Forensics: Tomas Hertl

Anthony Lancione

2014-10-03

TomasHertl

Will it be a sophomore slump or a healthy breakout for Tomas Hertl this season?

During a sublime start to his NHL career last fall, Tomas 'Teenage Mutant Ninja' Hertl turned many heads in the Bay Area and around the game, firing goals in left, right and centre before falling to a bad knee injury just prior to Christmas. In fact, Hertl piled up an insane six markers over his first eight periods and change to start his career, along with 18 points overall in his first 20 contests.

That kick-started a truncated 37-game season where he went on to maintain a ridiculous 41-goal pace. At the time of his December 19^th injury, that pace was even higher, at 46!! Small sample size? Of course. Yet not a sample to be disregarded either; having laced them up for over 45% of the campaign.

You'll vividly recall the epic four-goal-game in his third ever contest, and ensuing reaction elicited by a super impressed Joe Thornton. Hertl fashioned himself as the youngest player (19 years old at the time) to notch four goals in a game since 1988. Naturally, that would place him as the only teen to pull off the feat since the run-and-gun fire wagon days. Just simply unbelievable stuff.

Hertl enacted this damage instantly after being fortuitously paired with the still excellent playmaker, Thornton and Brent Burns on the Shark's top line.

2013-14 Most Common Linemate Generator via Frozen Pools

Frequency	Strength	Line Combination
42.75%	EV	88 BURNS,BRENT – 48 HERTL,TOMAS – 19 THORNTON,JOE
13.04%	EV	48 HERTL,TOMAS – 19 THORNTON,JOE – 57 WINGELS,TOMMY
4.91%	EV	75 HAMILTON,FREDDIE – 48 HERTL,TOMAS – 19 THORNTON,JOE
3.95%	EV	48 HERTL,TOMAS – 15 SHEPPARD,JAMES – 19 THORNTON,JOE
3.86%	EV	48 HERTL,TOMAS – 81 KENNEDY,TYLER – 19 THORNTON,JOE

FP's 2013-14 Line Production – by Line Combination Frequency for Tomas Hertl

Str	On Ice Line Combination	Points	%Total Points
EV	BURNS,BRENT – HERTL,TOMAS – THORNTON,JOE	13	52%
EV	HERTL,TOMAS – THORNTON,JOE – WINGELS,TOMMY	5 📢 advertisement:	20%
PP	BURNS,BRENT – HERTL,TOMAS – KENNEDY,TYLER	2	8%
EV	HAVLAT,MARTIN – HERTL,TOMAS – WINGELS,TOMMY	1	4%
EV	HERTL,TOMAS – SHEPPARD,JAMES – THORNTON,JOE	1	4%
PP	BURNS,BRENT – HAVLAT,MARTIN – HERTL,TOMAS – WINGELS,TOMMY	1	4%
EV	COUTURE,LOGAN – HERTL,TOMAS – MARLEAU,PATRICK – PAVELSKI,JOE – THORNTON,JOE	1	4%
EV	BURNS,BRENT – DESJARDINS,ANDREW – HERTL,TOMAS	1	4%

It took the young Czech a few games to get going again; his top line spot being long gone, forced to skate with scrubs down the stretch. However, once the post-season began and Hertl got his first taste of the post-season, he went off for five points in an otherwise incredibly disappointing, seven game series for the team, famously including a 3-0 series lead.

UPCOMING GAMES

Dec 23 - 13:12	N.J	vs	NYR
Dec 23 - 14:12	TOR	vs	WPG
Dec 23 - 19:12	DET	vs	STL
Dec 23 - 19:12	CBJ	vs	MTL
Dec 23 - 19:12	BOS	vs	WSH
Dec 23 - 19:12	FLA	vs	T.B
Dec 23 - 19:12	PIT	vs	PHI
Dec 23 - 19:12	NYI	vs	BUF
Dec 23 - 20:12	NSH	vs	CAR
Dec 23 - 20:12	MIN	vs	CHI
Dec 23 - 21:12	UTA	vs	DAL
Dec 23 - 21:12	VAN	vs	S.J
Dec 23 - 22:12	VGK	vs	ANA