Derek Forbort's impact on the Bruins penalty kill is astronomical
Regarding the 2022-23 season, there's not much to complain about when it comes to the Boston Bruins.
However, the absence of Derek Forbort was noticeable when the defenseman was out with an injury for about three weeks. To be more specific, the Bruins' penalty struggled mightily.
Ty Anderson of 98.5 shared some interesting stats about the PK when Forbort was still out:
B's PK since Forbort injury: 31-for-41, 75.6% (20th in NHL).
Forbort has appeared in 17 games this season, and Boston's penalty kill is 93.3% with him in the lineup. During the 11 games he missed, the Bruins were 76.1% while shorthanded.
What's even crazier is that Forbort has spent 293:45 of his 1,169:11 of his time on ice as a Bruin shorthanded, or around 17%. Just this season, he has averaged 3:29 of ice time per game on the penalty kill.
He just so happened to score a shorthanded goal against the Islanders last night too:
Not only are defensive defensemen undervalued in the NHL, but penalty kill specialists are as well, and Forbort has been all that and more since arriving in Boston.
| POLL | ||
Is Derek Forbort is: | ||
| Underrated | 68 | 69.4 % |
| Overrated | 10 | 10.2 % |
| Fairly Rated | 20 | 20.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
