{"id":433626,"date":"2023-10-28T15:43:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T19:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=433626"},"modified":"2023-10-28T15:43:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T19:43:05","slug":"artem-zub-true-value-ottawa-senators-defence-corps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/10\/28\/artem-zub-true-value-ottawa-senators-defence-corps\/","title":{"rendered":"Artem Zub\u2019s True Value to the Ottawa Senators Defence Corps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One player does not make a team tick. But there is one member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/senators\/\" target=\"_self\">Ottawa Senators<\/a> group of defencemen that sure comes close, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/z\/zubar01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Artem Zub<\/a>. When Zub is injured and out of the lineup, he is sorely missed by his teammates and head coach.<\/p>\n<p>Now two more names have been added to the Sens infirmary list, fellow defencemen, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/branner01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Erik Brannstrom<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/chaboth01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thomas Chabot<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/10\/26\/defenceman-erik-brannstrom-ottawa-senators-serious-injury\/\" target=\"_self\">Brannstrom was injured in Thursday\u2019s game<\/a> against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/islanders\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Islanders<\/a> and was taken to hospital. He should be fine after the concussion diagnosis. Furthermore, for Chabot, it was announced Friday he will miss four to six weeks with a fracture to his hand. He has been placed on LTIR as a result, which opens up possibilities on call up options. Here we shall focus on Zub. We will take a look into the effectiveness of Artem Zub and why he in particular is extremely difficult to replace.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ottawa coach DJ Smith announces Thomas Chabot out 4-6 weeks with a fractured hand (shot block). Brannstrom and Zub out, too<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/1717960992301486481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 27, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>How Can the Ottawa Senators Replace Artem Zub Defensively?<\/h2>\n<p>Artem Zub is a steadying force on the Ottawa Senators blueline. Even battling through injuries last season, he still showed how important he can be to the club. One example of this through seven games this year is the lack of veteran presence on the blueline. Last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/holdeni01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Holden<\/a> was there, he appeared in 65 games for the Sens in 2022-23.<\/p>\n<h3>The Injuries Could Lead to Some Big Opportunities for the Prospects<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/sens?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#sens<\/a> have recalled Tyler Kleven and Nikolas Matinpalo from Belleville<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SunGarrioch\/status\/1718237122123932124?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 28, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This year the team cannot afford that extra layer of security of depth on defence. Instead, they have been relying on their developing d-man, specifically <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/bernaja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacob Bernard-Docker<\/a>. It appears with the two other injuries, and missing from their lineup with Belleville on Friday, two more call-ups are coming. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/klevety01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Kleven<\/a> and Nikolas Matinpalo missed the game, and look to be heading to Pittsburgh for Saturday night\u2019s game. As a result, Belleville had played with five defencemen Friday night. A note, if Matinpalo is in the lineup for Ottawa, it would mark his first career NHL game.<\/p>\n<h3>Zub\u2019s Impact on the Team<\/h3>\n<p>While this is a big opportunity for the youngsters, it is Zub\u2019s defensive coverage that will be missed. It is not entirely evident in the team performance with Zub being in the lineup or not. Last year they were 25-23-5 with Zub in the lineup, and 3-1 thus far in 2023-24. The team finished 39-35-8 in 2022-23, so the team\u2019s performance wasn\u2019t impacted by Zub\u2019s presence. However, it has been noticeable in the team\u2019s three-game losing streak since his absence this year.<\/p>\n<h3>Parsing Through the Analytics on Artem Zub Defensively<\/h3>\n<p>So how can analytically explain Zub\u2019s importance? First of all, consider his career point share value of 10.9 through four NHL seasons. He has accumulated this total with 9.2 DPS and only 1.6 OPS. As a comparison, looking at Thomas Chabot\u2019s career standings, he is a career 31.9 PS, with 17.2 OPS and 14.7 DPS. Therefore, Zub\u2019s value is much greater on the defensive side of the puck.<\/p>\n<h3>The True Defensive Defenceman<\/h3>\n<p>It can be difficult to find the analytics speaking to the true value of a player like Zub. In his career, he is 20:04 of average TOI. Moreover, he throws hits and block shots, with both career highs in his 81 games in 21-22 of 124 blocks and 155 hits. In addition, he has a career dZS% of 58.3. This high number would tend to lead to things like not having a great CORSI rating, as his CF% Rel is -4.6. It would be difficult to have more offensive attacks than your opponent when you are often starting in your own zone. Now, it may be a bit of a leap, but where you can see Zub\u2019s value, is in his bend-not-break type of mindset. He does often see himself against top matchups, which in itself is a cause for some poor metrics.<\/p>\n<p>The point worth mentioning is that Zub is highly effective in actually preventing those chances from being converted.\u00a0If you look at his possession quality, he is a -8.9 in career differential for xGF and xGA. As a note, he has done a great job of improving that standing this year and last, at a combined -0.1. Conversely, despite tending to give up opportunities leading to an elevated expected goals differential metric, he doesn\u2019t actually give up those goals. Case in point, his plus\/minus is at a career +10.<\/p>\n<h3>Artem Zub Gets It Done<\/h3>\n<p>Zub has a heavy shot back at the point, as evidenced by his first goal this year. Even though he doesn\u2019t use it all that much. He doesn\u2019t get many power play chances, as the team is heavy on defence that commands power play time with Chabot, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/chychja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jakob Chychrun<\/a>, and of course the youngster of the group, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/sandeja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jake Sanderson<\/a>. Power play time, especially for defencemen, is a great way to boost your analytics, such as CORSI and total xGF, etc. He does kill penalties, but it is actually not as often as you might expect. This lack of specialty teams opportunity would be a factor in his total ice time not being higher. In contrast, this allows him to be fresh and take on those top five-on-five matchups that he is known to do.<\/p>\n<h3>Wrapping It All Up<\/h3>\n<p>Here we have reviewed Artem Zub\u2019s defensive abilities, and why he is so valuable to the Senators lineup. This will surely be put to the test, with three of the Senators starting six defencemen out of Saturday\u2019s lineup. Hopefully, Zub will not miss a lot of time, and get back in there helping the club. He is day-to-day currently and possibly draws in for Ottawa\u2019s next home contest, Thursday versus the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/kings\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Kings<\/a>. Zub is the heartbeat of the team\u2019s defensive defencemen, and the less time he misses, the less pressure on the goaltenders and coaches alike.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One player does not make a team tick. But there is one member of the Ottawa Senators group of defencemen that sure comes close, Artem Zub. When Zub is injured and out of the lineup, he is sorely missed by his teammates and head coach. Now two more names have been added to the Sens [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4222,"featured_media":433627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4547,4548],"tags":[4907,1576,70,804,4945],"class_list":["post-433626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senators","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-artem-zub","tag-injury","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-thomas-chabot","tag-tyler-kleven"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}