Oilers vs Capitals: Tracking Stats

The following stats were tracked during manually during the game. The raw totals and the glossary are at the end. The full post-game recap was written by Trin and can be found here.

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.

Game: 7

Opponent: Washington

Score: 4-1 Good Guys!

Zone Exits

Good puck movement games from Klefbom and Russell, whose partners had uncharacteristically poor games tonight. Gryba looks good by the percentages, but he really didn’t move the puck often. Larsson struggled with a number of missed passes, especially early in the game. He picked it up later on.

Zone Defence

While Klefbom may have been the better puck mover, Larsson took care of defending the blue line. It wasn’t until the last half of the third where he let up his first controlled zone entry. He ended up with two, both by Ovechkin if I recall correctly. Klefbom had an unusually poor game in allowing controlled zone entries by his standards. Meanwhile, Russell continues to cede the blue line fairly easily, choosing to engage within the zone instead. Gryba continues to be unusually quiet. He got decent icetime but was rarely challenged on a zone entry against… perhaps it has something to do with only playing 2:30 against Ovechkin.

Puck Retrievals

Some how Sekera and Nurse only ended up with one puck retrieval under pressure each, so I didn’t highlight them as the best number. Larsson and Russell appear to be doing well in this area consistently early in the season. Gryba seems to consistently struggle.

Defensive Zone Passing

Klefbom didn’t handle the puck often, but when he did he was effective and efficient. Meanwhile, Nurse got the puck on his stick the most, but also turned it over most frequently. Larsson struggled with puck movement across the board this game. Luckily his defensive game (and his partner’s puck movement) made up for it. As usual, Larsson deferred to Klefbom while Russell deferred to Sekera… though in neither case was it by all that much.

Summary:

Klefbom: An unusally poor game in terms of allowing controlled zone entries, Klefbom made up for it by being effective and efficient with his puck movement. His game was the opposite of Larsson’s tonight and together they complemented each other very well. He had a positive corsi and did it while having Ovechkin as their most common opponent.

Larsson: Excellent in defending zone entries… particularly so since, same as Klefbom, he faced Ovechkin the most. His puck movement was poor this game. He and Klefbom are the best defensive pair for the Oilers since… I don’t even want to think how long it’s been.

Russell: A solid puck moving game for Lightning Rod. He continues to cede the zone easily, though he defends aggressively once within his own blue line. I remain skeptical of this strategy and I don’t think it’s sustainable in the long run. His corsi was below 50% in this game. He has been consistently solid in recovering pucks off dump-ins so far this season, though.

Sekera: An off game for Sekera. He handled the puck better this game in the defensive zone than he did in previous ones in that he had fewer turnovers. That said, he had fewer zone exits than he usually does and allowed a lot of controlled zone entries. Overall, I thought Russell had the strong game, despite them having very similar corsi.

Nurse: Too many turnovers this game. His controlled zone exits were also poor, particularly so when you consider that 3 of his 4 zone exits were carrying the puck. He only successfully passed it out once. Still, he continues to defend in the neutral zone well. 50% corsi on the nose.

Gryba: Low event as always. His turnover rate looks great mostly because he rarely handled the puck. He had the worst corsi of all defenders. He wasn’t bad, necessarily, but I don’t think he provides much cover for Nurse.

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: Number of times defenceman clearly had the puck on his stick in the defensive zone

To D-Partner: Successful defensive zone pass to another defenceman on the ice

To Forward: Successful defensive zone pass to a forward on the ice

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