Earlier today I wrote about Lennart Petrell 's play over the last seven games and how remarkable the change has been. Frequent commenter John Chambers (not the Cisco CEO) thought part of the explanation might lie in his shiny new Young Gunz!1-heavy minutes:
Let’s not forget that Petrell spent 3 games or so alongside Nugent and Eberle. They weren’t gangbusters during that stretch, but that would certainly bump Petrell’s possession statistics over this 7-game sample.
It's a valid thought. Tom Renney put Petrell on next to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle in what seemed like a foolhardy effort to jumpstart Petrell and bring some defensive presence to the line. Does it hold up?
Prior to Anton Lander's demotion, the young Swede was Petrell's most common teammate at even strength, as the two were together for 66% of Petrell's even strength time on ice. The only Oilers who were together on the ice more frequently were Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle has been on the ice for 70% of Hopkins' even strength time on ice.In the last seven games, Petrell played 71.3 minutes at even strength. The tables below break down his on-ice teammates:
| # | Teammate | TOI | % |
| 4 | Taylor Hall | 3.5 | 5% |
| 10 | Shawn Horcoff | 18.7 | 26% |
| 14 | Jordan Eberle | 21.8 | 31% |
| 16 | Darcy Hordichuk | 9 | 13% |
| 20 | Eric Belanger | 28.3 | 40% |
| 23 | Linus Omark | 10.7 | 15% |
| 28 | Ryan Jones | 5.1 | 7% |
| 55 | Ben Eager | 4.3 | 6% |
| 83 | Ales Hemsky | 5 | 7% |
| 89 | Sam Gagner | 3.1 | 4% |
| 93 | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | 22 | 31% |
| 94 | Ryan Smyth | 11.6 | 16% |
His most common non-goalie teammate was Eric Belanger with Hopkins and Eberle up next, then Horcoff.
| # | Teammate | TOI | % |
| 5 | Ladislav Smid | 22.4 | 31% |
| 6 | Ryan Whitney | 24.4 | 34% |
| 13 | Cam Barker | 6.8 | 10% |
| 15 | Nick Schultz | 19.2 | 27% |
| 24 | Theo Peckham | 5.4 | 8% |
| 25 | Andy Sutton | 14.9 | 21% |
| 44 | Corey Potter | 26.3 | 37% |
| 58 | Jeff Petry | 24 | 34% |
His time on ice with the defense was spread relatively evenly amongst the full-time blueliners.
| # | Teammate | TOI | % |
| 34 | Yann Danis | 3.6 | 5% |
| 35 | Nikolai Khabibulin | 47.5 | 67% |
| 40 | Devan Dubnyk | 19.9 | 28% |
So Hopkins and Eberle are his second and third-most common linemates. How was his play affected?
| SF | SA | Shots % | Fenwick F | Fenwick A | Fenwick % | Corsi F | Corsi A | Corsi % | |
| Petrell | 34 | 25 | 0.576 | 51 | 37 | 0.580 | 64 | 61 | 0.512 |
| 37 w/Gunz | 13 | 11 | 0.542 | 15 | 18 | 0.455 | 18 | 24 | 0.429 |
| 37 w/o Gunz | 21 | 14 | 0.600 | 36 | 19 | 0.655 | 46 | 37 | 0.554 |
His results certainly aren't being driven by Eberle and Hopkins, and he's played just 3.5 minutes with Taylor Hall, so the Young gunz!1-centric explanation doesn't hold water.
All of the caveats about sample size still apply, but Petrell's numbers are worth keeping an eye on.