Oilers vs Stars: 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. The full post-game recap was written by Megan Fowler.

At some point I’ll write up a detailed description of each category and my specific rules for each. Once I do, I will provide a link to it in this summary. 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 and there’s a summary of my overall take on the defencemen at the end. All time on ice stats are from www.naturalstattrick.com .

Game: 15

Opponent: Dallas Stars

Score: 3-2 Bad Guys!

Zone Exits

This number was boosted up a bit in the 3rd period as Dallas played a more passive forecheck, but the Oilers were doing fine even after the first 40 minutes. Benning and Larsson were the guys who moved the puck the least.

Zone Defence

The whole team looked pretty good here. That’s the lowest controlled entry against number so far this season. Twitter’s @ThomsonCam mentioned that it might be due to Dallas playing tired, which is a valid point. I also wonder if Ruff tends to coach his teams to dump and chase more, but I don’t have any evidence of that… just a thought. Regardless, even Larsson’s “bad” numbers here are pretty reasonable.

Puck Retrievals

The team as a whole did well with the exception of Larsson and Nurse.

Defensive Zone Passing

Benning moved the puck reasonably well up to the forwards, just not a lot of zone exits. The real story here is Larsson and Gryba not moving the puck up much and the high rate of turnovers for everyone not named Klefbom and Gryba

Summary:

General: The Oilers look like they did a good job in most departments and they did. Some of that may be a tired Dallas team. However, the Oilers legitimately won the shot attempt battle and some of the defensive work played into that. There’s a caveat on the Zone Exits, though. Despite an excellent Controlled Zone Exit percentage, the Oilers were only able to convert 22% of their Controlled Zone Exits into Controlled Zone Entries. Meanwhile, 11% of them went right back into the Oiler’s end without even getting into the Dallas zone. Controlled Zone Exits are great, but the Oilers couldn’t do much with them.

The other major problem was defensive zone turnovers, which led to a few prolonged tire-fires. Not only that, but there were more than a couple wide open looks in front for Dallas with no Oiler defenceman in sight.

The Oilers had the chances in this game to win it, but couldn’t get it done and these are some of the reasons why.

Klefbom / Larsson: Larsson had an off game pretty well across the board. Klefbom, meanwhile, played strong.

Sekera / Benning: I thought they had one of their better games together and they also ended up with the best shot attempt numbers among the defence. Despite the low Zone Exits, Benning moved the puck better than in some previous games I’ve tracked.

Nurse / Gryba: Nurse was on his horse carrying the puck up a lot this game. However, he could only convert one of those carry outs into a controlled zone entry. A few too many giveaways and a couple serious coverage lapses for this duo, but they weren’t bad overall.

Raw Total Tracking Stats:

(click to enlarge)

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