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Free Michael Del Zotto

By Brendan Canney

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Nov 22, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto (15) skates with the puck against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers won 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Michael Del Zotto was a healthy scratch again last night as the Flyers took on the Nashville Predators. This makes it the 10th straight game he has been a healthy scratch.

I don’t understand it and frankly at this point, I’m convinced Berube is doing this just to piss me off.

Michael Del Zotto was signed as a free-agent this past offseason when the Flyers learned of Kimmo Timonen‘s blood clot diagnosis.

The 24-year-old defenseman’s signing was thought a low risk, high reward acquisition. At a cap hit of only 1.3 million for one year, the worst that could happen is that he doesn’t perform and the Flyers forget the signing ever happened at the end of the season.

At the onset of the season Craig Berube put his support behind Del Zotto.

"“I’ve seen this guy play real good hockey for the New York Rangers at one point,” Berube said. “I think he’s going to get back to that standard.”"

Something tells me Berube doesn’t share that sentiment anymore.

After parsing some data over at war on ice, utilizing Michael Del Zotto as a million dollar spectator while Nicklas Grossmann is stealing $3.5 million while seeing, on average, 15.2 minutes of ice time is a tragedy. We need to free Michael Del Zotto and with the help of fancy stats, I’m hoping I can convince you to support the cause.

The Fancy Stats

[table id=38 /]

As you can see in the table I provided above, Del Zotto outshines Grossmann in every category. MDZ is responsible for more corsi events for and against. So not only is he providing the Flyers with more offensive opportunities, but he is also a tick better in shot suppression.

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    • The most eye-popping statistic for me is how much better the Flyers seem to be with Grossmann off the ice. Without Grossmann on the ice the Flyers improve their CF% by 6 percentage points. With Del Zotto off the ice the Flyers are 4 percentage points worse.

    This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has watched the Flyers this season though. It’s become pretty apparent that Grossmann’s lack of speed really bogs down the Flyers when they are attempting to exit their own zone. And don’t even get me started on how cringe inducing it is watching Grossmann try to recover on a bad pinch.

    After looking at all this data, it’s hard for me to understand how Berube justifies sitting Del Zotto and dressing Grossmann. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think inserting MDZ is going to magically fix our issues at the blue line. He certainly isn’t going to make it worse however.

    Flyers fans, we need to get this movement started now. Make your voices heard. Fire up your Twitter and help #FreeMichaelDelZotto.

    Stats Provided by War-On-Ice.com

    Like the article? Follow me @BcanneyBSB or e-mail me at bear.canney@gmail.com

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