Jason Strudwick's On-Ice Impact On His Teammates

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

--Samuel Taylor Coleridge:  "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", Part The Second

The Copper & Blue has done some writing about Jason Strudwick in the very recent past.  You might remember Jason Strudwick from such titles as "Strudwick Struggles To Shoot The Puck" and "Jason Strudwick, The Least-Shootinest Gun In the West. And NHL. Since 1998." He won the inaugural Golden Rooster award, sharing a piece of the title with Jeff Deslauriers, and only because Deslauriers made a late backside-shoving run at the title who, despite his best effort, couldn't wrest it from Strudwick's death grip.

He also starred in the epic saga, "The Shift", which shouldn't need further description, but here's a hint: it was the longest shift in modern NHL history, a shift in which Strudwick posted a -11 Corsi rating.  That's right, a -11 Corsi in a single shift.  The only Canadians that have seen action during worse shelling took Juno Beach in 1944.  

WOWY Analysis (With Or Without You, an obvious homage to U2, because it should be "With And Without You", but I digress) is not new.  The concept is simple:  compare player performance with and without certain teammates while on the ice.  Some excellent work in this vein includes Tyler's Ovechkin WOWY, Lighthouse Hockey's WOWY on the new Jere Lehtinen, future Selke winner Frans Nielsen, and Scott's Hemsky WOWY.

The Strudwick WOWY is simple, using Vic Ferrari's excellent scripts I ran the 2009-2010 shots data for each Oilers forward with and without Strudwick.  The results are in the table below:

Every regular forward employed by the Edmonton Oilers was worse with Strudwick.  Significantly worse.  Every. Single. Forward.  Strudwick's on-ice presence even made J.F. Jacques worse, a remarkable feat considering Jacques' effect on the rest of the roster.  Strudwick's presence was especially difficult on Andrew Cogliano, Robert Nilsson, Ryan Potulny, and Shawn Horcoff as their shots numbers plummeted with Strudwick.  He even managed to drag Dustin Penner and Ales Hemsky down with him.

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

--Samuel Taylor Coleridge:  "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", Part The Second

And despite all of this, Steve Tambellini locked up Strudwick for yet another year, not only handing him a one-way contract, but a $25,000 raise to boot.  Tambellini, Renney, Strudwick and Oiler fans should begin trotting out the lucky charms now, because if Strudwick plays another seventy games this season, it's going to be a tough year.  It means that Tambellini didn't find a better option for the seventh defenseman, it means that Renney was stuck with a rookie and Strudwick in the top seven, it means that Strudwick has a very good chance to retire as the worst regular defenseman since expansion and it means that Oiler fans will have to endure another long season of basement-level play.

The people in his corner point to his presence not on the ice, but in the room, as the reason that he was a necessary signing.  He's a great locker room guy, a great practice guy, he sticks up for his teammates and will do whatever his coach asks of him, including play forward.  Any cohesive team certainly needs those guys around, but not at this price.  Lowetide thinks (hopes?) that Strudwick is going to retire at the end of training camp.  I do hope that this is the case, as it would be a merciful end for all parties involved.  Allow him to retire rather than suffer the indignity of another season, offer him an assistant or associate job and allow him to have an impact on the team from the office, rather than on the ice.