Like Subban, looking at a defenseman yields a wildly different result than a forward.
| Goals | Goals on zone plays | Goals off the rush | Goals on individual efforts |
| 10 | 10 | 0 | 2 |
| Wrist | Slap | Snap | One-timer | Tip | Backhand |
| 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
Andrei Markov is a weird goal scorer as far as defensemen are concerned. From what I’ve looked at, it’s very rare to get a defenseman who scores in such a variety of ways. Markov has a hell of a one-timer, but it’s just his main weapon. Unlike Subban, who can keep throwing bombs until one goes in, Markov looks to always find a lane, and he’ll shoot whatever way is most likely to get through.
Finding lanes is something Andrei Markov is extremely good at, which is part of what makes him an excellent playmaker. Markov’s hockey sense and vision allow him to cut through traffic, which produces goals like his last of the season, and the tying goal against the Bruins in Boston.
What’s interesting about Markov’s season is that none of his goals came off the rush. Certainly some of his assists did, as he made many a breakout pass through the year, but with the damage his knees have taken over the years, he doesn’t seem to join the rush very often. Perhaps due to a combination of this and growing older, as it’s not like Markov is risk averse when it comes to offense. His speed may just limit him from scoring that way now.
Unfortunately I don’t have data on any other years from Markov as I’ve only gone back to the 2010-11 season to track this information so far, so I don’t know for sure whether his game changed much due to these injuries, or if he never scored much off the rush in the first place. It’s a rare thing to score on the rush for a defenseman anyway, so in a 10-goal sample we could be seeing nothing predictive.
