The following stats were tracked during manually during the game. The raw totals 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. Once I do, I will provide a link to it in this summary. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or on Twitter (@wheatnoil).
I’ve highlighted the best (blue) and worst (red) in each category based on request from some readers. Let me know if that makes it easier or harder to intepret. I’m also including a bit of commentary after each graph and a bit of commentary at the end. (Also, all Time On Ice stats are from www.naturalstattrick.com)
Game: 8
Opponent: Vancouver
Score: 2-0 Good Guys!
Zone Exits
This was a rough zone exit game for the Oilers D. Klefbom was the only one on his game (and he made a couple beauties including springing McDavid for a breakaway in the 3rd). The Oilers were dumping it out on a regular basis and just couldn’t seem to get it going at times, dumping it out only to have Vancouver bring it back in. Sekera passed it out most often. Gryba the least, which is pretty typical.
Zone Defence
Klefbom and Larsson were uncharacteristically poor in allowing controlled zone entries this game. My guess is it’s because they played against the Sedins the most. Still, Sekera and Russell only played against the twins for a couple minutes less at even-strength and they did a great job at defending the zone. Russell, particularly, needs to be mentioned. He really challenged at the blue line today, which is unusual for him. If you’re wondering why his and Sekera’s corsi was so poor in this game, I’d look towards their poor Zone Exits numbers from the last chart as well as a high number of turnovers. Gryba, meanwhile, quietly put together a solid game defending zone entries. It wasn’t until the 3rd period that he allowed his first controlled zone entry against.
Puck Retrievals
Klefbom was lower than usual and Sekera had an unusually good game by this metric. The rest are about where they usually are.
Defensive Zone Passing
This chart is a bit different than in the past, so let me explain it. There’s a lot here. The first column after name and TOI is “Total Touches”. That’s the total number of times the defenceman had the puck clearly on his stick with possession in the defensive zone. Touches / 60 is obviously the rate by which that happened. You can see that Sekera handled the puck the most, Larsson the least. From there, we look at what happened when the defenceman touched the puck. They could either get it out of the zone (controlled or uncontrolled), pass it to their defensive partner, pass it to a forward, or turn it over. You can see the percentage rate by which each event happened.
So Larsson, though he handled the puck the least, was most likely to get it out of the zone when he touched it. In this case, he dumped it out way more often than he usually does, though he also made some solid zone exit passes. If he didn’t get it out of the zone, he was far more likely to pass it to Klefbom. He rarely turned it over. Klefbom usually pushed the puck up to a forward. Gryba was pretty safe with the puck in this game and so was Nurse. It’s possible this helped contribute to their relatively good shot attempt numbers in this game. They generally moved the puck up well.
As a pairing, Sekera and Russell gave the puck over often, with Sekera the worst offender. That, combined with their poor zone exits, led to them getting pinned in their zone a couple times for long periods.
Summary:
Klefbom: Not the greatest game for Klefbom against the Sedins, but he did move the puck effectively and had some beauty zone exit passes.
Larsson: Also got owned at the blue line, like his partner, and dumped it out of the zone too often (see the raw totals below) but he did manage to make some good exit passes and not turn the puck over in the defensive zone.
Russell: I have to give credit to Russell here… the defended the blue line well. He was playing far more aggressive in the neutral zone and challenging the puck carrier. Unfortunately, he gave it back this game with poor puck management. However, he has typically been a bit better at that. Now he just needs to keep both parts of his game going.
Sekera: Sekera defended the blue line, as he usually does, but struggled handling the puck. This has been a few games in a row where I’ve been writing the same thing for him. Strong game on puck retrievals, which is usually his weak spot.
Nurse: Safe, low key game from Nurse. Not a lot of turnovers and defended the blue line reasonably. Zone exits weren’t great, but weren’t terrible either. He’s doing okay in sheltered minutes.
Gryba: A tale of two extremes. He defended the blue line well and rarely turned the puck over. On the other hand, he was horrid in passing the puck out of the zone with control. He didn’t bite him too hard this game and his corsi numbers were solid. He defended within the zone reasonably. I’d still like to see a better puck mover with Nurse, but credit to Gryba, he defends well.
Raw Totals:
(click to enlarge)
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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