By the Numbers: Game 34 vs. St. Louis

Scoring Chances

San Jose

St. Louis

Period-by-Period Summary

As can be seen by the period-by-period summary, this was a game that was lopsided for St. Louis, and lopsided for San Jose at various different points. I don't know what changed after the first period, but after being outchanced 2-7 in the first period, the Sharks outchanced the Blues 13-3 the rest of the way, with St. Louis also going the last sixteen minutes of the game without a shot on goal.

For the first time in awhile, the Sharks' five man shutdown unit of Marelau-Couture-Wingels-Vlasic-Braun had a strong game on scoring chances, though they were basically the only ones to finish with positive differentials at even strength. I think what pops out to me the most on the San Jose side of things here is Jumbo's numbers. The two teams combined for twenty scoring chances at "even strength" (although I'm still iffy about 6v5 technically being considered even strength), and Thornton was on the ice for fourteen of them, more than two-thirds. Obviously that means the Sharks were giving up way too much in the defensive zone while he was on the ice, but still quite impressive that they managed seven scoring chances with him on the ice, against a team routinely lauded as being one of the top defensive teams in the league.

Although the Sharks didn't exactly blow the Blues away in overall scoring chance differential, I think it's clear to see that part of the reason why they won this game was their work against Tarasenko's line. With the amount of coverage the young Russian has received this season, I don't think it'll surprise anyone when I say he's a (if not the) key piece of St. Louis' offense, and keeping his line down to only two scoring chances speaks to the impressive defensive effort the Sharks put out against him and his line.

Zone Entries

San Jose

St. Louis

Although the Sharks as a whole did a good job of generating shots off of their entires, I'd be lying if I said I'm not somewhat disappointed in the lopsidedness of the carry-in rates between the two teams. For a team that's generally regarded as a dump-and-chase team (though I can definitely see how that may have changed with guys like Lehtera and Tarasenko getting prominent roles on this team), St. Louis did carry the puck in quite a bit this game, and I'm curious as to why that wasn't the trend for both teams. Regardless, on the individual level, more than a few Sharks had good nights on entries, with the results put up by Jumbo, Wingels, and Goodrow (twelve entries!) definitely standing out.

Most of St. Louis' top guys definitely came out to play in this game, with the entries showing Backes, Steen, and Lehtera doing notably well in the neutral zone. Also worth noting that Lehtera's numbers here seem to indicate that while the Blues did manage to generate shot attempts when his line entered the zone, they just weren't able to create many legit scoring chances, as indicated by the scoring chance numbers.

Entry Targeting

San Jose

St. Louis

One of the main perks of analyzing zone entry targeting is that you get to see the players who are at the root of your team's success (or lack thereof) on defending against zone entries. On that note, this was not a game for Matt Tennyson to remember. The Blues attempted eight entries against him, and managed eight carry-ins on those attempts (including one especially notable one where Tenner was absolutely burned by Oshie en route to Oshie getting a scoring chance). The whole right side of the Sharks' D didn't have a great outing, as Burns and Braun combined for fifteen carry-ins against on twenty-one entry attempts against. In fact, the only members of the Sharks D corps who didn't do badly were Vlasic and Dillon, and those two did very well. Vlasic foiled as many entries as he allowed carry-ins, and Dillon only allowed six carry-ins against, while being targeted for eighteen entries.

Raise your hand if you thought Alex Pietrangelo would have the ugliest entry targeting numbers on the Blues' roster for this game. No one? Yeah, me neither. Now raise your hand if you thought Chris Butler would have the best entry targeting numbers for the Blues. No one? Yeah, again, me neither. In fact, Jackman and Pietro were really the only members of the Blues' roster who didn't have relatively successful nights defending against zone entries, as the rest of the Blues' D corps combined to allow only eight carry-ins on thirty-one entry attempts against.

Zone Exits

San Jose

St. Louis

By no means have the few games before this one been Burns' strongest on zone exits, but I think this game perfectly exemplifies why he and Dillon make up such a strong pairing. Burns hasn't been great defending zone entries this season, while Dillon has been fantastic. Dillon hasn't been awesome on zone exits, but Burns has been the best Sharks defenseman on zone exits. The Burns-Dillon pairing is excellent, and part of that is due to how well those two complement eachother, creating a pairing of two defensemen who excel at what their partner struggles (at times) with. Aside from that pairing, the third line had another good outing on zone exits, with Sheppard continuing on his quest to pass up Jumbo as the Sharks' most effective forward on zone exits.

Not all of St. Louis' defensemen exited the zone with ease in this game, but St. Louis' top forwards certainly did. Backes, Steen, Lehtera, and especially Oshie all put up impressive numbers on zone exits, and really did a good job of showing part of why St. Louis has been a great team for most of the last few seasons, with most of their top players not only being effective offensive players, but also strong defensive players as well. I will say, I was quite surprised by Ott's zone exit numbers, though everyone can feel free to rail on him for his one turnover, because as Sharks fans, we really need some reason to give Steve Ott flack, right?

Notes:

-Couture's line, as well as the Vlasic-Braun pairing had one of their best outings of the last couple of weeks

-St. Louis' top players did very well all around, though the Sharks did an excellent job of preventing Tarasenko's line from creating too many scoring chances

-Vlasic and Braun were the only effective Sharks defensemen at defending against zone entries

-Chris Butler had a fantastic game defending againt zone entries

-The Sharks' third line continued to excel at zone exits