The following stats were tracked during manually during the game. The raw totals for the tracking stats and the glossary are at the end. The full post-game recap was written by Kjell Iverson.
At some point I’ll write up a detailed description of each category and my specific rules for each. Once I do, I will provide a link to it in this summary. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or on Twitter (@wheatnoil).
I’ve highlighted some of the better (blue) and worse (red) performances in each category and there’s a summary of each defenceman at the end. All time on ice stats are from www.naturalstattrick.com .
Game: 10
Opponent: Toronto
Score: 3-2 Bad Guys
Zone Exits
Zone Defence
Puck Retrievals
Defensive Zone Passing
Summary:
General: The main problem with defensive performance in this game isn’t really captured by any of these stats. There were a number of missed assignments, especially in front of the net, leading dangerous scoring chances. All three defensive pairings were guilty of this at times. The Maple Leafs actually won the High Danger Scoring Corsi ratio desite losing the shot attempt battle.
Klefbom: Oscar activated offensively more this game than I’ve ever seen from him at the NHL level. If this becomes more consistent for him, it’ll be a welcome tool in his already extensive toolkit. He was doing well via zone exits up until the 3rd period where he had more trouble breaking out of the zone. He could probably use his mobility to better advantage and carry the puck out to create an odd-man situation in the neutral zone at times, keeping the neutral zone defenders honest. Klefbom also defended the blue line extremely well.
Larsson: Larsson didn’t defer as often to Klefbom in this game, pushing for the zone exit more often on his own. Unfortunately, that led to a number of missed passes. That said, his percentage of controlled zone exits was pretty similar to Klefbom’s, so I’m not sure I can say he would have been better off to defer. He’s not a bad puckmover, truthfully. He’s just not necessarily a creative one. He takes what’s given to him and (at least in previous games), he would defer to Klefbom if there was no clear outlet available. We’ll see if this sharing of the zone exits this game was a one-off or a pattern of balanced puck movement to come in that pairing. The rest of his game was classic Larsson: defend the blue line, retrieve pucks, don’t turn it over in the defensive zone.
Russell: For the second time in the last three games, Russell defended the blue line well. Now, the Maple Leafs were dumping the puck in more regularly than some other teams in this game, but credit to Russell, he was out there challenging. There were moments were he was running around a bit in his own zone and that likely contributed to his poor corsi this game. He also, uncharacteristically, struggled with puck retrieval in this game. He made a number of solid defensive plays, though, usually when in recovery mode. He’s kind of Opposite George to Larsson. Where as the Swede does everything in a low key, subtle and efficient way, Russell sometimes looks best when he’s in mid-scramble.
Sekera: Two straight games of low defensive zone turnovers after a number of poor ones in a row. It was a tough game for zone exits for Sekera but, as usual, he defended the blue line well.
Nurse: Nurse’s zone exit numbers look fantastic, but that is heavily buoyed (as usual) by carry-outs. I don’t count carry outs when there is absolutely no pressure (literally zero forecheckers in the zone). So outside of those, Nurse carried the puck out of the defensive zone five times. The rest of the 5 defensive did it four times in total! Now, on one hand, it’s a good skillset for Nurse. On the other hand, nothing moves the play back to the other zone faster than an effective breakout pass. What I have noticed is Nurse is doing a somewhat better job of converting those carry-outs into a controlled zone entry. Otherwise Nurse had a pretty good game by these particular stats. He had more than one shift caught running around in his own zone and some of that was due to his own blown coverage. I continue to see that as the most important part of the defensive game that Nurse needs to develop. He sometimes gets caught watching or not quite in the right coverage position.
Benning: A solid outing for his NHL debut. Benning got the least amount of icetime among all the defence. He defended the blue line well, though he wasn’t targeted often. I thought he showed better puck-moving skills than Gryba, though it doesn’t really reflect in the stats. He did have a couple “rookie D” moments, including some turnovers that weren’t necessarily egregious, just a symptom of this being his first NHL game. He didn’t move the puck out of the zone often, but he did get it up to the forwards and didn’t rely on Nurse to move the puck. I don’t know if he’s necessarily an upgrade on Gryba, but the potential for him to be so is there. I think he performed well enough to earn a second game for sure.
Raw Total Tracking Stats:
Definitions:
Zone Exit
Controlled Zone Exit: Getting the puck out of the zone maintaining possession
Carry: Skating the puck out of the zone, the defenceman keeps possession himself
Pass: Passing the puck out of the zone, the team maintains possession
Uncontrolled Zone Exit: Getting the puck out of the zone but losing possession to the other team
Dump: No clear target when getting the puck out
Missed Pass: Appears to have a clear target but pass is not complete
Zone Defence
Times Targeted: Number of times a defenceman was specifically targeted by the opposing player on a zone entry against
Denied Entry: Defenceman prevents the opposing team from entering the zone, forcing them to regroup or causing them to lose possession in the neutral zone
Controlled Entry Against: Opposing team is able to enter the zone with possession of the puck (maintained for at least one second)
Dump In Against: Opposing team is gets the puck into the zone but without possession of the puck
Untargeted: Controlled and Uncontrolled Entries against where either a defenceman was not the primary player targeted on entry OR an odd man rush not directly caused by one of the defencemen
Defensive Zone Passing
Total Touches: Number of the times the defenceman clearly has the puck on his stick in the defensive zone
To D-Partner: Successful defensive zone pass to another defenceman within the defensive zone
To Forward: Successful defensive zone pass to a forward within the defensive zone
Turnover: Other team gains possession of the puck after the defenceman clearly had possession of it
Puck Retrieval
Total: Number of times the defenceman is the closest to the puck off of an uncontrolled entry to the zone
Successful: Defenceman retrieves the puck and successfully either gets it out of the zone or passes it a teammate, retaining possession
Failed: Defenceman either turns the puck over after retrieving it or the other team gets possession off the uncontrolled entry
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