Oilers vs Maple Leafs: 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: 24

Opponent: Toronto Maple Leafs

Score: 4-2 for Not Us

Zone Exits

Matt Benning had a glorious zone exit game… the best I’ve tracked from him. Meanwhile, the Oilers usual leaders were lacking, particularly Klefbom. Sekera too struggled much more than usual. The Oilers overall didn’t have a ton of success through the neutral zone as only 35% of their controlled exits led to a controlled entry.

Zone Defence

Nurse and Benning defended the blue line quite well together, as did Sekera. Larsson, though, had an unusually poor game here. He seemed disinterested at times in being as aggressive at the blue line as he usually is. I wondered at times if he was nursing an injury, though it was probably just an off game.

Puck Retrievals

The Oilers did okay here overall, although of Benning’s unsuccessful puck retrievals led directly to a goal. That’s two games in a row for him.

Defensive Zone Passing

The turnovers weren’t frequent int his game but some of them were costly. More interesting, which isn’t reflected here, is that up until the 3rd period, the Oiler D didn’t really have a lot of good passes up to the forwards leading to a breakout.

Raw Total Tracking Stats:

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

A lot of this game was not played 5×5, so my numbers are not as reflective overall. Larsson and Nurse, for instance, had less than 12 minutes of 5×5 game time. Russell was the team leader and had under 17 minutes. This was a special teams game and the Oilers special teams let them down.

The first goal was at the end of a special teams situation with Larsson unable to cover the pass to the front of the net. Benning gave the puck away off a puck retrieval leading to a goal against… his only defensive zone turnover all game. People will rightly be on Russell for the goal with both he and Klefbom in the corner, but that was also Hendricks abandoning his man in front of the net not unlike Eberle did the game before (actually a pretty similar play). On the last goal, Russell and Klefbom are out there again and Russell switches to the left, Klefbom doesn’t move from the front to press the puck carrier and it’s a goal. The Maple Leafs capitalized on their chances and the Oilers did not.

I hate losing to the Maple Leafs. I will say, though, that I’m still more upset by the Oilers loss against Arizona last Friday. Regardless, the Oilers are going to quickly slip out of playoff position and these last 3 games were the ones to make hay in the schedule. There’s 5 games in 7 days coming up soon and if the Oilers tumble here, that could very well be the season.

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