Oilers vs Panthers: 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: 47

Opponent: Florida Panthers

Score: 4-3 (OT) for The McDavids (with Special Guest: Eber-squee!)

Zone Exits

This wasn’t the Oilers greatest game for zone exits but they managed to pull themselves to within season average. I haven’t been recording the period by period numbers, but while I was tracking it, I can tell you things went downhill in the 2nd period after a reasonable first and then the Oilers recovered a bit. Larsson, particularly, had a great first period in zone exits. Sekera’s number dropped mostly due to the second half of the game and otherwise he got the puck out of the zone effectively. This was the good side of Sekera’s game. You’re going to see the down-side of it later.

Zone Defence

Not much to say here. It was a pretty good game overall. It didn’t seem like the Panthers were pushing for the controlled entry as often as some other teams do, instead going for the dump in. However, credit to the Oilers who held the line very well this game. Even the denied entries were pretty high. Klefbom deserves extra credit here. He didn’t allow a single targeted controlled entry until the 3rd period.

Puck Retrievals

If the Panthers were okay with dumping the puck in, it didn’t go particularly effectively for them.

Defensive Zone Passing

Oof. Sekera. I recorded 10 total defensive zone turnovers for him and 9 of them were in the first two periods. This game was the best of him and the worst of him. Everyone else but Gryba managed the puck well. I’d like to take a moment to point out Davidson. His zone exit numbers were nothing to write home about, but here you see what he was doing. He very effectively got the puck up to the forwards within the zone and didn’t turn it over once.

Raw Total Tracking Stats

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

A bit of a roller coaster game in score, corsi and these microstats. That second period was… not good. However, the Oilers rallied in the 3rd. It was almost all given away by a terrible individual play by Gryba where had incredible amounts of time and space and still passed it into two pairs of skates on a zone exit. He recovered the puck, dumped it in to the offensive zone but couldn’t get it deep, got caught and the resulting two-on-one almost ended it for the Oilers until Eberle FINALLY got his goal.

For Sekera, it was a Tale of Two Andrejs, as he led the team in controlled zone exit frequency (good) but also defensive zone turnovers (bad). Russell, meanwhile, played a fairly average game by my eye. I thought Klefbom and Larsson really stole the show in this one. Low turnovers, good zone exits (Klefbom’s looked worse due to some bad luck with a couple good-looking stretch passes not quite being handled), and excellent zone defence. It reflected in their shot attempt numbers tonight as well. Davidson moved the puck safely and well. Gryba had one terrible play, defended the blue line, but wasn’t a particularly effective puck mover… which is pretty much his game. I remain curious to see Oesterle in the NHL.

Two points!

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