Bonnie Tyler once said, “I need a hero.” Her search is over. Mark Borowiecki, AKA Borocop, is here:

Mark Borowiecki is returning calls from Vancouver police who require his statement after he foiled a robbery yesterday by clothes lining a guy on a bike who had stolen a bag. He then wrestled him down and retrieved the bag.

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) December 2, 2019

In addition to the story linked above being a fantastic one, it provides for an opportunity to highlight the crazy run that Borowiecki is on with the Ottawa Senators this year. His offensive work on the bottom pairing, with a cost of $1.2M against the cap, has been nothing short of tremendous to date.

Now, offensive production and Mark Borowiecki aren’t two things that have been associated with each other in either the distant or recent past, but this season is proving to be an exception to that rule. With 10 points through 27 games this year, Borowiecki is only one point shy of his career high in points. The calendar hasn’t even turned yet, so odds are he’s going to shatter that record without much issue.

To put his production in context, consider that he leads the entire Senators defense in five-on-five points/60. He’s outpacing Thomas Chabot in even-strength production. He’s outpacing Nikita Zaitsev in even-strength production. In fact, among the 135 defenders in the league who have played at least 350 five-on-five minutes this year, he ranks 11th (!!) in P/60. That puts him ahead of guys like Victor Hedman, Roman Josi, and Seth Jones. It’s positively wild that he’s sitting in that position in early December.

While it would be foolish to assume that the trend above will continue further into the year, it is neat to see the career Senator and fan favorite rewarded with some tangible production. Borowiecki’s timing on this unprecedented success couldn’t be better. He is a pending Unrestricted Free Agent, and will almost certainly get interest from a number of teams around the league if he makes it to July 1. His underlying numbers aren’t stellar, but there will always be teams out there willing to look past that in favour of a player who plays hard, sticks up for teammates, says the right things, and chips in the odd goal or assist. He’s checking that last box at the right time.

As always, thanks for reading.

*all statistics cited are courtesy of Natural Stat Trick

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