Oilers vs Kings: 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: 37

Opponent: LA Kings

Score: 3-1 Good Guys

Zone Exits

Below average as a whole, the Oilers had one good puck-mover per pairing. The only major surprise here was Benning who had a somewhat tougher outing than usual in his return. He played a few more minutes than usual this game as well as McLellan ran his D to be pretty even in terms of time on ice at 5×5.

Zone Defence

The Oilers played the Kings fairly tight, allowing fewer controlled entries than average. More than just the defence, though, I found the wingers in this game to be playing tight to their check in the neutral zone. It wasn’t until a stretch in the 3rd when the Kings started to be able to gain the line with control of the puck regularly and that didn’t last particularly long either. Now, traditionally the Kings have been more of a dump-and-chase team, so we need to take that into consideration. However, the Oilers still held their own here.

Puck Retrievals

Russell and Benning struggled on the puck retrieval side of things while everyone else did pretty well at holding the Kings back from their bread and butter.

Defensive Zone Passing

I wonder if you can pick out the defensive tandem that doesn’t play together often. Russell and Benning used each other the least in the defensive zone. It’s also worth pointing out here that while Benning didn’t have a great number of controlled exits, he did manage to pass the puck up to the forwards in the zone reasonably often when he touched the puck.

As a whole, the Oilers managed the puck well, not turning it over in the defensive zone too often. Against a traditionally dump-and-chase-with-an-aggressive-forecheck team like the Kings, I’d take that as a win.

Raw Total Tracking Stats

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

The Oilers beat the Kings, won the score-adjusted corsi battle and didn’t cave while leading in the 3rd. I’ll that that win any day. The defence played reasonably well as a whole but I was particularly impressed by the defensive play of the forwards (which I wasn’t directly tracking) who were back-checking hard and playing a structured neutral zone game. We haven’t seen the Oilers do that with regularity in years past, especially against the Kings.

Davidson continues to have some difficulty defending the blue line, which is the only part of his game that I think isn’t quite back on track from last year. I’m optimistic he’ll get there if we give him some more time. I think he’s getting better every game. Russell looked pretty good on his left side this game, despite being last on the defence in shot attempts. Benning had some wobbly moments but I maintain there’s an NHL defender there and I really think he’s got Top 4 potential based on what I’ve seen from him this season (though I think he’s best suited to the 3rd pairing for now). Klefbom was Klefbom. Larsson needs to stop dumping the puck out of the damn zone. There are situations where he has time and space and he doesn’t take advantage of it. He does, however, continue to be solid on the defending side of things.

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