|
Blair Betts |
Games
|
Goals
|
Assists
|
Points
|
+/-
|
|
Regular Season
|
82
|
9
|
4
|
13
|
-4
|
|
Playoffs
|
10
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
-5
|
An elite penalty killer with excellent faceoff abilities is what you get with Blair Betts. He was one of the more maligned players this year, but as many others, grew on me. Lets make sure we don’t over-rate, nor under-rate what Betts brings to the table. Like I said, you’ll get an excellent faceoff guy who posted a respectable 52.3% in the regular season and an even better 54% in the playoffs, a guy who might be the best penalty killing forward in the game, and a guy who is very defensively aware at all times. Another thing you get with Betts is probably the worst passer on the team. He is really, really, really bad when it comes to finding the open man. Which is one of the reasons I really scratched my head when Tom decided to pair him up with Prucha and Shanny earlier this year.
Just how bad a passer is Betts? In 148 games in the past 2 seasons he has a combined 6 assists. In his NHL career of 5 years, he has NEVER had more than 4 assists in a season. To put it another way, it took Betts 148 games to get to 6 assists, it took Jaromir Jagr 4 games to get to 6 assists. In fact the only players with fewer assists on the Rangers who played in 55 or more games (Betts played in all 82) was Ryan Hollweg. There are 16 players on the Rangers who played fewer games than him, and registered at least the same amount of assists or more.
Granted, Betts does not play the power play and averages about 14 minutes of ice time per game generally on the 3rd or 4th line. However it is unfathomable for an NHL center to have such a low assist total. Despite his low assist total though, Blair is a fairly productive 4th line player. The other regular 4th liners, Orr, Hollweg,and Ortmeyer (I am not including Hossa in this because the vast majority of his goals was scored when he was on the first line) had a combined 5 goals, to Blairs’ 9. He actually has a REALLY good, hard, accurate shot. The problem is he takes them from very very very low percentage zones. If Blair had better vision (obviously he doesn’t given his assist total) he would get himself into better places to shoot. Of course we have to give him the benefit of the doubt, in that his 4th line linemates have very poor offensive instincts, and also that Blair is a defense first player so he does not take a risk out there, EVER.
While I may have been thrilled with the prospect of being rid of Blair at the beginning of the year, I no longer think that way. Yes, I just spent several paragraphs trashing the guys offensive instincts, but the truth of the matter is that he is an invaluable player to have out there. The thing is though, he might be better off at left wing. This way his lack of vision won’t compromise the team, and a kid like Brandon Dubinsky, who actually has fairly good vision, could help form a much more effective, 2-way line. Perhaps something like Betts-Dubinsky-Orr. Either way, Blair will be back next year as he got a much deserved contract extension, so he should help the Rangers and their 12th ranked penalty kill to improve.
-Inferno
