The following stats were tracked during manually during the game. The raw totals for the tracking stats and the glossary are at the end.
At some point I’ll write up a detailed description of each category and my specific rules for each. You can find more information on Zone Exits here. I’m working on writing up the other stats and will a link to them once they’re up. 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. All time on ice stats are from www.naturalstattrick.com . I’ve provided some commentary after each section and at the end. Feel free to fire me a question or comment if you have one about the numbers.
Game: 35
Opponent: Arizona Coyotes
Score: 3-2 Ar… wait… Oilers? We did it? We beat the Coyotes!
Zone Exits
Um… oh dear. The Oilers struggled here. The Coyotes play a solid neutral zone game and never give the Oilers anything easy. Given the quality of their players, if they didn’t play so structured, they would be an even worse hockey club. In this game, the Oilers had three puck movers: Davidson, Klefbom and Russell. Larsson and Sekera both managed to go the whole game without a single controlled zone exit at 5×5, which I have not seen in my tracking yet. Larsson, in particular, had 6 dump-outs and only one missed pass. It seemed like he wasn’t even trying to keep possession out there.
Zone Defence
What the Oilers gave up in zone exits, they made up for here. A pretty solid game across the board. Russell and Davidson had more controlled entries against, but they also had a denial or two between them. As a defensive core, the Oilers kept the Coyotes from getting into the zone easily.
Puck Retrievals
Overall, a pretty reasonable game in this department. Russell in particular had a solid game while Klefbom got beat out in puck retrievals more often than he usually does.
Defensive Zone Passing
TURNOVERS! Holy hell guys. Sekera managed to turned the puck over for 30% of his passes from the defensive zone! Including his uncontrolled zone exits, he gave up possession 50% of the time he touched the puck! That’s NOT typical Sekera. Klefbom, Larsson, and Davidson too were turning the puck over at alarming frequencies. Only Gryba (who actually touched the puck the least and passed it over to Davidson over 50% of the time he got it) and Russell were low in the turnover department.
Raw Total Tracking Stats
(click to enlarge)
Summary:
On the good side, the Oilers defencemen did not give up the zone easily. The defended the blue line and either denied zone entries or forced dump ins. When the Coyotes did dump it in, the Oilers did a reasonable job recovering the puck. Where they struggled was in puck movement. The Oilers had a low number of controlled exits and even when they DID exit the zone with control, they only got a controlled zone entry 24% of the time (much lower than average for them). Meanwhile, uncontrolled zone exits went right back into the Oiler zone without even an Oiler zone entry 61% of the time (much higher than average). In addition, 2/3 of the D-core were turnover central.
That all said, whatever, Oilers finally beat the Coyotes and it’s two points in a game where, despite turtling in the 3rd period, they actually won the score-adjusted corsi numbers. I’ll take it!
Just clean up the puck movement for next game, ok?
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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