There is no doubt that PK Subban has not matched last season's defensive-performance through the first quarter of this season. His overall defensive success-rate is down 13 percentage-points from last season, while his defensive success-rate in the defensive-zone is down 10 percentage-points. He's contributing 10% fewer successful defensive-touches in the d-zone per-minute played, while also producing 11.5% fewer successful d-touches overall.
That said, in a recent news conference, Coach Terrien mentioned PK Subban's improved defensive-play. He also made a point of mentioning the game against the Colorado Avalanche as the turning-point point in Subban's defensive-performance.
This first graph trends Subban's game-by-game defensive-performance in the defensive-zone. It is a calculation of his success-rate when attempting to remove puck-possession from the opposition in the defensive-zone. Events used in this calculation include blocked passes, blocked shots, stick-checks, and body-checks.
As this graph displays, Terrien was correct in his view of Subban's performance since the Colorado game. The average defensive success-rate in the defensive-zone among Habs defensmen is currently 69%. Subban's success-rate in the d-zone has not only trended upward since the Avalanche game, it has also been above the team average in 7 of those 9 games.
This graph represents Subban's defensive-play in all three zones. Save for a dip in performance against the New York Rangers, PK has played better defensively in recent games. The overall defensive success-rate among Habs d-men is 64.2%. Subban's rating has been above that team average in 6 of the past 9 games, and continues to trend upward.
The Habs have competed just over 25% of the current season's schedule. There is ample time for Subban to bring his defensive-numbers up to last year's levels, and his current trendline points to a pronounced move in just that direction.
