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As of Wednesday morning, Marc-Andre Bergeron leads all NHL defensemen in scoring. Over nine games with the Tampa Bay Lightning this season, Bergeron has scored twice and added eight assists, which gives him one point more than competitors in Toronto (Dion Phaneuf) and Ottawa (Erik Karlsson).
Earlier this week, we looked at where forwards pick up their points, determining that the vast majority of the league's best pick up the bulk of their points at even strength. From that piece:
"In 2010-11, 89 forwards recorded 50-or-more points; of that group, only one—Vincent Lecavalier—recorded more points on the power play than he did at even strength. The year prior, 95 forwards hit the 50-point plateau, and once again there was a lone player with more points on the power play than at even strength: Flyers forward Mike Richards. Ninety-six forwards scored at least fifty points in 2008-09, and this time, a group of four—Slava Kozlov, Patrick Kane, Alexei Kovalev, and Teemu Selanne—managed to match their even strength numbers on the man advantage. All told, over the last three years, just six out of the 280 50-point player seasons have seen a greater share of those points come about thanks to work on the power play rather than at five-on-five."
The story is far different when one starts looking at defensemen. Fully half of the NHL's top-10 offensive defensemen last season picked up 50% or more of their points while their team enjoyed a man advantage. Thirteen of the top 30 also meet that threshold. Jack Johnson, the Los Angeles Kings rearguard who earned a new long-term contract on the basis of his offensive breakthrough early last season, was particularly dependant—he ranked fourth among NHL defenders with 28 power play points, but at even strength ranked 104th with just 13 points.
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