Will Rinaldo Continue His Improvement in 2013-14?
There aren't many things that agitating Flyers' winger Zac Rinaldo does quietly on the ice. His hits rattle the boards. His mouth is always running. But one thing he did manage to accomplish quietly last year was to improve significantly from his first NHL season.
Rinaldo backed up his brashness with hard work this year. He cut down on his bad penalties, created a lot of power plays for Philly and referees gave him fewer "reputation penalties" on marginal infractions.
Rinaldo's shifts last season produced more good than harm for the Flyers, which is exactly what he needed to do. Yes, he took by far the most penalties per 60 minutes on the team (2.3) but he also drew the most on the opposition (3.2) by an even wider margin. As a rookie in 2011-12, he took 3.1 penalties per 60 minutes while drawing 2.3 on the opposition.
One important step that Rinaldo took in the direction of getting more calls to go his way was showing increased maturity in the way he communicated with referees. Rather than griping about calls that went against him, he usually skated right to the box. He talked to referees to understand when and why they'd make certain calls and at least try to communicate his own mindset.
Let's face it: Rinaldo had an on-ice troublemaker reputation before he ever set foot in the NHL and he had a lot of work to do to get the benefit of any doubts. Rinaldo often got penalized -- and probably always will -- for marginal or sometimes even clean hits. By showing respect to the referees, he finally started to get more calls his way.
In terms of his actual hockey performance, Rinaldo also showed some significant improvements last year. Not all players can be analyzed by the same criteria.
He had the team's lowest relative Corsi (i.e., team shot attempts for/against differential when he was on or off the ice) on the club in 2013 and was second-lowest in his rookie year. However, Rinaldo by his nature is not going to be a player who is going to help his team generate a ton of puck possession time while he's on the ice.
I'm generally more concerned with how he finishes his shifts, and whether it leaves the team in a better situation than when he first got onto the ice. Does the next line come out pinned in the defensive end, or can a scoring line come out in the offensive zone refreshed after the fourth line got some ice time? Are the Flyers shorthanded, on a power play or still at even strength when a Rinaldo even strength shift takes place? These are main things I concern myself in judging how well he's playing.
Rinaldo started just 39.1 percent of his shifts last season in the offensive zone; only Sean Couturier (32.1 percent), Maxime Talbot (35.2 percent) and Ruslan Fedotenko (35.7 percent) had fewer offensive zone starts among the Flyers' most frequently used forwards. In the meantime, Rinaldo finished his shifts in the offensive zone 52.8 percent of the time. Only top-line forward Jakub Voracek (53.2) finished higher in that category. Rinaldo's team-leading 143 credited hits in 32 games likely had a lot to do with forcing opposing turnovers and creating distractions than ultimately enabled him to finish the majority of his shifts in the offensive zone.
The Flyers were a poor team in five-on-five goal differential last season and, consequently, few players finished with good plus-minus ratings. Rinaldo was a minus-seven for the season in an average 8:22 of ice time per game. Some of that is reflected in his unfavorable Corsi numbers. It should also be noted that Rinaldo was primarily deployed against other teams' fourth or third lines whenever Peter Laviolette was able to get the matchups he wanted.
As such, there is room for further improvement from Rinaldo on the defensive side of the puck. For the last two years, Rinaldo has told anyone that will listen how he could be an excellent penalty killer if given the chance (he did see some PK time in Adirondack during the lockout) and could even score more goals if he got placed on a scoring line.
While I don't think this player will ever get top-six ice time for the Flyers except perhaps in a blowout game with lots of line combination juggling, I do think Rinaldo can continue to grow his current game as a fourth-line player. Perhaps he can eventually get to a point where he could be used as a secondary player on the penalty kill. He skates quite well and is willing to fight (literally and figuratively) for turf.
Rinaldo is not going to be everyone's cup of tea as a player. But you can't fault his work ethic, the improvements he's shown thus far or his ambition to continue to get better.
As long as Rinaldo continues next season to draw more penalties than he takes and to finish the majority of his shifts in the offensive zone -- regardless of his line's starting position -- I don't think he'll have much trouble staying in the starting lineup as the Flyers' 11th or 12th forward.
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Monday Quick Hits
* Flyers right winger Wayne Simmonds turns 25 years old today. What can the Flyers expect from him in 2013-14? If he has a healthy year and plays in the top six -- possibly with Vincent Lecavalier and Brayden Schenn as his linemates -- I think he has a shot at topping his career-best 2011-12 campaign.
The one given with Simmonds is that the compete level is high every night with him. Every team in the NHL could use a plus-skating power forward who is absolutely fearless about engaging anyone physically. He looks like a beanpole, especially his legs, but is very strong pound-for-pound.
I have never considered Simmonds to be a truly natural goal scorer but I expect his 28 goals in 2011-12 and 15 in the lockout year -- a 25.5 goal pace in an 82-game season -- will be his healthy-season norm. On the defensive side of the game, he still needs to work considerably on cutting down on turnovers between the bluelines. That's a good goal for him to set heading into the new season.
* Today in Flyers' History: On this date in 1987, the Flyers made one of the most ill-fated trades in franchise history. Allowing a personal grudge and a $25,000 financial dispute to cloud his better judgement, Flyers general manager Bob Clarke traded top-pairing defenseman Brad McCrimmon to the Calgary Flames in exchange for a 1989 first-round pick (later traded to Toronto along with an additional first-rounder for goaltender Ken Wregget) and a 1988 third-round pick (with which the Flyers selected goalie Dominic Roussel). The McCrimmon trade left a big hole in the Flyers' blueline and was a contributing factor in the team's steady demise after the 1986-87 season.
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