Oilers vs Sharks: 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 and Zone Defence here. 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: 43

Opponent: San Jose Sharks

Score: 5-3 Bad Guys

Zone Exits

Hey, we’re over 50%. Seems like it’s been awhile since I tracked a game over 50% controlled exits for the Oiler D. Clearly Klefbom was the stand-out here. He did not, overall, have a great game, but in this metric he showed what he brings to the Oilers and why he needs to play more. His partner, meanwhile, had an absolutely terrible game, as you’ll find out as we go on. Larsson and Russell played well together, moving the puck up frequently and not entirely inefficiently.

Zone Defence

As mentioned, overall this wasn’t Klefbom’s best game but man was it overshadowed by Gryba (and you ain’t seen nothing yet). The rest of the D-core was solid via this metric. Now, I suspect score effects may play in to this and San Jose has traditionally been more of a dump and chase team, so we need to consider those caveats in looking at these numbers.

Puck Retrievals

Defensive Zone Passing

Again, not Klefbom’s best game but holy Hell Gryba! A record-setting 45.5% turnovers from defensive zone touches. It is little wonder he didn’t see the ice in the last 17 minutes of the game. Meanwhile, the rest of the d-core managed the puck well. Benning, once again, gets a ‘0’ in defensive zone turnovers. His unfortunately turnover leading to the 5th goal happened in the neutral zone (and also wasn’t really his fault). It’s interesting that this next game involves Russell / Larsson being broken up because they actually had a solid game together, both by my tracking and by shot attempts.

Raw Total Tracking Stats

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

Score effects probably played a role in this game, but it’s important not to take everything away from the Oilers. They did push back and their score-adjusted corsi ended up being almost exactly even for the game. In that context, these numbers look pretty reasonable. Turnovers in the first hurt them. However, they moved the puck reasonably well in this game and defended the blue line well. Gryba had an atrocious game but was limited to under 9 minutes of 5×5 time. The other pairings did quite well… so naturally they’re broken up for next game!

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