Oilers vs Bruins: Tracking Stats

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. (Really, I’m working on them! It’s just hard to find the time! The rough draft of the post is written!) 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: 40

Opponent: Boston Bruins

Score: 4-3 Maroon and Talbot!

Zone Exits

These numbers look much better than what I was expecting. A good third period pulled the Oilers after one of the worst first periods I’ve ever seen. Klefbom played a 3rd pairing role with Gryba, for reasons unclear to me, and were the only pairing that held their head above water. Russell did fine in volume but there were a lot of uncontrolled exits with him as well.

Zone Defence

Again, a good third pulled this up. This was a truly terrible first period where the Oilers were allowing the Bruins to walk into the zone untouched with regularity. Klefbom and Larsson really picked it up later, but even for them the frequency of controlled entries allowed (controlled entries against / 60) were fairly high.

Puck Retrievals

The big bad Bruins pummeled the Oilers here.

Defensive Zone Passing

Turnovers. Oh man. The turnovers! Sekera was really bad but look at all that red in the % turnover column. This was a bad game for puck management, especially in the first period, but that part continued throughout the game.

Raw Total Tracking Stats

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

The first period was one of the worst periods of hockey from the Oilers in awhile (particularly via my tracking). If I didn’t already know the Oilers were going to win going in, I might have destroyed my laptop in rage (between that and Gamecentre being laggy). The third was solid and pulled a lot of these numbers up from being an epic low.

Of all the defenders, only Klefbom had a truly good game and he was relegated to the third pair with Gryba. Perhaps that had something to do with it. However, the other defencemen did not hold their own against the Big Bad Bruins and the Oilers were lucky to walk away with 2 points. I’ll take them… but they’ll need to be better going forward!

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