much of a passenger he is as far as play driving is concerned, but possession was never his forte. His forte is shooting, and that is bound to come around with time. The Kings had better hope I’m right, because unlike Nick Shore, most of his value comes from finding the back of the net. I’d suggest moving him back with Kopitar and being patient with the pair. I seem to remember them doing some damage together once upon a time.

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