Oilers vs Ducks: 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: 50

Opponent: Anaheim Ducks

Score: 4-0 Good Guys!

Zone Exits

Oof. This wasn’t score effects either. The Oilers were at about 45% after the first period. Anaheim clogged the neutral zone the Oilers had a hard time getting anything going. Even among their controlled exits, only 25% turned in to a controlled entry while 15% came back the other way without the Oilers gaining the zone. The Oilers could not break out easily.

Zone Defence

I generally associate Carlyle teams with dump-and-chase and we saw a good portion of that here. Give Edmonton some credit, though, they denied a good number of zone entries. Russell did extremely well by this metric this game, an area that is usually his weakness. Meanwhile, only Davidson got lit up tonight. He did not have a good game.

Puck Retrievals

Defensive Zone Passing

Nothing too exciting here. It was an average game for turnovers in the defensive zone. Russell managed the puck well and though he had few zone exits, he managed to push the puck up the forwards effectively. Benning led the team in turnovers, which is usual for him. Perhaps some of that was because 48% of Davidson’s passes were to his D-partner, which was primarily Benning.

Raw Total Tracking Stats

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

This was, beyond a doubt, a huge win for the Oilers. It wasn’t a perfect game, though. The D had a hard time breaking the puck out, though they managed to defend the line well. The rest of the game, by my tracking, was fairly average. Score effects impacted the shot attempt numbers, though I’m not sure that alone is enough to explain it.

Russell had a solid game, despite the low zone exit numbers. He defended the blue line surprisingly well, moved the puck to the forwards, and turned it over only rarely. Davidson had one of his worst games in awhile. He struggled in zone exits, couldn’t hold the blue line, and relied heavily on Benning in his passes within the D-zone. Benning, for his part, struggled with the puck movement under the added pressure. Sekera and Larsson had fairly average games relative to the team. Klefbom was the only defender over 50% in controlled zone exits and he overall played quite well, though even he got burned a few times this game.

Despite the score, this was not an easy game and one shouldn’t expect it to be against the Ducks. The Oilers struggled in some areas, made up for it in others, and got stellar goaltending from Talbot while the rest of the team buried their chances.

San Jose tomorrow and a chance to use their game in hand on Anaheim to jump them in the standings!

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