Posting over at the Cycle Like Sedins' ANA/DET miniblog this year, one of the things I did was examine Chris Pronger's reputation as a clutch performer against the Red Wings. These players are often called Wing-killers, and going into that series against the Ducks, Earl Sleek had been telling everyone who would listen that post-lockout, the story of the playoffs was either that Chris Pronger eliminates the Red Wings, or the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup. (Gee, that worked out well, huh?) I remembered Pronger's contributions on the 2006 Oilers and 2007 Ducks in both Detroit eliminations, but I also remembered St. Louis consistently coming up short against the Wings for several years in the late 90's and early 00's. I was curious to see if his dominance of the Wings was only particular to those two post-lockout teams or if there were signs of that dominance on those Blues teams as well.
My basic conclusion last time was that since he arrived as one of the top defensemen in the NHL, Pronger has been an absolute beast against the Wings. In 2000, Chris Pronger won the Hart and Norris trophies in the same year. That's another way of saying "this guy is one of the best in the game". Going from that point on in his career against the Wings, he posted some great numbers: 15 GP, 2-13-15 (1.0ppg), +9, 34 PIM, and those are just the easy counting numbers. There is no way to count how many times he frustrated the Wings in trying to mount an attack in his end of the ice.
If you compare this to some of the numbers I've taken a look at for points per game production in the playoffs, that 1.0 ppg for Pronger puts him in the top 25 of forwards, and in the top 2 for defensemen. I think its safe to say that contribution on that level qualifies Chris Pronger as a real Wing Killer. But since I made that post, Pronger has completed another series against the Wings, so lets add that data in, and see if his performance this year was in line with his past performances.
First, let's count off each battle:
1995-96 - 2nd round (1) Detroit vs (5) St. Louis, Detroit wins in 7
1996-97 - 1st round (3) Detroit vs (6) St. Louis, Detroit wins in 6
1997-98 - 2nd round (3) Detroit vs (4) St. Louis, Detroit wins in 6
2001-02 - 2nd round (1) Detroit vs (4) St. Louis, Detroit wins in 5
2005-06 - 1st round (1) Detroit vs (8) Edmonton, Edmonton wins in 6
2006-07 - 3rd round (1) Detroit vs (2) Anaheim, Anaheim wins in 6
2008-09 - 2nd round (2) Detroit vs (8) Anaheim, Detroit wins in 7
(Career record: 2-5 in series versus Detroit, 18-23 in games he has played against Detroit in the playoffs)
Now, we'll break it down into the individual game performances:
1995-96 2nd round (1) Detroit vs (5) St. Louis, Detroit wins in 7
G1: 0G 1A -1 4 shot 0 PIM
G2: 0G 1A -3 2 shot 4 PIM
G3: 0G 1A even 0 shot 2 PIM
G4: 0G 0A even 1 shot 0 PIM
G5: 0G 0A +1 1 shot 0 PIM
G6: 0G 0A even 3 shot 0 PIM
G7: 0G 0A even 0 shot 0 PIM
TOTAL: 0G 3A -3 11 shots 6 PIM
1996-97 1st round (3) Detroit vs (6) St. Louis, Detroit wins in 6
Unfortunately, it seems that box scores from the 1997 playoffs are not available. However, because the Blues lost to the Wings in the first round, we can get Pronger's total numbers for the series from his playoff numbers.
TOTAL: 1G 1A even 19 shots 22 PIM
1997-98 2nd round (3) Detroit vs (4) St. Louis, Detroit wins in 6
G1: 0G 1A +1 1 shot 2 PIM
G2: 0G 1A -1 1 shot 4 PIM
G3: 0G 1A -1 2 shot 2 PIM
G4: 0G 0A +1 3 shots 2 PIM
G5: 0G 0A even 1 shot 6 PIM
G6: 0G 1A -2 4 shot 0 PIM
TOTAL: 0G 4A -2 12 shots 16 PIM
2001-02 2nd round (1) Detroit vs (4) St. Louis, Detroit wins in 5
G1: 0G 0A even 3 shots 16 PIM (misconduct)
G2: 0G 1A +1 4 shot 0 PIM
G3: 0G 3A +2 1 shot 0 PIM
G4: 0G 1A even 1 shot 2 PIM (Torn ACL for trying to kill a one-legged Yzerman)
G5: DID NOT PLAY (Torn ACL)
TOTAL: 0G 5A +3 9 shots 18 PIM (Plus a torn ACL)
2005-06 1st round (1) Detroit vs (8) Edmonton, Edmonton wins in 6
G1: 1G 0A -2 2 shot 0 PIM
G2: 1G 1A +4 6 shot 0 PIM
G3: 0G 1A +1 1 shot 0 PIM
G4: 0G 0A even 4 shot 0 PIM
G5: 0G 3A even 0 shot 0 PIM
G6: 0G 0A +1 0 shot 4 PIM
TOTAL: 2G 5A +4 13 shots 4 PIM
2006-07 3rd round (1) Detroit vs (2) Anaheim, Anaheim wins in 6
G1: 0G 0A even 5 shot 0 PIM
G2: 0G 1A +1 5 shot 4 PIM
G3: 0G 0A even 3 shot 4 PIM (Niedermayer blamed for another 15 PIM)
G4: DID NOT PLAY (Suspended)
G5: 0G 1A even 3 shot 4 PIM
G6: 0G 1A +1 2 shot 0 PIM
TOTAL: 0G 3A +2 18 shots 12 PIM (Plus a suspension and should've had another 15 PIM)
2008-09 2nd round (2) Detroit vs (8) Anaheim, Detroit wins in 7
G1: 0G 2A -1 1 shot 0 PIM
G2: 1G 0A even 5 shot 0 PIM
G3: 0G 1A even 2 shot 4 PIM
G4: 0G 1A -1 2 shot 2 PIM
G5: 0G 0A -1 2 shot 0 PIM
G6: 0G 0A +1 2 shot 0 PIM
G7: 0G 1A even 2 shot 0 PIM
TOTAL: 1G 5A -2 16 shots 6 PIM
CAREER TOTAL: 41GP 4G-26A-30P +2 98SOG 84PIM
Just a quick glance at these series illustrates that Pronger did much better when he was not in St. Louis, and that especially his early years on the Blues, before he established himself as a top defenseman in the NHL, dragged his career averages down a lot. With that in mind, I did a split for Pronger based on his STL teams versus his non-STL teams. Updated to include 2008-09, this split looks like so:
Pronger (STL): 23 GP / 1G 13A 14P (0.61ppg) / -2 / 62 PIM (2.70 PIM/game)
Pronger (EDM/ANA): 18 GP / 3G 13A 16P (0.89ppg) / +4 / 22 PIM (1.22 PIM/game)
This clearly shows us a pretty big difference in performance between what Pronger did against the Wings in St. Louis versus what he did in Anaheim and Edmonton, where his only series wins against Detroit occurred. However, the majority of Pronger’s STL/DET matchups happened in three consecutive years, from 1996-98, when he was definitely a rising star, but had not completely taken the reins from Al MacInnis as top dog on the St. Louis blue line. Also, St. Louis’ peak years as a team came from a period of time from about 1999-2002, indicating that the team around Pronger got better after those three straight losses to the Wings. This peak for the team coincided with Pronger’s arrival as one of the top defensemen in the league. A split of pre-Norris Pronger vs post-Norris Pronger might give us a better idea of what sort of performances Pronger has offered since fully realizing his potential.
Pronger (1996-98): 19 GP / 1G 8A 9P (0.47ppg) / -5 / 44 PIM (2.32 PIM/game)
Pronger (2002-09): 22 GP / 3G 18A 21P (0.95ppg) / +7 / 40 PIM (1.82 PIM/game)
That’s a pretty remarkable difference right there. Twice as many ppg, putting Pronger on a pace that would keep him among the top forwards in the league, and at the top of the heap for defensemen. Its hard to put together some of his non-counting numbers here, because those numbers have only recently started to be tracked, but from my own observations, I think its pretty safe to say that the non-counting end of his game (specifically keeping the Wings out of his net, and preferably putting them on the ground) improved just as much through these splits. One of the best examples of this is the fact that in the 2007 series win by Anaheim, Pronger was only on the ice for one goal against in 5 games, that being a short handed goal. That, despite being on the ice for 156:42 (22:34 of which was shorthanded) in the 5 games of that series he appeared in. That’s not just impressive, its downright Herculean.
The only weakness that has been evident in Pronger’s play is his propensity for taking penalties, but even much of that has diminished with time and experience. In his days in STL, Pronger was averaging well over a single minor penalty a game. Considering that he is such a key penalty killer for his teams, his being in the box becomeseven worse, because the team goes shorthanded, and does so without one of the best penalty killers in the league. In his last three series against the Wings, from 2006-09, he’s averaging a little over half a minor penalty per game. In this same time period, he is also playing very close to half the game on the ice, so the fact that his PIMs have come down as his ice time goes up makes him a more and more reliable workhorse for his teams.
I always knew Pronger was a good player against the Wings, but seeing the magnitude of his contributions and seeing them actually quantified, frankly, has given me a whole new level of respect for the guy. I still hate his guts, but I’ve got to give him props for being able to play on such a level against one of the perennially great teams in Detroit.
Wing Killers is a feature I would like to continue, by taking a look at some other key players who have developed a reputation for being able to put the boots to the Wings. Adam Deadmarsh is one who comes to mind. If you have any other requests or suggestions, be sure to let me know.
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