Every forward line combination and defensive pairing the Flyers used in 2013-14

Last week, while talking about the remote possibility of a Vincent Lecavalier trade that could take place this summer, Travis mentioned how a lot of guys had seen their possession numbers fall off while playing next to Vincent Lecavalier. In particular, Brayden Schenn’s name came up.

Let’s move from that example and get a quick snapshot of how every line we saw the Flyers roll with this season fared while on the ice. And we literally mean almost every single one of them.

Below, you’ll see two charts. The two of them list every relevant combination of players for the Flyers (forward lines or defensive pairings) that were on the ice for at least 25 total shot attempts this season. We’ll take a quick look at three categories of things to measure while those guys were all on the ice:

• How the scoreboard looked — number of goals for and against with each of the given players on the ice.
  Who was controlling possession — number of shot attempts (Corsi) for and against the Flyers with each of the given players on the ice.
• How they were used — number of shifts started in the offensive, defensive, or neutral zone by each of the given players while together./

Also, it hopefully goes without saying that these are pretty much all very small samples and don’t mean a ton by themselves, and this is mostly just for observational purposes. Still, it’s kinda fun to look at, so we’ll do so.

First, the forwards. (All information is at 5-on-5.)

There’s obviously a lot there, but a few things that stuck out to me:

* It shouldn’t be much of a surprise who the top overall line was for the Flyers this year, nor should it be a surprise that Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell and Jakub Voracek (a.) were primarily put in offensive situations and (b.) were very successful in those.

* Interesting to see how bad Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds were while they were on a line together with Vincent Lecavalier compared to how good they were while on a line with either one of Michael Raffl or Scott Hartnell. Maybe not that surprising, considering that …

* … Vincent Lecavalier’s most frequent line combination that saw him actually putting up positive results was the one with Adam Hall and Zac Rinaldo, which of course came at the end of the year once he was dropped down to the fourth line. Maybe not a great sign that he didn’t mesh well with any possible combination of actual top-9 forwards.

* Things can tend to get kind of hilarious when Sean Couturier and Matt Read are on the ice together. Look at how the two of them were used along with Adam Hall and/or Claude Giroux! Not a single offensive start. Not one. That’s nuts.

Meanwhile, here’s every combination of defensemen that meet the same criteria (on-ice for at least 25 total attempts).

Notes:

* Again, not terribly surprising who the top pairing/pairings are. Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn were together for most of the season, and Mark Streit and Nicklas Grossmann were as well.

* Speaking of, Charlie discussed this about a month ago, but given how awful the Streit-Grossmann pairing was early on in the season, it says a lot about how well they played down the stretch that they managed to pull their total possession numbers almost back to even. Good sign moving forward.

* Man, Luke Schenn had a rough year. Cycled around with several different partners, only really experiencing much success with Erik Gustafsson (in terms of goals for/against, at least; the underlying numbers maybe don’t paint as much of an optimistic picture). Until, of course, the Andrew MacDonald trade, which fixed everything. (It didn’t fix everything.)

* Pending potential offseason moves, I wonder which pairing it is that ends up getting the tough minutes (read: take a ton of defensive zone starts) next year. The only time they really buried a pairing in tough minutes was when they put Coburn and Grossmann together, and while they did their best there, that just isn’t a pairing that works stylistically.

Let’s assume (again, pending a trade) that the Flyers’ top-six on defense next year is Coburn, Grossmann, Streit, L. Schenn, MacDonald, and one of Timonen, Gustafsson, and (in all likelihood) Shayne Gostisbehere. Coburn figures to be one guy who gets tough minutes, but I don’t know if I trust any of the other candidates in that role (Timonen possibly could, but he’s been used in a more offensive role this year and I don’t think they’d push him back into a more defensive one with another year behind him). It’ll be interesting to see what happens there.