Devils Zone Exits

[Feed Me A Stray Cat]

Perhaps this deserves to be confined to the stats thread, however I think this project is interesting enough for those who normally don't consider themselves stat heads and for wider exposure/discussion.

I, along with another poster at In Lou We Trust, are tracking zone exits for every Devils game this season. Basically, any time the puck exits the defensive zone, we track the time, the player and the means of puck expulsion.

Some explanation - I break zone exits into three main categories: 1) successfully cleared with possession (C - Carry Success, P - Pass Success), which means that the puck was moved out of the defensive zone with secured possession through the neutral zone, 2) successfully cleared without possession (FP - Failed Pass, FC - Failed Carry, CH - Chip, X - Misc.), or a neutral zone clear, which means the puck was moved out of the defensive zone but possession was lost in the neutral zone, and 3) a turnover while exiting the zone (PT - Pass Turnover, CT - Carry Turnover, T - Turnover, I - Icing).

Here are the zone exits for every game I've done this season thus far. I'll post the odd number games if I get permission from the author.

Game 02 vs. NY Islanders
Game 04 @ Vancouver
Game 06 @ Winnipeg
Game 08 vs. NY Rangers
Game 10 vs. Vancouver

There have been some interesting observations thus far:
-Marek Zidlicky is a lot more valuable than many realize. He is consistently doing the heavy lifting as far as puck clearing goes, and in general is pretty efficient at clearing the zone.
-Guys like Volchenkov rarely attempt to clear the puck. While many people think of Volch as turnover machine when he has the puck in his own end, this isn't so much the case. He simply defers to his defensive partner to make the move, which is an indirect indictment of his inability to handle the puck. This is why Volchenkov and Salvador on the same pairing, like we saw at times in 11-12, is a bad idea.
-Ryane Clowe was pretty horrible for the first three games I tracked. Hopefully he improves when he gets back.
-Andrei Loktionov is probably our best forward at moving the puck out of the zone. He seems to jump on loose pucks and turn them up the ice very quickly, and has enough patience to make the right pass rather than simply rush the puck off the boards.

We should have some 10 game retrospective totals, so I'll post those as well as each individual game I do.

Click to read more...

 

[Emperoreddy]

Perhaps this deserves to be confined to the stats thread, however I think this project is interesting enough for those who normally don't consider themselves stat heads and for wider exposure/discussion.

I, along with another poster at In Lou We Trust, are tracking zone exits for every Devils game this season. Basically, any time the puck exits the defensive zone, we track the time, the player and the means of puck expulsion.

Some explanation - I break zone exits into three main categories: 1) successfully cleared with possession (C - Carry Success, P - Pass Success), which means that the puck was moved out of the defensive zone with secured possession through the neutral zone, 2) successfully cleared without possession (FP - Failed Pass, FC - Failed Carry, CH - Chip, X - Misc.), or a neutral zone clear, which means the puck was moved out of the defensive zone but possession was lost in the neutral zone, and 3) a turnover while exiting the zone (PT - Pass Turnover, CT - Carry Turnover, T - Turnover, I - Icing).

Here are the zone exits for every game I've done this season thus far. I'll post the odd number games if I get permission from the author.

Game 02 vs. NY Islanders
Game 04 @ Vancouver
Game 06 @ Winnipeg
Game 08 vs. NY Rangers
Game 10 vs. Vancouver

There have been some interesting observations thus far:
-Marek Zidlicky is a lot more valuable than many realize. He is consistently doing the heavy lifting as far as puck clearing goes, and in general is pretty efficient at clearing the zone.
-Guys like Volchenkov rarely attempt to clear the puck. While many people think of Volch as turnover machine when he has the puck in his own end, this isn't so much the case. He simply defers to his defensive partner to make the move, which is an indirect indictment of his inability to handle the puck. This is why Volchenkov and Salvador on the same pairing, like we saw at times in 11-12, is a bad idea.
-Ryane Clowe was pretty horrible for the first three games I tracked. Hopefully he improves when he gets back.
-Andrei Loktionov is probably our best forward at moving the puck out of the zone. He seems to jump on loose pucks and turn them up the ice very quickly, and has enough patience to make the right pass rather than simply rush the puck off the boards.

We should have some 10 game retrospective totals, so I'll post those as well as each individual game I do.

One thing I've noticed with the eye test, and I think your data backs this up is Loki is one of our few forwards who actually skates the puck out of the zone and does it with success. Something I wish to see more of.

I am curious about zone entries too as we seem to dump more often then we should.

 

[Marshal Rochambeau]

I hate how Gionta, Fayne, and Henrique are all in the same category in the Vancouver game.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

great info.

 

[GameSeven]

Thanks for this. Curious to see the cumulative results to confirm any trends.

One unfortunate possibility is a guy being dinged for a failed pass if the pass failed due to the recipient. One Gelinas pass comes to mind where he fired a dart that was mishandled by the forward, but that may have originated in the neutral zone anyhow. Can't remember for sure.

But by and large, great data.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Now this is a stat I can get behind.

This area has been an anchor holding us down ever since Rafalski left, hopefully our new wave of talent can ignite our attack from the back end.

 

[Feed Me A Stray Cat]

Thanks for this. Curious to see the cumulative results to confirm any trends.

One unfortunate possibility is a guy being dinged for a failed pass if the pass failed due to the recipient. One Gelinas pass comes to mind where he fired a dart that was mishandled by the forward, but that may have originated in the neutral zone anyhow. Can't remember for sure.

But by and large, great data.

That would still be labeled a pass success, but yeah, there are several nebulous situations where it's difficult to categorize what happened.

 

[JimEIV]

Again, on Zone exits, the puck mover in the pairing, as in Zidlicky's case often does none of the heavy lifting. His partner who has mostly been Salvador does all the dirty work.

One defenseman banging in the corners dislodging the puck from the carrier and reversing it to his fleet of foot partner and your stat gives Zidlicky the credit for absolutely nothing. In the case of Zidlicky those stats are meaningless... Completely and utterly meaningless. One only needs to watch 5 minutes of any game to realize this.

I sure whoever played with Scott Stevens had an incredible amount of Zone exits as well...It is a stat that is asking the wrong question in many cases.

 

[Feed Me A Stray Cat]

NJD Zone Exits - First 10 Games

Here's a breakdown of the first 10 games, from DevilRKS over at In Lou We Trust.

Confirming what was initially suspected, Zidlicky and Loktionov outpace everyone else on the team in zone exiting ability.

 

[funetiklee]

Again, on Zone exits, the puck mover in the pairing, as in Zidlicky's case often does none of the heavy lifting. His partner who has mostly been Salvador does all the dirty work.

One defenseman banging in the corners dislodging the puck from the carrier and reversing it to his fleet of foot partner and your stat gives Zidlicky the credit for absolutely nothing. In the case of Zidlicky those stats are meaningless... Completely and utterly meaningless. One only needs to watch 5 minutes of any game to realize this.

I sure whoever played with Scott Stevens had an incredible amount of Zone exits as well...It is a stat that is asking the wrong question in many cases.

this is just plain wrong. moving the puck out of the zone is a lot more difficult than digging it out of the corner.

 

[Feed Me A Stray Cat]

Again, on Zone exits, the puck mover in the pairing, as in Zidlicky's case often does none of the heavy lifting. His partner who has mostly been Salvador does all the dirty work.

One defenseman banging in the corners dislodging the puck from the carrier and reversing it to his fleet of foot partner and your stat gives Zidlicky the credit for absolutely nothing. In the case of Zidlicky those stats are meaningless... Completely and utterly meaningless. One only needs to watch 5 minutes of any game to realize this.

I sure whoever played with Scott Stevens had an incredible amount of Zone exits as well...It is a stat that is asking the wrong question in many cases.

Zidlicky and Salvador do the same amount of "digging the pucks out of the corner". Why would it make any sense that guys like Salvador would do more of that when he's usually slower to get to pucks than his defensive partner?

I just want to break down the process involved so we're clear here - to dig the puck out of the corner, the defenseman needs to get there. Salvador is not better at Zidlicky in getting there. He then needs to either advance the puck up the ice, or win a puck battle. Zidlicky is better at the former, but I'll give Salvador the latter. If they win the puck battle, they then need to be able to do something worthwhile with the puck or else the won puck battle is pointless. Salvador is not very good at the "doing something worthwhile" aspect. So, even if stay at homers like Salvador win more battles along the boards, it doesn't actually result in any net benefit if they don't have the skating and passing chops to go along with it. You're probably under the assumption that Salvador will win the puck battle, and then reverse it to Zidlicky, who will have a clear path out of the zone. Things are rarely that simple in the games I've tracked.

The real skill in moving the puck out of the zone comes in the ability to make quick decisions and good passes under duress, which Zidlicky is way better at than Salvador.

 

[JK3]

Does this include the PP and PK or is it just 5 on 5?

 

[Feed Me A Stray Cat]

Does this include the PP and PK or is it just 5 on 5?

5v5

You really don't have good zone exit scenarios on special teams. PP is just too easy, and PK simply involves banging the puck down the ice.

 

[JK3]

5v5

You really don't have good zone exit scenarios on special teams. PP is just too easy, and PK simply involves banging the puck down the ice.

Ok cool, thanks. Yeah I was going to say this would just skew everything for Zids cause he gets tons of easy exits on the PP and doesn't kill penalties. I'm not a big stat guy at all but this is pretty interesting to look at.

 

[R8Devs]

Larsson seems to do well too according to your stats

 

[Feed Me A Stray Cat]

Larsson seems to do well too according to your stats

He is doing pretty well.

Harrold is pretty bad as far as I'm concerned. His exits with possession rate is okay, but he commits too many turnovers.

Greene also leaves some to be desired. I've noticed that he has a habit of randomly throwing the puck into open space in the neutral zone.

 

[apice3*]

Again, on Zone exits, the puck mover in the pairing, as in Zidlicky's case often does none of the heavy lifting. His partner who has mostly been Salvador does all the dirty work.

One defenseman banging in the corners dislodging the puck from the carrier and reversing it to his fleet of foot partner and your stat gives Zidlicky the credit for absolutely nothing. In the case of Zidlicky those stats are meaningless... Completely and utterly meaningless. One only needs to watch 5 minutes of any game to realize this.

I sure whoever played with Scott Stevens had an incredible amount of Zone exits as well...It is a stat that is asking the wrong question in many cases.

It's definitely a biased stat towards offensive minded D-men. It doesn't take a genius to know Zidlicky is going to make better passes than Salvador. That said, I don't think Zidlicky successfully moving the puck out of the zone is giving him credit for "absolutely nothing." It's a pretty important part of the game.