Oilers vs Coyotes: 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. 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: 22

Opponent: Arizona Coyotes

Score: 3-2 Bad (Very Bad) Guys!

Zone Exits

Zone exits were pretty good overall but the frequency was a bit low. Give how much time the Oilers spent in their own zone, you’d like the Oilers to have gotten it out a bit more often. Still, the Oilers were moving the puck reasonably well as far as zone exits went. Only Sekera had an off game in this regards. Benning was also low, but that’s been a bit more typical of him.

Zone Defence

The Oilers really had a good game defending the blue line. Only Sekera was really struggling in that regards. Kind of an off-game for Sekera across the board really.

Puck Retrievals

The Oilers got better in this area as the game went on.

Defensive Zone Passing

This is the game story for me. The turnovers… oh the turnovers. In comparison, in the last game, the Oilers averaged 8.2 defensive zone turnovers / 60… almost half. Despite a reasonably good zone transition game, the Oilers gave it all back with defensive zone turnovers. To my eye, that’s why they won the corsi battle (good zone transitions) but lost the high danger scoring chance battle (lots of giveaways).

Raw Total Tracking Stats:

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

The Oilers moved the puck well into the offensive zone when the defence made the exit pass. 48% of their controlled exits lead to a controlled zone entry. That’s higher than average in the games I’ve kept track of this. When they didn’t make a clean exit, though, Arizona buried them. 86% of uncontrolled zone exits led to the Coyotes coming right back into the Oiler zone without so much as a zone entry by Edmonton. Tippet’s team makes you pay in the neutral zone if youre breakouts aren’t clean.

I also wonder about the forwards. It didn’t seem like the Oilers were getting a lot of clean entries into the Coyotes zone overall, so I’m curious how the forwards did with zone entries when the defencemen weren’t passing the puck up. Seemed worse by my eye, but I wasn’t tracking that specifically.

In all, the Edmonton D played a good zone transition game but gave it all back with defensive zone turnovers. They got too casual at times. They’re better than that. They’ll need to bounce back. There’s a legitimate shot at the playoffs this year and they’re not going to make it giving away points to bottom dwelling teams like the Coyotes. They’ll get a chance to bounce back in two days.

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