Antti Miettinen and some underrated stats

As a part of the season review on NHL.com.pl I was asked a question whether Antti Miettinen's good season was caused by the great chemistry with Andrew Brunette or was a sign of the Finn reaching his full potential. The answer? It actually wasn't a good season.

He scored at a great pace at the beginning of the season, but slowed down considerably towards the end (4 points in the last 20 games). In the end his 44 points in 82 games were only a slight improvement over his 82-game pace from a year ago (34 in 69 means 40 in 82). What was the cause of the drop in production in the second half? Increase in ice time - he was used to playing 12-14 minutes a night and in Minnesota he ended up with an ATOI of 18:17. During the first few months he played even more - this probably caused him to be too tired in April.

Furthermore the PROD stat given by ESPN (example here) - the average time spent on ice between points shows that he actually had two better seasons (05/06 and 07/08). This is also supported by his shot percentage.
05/06 - 30:50 PROD 10.3 SH%
06/07 - 42:25 PROD 7.8 SH%
07/08 - 28:24 PROD 11.0 SH%
08/09 - 34:03 PROD 8.1 SH%

The conclusion? According to these stats the 4 minute increase in ice time didn't help Miettinen - it made him less effective.