Just because the Oilers and their fans haven’t suffered
enough, Brandon Davidson’s leg was brutally murdered by the 260 lb hockey
equivalent of The Punisher – Dustin Byfuglien. 

Byfuglien drove to the net, swooped across the blue, and
then skated right through Davidson’s leg. It wasn’t a dirty play, I don’t believe,
just an unfortunate one. Davidson was down on the ice for some time, not moving
his leg. He was helped off without putting any weight on it, and eventually
cameras showed him being wheeled out of the building by paramedics. The full extent of the injury has yet to be reported.

What more, you ask, could we give to the gods who demand
payment for some unknown slight?

I don’t know.

I do know that Davidson’s impact on this team has been largely positive. I wrote the big story earlier when the team
announced they had signed him to a two year contract. He earned the contract
and I was wrong for doubting he would be as good as he has been. I can assure
you that in September I wouldn’t have expected feeling like a 2-1 victory over
the Jets in March was actually a loss because Davidson would go down. But, here
we are.

How positive has Davidson been for possession with this
defense? I’d like to illustrate it by using the With or Without You numbers
from this season for Davidson and his various partners. You’ll see that for the
most part his partners tend to perform worse when it comes to shot attempt percentages
without him.

Because Edmonton’s blueline is a
wasteland, Davidson has played with everybody for at least a few minutes. The
order in the chart above is from most amount of time together to least amount
of time together. He actually played with Clendening, Nikitin, and Ference as
well, but we’re talking about less than 25 minutes combined between that trio.
As it is, Nurse and Reinhart have combined for less than 100 minutes of time
with Davidson. So while this gives us an indication of the effect Davidson has,
we have to use reason to qualify it with the caveat that for some of these
partners the time spent together isn’t really enough to say much.

In that chart I highlighted whichever was higher between
when one of Davidson’s partners was with him or without him. You’ll notice that
almost everybody who was with him in a third pairing role performed
better with Davidson than without him. Among the defenders who have spent more
than a little time with him, only Sekera, Klefbom, and Osterle performed better
without him.

We know how long ago it was that he played with Klefbom and
I would love to see how they could do together now, but that will likely have
to wait for some time. Nevertheless, it seems as though Davidson made the third
pair effective no matter which partner he had. He’s a smart defender who uses the stick and the body well. As a 5-6, he has been stellar. Playing higher in the lineup, he has been competent.

Considering how many minutes he’s been eating for the Oilers
over the last month, a long term injury could be devastating to a blueline
already stretched thin. Godspeed, Brandon Davidson. This defense is certainly better
with you than without you.