Jason Strudwick, The Least-Shootinest Gun In the West. And NHL. Since 1998.

Want to build a foundation of a team that gets historically outshot? Start with two defensemen that don’t shoot the puck.

Or have a bunch of kids on the ice that can’t get out of their own zone. I think the two things probably fed each other.

But at least he’s an elite defensive player. Shit, that’s not true at all!

Hey, Strudwick-Cullimore 1-2, just like I guessed. What surprises me, but only a little bit, is that the goons have completely “been disappeared” from this new list. Every last one of these guys is a stay-at-home blueliner, many of them third-pairing stay-at-home blueliners, but many top four shutdown types as well. I figured you might still see some heavyweights somewhere down near the bottom, but the TOI aspect absolutely rules. Most of the guys you list are logging lots of minutes, 15-20 a night (including zero on the powerplay and not much more than that in the late going with his team pressing for the equalizer). Quite a few of these dudes can handle the dukes – as indeed Strudwick can – but I wouldn’t label any of them a goon, not when there are much better pejoratives like “ninth defenceman”.

Thanks for following through on this, and for the hat tip. Every once in a while my “blind squirrel” method actually stumbles on a kernel of truth. ;)

Btw, the most remarkable stat on Strudwick’s 2009-10 season – and one which underscores how deep a shit the team was in – may be this one: At age 34 Struds set new career highs in both GP and TOI/G! His 72 GP beat out the 71 he played his first year as an Oiler, when he was a young pup of 33. Meanwhile, his 16:56 per game was about 10% more than he had ever played before, with the Rangers at age 30.

Oilers may be right that Struds is the perfect seventh defenceman. If only the six guys ahead of him were all healthy, he would be.

Wow. And no mention of human ipecac

while reading a strudwick post. Oh wait. There’s one