Mika Zibanejad had a rough start to the season. Myself and many others were disappointed with Zibanejad’s play and thought that a stint in Binghamton may have been the best option. During that time, Zibanejad’s waiver eligibility kicked in and would require waivers.
Since a healthy scratch given to Zibanejad by Paul MacLean, things have changed. Over the past few weeks Mika has been Ottawa’s best forward. And it’s not even close.
Through 8 games early on, Zibanejad was pointless. Now, at the 33 game mark, Zibanejad has 8 goals and is good enough for 3rd in team scoring.
After what was looking like a poor setback season it is now looking like one that could turn out to be favourable for Zibanejad. Mika is now on pace for 46 points this season and more than 20 goals — an improvement over last years numbers at 16G, 17 A.
Taking a look at his recent hot streak, he has recorded an impressive 11 points in 10 December games. Add 6 goals so far this month, and Zibanejad’s stat line has taken a noticeable boost.
Dec 13, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Ottawa Senators center Mika Zibanejad (93) gets ready for a face off during the second period against the Boston Bruins at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Zibanejad has settled comfortably into a 2nd line role. After doubts at the start of the season, Ottawa has now found a solid 2nd unit with the Hoffman – Zibanejad – Ryan line.
Mika acknowledged his teammates and his success back on Dec. 11th and the story currently remains the same.
"I really like playing with them, we played together last year and had something going, and now again we’ve been figuring things out and the Chemistry is coming."
At 5v5 time, that unit has been good on a mediocre Senators squad. Mika Zibanejad has spent more time with Bobby Ryan over any other Senator this season, and recently Mike Hoffman has taken the LW role on the 2nd unit.
The ratio there is quite good and shows how the two can compliment each other
Ryan has 195:45 minutes of experience with Zibanejad this season where Hoffman comes in as Mika’s 3rd most used linemate with 118:53 minutes of TOI.
Mika and Mike have formed what appears to be a dominant factor on the ice. The two come as what appears to be an ideal pairing as Zibanejad’s poise and size up the middle compliments Hoffman’s speed up the boards. With Bobby Ryan on that trio, you would think the recipe is there to make a dangerous group.
When looking at how Mike and Mika work together, we see a 5v5 strength when looking at “With you” stats.
As we see here, Zibanejad and Hoffman have produced quite well together. While you can look at Bobby Ryan’s stats here and be underwhelmed, the same cannot be said for Zibanejad and Hoffman.
Hoffman and Zibanejad have generated goals for at an astounding 1.514 GF20, and have kept Goals against to far below 0.500 at 0.337. The ratio there is quite good and shows how the two can compliment each other. Their CF20/CA20 is not as astounding, but we see that Hoffman is the only significantly linemate that Zibanejad has generated a better than 50% CF%.
Take Hoffman away from Zibanejad, and things aren’t as pretty. 0.516 GF20, and a 1.032GA20 is not great and a negative Corsi number backs that at a CF% of 46.6.
Mika and Mike appears to be a duo that could be here to stay. Since Dave Cameron has taken over we haven’t seen any drastic line changes as he appears to like to role with what works. Under Paul MacLean we saw numerous line changes that likely affected everyone’s play.