As we’ve discussed before, giveaways and takeaways are notoriously among the most subjective (and thus inconsistent) stats kept by the NHL. The Caps, for example, supposedly have a 1.07 takeaway-to-giveaway ratio on the road, and a 0.84 ratio at home (thanks, in part, to a per-game giveaway rate that’s nearly 75% higher at home). Yeah, I’m not really buying that either.
That said, among players on the same team – playing in front of the same scorekeepers on a nightly basis – there can be some value in looking at these puck possession stats as a measure of what each player is doing relative to his teammates. With that in mind, here’s a look at the giveaway and takeaway numbers for each skater who has suited up for the Caps this season (data via NHL.com; click on column header to sort that column):
| Player | GP | TOI | TkA | GvA | TkA/Min | GvA/Min | (TkA-GvA)/Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Semin | 23 | 428.15 | 29 | 15 | 0.068 | 0.035 | 0.033 |
| Nicklas Backstrom | 23 | 463.55 | 29 | 16 | 0.063 | 0.035 | 0.028 |
| Mike Knuble | 20 | 340.95 | 12 | 4 | 0.035 | 0.012 | 0.023 |
| Boyd Gordon | 14 | 181.67 | 4 | 0 | 0.022 | 0.000 | 0.022 |
| Matt Hendricks | 22 | 250.25 | 5 | 0 | 0.020 | 0.000 | 0.020 |
| David Steckel | 20 | 235.87 | 5 | 1 | 0.021 | 0.004 | 0.017 |
| Jason Chimera | 23 | 314.28 | 12 | 8 | 0.038 | 0.025 | 0.013 |
| Eric Fehr | 22 | 284.32 | 6 | 3 | 0.021 | 0.011 | 0.011 |
| Tomas Fleischmann | 22 | 316.57 | 10 | 8 | 0.032 | 0.025 | 0.006 |
| Matt Bradley | 18 | 179.72 | 3 | 2 | 0.017 | 0.011 | 0.006 |
| Marcus Johansson | 13 | 163.27 | 6 | 6 | 0.037 | 0.037 | 0.000 |
| Brian Fahey | 4 | 41.72 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Jay Beagle | 1 | 6.62 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Brooks Laich | 23 | 411.55 | 10 | 11 | 0.024 | 0.027 | -0.002 |
| Alex Ovechkin | 23 | 493.87 | 18 | 21 | 0.036 | 0.043 | -0.006 |
| Tom Poti | 6 | 124.17 | 2 | 3 | 0.016 | 0.024 | -0.008 |
| John Erskine | 23 | 356.70 | 5 | 11 | 0.014 | 0.031 | -0.017 |
| Karl Alzner | 23 | 433.07 | 4 | 13 | 0.009 | 0.030 | -0.021 |
| Mike Green | 19 | 484.97 | 10 | 21 | 0.021 | 0.043 | -0.023 |
| John Carlson | 23 | 510.38 | 15 | 28 | 0.029 | 0.055 | -0.025 |
| Jeff Schultz | 23 | 507.35 | 4 | 17 | 0.008 | 0.034 | -0.026 |
| Tyler Sloan | 17 | 208.07 | 5 | 11 | 0.024 | 0.053 | -0.029 |
| D.J. King | 6 | 33.33 | 1 | 2 | 0.030 | 0.060 | -0.030 |
| Mathieu Perreault | 3 | 34.00 | 1 | 3 | 0.029 | 0.088 | -0.059 |
So what jumps out at you (other than the need for the NHL to get better at its stat-keeping)?