OTTAWA — The scoresheet doesn’t reflect it, but Igor Chernyshov was surging.
The San Jose Sharks will miss Chernyshov, if he’s out for an extended period of time. The 20-year-old winger suffered an upper-body injury after blocking a Nikolas Matinpalo shot on Thursday, a 6-2 Sharks’ win.
“He’s going to be out a little bit,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky admitted.
Chernyshov, to the eye, has had a transformative effect on the Macklin Celebrini-Will Smith line. The 6-foot-2 Russian provides a blend of size and speed and skill that makes space for Celebrini and Smith, to do what they do best.
Chernyshov was re-introduced into the waters — the trio excelled together last year — on Oct. 13 against the Boston Bruins. Look at the lead-up to Thursday’s Nolan Allan goal:
Stathletes’ micro-stats, small sample size alert, suggest Chernyshov’s impact.
First, let’s take a long view of this, using Evolving Hockey’s line analytics. Expected Goals has its limitations, of course, but I think it paints an accurate picture here.
Celebrini has played primarily on two 5-on-5 lines this season: Mason Marchment-Celebrini-Smith had a 49.5 xGF %, while Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith had a 61.0 xGF %.
Stathletes takes us another step in our evaluation: From Oct. 1 to 11, when Marchment-Celebrini-Smith were together, Marchment was second, after Zack Ostapchuk, among San Jose Sharks forwards, in 5-on-5 Total Slot Involvement. That’s 11.34 Slot Passes, Shots , and Carries Per 60. Smith was fifth at 9.9. Celebrini was seventh at 8.55.
Chernyshov, playing mostly with Michael Misa and Tyler Toffoli, was sixth at 9.41.
Since Oct. 13, when Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith were reunited, Smith’s 26.06 Total Slot Involvement paces the Sharks, Chernyshov second with a 24.63, and Celebrini third with 21.32. That’s just at 5-on-5 Per 60.
And just to show it’s not specifically a Marchment thing, the veteran winger was fourth at 19.06, having formed instant chemistry with fellow veterans Alex Wennberg and Tyler Toffoli on a line. For whatever reason, Marchment just didn’t gel immediately with Celebrini-Smith.
But fact is, Celebrini-Smith’s Total Slot Involvement more than doubled with Chernyshov.
Just to put Smith’s 26.06 in perspective, that’s ninth among league forwards since Oct. 13, behind stars like Jack Hughes and Brady Tkachuk. Basically, the kinds of forwards that you want to share micro-stats with.
Ignore the fact that Chernyshov has had just one assist in his last six games since Oct. 13. He even had a point taken away: He was originally the primary assist on the aforementioned Allan goal.
The 5-on-5 goals were coming for Chernyshov and company. But now, they’ll have to wait.
Collin Graf did step in capably after Chernyshov’s departure, leading the San Jose Sharks with five 5-on-5 Total Scoring Chances on Thursday. That’s Scoring Chances and Assisted Chances combined. Graf also worked well with Celebrini and Smith last year.
So the Celebrini line should be just fine.
But losing Chernyshov and Wennberg last Monday chips away at the rest of the San Jose Sharks’ depth up front. Graf, normally a winger, was already covering for Wennberg up the middle on Thursday, before Chernyshov’s injury.
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