Oilers vs Devils: 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: 44

Opponent: New Jersey Devils

Score: 3-2 (OT) Good Guys!

Zone Exits

If the frequency of Zone Exits this game seems low, it’s because the Oilers didn’t spend all that much time in their zone. It makes it a bit tough to read into. Benning looks bad but only had 4 zone exits. Sekera only 6. I will saw that Russell moved the puck well and despite Davidson’s low exit percentage, he had a number of solid passes to get the puck out. The story of this game, though, is not in zone exits by defencemen.

Zone Defence

THIS is the story of the game by my tracking. The Devils did not gain the zone with control all that often. Look at all that blue! (As a reminder, the colour coding is based on season averages for the Oilers defence). The controlled zone entry percentage of 23.8% is fully 20% lower than the season average and about 5% lower than the next best game I’ve tracked. It seemed like half the controlled entries that Devils DID get were by Taylor Hall. This is one reason why the Oilers won the shot attempt battle and why the zone exits were somewhat less important.

Puck Retrievals

Defensive Zone Passing

There was a lot of D-to-D passing this game, especially between Sekera and Russell, that skews these numbers a bit. You can see that Klefbom / Benning preferred to push the puck up to the forwards within the zone (allowing the forwards to get the zone exit) than passing the puck across the line themselves, which is a reasonable strategy. Davidson and Larsson, meanwhile, pushed for the zone exit themselves, though they had a high number of uncontrolled exits. Russell managed to not have a single defensive-zone turnover this game. Overall, the Oilers were a bit better than average for turnovers and used the D-to-D pass quite a bit. Again, the story of this game is in the Zone Defence, in my opinion.

Raw Total Tracking Stats

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

This was a solid game for Russell, with excellent zone exits, reasonable zone defence, and no defensive zone turnovers. It’s also reflected in his corsi, which led the Oiler D in this game. Meanwhile, the defence as a whole did an excellent job keeping the Devils from entering the Oiler zone with control, significantly limiting the Devils opportunity to get anything going. The Oilers controlled this game and deserved a regulation win, but I’ll take the two points in OT off that beauty Draisaitl goal.

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