I’ve been reading that the Kings‘ goals-for is even worse under Darryl Sutter than it was under Terry Murray. The point of this is usually that either Dean Lombardi is an idiot for hiring Sutter, or that Dean Lombardi is an idiot for thinking this group of bozos could score, or, alternatively, that Jamie Kompon sucks.
I made a couple of graphs. One for Murray 2011-12 (29 games) and one for Sutter 2011-12 (26 games). In each graph, the x axis is game number and the y axis is GPG or GAA to that point. Each graph treats the coach’s first game as game one (i.e. Sutter starts fresh; he doesn’t inherit Murray’s GPG/GAA). I included shoot-out winning/losing goals in the calculations.
Terry Murray – 2011-12 – GPG vs. GAA
Darryl Sutter – 2011-12 – GPG vs. GAA
While it’s true that Sutter’s Kings are scoring about 1/4 of a goal less per game than Murray’s Kings, it’s also true that Sutter’s Kings are allowing about 1/2 a goal less per game. As a result, Sutter’s Kings show a net improvement of about 1/4 goal per game. And, as the Sutter graph shows, the GPG has always been above the GAA under Sutter, whereas Murray’s red and blue lines cross each other several times.
Here is a graph comparing team +/- (GPG minus GAA) for Murray and Sutter.
Murray vs. Sutter – GPG minus GAA
Murray’s +/- settled in the +0.2:-0.2 range and stayed there. Sutter’s settled in the +0.6:+0.2 range and stayed there. Bottom line: under Sutter, the Kings took a small hit in goals-for in exchange for a big improvement their goals-against.