Oilers vs Canucks: 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!) 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: 38

Opponent: Vancouver Canucks

Score: 3-2 Them (shootout)

Zone Exits

Ouch. That was… not good. Larsson and Gryba particularly had trouble moving the puck. Amazingly they each attempted more than twice the number of zone exits as their most common partner (Klefbom and Davidson) with less than good results. Meanwhile, Russell and Benning played reasonably well as a pairing this game in regards to zone exits.

Zone Defence

Davidson and Gryba struggled. Davidson still hasn’t really gotten this aspect of his game back to 100% since coming back from injury. He was much better at being aggressive on the blue-line last year. Meanwhile, Russell… whoa. That’s the lowest number of controlled entries allowed all year. Combine that with Benning’s number along with that pairing’s zone exits and those two had a whale of a game.

Puck Retrievals

Pretty average game overall in this area.

Defensive Zone Passing

A few things to note here. One, a lower than average number of zone exits (of any type) per defensive zone touch. Combine that with the fact that the Oilers’ D had a low controlled zone exit percentage and it really was not a good puck movement game in that regards. On the bright side, the Oilers didn’t turn the puck over often… except Davidson. Oh man Brandon. This was likely a game he’d prefer to forget. Klefbom didn’t push the puck out of the zone much but he did pass it up to the forwards often to and rarely turned it over.

Raw Total Tracking Stats

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

McLellan mentioned before the game that a number of the Oilers were suffering from the flu (including a scratched Sekera) and it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the defence was less than 100%. This was not a good game for them. On the bright side, Russell played a fantastic game… one of the best via zone transitions that I’ve tracked from him. Meanwhile, Benning put in another solid performance. Apparently, he can play with Nurse, Sekera and Russell. He’s quickly becoming a wildly underrated signing!

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