Oilers vs Wild: 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 . Feel free to fire me a question or comment if you have one about the numbers.

Game: 27

Opponent: Minnesota Wild

Score: 2-1 Them

Zone Exits

Ouch. This was not a good game for the D. Russell was the only one to hold his own and even he came out to barely an average score for the year. Klefbom probably moved the puck the best (given his controlled exits / 60) for the ice time he got. Turns out, there might be a problem when you have two really good puck movers and one is injured while the other is playing 3rd pairing minutes. Also, take a look at the total zone exits. Looks like Sekera and Klefbom were the ones taking on the lion’s share of the zone exits in their respective pairings.

Zone Defence

Sekera and Benning are awfully solid together defensively and it shows up in their shot attempts. Klefbom and Fayne were slightly better than Russell and Larsson, but the former got 3rd pairing minutes to the latter’s first. Larsson struggled here more than usual and, combined with his poor zone exits numbers, really struggled in neutral zone transitions.

Puck Retrievals

The team total is close to average (which is about 60% on the year so far) but that’s mostly due to Fayne. The Wild did well when they put the puck in and pressured the Oiler D.

Defensive Zone Passing

This chart always has a lot of info on it but is not immediately obvious to read, so I’ll give a couple highlights. First, look at the “% to D-Partner” column. Benning and Fayne deferred heavily to Sekera and Klefbom respectively, much more so than Larsson did to Russell. I did not record a single defensive zone turnover for Fayne in this game, who also barely had a zone exit. So essentially every time Fayne touched the puck, he either passed to Klefbom or to a forward in the zone. That is basically the definition of Fayne playing within his abilities. It works when he has a puck mover like Klefbom or Sekera to work with. Klefbom, meanwhile, mostly moved the puck forward, getting the puck out of the zone 50% of the time he touched the puck.

Benning turn the puck over the greatest percentage of the time he had the puck and Sekera did so the most frequently. However, the team as a whole did reasonably well managing the puck in the defensive zone. The problem was pushing the attack forward.

Raw Total Tracking Stats:

(click to enlarge)

Summary:

There were some pluses and minuses in this game but ultimately not the D’s best work. They struggled to transition the puck up. They turned it over at about an average rate compared to the season so far, so not eggregious. Their zone defence was slightly better than average, mostly due to excellent work by Sekera and Benning. Frankly, after the second of a back-to-back… it could have been much worse.

I’m concerned about these defensive pairings, though. Particularly Larsson and Russell. I thought they both struggled on Saturday. In this game, I thought it was Larsson more than Russell who struggled. None-the-less, they are not handling their top pairing role well in the last two games. I’m about ready to break that pair up.

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