New direction
Hi guys, welcome back to another phase of the data I've been gathering from Canucks games. I'm thrilled with the interest this has generated and thank you all for the features, shout-outs, and articles using my data that contributed to the accelerated growth of this project.
A special thank you to Canucks Army Managing Editor and good buddy , J.D. Burke. I truly appreciate you promoting the project early with retweets and featuring the charts in your post game articles. You also do a pretty good job of keeping this city fired up adding plenty of fuel to the fire known as "angry" Canucks twitter. I'm not sure this project gets off the ground without you, thank you sir!
Thank you to Jason Botchford and Wyatt Arndt for putting my work in the Provies. Being able to occasionally provide a small contribution to what I consider the most entertaining sports journalism out there is awesome. It's communal , informative and friggin' hilarious, pairs perfectly with a post game beverage. Keep up the amazing work guys. This project may not have gotten off the ground without you guys too.
To all of my followers , thank you for the interest and interactions. You guys make watching the Canucks a little more fun, I think Travis Green may deserve a little credit for that too, eh? And remember, any questions, comments, or suggestions please don't hesitate to ask, my inbox is always open, hockey related or not.
Which brings us to this point. I attempted to keep this project open on a by donation basis and I'm sorry to say, failed miserably. I love doing this and creating this content for everyone but to keep it short, I have to eat too. It may not seem like it but it's an incredibly large workload especially when you're doing it for well under $1/60.
So the new plan is to charge a low monthly subscription fee which I'm still working out. No more phases, you'll just have access to my database which will be updated live and obviously I'll always be here to clarify anything if you have questions. I'll be providing notes on all of the charts. Reasonable requests and custom charts will be accommodated.
All the charts I've provided so far will be updated live on the site including the zone exits, primary shot contributions, and zone entries.
So officially as of right now, the first game of paid content will be November 22nd in Pittsburgh. Until then, enjoy more free content!
If you'd like to donate for the first two months of work, please do with the button below.
A special thank you to Canucks Army Managing Editor and good buddy , J.D. Burke. I truly appreciate you promoting the project early with retweets and featuring the charts in your post game articles. You also do a pretty good job of keeping this city fired up adding plenty of fuel to the fire known as "angry" Canucks twitter. I'm not sure this project gets off the ground without you, thank you sir!
Thank you to Jason Botchford and Wyatt Arndt for putting my work in the Provies. Being able to occasionally provide a small contribution to what I consider the most entertaining sports journalism out there is awesome. It's communal , informative and friggin' hilarious, pairs perfectly with a post game beverage. Keep up the amazing work guys. This project may not have gotten off the ground without you guys too.
To all of my followers , thank you for the interest and interactions. You guys make watching the Canucks a little more fun, I think Travis Green may deserve a little credit for that too, eh? And remember, any questions, comments, or suggestions please don't hesitate to ask, my inbox is always open, hockey related or not.
Which brings us to this point. I attempted to keep this project open on a by donation basis and I'm sorry to say, failed miserably. I love doing this and creating this content for everyone but to keep it short, I have to eat too. It may not seem like it but it's an incredibly large workload especially when you're doing it for well under $1/60.
So the new plan is to charge a low monthly subscription fee which I'm still working out. No more phases, you'll just have access to my database which will be updated live and obviously I'll always be here to clarify anything if you have questions. I'll be providing notes on all of the charts. Reasonable requests and custom charts will be accommodated.
All the charts I've provided so far will be updated live on the site including the zone exits, primary shot contributions, and zone entries.
So officially as of right now, the first game of paid content will be November 22nd in Pittsburgh. Until then, enjoy more free content!
If you'd like to donate for the first two months of work, please do with the button below.
defencemen
This time I wanted to start off with the neutral zone defensive performance, taking a look at how each player is defending entries into their own defensive zone. A quick reminder, this directly connects to a players corsi rating as carry-ins lead to double the amount of shooting opportunities as dump-ins. If a player carries it in and completes a pass, the percent chance of goals and shots against increases even further.
A brief explanation of the parameters and how I'm tracking the neutral zone coverage.
- When the player is targeted by the offensive player for an offensive zone entry
- I do not give credit to the defencemen for a dump in just because it's on their side of coverage. If a forward can be credited for the dump-in, they are.
- Break up is credited when the opposing team has possession in the neutral zone and the defencemen "breaks up" the play. Often resulting in a turnover however, I do credit the player if it causes the offensive team to reset, allowing the defensive team to set up again.
A brief explanation of the parameters and how I'm tracking the neutral zone coverage.
- When the player is targeted by the offensive player for an offensive zone entry
- I do not give credit to the defencemen for a dump in just because it's on their side of coverage. If a forward can be credited for the dump-in, they are.
- Break up is credited when the opposing team has possession in the neutral zone and the defencemen "breaks up" the play. Often resulting in a turnover however, I do credit the player if it causes the offensive team to reset, allowing the defensive team to set up again.
Admittedly , when the Canucks acquired Pouliot for Pedan and the 4th round sweetener, I figured they were acquiring a player who was once highly valued for his offensive potential but fell out of favour because he's a defensive liability. So far, I've been wrong. Whether it's Travis Green and his familiarity with Pouliot or Derrick fitting into the Canucks system, it's undeniable he's producing positive results all over the ice.
Pouliot and his team leading 13.46% carry in + pass suggest his gap control has been outstanding during his brief tenure with the team. It's further complemented when you see his team leading 18.18% break up percentage. I've noticed a few things with Pouliot in the neutral zone without the puck. The primary reason for his success is he's reading the play before it develops leading to him being on top of the offensive player as they receive the puck. Additionally, he's incredibly aggressive , uses his quick feet and has a great stick.
I realize that sounds very eye testy, but when you have the results to back it up, it becomes undeniable at a certain point. I say this knowing full well someone is going to post the Pearson rush against Pouliot when he had a slight stumble yet still managed to recover.
Stecher has very similar numbers to Pouliot and can't get back into the line-up soon enough for Canucks fans. The one thing I wanted to mention with Stecher is a fair portion of the carry in rushes against him end up dying in the corner. Almost as if Stecher is trying to pin the player but he's just too small too small to completely stop the rush, but he slows it down to a crawl. His gap control could be his best attribute, get well soon Stech!
Bringing us to our second version of the great 8 , Chris Tanev. If I could critique one thing in Tanev's game is that he could probably afford to be slightly more aggressive at times causing a few more break ups. That being said, his 51.45% dump in rate leads the team. I'll leave the critical decisions up to him.
Bringing us to the polarizing Erik Gudbranson. I wanted note a couple of the seemingly 'go to' observations that seem to come out of the Gudbranson faithful
- Does he skate well for his size? Yes.
- Does he have a hard shot when he has the time to release it? Yes.
Does he use these tools to create positive outputs for him and his teammates? No. Now, I have time for Gudbranson to find his game. He's coming back from a major wrist injury and adjusting to a new coach and system which takes time. However, the Canucks management team doesn't have that much time to make a decision on Guddy as his contract is expiring at the end of this season.
We've learned so far this season that the Aquilini family hold the first 14 games of the season in incredibly high regard. If the ownership family has been watching, I don't see how Linden and Benning can possibly promote a contract extension.
Gudbranson holds a team worst 21.1% carry in plus pass rate and a team low 4.44% break up rate. He has to rely on his feet a little more and be more aggressive when holding the line. Gudbranson skating in backwards towards his goalie is almost becoming expected This is definitely contributing to his team worst 42.93 CF% .
Moving onto Del Zotto in the neutral zone who is performing marginally better than Gudbranson. Which isn't saying much but at least he's been more aggressive leading to a respectable 11.34 break up %. He's here to get the puck out of the zone and contribute offensively. As long as he's treading water defensively, the positives will continue to outweigh the negatives.
Bringing us to Ben Hutton. There's a case to be made that he's been the teams best defencemen in the neutral zone so far with his team low 36.16% carry in rate. What makes that even more impressive is that he's played a large portion of the season with Chris Tanev as the primary shutdown pairing. What I've noticed with Hutton in the neutral zone is that he doesn't rely as much on aggressive reads like Pouliot does, but he leans on his skill. Hutton has incredible hands while skating backwards defending the blueline. Countless times he's knocking passes out of the air with his hand eye coordination and the same can be said for attempted dump ins.
Hutton's steady play is earning him big minutes this season. He hasn't played less than 20:52 since Oct. 10th Vs. the Senators and is averaging 22:38 on the season.
Bringing us to Biega and Edler. Edler is having a strong start with his neutral zone play but so did the Bulldog. I don't expect Edler to drop off as much as Biega but just don't get too excited over small sample sizes.
That's it for now on the neutral zone, let me know if you have any comments or questions. We'll move onto the zone exit chart next.
Defensive Zone exits
Before diving into the chart, I wanted to focus on the direct uncontrolled exits. Which is the percent of touches in the defensive zone which are flipped out, boards and out, a poor pass, anything that gets out of the zone resulting in the team not having control in the neutral zone.
Now, I wanted to focus on this because I think here we can see part of Gudbranson's biggest problem and see why his corsi rating is 42.93% with a noticeable gap in the group. When you consider a large portion of the uncontrolled exits are coming right back into your zone directly after and you pair that with poor neutral zone coverage the picture becomes more complete. You can't keep the puck out of the zone, and you can't get it out with control. A lethal corsi killing combo.
Edler is at the bottom due to small sample size.
Interesting cluster from 2-5 and then the not so surprising Tanev and Pouliot reluctant to give up control of the puck.
Edler is at the bottom due to small sample size.
Interesting cluster from 2-5 and then the not so surprising Tanev and Pouliot reluctant to give up control of the puck.
Zone exits
Just to clarify, the Total Exit % is the percent of the players touches that end up exiting the zone. This does not include icing because that is not a zone exit. The team Controlled Zone Exit% is the percentage of teams exits which are controlled when that player has touched the puck.
The Pouliot years! Have the begun? Even more evidence of positive play from Pouliot. A team leading near 63% controlled exit rate paired with the 2nd lowest fail + icing rate. He's calculated, controlled and getting the job done all over the ice. Pouliot is for real.
Stecher! Get well soon!
DJ MDZ has been moving the puck effectively. If I could critique one thing, I've noticed he doesn't mind trying to thread hard passes out of the zone while he's either flat footed or moving very slowly which could be leading to that abnormally high icing rating. Use those quick feet Del Zotto!
Tanev is doing his thing. Lots of people notice him not at the top of the list for controlled exits and that's fair. It's probably something to do with how the defencemen performed last year in regards to this. I'll take Tanev where he is on the list as a positive for now, look at it this way, the Canucks have 5 legitimate puck-moving defencemen at the moment which could be the most important part of their turnaround this season. We're also yet to hit the quarter mark, plenty of time for Tanev to climb the list.
Hutton just doesn't turn the puck over in the defensive zone with a team low fail rate of 9.71%. He's also been hovering around the 70% mark for team zone exits seemingly all season. One thing he could do better in the defensive zone would be putting his teammates in better position to exit the zone with his passes.
That Biega fail rate stands out big time! He's essentially turning the puck over one out of every five touches in the defensive zone. That's a good way to get taken out of the lineup.
Gudbranson actually gets the puck out at a fairly good rate, however, it's rarely with control. It's frustrating to watch because he so often just doesn't even take a look. It's just boards and out if he has time or not. I get it, he's not here to wow us with his puck skills, but there's definite room for improvement.
Primary Shot contributions
5v5
Sample size alert for Edler but still, he's performing very well offensively in his limited action this year.
Biega leading the defencemen with 8.81 primary shot attempt assists per 60 minutes played. I'm not sure how I feel about this but good for him!
Tanev rounding out the list is slightly concerning, he seems extra reluctant to shoot this year and that probably won't change when he comes back from a thumb injury so we'll see how this works out.
The most interesting thing I gathered from this chart is that the top four in the category are all left handed. It's a good thing Pouliot is comfortable on the right side or you almost wouldn't have to defend that point against the Canucks!
Primary shot attempt assists + shot attempts on the PP. Another very small sample size, this time it's Tanev.
Have to say I'm surprised only by Pouliot and Del Zotto on this chart. Ironically Del Zotto was acquired for his PP ability but there's a massive drop off in his primary contributions. I'm confident he'll improve in this aspect but it's still somewhat concerning.
Even with Pouliot well behind Hutton in shot contributions, he's next in line for me to take the Edler spot on that recently created 22-33-53-6-23 PP unit. Inverted one timers on the point on the PP and they can both distribute (Boeser and Pouliot), this is something I want to see!
Have to say I'm surprised only by Pouliot and Del Zotto on this chart. Ironically Del Zotto was acquired for his PP ability but there's a massive drop off in his primary contributions. I'm confident he'll improve in this aspect but it's still somewhat concerning.
Even with Pouliot well behind Hutton in shot contributions, he's next in line for me to take the Edler spot on that recently created 22-33-53-6-23 PP unit. Inverted one timers on the point on the PP and they can both distribute (Boeser and Pouliot), this is something I want to see!
Primary Shot Contributions/60
psc/60
I'll just leave these here for now, you guys can discuss and use.
More to come soon , that's it for now.
iCF/shot attempts and icetime provided by www.naturalstattrick.com
iCF/shot attempts and icetime provided by www.naturalstattrick.com