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Some Stats: Christian Ehrhoff isn’t exactly lighting it up

Christian Ehrhoff

Some Stats is a weekly feature that will run every Thursday on PHT. In Some Stats, we look at some stats.

14 – Points for Christian Ehrhoff, tied for 27th among NHL blueliners. The Sabres signed the offensive defenseman to a $40-million contract on July 1 with hopes the hefty numbers he put up with the Canucks weren’t more a product of his teammates than his talents. Now, to be fair, Ehrhoff’s cap hit is only $4 million, so it’s not like he’s wildly overpaid in that respect, if he’s overpaid at all. And he must be doing something right in the eyes of Lindy Ruff if his coach is willing to play him 24:24 per game. Not to mention his responsibilities as Sabres enforcer.

5 – Wins in a row for the Winnipeg Jets at the MTS Centre, bumping their home record to 10-4-0. And to think it was only a month ago the Jets were getting roasted for their play in what might be the loudest building in the NHL. Granted, Chicago and Montreal might have something to say about the league’s noisiest rinks, but by all accounts the MTS Centre is deafening. Given its capacity is only 15,004, can we at least agree it’s the best pound-for-pound crowd?

25:06 – Average ice time for New Jersey’s Ilya Kovalchuk. The next highest average among NHL forwards belongs to teammate Zach Parise (22:24). Three times this season Kovalchuk’s played more than 30 minutes. Again, he’s a forward. All three of those games went to a shootout, but still, there aren’t many defensemen who can say they’ve played that much. Oh, and with all that ice time, you’d think he’d have more than nine goals.

100 – Number of NHL players with more points than Alexander Steen and T.J. Oshie, the Blues’ co-leading scorers. Steen and Oshie have 19 points each, one more than teammate David Backes. Yet despite the team’s offensive issues, St. Louis is 17-9-3, sixth place in the Western Conference. How’s that possible? Since taking over from Davis Payne, coach Ken Hitchcock has transformed the Blues into one of the best defensive teams in hockey. If they can get the league’s worst power-play going, even just a bit, they’ll be a tough out in the playoffs.

Plus-41 – Boston’s goal differential, the best in the NHL. The Bruins have scored 102 goals and allowed just 61. At their current pace, they’ll finish the season with a goal differential of plus-112. The last team to score 100 more goals than it allowed was Ottawa, which finished plus-103 in 2005-06.