Oilers vs Flames: 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: 45

Opponent: Calgary Flames

Score: 2-1 (SO) Good Guys!!

Zone Exits

This was an odd game to track. Especially through the first two, the puck just seemed to go back and forth across the ice, which would normally mean an exciting back and forth game… except it wasn’t. Little sustained zone pressure on either side. In regards to zone exits, Klefbom looks poor but this is mostly from a few missed passes. He seemed to be moving the puck reasonably well. Gryba’s number is inflated a bit with some short passes that happened to go over the blue line. None-the-less, overall, the Oilers did pretty average in regards to zone exits.

Zone Defence

I think this is where the game got a bit boring. The Oilers defended the blue line well in this game, not quite as well as they did against the Devils but still impressive. However, my guess is that they didn’t gain and hold the offensive zone all that often the other way. The result is that the Flames dump the puck in, Oilers recover, and move back out without a shot attempt happening. Russell looks really good here. The Flames really attacked the right side of the ice. You can see it in the difference in how often the right sided defenders were targeted vs the left. While Russell defended the blue line well, I think his corsi was poor this game due to how often the Flames seemed to attack the zone while he was out there. I’m not sure if that was his fault or not.

Puck Retrievals

Especially in the first period, despite dumping the puck in as often as they did, the Flames failed to recover the puck that often.

Defensive Zone Passing

The Oiler defence rarely turned the puck over in the defensive zone this game. They moved the puck up effectively to the forwards as a whole. There were relatively few D-to-D passes this game. More often, the Oilers collected the puck and moved it up. Only Gryba turned the puck over more often than typical based on the number of times he touched the puck (which wasn’t often).

Raw Total Tracking Stats

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

The Oilers won this game and they needed to. That said, the Flames had a better corsi this game, which is pretty damning for the Oilers given they were at home and rested while the Flames were tired. I do think that the defence isn’t to blame. They had a pretty good game overall. They defended the blue line, forcing the Flames to dump it in. They recovered the puck well and moved it effective up to the forwards or out of the zone while turning over the puck quite infrequently. They held the Flames to 12 shots through 2 periods before things broke open a bit in the 3rd. So, from my watching of the game, the problem was the forwards being unable to sustain any in-zone pressure. The defence did their part.

Regardless, two points is two points and especially against Calgary, that is a highly valuable win. We’re midway through January and the Oilers are in a playoff spot. This might actually happen this year!

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